Halloween

One thing that I really like about Berkeley College is that they use the latest technology. When I have math for example, the professor uses the projector, which is connected wirelessly to some kind of device that he can draw on. What ever he draws will be shown on the big screen as you can see on the picture.

The drawing device is like I said wireless so he can actually walk around in the classroom while showing examples on the big screen. This is very helpful, not only for the teacher but for us, the students.

I will take finance next quarter, and I will probably take statistics after that quarter. I am looking forward to that a little actually even though it is math because the same teacher I have now in college algebra, I will have in statistics.

The Halloween parade is taking place right now in Manhattan. I decided to stay at home because it is very crowded there and I was there last year. The subway gets crazy around this time because of all the people showing up.

I think that there are about two million people every year that go to watch the parade. It is definitely an experience to be there and I do not think there is anything else like it anywhere in the world.

I had to buy a new metro card today. I do not think I have mentioned this in my blog before but a monthly unlimited-rides metro card is $81. I think that it is pretty cheap actually. $81 will take you anywhere in New York City and you can use the subway as well as buses.

I will have a test in math this Monday. It is only a quiz, consisting of five problems but there will be a bigger test on Wednesday. The quiz is only to prepare us and I think that it is a great idea that really helps students to perform better on the tests.

I also have a test in consumer behavior. I will have to read three chapters for Thursday, which is when that test is taking place.

I am preparing for my trip to Sweden this Christmas. I am really looking forward to go there because I have not seen my dad for almost a year. My mom was here just about a month ago but I miss her too.

I will bring my fiancée to Sweden and I am really looking forward to show her around and tell her about places I used to go to. We will probably travel to Stockholm too to celebrate New Years Eve.

I am from the south part of Sweden so we will have to take the train there. I think it is a five-hour ride, so it is not that bad. I will take a lot of pictures and probably post some of them here. 

Good News

My math class was cancelled yesterday, which was my only class. That could have been good news if I would have found out about the cancellation before actually going to school.

I was supposed to have a quiz in math tomorrow but it has been postponed to Monday, since last class was cancelled. We are right now calculating linear functions and drawing graphs. It is not that hard so I am not suffering too much right now.

It was not all bad that I went in to school yesterday. I still had to go to the gym and I also had to pick up a book at the Manhattan library.

I found out today that my business law midterm has been postponed one class. That is great news because that means that I only have one test next week, which will be in consumer behavior.

Another good news is that my consumer behavior teacher decided to split up the test next week because he considered it being too much. Instead of having six chapters, we will now only have three.

It is still a lot of information though and we will have a test on the next three chapters the week after.

I also got back my test in microeconomics today. The average score was 73 out of 100, which is pretty low. I got 98 though so I am very happy with that. The mistake I made was a question in which I had at first put the right answer and then changed it to another one.

That was a little annoying but since I got a great score I really do not care about it that much.

There will be a Halloween parade this Friday in Manhattan so I will go there with my fiancée. It is always very spectacular and there are all kinds of crazy people there. The costumes that some people come up with are brilliant.

I am thinking about attending a football game. I have talked to a friend of mine and we both really want to go. The stadium is located in New Jersey but there are buses going there. A roundtrip only costs $10 so it is definitely affordable.

We want to go as soon as possible because Super Bowl is coming up and prices are increasing every week. We have been thinking about buying tickets for about $200. Since we will not attend many football games we thought that it might be worth it.

We will get great seats if we spend that much so that would be a really fun experience. 

Ice Skating In Bryant Park

The pond in Bryant Park is now open for ice-skating and I am really looking forward to go there to skate. I will probably go there today with my fiancée and we have our own skates so we will not have to pay anything for it.

I have not studied much this weekend because I do not have any tests coming up next week. I did type down my notes from my business law class though and they now count to about ten pages in size 10, which is a lot.

I had a really good time with my friend yesterday. We had decided to have breakfast together so I took the train to Chelsea to meet him. We went there about six months ago but they were closed that time so I was looking forward to go there again.

My friend told me that they had great fried potatoes and after tying them, I very much agree with him. We actually ordered a lot because both of us were very hungry. We shared a plate of three huge pancakes, had one omelet each, and some mini muffins and bread with strawberry jam.

I think that the United States has the best breakfast in the world. It is probably the unhealthiest too but I really do not care about that because I do not eat that kind of breakfast very often.

After having breakfast, my friend and I went to a bar to have a beer. It was after 12.00 PM so it was not too early for a drink. Chelsea is a really nice neighborhood in Manhattan. There are several excellent bars and restaurants so I really recommend people to go there sometime.

After saying goodbye to my friend, I had to go to a post office to ship a book that someone bought from me online. Most post offices were closed because it was after 1 PM and Saturday. There is, however, one post office that is open 24/7 in Manhattan.

It must be one of the biggest post offices in the world. It is located on 31^st Street at 8^th Avenue. Whether people have something to send or not, they should just go there to check it out because it is a beautiful building.

There were a huge number of police cars while I was there. I am not sure of what was happening but I have never seen that many cops at the same time before. It was not related to the post office because they were circulating around Madison Square Garden. I think that there might have been some sort of threat that they had to respond to. 

Weekend!

I had a test in microeconomics yesterday. I had not studied for it much because I felt that I already knew most if it since the first weeks have been a small review of material covered in macroeconomics.

I do not want to say that the test was easy but I did not have a problem with it. It was a multiple-choice test and many questions were similar to the ones I was asked in my class in macroeconomics.

The test covered supply and demand, the production-possibility frontier, opportunity costs, and some other things. I find it very interesting and I think I will get top score on the test.

I do not have any tests coming up next week but I have two tests the week after that. One test will be a multiple-choice test in consumer behavior and the other one will be a test in business law.

I assume that the test in business law will be pretty challenging because we have covered a lot of material from the book. We have, among other things, talked about contracts and damages and it is very interesting. I am sure that it will be very useful in the future in some way.

We will also talk about real estate. We have talked about it in some extent already because some of it was covered in the chapter about contracts. This knowledge is great to have since I live in an apartment and have a landlord so I know a lot more know about laws that I might be affected by.

I did not sell all my books in school this quarter so I tried to find another way to sell it. I found a website called www.half.com and they let you sell books online. It is a subsidiary to EBay and it is very practical. I have sold two books in a few days so I am very satisfied with that site.

I will go out to have breakfast with a friend tomorrow. My fiancée needs to visit a museum with her class so I thought that it was a good idea to do so. I have heard that the place we will go to have great potatoes so I am looking forward to go there since I love potatoes. I do not know what it is called though because I have never been there before.

I will meet up with my fiancée after that and we will probably go to Union Square to shop a little. We have been thinking about catching a movie tonight but we will see if we are in the mood for that later. 

Study Tips

I remembered that my math teacher gave me some study tips in the first class. It is really helpful for people that might have problems when studying math. The guidelines are not very advanced but they really do help so here they are:

There is no substitution for study – practice, practice, and practice!

Math is an activity, like an exercise program. To be a successful student, you have to work on math. That is, do problems nearly every day. If circumstances force you to skip a few days, you will find that you’re a little out of mathematical shape when you return to it.

As an exercise program, it is possible for anyone to become mathematically fit with some diligence and a good attitude.

Reading a math book is different from reading a novel or even a history book. You can take your math book with you on a bus, but you may not get very much out of it during the ride. To read a math book and understand it you need to have a pencil in your hand and work through the examples along with the author.

At the end of every paragraph, or even every sentence, stop and ask yourself if you really understood what you just read.

When you find a topic difficult, it is easy to become discouraged. Given enough time, most of the topics in this course will come together for you. However, it is not just the time you spend with your head in the book and a pencil in your hand.

It is also the time you spend watching football on television or playing with your dog. Some mathematical concepts need percolating time, a few hours or even a few days to sink in, regardless of how hard or long you work on problems.

The best advice is that if you find yourself becoming frustrated, put down your pencil and think about something else for a while. Let your subconscious work on it and come back later. However, get help when you need it.

Some of the material you knew before will have faded. Sometimes you should look back over the things you have already done, convincing yourself that you still know how to do the earlier assignments. Do this before you go on to the new material.

This is what my professor told me and other students and I really believe that it will help some people to improve their study techniques. 

Registration For Next Quarter

I got back my score for the math test today. I got 15 out of 15 correct so I feel really happy about that. I feel a lot more confident about the rest of the math course now and I really think that I will be able to get an A without any bigger problems.

My business law class started of with some political discussions today. It is not very uncommon actually but today’s class was very amusing. We talked about an episode from the show “Family Guy” that caught some attention in the news.

Apparently, Stewie, a character in the show, stole a Nazi suits from some Germans during the Second World War. When they zoomed in on the suit, there was a McCain, Palin button on it. We talked about if it was right or wrong but also if teachers should be allowed to wear buttons like that in school.

The connection to business law was that there was an actual lawsuit against a teacher that wore a political button like that. It was an interesting discussion and almost everyone in the class has something to say about it.

I got back my quiz from the microeconomics class today. I got 5 out of 8 because I did not know that there were three more questions on the back of the paper. I see it as if I got 100% correct though because out of the five questions I did answer, everyone was correct. The professor told us that the average was actually lower than 5 out of 8, which makes me feel a little better.

Registration for next quarter started this week. I almost forgot about it but I registered after my last class today. It is not possible to book an appointment anymore. Instead, people will go there and the first person showing up will be the first one to be served. I do not know if I prefer that system because I had to wait for two hours today.

Berkeley College is, however, growing so I can understand that it will be a lot more efficient to do it this way. I was also showing up pretty late today so if I would go there at a more appropriate time, I would probably not have had to wait that long.

Next quarter will be interesting. I will have principles of finance, international business, anatomy and physiology, and professional selling. I am not that fond of anatomy so I might switch that class to forensic science. I have to choose a science class though since I want to take a science elective.

I will think about it tonight and if I decide to change that class, I will go to the advisor’s office tomorrow to switch to forensic science. 

Math Test

I stayed home the whole weekend. I had to study a lot for my upcoming test in math and in microeconomics.

I used to have problems with creating equations based on questions, but the new teacher has taught me how to do it in an easy way. I feel a lot more confident about it now and I can thank my professor for that.

There were 15 questions on the test and ten of them consisted of pure numbers and equations, the other five were essay questions dealing with creating equations based on different problems.

The professor puts a lot of effort to the class, and he actually gives everyone a different test so no one will be able to cheat. Berkeley College’s small classes make this possible but the teacher himself is also very generous.

I had the test this morning and I was not very nervous about it. I studied for ten minutes before the class began so I was able to double check if I was ready or not. The test was not that hard and I think I did fine.

I went through the test one more time before handing it to the teacher and I think that everything is correct. My professor will probably post the results tomorrow so I am looking forward to see my score.

I also studied for my microeconomics test. My professor is great and he put up review questions on blackboard so that students can practice for the test. There are 20 questions posted and I got 19 out of 20 correct on my first try so I am very confident that I will get a good score on the midterm.

I am going to study some more for it this week but I will not work too hard on it. Just like macroeconomics, microeconomics is easy for me. The first midterm covers some of the things we talked about in the macroeconomics class too so that makes it a little easier for old macroeconomics students.

I also typed down my notes from my business law class this weekend. It took me about two hours to do that and I already have eight pages with size ten typed down. I am sure that the midterm will be pretty big so I think it is good that I am already repeating the things we have talked about. 

Bad Mistake

I had a very eventful day today. Unfortunately, it was not in a very good way. The day started off great with my business law class. The teacher is very funny and it is interesting to learn more about the court system in the United States.

Instead of talking about business law, we discussed politics and last night’s debate between McCain and Obama. It was not directly related to business law but it was still interesting to talk a little about it.

I did not open my mouth until a Swedish student claimed that we have an income tax of 26% in Sweden, which is an entirely underestimated rate. I also explained that people will have to count other taxes to get an understanding of how high the tax really is.

Berkeley College is a very clean and modern school so I was surprised when hearing someone scream after he saw a roach in the classroom. No one stepped on it so after that moment everyone was kind of tense and nervous, continuously looking at the floor.

I had a quiz today and I am a little disappointed with it. I thought the test contained only one page. Unfortunately, there were five more questions on the back of the paper. I noticed it after I turned it in so I asked my teacher after the class if I could fill out the missing answers. However, he did not let me, which I can understand.

Him and I actually laughed a little about it because he knows that I am one of the best students in the class. Fortunately, it was only a quiz so I will probably only lose 3.5 points. If I get all the questions right, which I think I will, it will also show that I have knowledge about it and that I mistakenly did not see the other page.

It was another volatile day at Wall Street today. DJIA was down approximately 400 points during the day but amazingly recovered and closed at 400 points up.

It feels good that it is weekend. I will have to study a lot though because I have two midterms next week. The first one is in college algebra and the second one is in microeconomics. I feel pretty confident about both of them but I want to review the math because I really do not want to disappoint myself.

I will also go to Central Park to have a walk with my fiancée. It looks fantastic during the fall and the air is very fresh. I will not bring my SLR camera, but I think I will bring a small compact camera to at least capture some of the nice environment. 

Tests

I just came back from school after having my last class that finished at two. I usually go to the gym after school but I had a really bad headache today so I went home instead. The reason I got a headache was because someone came in to the elevator when I was in there and wore really strong perfume.

I could feel the headache just seconds after I exited the elevator. It is really annoying when that happens and I really cannot understand why some people have difficulty in understanding how bad the smell is.

I brought my own lunch to school today for the first time since I came to New York. The last time I brought my own lunch was when I was working in Sweden, which was more than a year ago. I can actually save some money by doing that because I normally spend about $5 on lunch every day in school.

I brought some Swedish sandwiches with cheese, which is perfect for lunch because it is fast to eat.

The DJIA went up by 936 points yesterday, which is a historical record. It was an amazing day to follow the stock markets and there were a lot of happy faces at Wall Street. It is still a long way to go, however, until the financial markets will have recovered from the last weeks huge drop.

I will have a quiz in microeconomics this Thursday, but I do not feel worried about it at all. Everything we have discussed so far has almost been like a review from macroeconomics. The quiz will, however, cover the things that are somewhat new for me, but I do understand that material as well.

The quiz will be about the production possibility frontier, and I think that some students will have problems about understand some of that. I do not believe that it is difficult but I can understand why some people feel confused about it.

I talked to a friend at school who got a job at the tutoring center. She will help people with accounting, which gave me an idea. Since I am a 4.0 student, I might be interested in helping people with micro and macroeconomics. I have not yet talked about this opportunity though, but it could be an interesting and fun experience for me.

I was supposed to have a math test tomorrow but because we were free from school yesterday, we will take the test next week instead. I would actually like to take it tomorrow instead since I feel ready for it, but I guess it is okay to wait another week. 

Halloween Is Coming Up

Halloween is coming up and I am looking forward to the huge parade in Manhattan. Halloween is celebrated October 31 and originates from the Gaelic culture. The Gaels believed that the boundary between the dead and the alive dissolved on October 31. The dead was said to become harmful and cause sickness and damage.

It is amazing to see the decorations that are arranged here in New York. Many households put up all kinds of different scary characters and pumpkins. I took the posted picture at my neighbor’s place.

Almost every store sells Halloween decorations. Pharmacies, hardware stores, and supermarkets all sell it. I really like holidays, and hopefully it may help to boost up the economy a little.

I am free from school tomorrow because it is Columbus Day. Most schools are closed during that day and I feel extra good because that is the day when I have a math class. We started with creating equations now and I was a little tense about it even though it is pretty basic. I do not have any problems in solving equations, but I feel that it can be difficult to create one from a word problem.

However, my math teacher is excellent and he takes everything step by step. I studied some math today and yesterday because I felt that I had to exercise. I am really surprised how fast I learned it and I feel ready for the first test. We had similar problems in my fundamentals for mathematics class so that is probably why it was easier for me to learn this time.

I typed down my notes for my business law class. It really helps to do that because now I got a review of what we have talked about. It was actually also the first time I took a look in the book.

One thing that is great about the book is that it is unbound. Since it is a book about law it is very thick so it helps a lot that it is not bound together. It gives people the opportunity to bring only one chapter in loose pages so people will not have to carry around an awfully heavy book.

I am going to eat meatballs with mashed potatoes tonight. I found out yesterday that I still have frozen meatballs in the fridge and it has been a while since I had that. 

Quiz Results

I got back my quiz results for my math test today. I got everything right, which is a big relief. I was a little worried about the quiz because I got some weird answers for two of the questions.

I really thought that the teacher would give me questions that would have a somewhat logic answer. I expected the answers to be simple numbers such as 34, 10, or similar because it was only a quiz. I got answers like A-10B over C, and -14 over 6 so that was why I got worried about it.

It always feels good after the first test because it is really hard to know how the teacher will put the test together. When you have had the first exam, you will know how the other tests will be structured. I feel a lot more confident for the upcoming test because of this.

The stock market had another catastrophic day today and it is a thrill to check the numbers online every day. It is nerve-racking to watch the website being loaded because you never know if the Dow Jones index will be negative 500 points.

My microeconomics teacher talks about the economic crises about ten minutes in the beginning of each class. The class would not normally cover this since it would be described as macroeconomics but he and we, the students, find that it is important to talk about in a business class.

My fiancée and I will stay home tomorrow. We both need to study and we also want one day to stay home and just relax. The days are beautiful right now. The fall is definitely my favorite season. I really want to go to Central Park to take some typical photos of the park and the colorful leafs.

I have some horrible aches from working out too much. I wanted to try out to lift some weights because it has been more than a year since I did that. I did not use too heavy weights so I thought I would avoid the worst aches. I think it will feel better tomorrow though, and I am a little happy that I have the aches because that proves that the work out actually did some good.

I will type down some notes in word tomorrow from my business law class. I want to create a good source that will make it easier for me to study for the upcoming test. I think that my tests in business law and math will be the most challenging ones this quarter. However, I should still be able to maintain my 4.0 GPD. 

First Quiz This Quarter

School has really started to kick off now. I have my first quiz tomorrow. That one is in math so I am not very amused by it, but I have been practicing for it and I feel prepared.

I am not very happy with my consumer behavior teacher. He is a great teacher with years and years of experience but his technique does not really fit me. He teaches pretty much straight from the book and he does not use the blackboard or PowerPoint presentations.

I did, however, have a similar teacher in international marketing last quarter, and that teacher turned out to be fantastic. I therefore do not want express myself in a too negative matter yet.

It is very interesting to follow the presidential race. It is not much time left now until the election takes place so things are really heating up. The second presidential debate is taking place right now and it is interesting to see the candidates heckling each other more than actually talking about how to tackle different problems.

This must be one of the best times to be in college. There is the credit crunch going on, the election coming up, and many other factors that play important roles in the society. I have not seen the Wall Street people’s reactions after a bad day, but I am thinking about going there to see it because I find it quiet interesting.

I was really close to skip going to the gym today. I was really tired this morning because I could not really sleep last night. It is a good thing that my business law teacher is really entertaining and fun to listen to because that really gets me in the mood to learn more about the judicial system in New York and in the United States.

It has been a while since I went out to take pictures with my camera. I really want to go out to take some night shots in Manhattan. I have been taking a lot of skyline pictures so I would like to try something different now. I really want to experiment with night shots with long shutter speed.

I think the right place to do that is Times Square so I might go there later this week. My fiancée and I went to the “Build A Bear” store at Fifth Avenue two days ago. It is a really cool place for kids because they can actually see when their bear is being stuffed. 

One-Year Anniversary

It feels good to have another free day tomorrow. I need to do some reading to prepare for Monday and Tuesday, but I also want to practice some math.

I really like the climate right now. It is much colder than just two weeks ago and you can definitely feel that the fall is here. Everything becomes more peaceful and people are more relaxed.

I am really looking forward to see some snow even though it becomes really cold during the winter. It is amazing how different New York is depending on what season it is.

I celebrated my one-year anniversary with my fiancée yesterday. Time has really gone fast and we have done so much together. We have seen most things in New York and visited all five boroughs.

My fiancée and I went to Manhattan today. I wanted to buy a TV-cable for my Macbook so that I can watch movies on my TV. I have always been using S-Video cables before but this time I bought a DVI adapter and an HDMI cable. The picture looks fantastic and much better than when you use an S-Video cable.

I was reading The Economics at school a few days ago. There was a teacher who asked me for what class I read it. She got surprised when I told her I read it because I like it. Obviously, not many students read that magazine. It made me feel good, but I think that it would be good if more students read it.

I do not know what to do tomorrow. I am really in the mood of doing something but I really can’t come up with anything. I have been having a cold for two weeks now so I have been a little weaker than usual so maybe that’s the reason why I am a little out of ideas right now.

I did not work out on the gym for two weeks but I have started again. It feels really good to go there, and I am not pushing myself too much anymore. The reason I am taking it slow is because I do not want to get tired of working out again. 

Berkeley College

I have now met all my teachers and I am very satisfied so far. My math teacher seems to be very smart and understandable, and my professor in consumer behavior is very experienced.

Like I have described before, I do not like math. I am very thankful that Berkeley College offers free tutoring because I might need it. Hopefully, I will not have to use the tutoring, but it feels safe that it is there if I need it.

I also met my old professor today and I really enjoyed talking to him. I have not seen him since my first quarter, which is more than a year ago. He is very intelligent and I was happy to hear that he is teaching a class that I will take in the future.

One thing that I really like about Berkeley College is that the teachers connect classes with reality. In most of my classes we now talk about the financial crisis, which I find very interesting. I follow it pretty closely by reading about it in “The Economist,” and I am also following it on the news on a daily basis.

I believe that it is a great time to be a student. Not only because the unemployment rate is going up, but also because there is a lot to learn from this crisis. It is amazing how teachers at Berkeley College can connect this crisis to the different classes.

In business law we discuss it from a legal perspective. In consumer behavior we talk about it based on how it affects consumers, and in microeconomics we talk about it more generally, even though it might have been more appropriate to talk about it in a macroeconomics class. However, I am more than thankful that we cover this important subject in this class.

I am trying to sell my books now. I put up posters in school today and I hope that someone will contact me in a near future. It usually pays of to put up posters so I am hopeful that it will work.

Berkeley College has renovated the basement in our main building. I noticed it today and it looks fantastic. They have built a lounge for students and there is a large flat screen television down there for people who want to watch movies or similar.

I noticed today that Berkeley College has a new website so I advice every one of you to check it out.