Hurricane Earl

Hurricane Earl is expected to his the coast of New York late this afternoon. Not that many flights have been cancelled but enough to make me worried about my flight to Chicago, which is scheduled early Friday morning.

Compared to previous hurricanes that have swiped the East Coast, Hurricane Earl is not very significant. The city of New York is never hit severely although many people living at the coasts of Long Island and New Jersey may be affected.

I found some fun facts about hurricanes. In even years, they are given male names and in odd years they are given female names. It is the National Hurricane Center that comes up with the names, which apparently are established based on which region the hurricane emerges from.

I have planned my trip to Chicago now. However, unlike my packed trip to Vegas, I have many gaps in the schedule. Chicago does not seem to have many attractions compared to other cities. We will be busy though and I am really looking forward travelling there.

I only have two more weeks left in school. I have a couple of finals and assignments to prepare for but I am going to enjoy my Chicago trip without worrying about that. Fortunately, I will still have enough time to prepare for everything.

I finish work at 2 PM today. It is a quite common scenario to leave early on Friday when the holiday takes place on a Monday. The main purpose of this is probably just to extend the weekend a bit, which improves employee satisfaction. It works great for me because I need to pack my bag to prepare for an early flight tomorrow morning.

Achievements

Classes will soon come to an end, for good. Being my last quarter, I only have two weeks left until I graduate. I do not have any specific feelings towards graduating so far, but I am positive that I will when I start realizing that my education at Berkeley College is over.

I am going to visit the gift shop before graduating. I want to purchase some flags and shirts to keep my memories from college alive. People who contact me always ask if I am satisfied with Berkeley. The answer has always been yes.

Looking back, I really believe that I could not have performed better than I have. My GPA is 4.0, I have stayed active as a Blogger for over two years, I have participated in school activities through my position as the Treasurer for the international club, and I have interned for a company within my area of interest for over a year.

I take credit for engaging in these activities, but it should be noted that Berkeley College made them possible. Reflecting back on where I was three years ago, I can see the progress that I have made and I am proud of my achievements.

Chinese Tea

I am trying to lose weight, again. I actually did lose weight the last time I wrote about it. However, that was more than three months ago and nothing happened since three weeks ago. For the last three weeks I have been on a Chinese tea diet and it works pretty well. I also stopped eating late at night after school.

I usually skipped breakfast and had my first lunch at noon. Five hours later I had another meal before classes started. I came home around 9 or 10 PM and had my last meal at that time. That was not healthy, especially since I usually was starving and had large portions of food just an hour or so before bedtime.

Nowadays, I use my exercise bike at least twice a week. I also eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. However, I have my dinner, not later than 6 PM. As a result, I feel better physically. I also started to walk the stairs instead of using escalators. I believe that has helped my weight loss to some extent.

I drink the Chinese tea as much as possible during my work hours. I simply substituted it with water. The tea helps digestion and promotes weight loss. For days when I do not drink tea, I drink some vinegar right after my meals. That may sound extreme but it helps to take care of the fat from the dish.

In addition, I have also made my portions smaller but I still eat what I used to eat. I do not eat as much snacks as before either. Although I still eat snacks occasionally but snacks that do not contain too much fat and sugar.

My current weight loss is a little slow but I expect it to take off soon. The body first needs to get used to the new routines and diet. Also, since I am exercising, my body is increasing in muscle strength so the weight loss will not be seen instantly, as muscles weigh more than fat. I did get skinnier, which can be seen on my waist and face and that feels great.

Labor Day

Next Monday is Labor Day. My class on that day is therefore cancelled. That will bring the total of revoked classes to three because the professor had to take one day off last week and the first day of class was cancelled because of Memorial Day.

My professor has been able to cover all the course material and he has organized the class very well. I have learned a lot and the things that I have learned have been of the practical kind, meaning that I can use the information professionally at work and other places.

My mother ones told me that the potato came from America. I always questioned that theory. However, in my next class in world civilization, he professor will cover the history of the potato, which indeed came from America. I guess I have to admit that my mother was right.

I just received my grades for my term paper, attendance, and participation for my operations management class. My total score right now is 68 over 70. Therefore, in order for me to get an A for the class, I have to score no less than 22 out of 30 on the final exam. That will not be difficult.

This is a good example of why it is important and beneficial to study hard in the beginning of the course. Since all finals take place the last week of the quarter, it is important that students prepare as well as possible for it.

For example, I do not have to study as hard for my final in operations management, as I have to for my political science class. It is simply easier to organize the last week by prioritizing according to which tests that are more important.

Bugs

The number one advantage of having a cat as a pet is that it catches bugs. I found a dead roach when I woke up yesterday morning. It was probably a German roach because it was relatively big in size. It was the first time I saw a roach in my apartment and I found it quite disturbing.

I really hope that it came in through the window or similar because usually when you find one roach, it means that there are more. In any event, I am glad that my cat killed it. I am going to buy something called Combat Roach Gel, which is said to be very effective. What happens is that the roach eats the gel and later returns to the nest and dies. Other roaches in the nest are then exposed to the poison, which exterminates the nest.

I do not think there is a nest anywhere in my apartment since I keep everything very clean. I also only saw one roach. However, I want to get the gel as a precaution. One thing that I definitely do not want to happen is for the roaches to propagate.

Roaches are very common in New York. I have seen several on the streets. It is definitely a problem and many people are hiring exterminators in attempt to reduce the number of roaches. However, many old apartment complexes have exterminators show up at least ones a month since it many times is impossible to totally get rid of them.

Bed bugs have also become a big problem in New York. A large movie theater at Times Square recently had to close for a few days in order to exterminate bed bugs. A news anchor joked about it by saying “The expression ‘Do not let the bed bugs bite’ is not so sweet anymore.”

I do not know anyone who has been invaded by bed bugs, but it is all over the news. The problem is that they spread through people’s cloths and other fabrics so it is hard to protect against infestation. That is especially true for people riding the subway.

Chicago

I booked a trip to Chicago with my girlfriend. Chicago is a city that I have always wanted to visit. My idea of it is that the city is less crazy than New York, but still more energetic than Seattle, which I visited about two years ago. I therefore think it is the perfect city for me.

Chicago also seems more modern in terms of architecture since all its buildings are relatively new compared to those in New York. We are taking a direct flight there for the Labor Day weekend and will stay for four days.

I am looking forward to try real deep-dish pizza. I have been to the restaurant “Uno Chicago Grill” in Boston and New York but I did not find their pizzas to be that deep. From the pictures that I have seen, there is definitely a bunch of really good placed in Chicago that I cannot wait to visit. I also want to eat steak, which apparently, Chicago is famous for.

I have not fully planned the trip yet, but I am also looking into taking a boat tour on the lake and river. I am not sure whether to take it at night or in the morning. I want to get good views of the city though and a sunset tour would be fantastic.

Other places I want to see include Millennium and Grant Parks, John Hancock Observatory, and the Navy Pier. I will probably take loads of pictures so I will try to post a few on the blog. If anyone has any tips on what to do in Chicago, let me know.

New York is an amazing city, but I feel that I need to get away from the city ones a year or so. New York really never sleeps and it feels like everyone and everything moves very fast. The temperature dropped for a few days to the 60s and I really enjoyed that. Now they are back up in the 90s again. I cannot wait for the fall and winter to be honest.

OM Test

I had a test in operations management this week. I was nervous about it because it was the first test for the class and I did not know the professor very well. In addition, the test contained mathematical problems that I found hard to predict.

The test was not easy but I was able to score 28 out of 30, which translates to about 93%. I am definitely happy with that. I do think that the professor may have made one mistake however. For one question, I got 64.33%. The multiple choices available only listed 64.4%, two other numbers, and another option for “none of the above.”

I picked “none of the above.” I think the professor accidentally rounded the answer wrong or at least I hope he did. If so, I can score 29 out of 30 instead. In any event, I am happy with my score. I now have to practice for my presentation next week.

I also had a take-home midterm in my political science class. I am against take-homes most of the time because it can make the tests too easy. However, it was the perfect testing method for this class and I actually learned a lot.

The political science class itself can be confusing at times because the professor jumps around a lot and students are interrupting each other often. The test forced me to read some chapters and I felt that it helped me to understand the American government much better.

We will also have a term paper, in which students will have to come up with a fifth president to be portrayed at Mount Rushmore. I have not yet decided who to chose but I would prefer to research a president that I want to learn more about and that has made significant accomplishments.

Students

I am happy with my world civilization class. The professor is trying vigorously to cover as much as possible about the history of man. We have been discussing the Roman and Greek Empire the last three weeks and are now learning about Vikings and events such as the Battle of Hastings.

A student recently complained that we had to do too much, while at the same time claiming that she wanted to learn as much as possible. After delaying the class for about twenty minutes, I spoke up and told her that this is college and to do well you have to work hard.

We have a quiz every week. Studying for them is not easy and it is important to take down as many notes as possible during class. However, by doing so, students learn a lot. The problem with this class is that it seems like most students hate history.

Another thing that bothered me about last week’s class was that students tried to delay the class by complaining about the workload. We ended up having no time to do the quiz so the professor assigned it as a take-home exam instead. In other words, I studied my brains out for the week and now everyone would score a hundred.

This really frustrated me. The professor also agreed to narrow down the material since some students thought it was too much. I will therefore not learn as much as before. I am going to bring this up next class. I have gotten As on all exams so far so the tests are obviously not too difficult. Students who cannot get As do not deserve them.

Some students have no respect for the professor. I am not only referring to the recent complaints. Two weeks ago, a student yelled out, “Professor, you are blocking us!” because he was covering the projector when answering a student’s question. The professor’s response was excellent. He said, “I believe you meant to say, Excuse me.”