Thursday, March 8, 2007

Back Into the Abyss

I'm bringing sick back!

Okay, that's a lame play on Timberlake's song, but, damn, do I feel like crap. I have a cold that is so bad that yesterday the nurse at my job gave me medicine so strong that I ended up going from one side of Seoul to the other while sleeping like a baby in a subway car.

When I finally did wake up and figured out where I was, I then turned back around and headed to school. I missed my first class, however, I was present for the second course, International Political Economy, taught by an MIT PhD.

Now I'm set to graduate after this term, and I really don't need to take this course. I went crazy my first year and took the maximum load of four courses per term. However, it's an interesting topic and one I think I should have some knowledge in if I plan on further study. This is the kicker though.

The professor has assigned eight books:

  1. Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis by Graham T. Allison
  2. Introduction to International Political Economy by David N. Balaam and Michael Veseth
  3. International Political Economy by Benjamin J. Cohen
  4. International Political Economy: Perspectives on Global Power and Wealth by Jeffry A. Frieden and David A. Lake
  5. State Power and World Market: the International Political Economy by Joseph M. Grieco and G. John Ikenberry
  6. International Political Economy: the Struggle for Power and Wealth by Thomas D. Lairson and David Skidmore
  7. International Political Economy: Interests and Institutions in the Global Economy by Thomas Oatley
  8. Global Political Economy edited by John Ravenhill
The professor said that each week will consist of around 400 pages of reading. Now that really didn't phase me as that's par for the course in law school. However, what is freaking me out a bit is I'm also taking the department's required statistics course (it was my grand plan to take it in my last semester as to not risk my GPA.) Also, this term I have to write my thesis. Now that I could handle, but I'm also working teaching 14 hours a week.

I think this load will be okay because my new job likes their teachers to spend way too much time in their offices.

Well, guess what? I've got a rolling bed in my office, and, I think that I will be spending much more time than they ever imagined here.

In fact, I'll start today. I've got Celestial Seasonings Tangerine Orange Zinger tea and tons of Splenda. I've got take out menus, and I've got the school's shuttle bus schedule. I'll be taking the 9:30 bus home tonight.

My plan is to read the articles I've printed on my thesis topic and summarize them for a literature review. Then I'll start reading for the class with the reading list from hell.

Wish me luck. My blogging will definitely take a nosedive now that school and work have started.

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2 comments:

  1. Yuck! I took an undergrad course in International Political Economy from a professor I normally found really interesting... I think it must have just been the topic.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yikes! We'll see. It seems interesting because I do really love the whole international politics thing. This program has made me get over my fear of economics by forcing me to take a cram course in it.

    I actually sat through a development economics course last term, but dropped it because I realized I didn't need it to graduate. I've gotten over my undergraduate urge to take as many classes as possible. My sanity and GPA is much more important than spreading myself too thin in the urge to learn as much as possible. I'd rather do a few things very well instead.

    Anyway, I hope this class ends up being fun. Again, I can drop it if it gets too much. It's icing on the cake for me as I just need to write my thesis, take one more required course and submit paperwork for an internship and I'm done. If he morphs into Professor Crazy, I'll drop the class during the add/drop period later in the term.

    ReplyDelete

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