Cold Water

Today I had some mediocre news, some good news, and some really good news. Which I suppose is the way you want those sorts of things to come together. Always good to have the best things happen last. In order.

Mediocre - I scored less on my paper than I expected. I'm very disappointed, but I understand his criticism. A B+ is still a good grade, but I expected an A- at the worst. What really chafes is that I read two of my classmates papers and they both scored higher than me. To me, that's ridiculous. I'm considering telling him that (and my friend David says I should), but I'm not sure if it will matter. He's gone on holiday all next week for break and I think he has to turn in grades before hand. I talked to him briefly about it tonight and I understand his problems with my paper. I just don't think I deserved a B+. It was a very well written paper, even with some flaws. The other papers I read were not well written and had major problems. I feel like he had an expectation for what I could do and when I did not meet that expectation, he penalized me more harshly than he should have. That says all that it needs to about what he expected from my classmates. Either way, I will have a lengthy discussion with him about it because I literally have 1 class a quarter with the man and I need to know what I need to do to get an A. Ok, enough bitching.

Good - I had my final for the same class today and it turns out I was very well prepared. I was a little concerned about it because there was a lot of information and it was not a predictable exam. I ended up being correct on my predictions in only 2 instances (1 essay and 1 short answer). That being said, I felt well prepared and I think I did a good job. I may lose a couple points on one of the short answer, but I feel like it's an A. Of course, that's what I said about the paper...

Even Better - I got the job at Baker Botts. They called me during the exam, so I didn't get to speak with them. But I'm calling them in the morning. Hopefully this means I can start Monday and work a full 40 hours next week. I'm pretty happy about that because I need to make some money and it looks like a really good situation.

All in all, a pretty good day. I'm pretty much ready for my Japan exam tomorrow, but I'll refresh myself tonight and in the morning. The good thing about that exam is that it's incredibly predictable. There are 12 essays and you pick 2. Over the course of the class, she's told us "this will be on the exam" on several situations. So, I've studied three different eras - the Tokugawa Shogunate, The Meiji Restoration, and the Yoshida Doctrine. I'm so anal about this that I wrote out the questions I predict will be on the exam (and there's only so much flexibility here) and then gave myself the test. I've already taken the exam in practice and I checked my answers versus my notes and I'm solid. I feel confident that I'll ace this one.