Fall'08 balance (thanksgiving, week 9) - part II

The curtain is about to drop over this quarter, but there is still time for a few more scenes. I'll start this post by addressing everyone who showed concern on my well-being after a "more dark" previous post. Those of you to whom I've been chatting more frequently, know that I'm feeling very well, actually. My aunt just told me the other day that I look fatter. A sign of prosperity! I don't think I am though. Remarkably, in almost three months, I've only been twice in those junk-food restaurants. As I was saying, there are ups and downs obviously; and in my previous post, so to say, I was emphasizing the downs. An important lesson that I retain is that it's not worthwhile to unbalance everything in favor of any single academic/professional task. No matter how important it may seem. There are always more important things in life! And for sure there is an alternative path to that goal without putting that much concentrated effort, which sometimes turns out to be counter-productive. Even though all the commitment that I was (and still am) available to put in this goal, along the way I've learnt when to stop. This was a good lesson.

Hell, but I'm not stopping now! One more week of instruction and then it's the finals' week. On the contrary to what happens in Portugal, here, there is no time to prepare the finals as good as one would like. Hey, but that's life!

Going back in time a little bit, in order to finish what I've started in the previous post, there were also a number of joyful stories that have happened to me in these couple of months. I've made new friends, among new cultures, found a very nice (and affordable) place to live with an easy-going guy. What else can I ask for? Other than that, there were also many unique moments that I was fortunate to live closely as the general election and the financial crisis. I had my first halloween, and tomorrow I'll even have my very own thanksgiving day! I'm getting together with a bunch of international students and we're going to cook a huge turkey that we bought. This should be nice to see!

Speaking of financial crisis, while everybody is talking about Lehman Bros., Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, City Group, AIG (and others); I would like to remember Linens'n'Things. You probably don't know them, but I do. They're closing business and there is no federal plan to help them out! I felt so sad when I heard the news... This was the place where I bought my very first pan and kitchen knife in the US. Those are things you never forget. I still remember the ones I bought in Cascais in my first few days there. I wish I could remember Random Processes that well...

As I've been preaching, UCSD provides an highly competitive and demanding environment. But these are just classes. Everyone says that the first year is tough but... it's perfectly doable. And more important than that, I feel I can do it. We'll see if someone proves me wrong. Hope not! The indicators that I have so far (midterms, homework) place me around the average among my peers. This was achieved with a lot of hard work, and I just hope I can maintain it until mid-December.

That's all for now. Later I'll let you know how the turkey cooking went :-)