end of fall quarter 2010

The exam week is almost over for the fall quarter. The only exam I had was on Monday and it was in Contract Theory, and needless to say, I was defeated by it. I did in fact study for it, but maybe not with the same fervor (read: desperation) as I had during exam periods last year.

Right now, I have to finish two papers for Economic History and one last Search Theory assignment, and then I'm going back to Maryland on Sunday, Dec 12. Oh, and I have to help proctor the final exam of Principles of Microeconomics, which I have been TAing for this past quarter.

Speaking of TAing, I was assigned to be a teaching assistant for the Microeconomic Theory course under Professor Bill Zame next quarter. Before I came here to UCLA, one day I was reading off the names of faculty to my dad and Zame's name caught his attention. This was because when my dad was a senior at Caltech, he was the grader for the graduate abstract algebra course, which Zame was taking as a junior. My dad recalls an instance where Zame argued with my dad about why these or those points were taken off on one assignment. This story has only remained folklore among my cohort, since I have not had the chance to bring it up with the professor. But yeah that'd be pretty cool if he remembers my dad too.

Plans for the winter? I have to write an econometrics paper on kernel estimators and modality robustness for my metrics class. Oh, and I'm getting at least one wisdom tooth pulled. Other than that, hopefully it'll be relaxing with family and friends. I also need to be thinking about what topics to write my field papers on.