12.12.12

December, 12, 2012 or 12-12-12 will be the last date of its kind - when all three numericals in a date are the same - for the next 88 years. The next time this will happen is on January 1, 2101, or 01-01-01.

So I though that I'd dedicate this post to my 'lasts' for this year. Especially since the world is meant to end on 21 December 2012 according to the Mayan calendar :)

Today was my last tutoring session with Tina, today we discussed Christmas and New Year. We will continue our sessions next year in January.

On Monday was my last Mandarin lesson for the year, I will continue classes in Feb/March next year. For now, I will use my Rosetta Stone software which I've neglected because I am always busy with classes.

Last week Tuesday was my last Government & Politics of China class. I will have to look and see if there are any other interesting courses which I can audit for the next semester. I struggled to get a class to audit this past semester. As a Harvard spouse, I am allowed to audit classes however it depends on the lecturer and I discovered that many lecturers do not allow auditors or classes are oversubscribed especially at HKS and HBS. Athol will be doing 'J-Term' (i.e. January Term) 7-18 January 2013. Students can do a course during J-Term, it is an intense 2 weeks with lectures 9am-5pm every day with homework and readings. It counts as a course so most students will be doing this even if it probably is the coldest time of the year. Students needs to do a total of 8 'half' courses for the year.

Athol finished off lectures last week Friday and is now busy writing his final papers. He did 4 courses this semester - Social Capital, Human Rights, Public Narrative and Global Governance. He will be taking a course on Persuasion in the J-Term. Then he will need to do 3 courses in the Spring Term.

This will be my last post for the year. This year has flown by so quickly, but what an amazing time we have had so far in the US. Can't believe that we've been here 6 months already.

Next week we head off to the west coast - Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Seattle and San Fransisco - for a much needed break from the cold (although we have been very lucky with the weather, not too cold yet! keeping my fingers crossed) and to meet up with some family.  Looking forward to our Christmas in LA and New Year in San Fran :)