...yeah, I know, I am bad, lazy and selfish person, because my blog has been for a long time on a dead point...but hey, I have my reasons!
The biggest drawback for my creative writing is the school. Not in a way that it would restrict my imagination, but it imposes considerable restraints on my free time. Indeed, I value each and every free second of leisure as a golden nugget.
The school is... well I cannot say it is good or bad, but in general, I am not really satisfied. The courses (European Integration Econ., Welfare State Econ. and micro of financial markets) are quite shallow and lack mathematical backing. This would normally make the study easier, but the deeper comprehension is more than substituted by awful loads of obligatory reading. But let's focus on the courses more directly.
EIE is really strange course. It is held by 2 profs and I was really looking up to it. Nevertheless, my jolliness proved to be premature - the course is accompanied by a really good book by R.Baldwin. I like it, cause it clearly explains the basics of EU and its micro¯o worries, but on the other hand, I don't think it is a proper book for a 3rd year bachelors. Just as I stated, it is too shallow.
But that's not what makes the course so strange. The worst problem is, that the lectures are exact repetitions of chapters in the book (not joking). Prof shows the same graphs, repeats the same sentences and provides us with same trivia....it is really sad. So, is there some value added from attending the lectures? Well, good as a refresher, but nothing more.
The lectures are also accompanied by three official debates, where the student groups try to crush their opponents with persvasive arguments over EU topics. This is the brighter side of the course, as you must swiftly react to the discussants and come up with clarifications, likenings and counter-arguments, to defend your statement. This is the fun part of the course, but on the other hand it has revealed how bad is my real-time argumentation....long way to go, indeed :)
The Welfare State is a master course, so it is a bit different from EIE. It however does not mean that it would be more about modelling and maths. You just need to read twice as more materials and write about 15 pages long essay.
The reading comprises mainly of various essays about social policies and problems of recent welfare state in European background, and some of them are really interesting. However, many of these 40pg works could have been summed up in articles about 2 pages long without substantial loss of information.
Speaking about the lectures, they are better than EIE, as the profs have their own positions to the topics and give different (mostly Dutch-oriented) insights. Quite good. As a complement to the lectures, you must attend seminars. These are about presenting the weekly mandatory reading by group of students and subsequent discussion. These are also nice - especially the discussions provide a compact image of how the ultraliberal Dutch people are really thinking :)
The MFM is for me just a "bonus" - I am attending the lectures without subsciption to the course - the 2 course-restriction of Utrecht University is not a measure just for show...the workload of two courses is balancing quite close to the edge of student's endurance, one more would be clear madness.
But the MFM is quite nice and also to some extent mathematical course. Looking back, I regret that I have not subscribed to it instead of EIE...but on the other hand, Integration is compulsory for my home Uni, so whatever....
I should also mention the most enjoable lecture of mine, and that is the Dutch for intermediates. This course is following (succesfully) finished EILC and it is just great. I fell in love with this hidious language, because it is so funny and easy to use. The lectures are more a relaxation than a language drill, so that the atmosphere is really "gezellig". Thanks to the course, I am also able to meet with my old friends from august. The compulsory reading is in this course not so extensive and writing usually does not exceed some paragraphs....on the other hand I get loads of new information which go deep into the subject - Econ lectures have much to learn from this attitude :)
So, that was a brief summary of my little daily joys, which are slowly coming to their end - the exam period is starting in two weeks and then I'll be exposed to new courses, new challanges, new hopes and fears... Well, we shall see...
