The Adventures of Andrew Maurer

Finished up with my developmental economics midterm. It was nice because it was unlike my previous ones in that it wasn’t all math. There were questions that involved actual writing which was a nice change.

Sold my battery grip for $120 and was pleased with that. Right after I went to Futureshop and bought 4gb of memory for my laptop. Though there is a 30 day return policy, so I can decide to return it in a month if a feel like it. And then rebuy it again for another 30 days

I stopped at Siegel’s on my way back and wrote a page on it here:
http://amau.ca/?page_id=197
It was a very good experience actually. I also was connected to the internet and had a webcam conversation over Skype while there.

Went to La Notte tonight and had the linguine alla crema. It was nice, except I can now say for sure that I’m not a huge fan of scallops. I’d always thought they sounded interesting, but they mainly taste slimy.

A car, seemingly unused for quite some time parked on 15th at Crown

A pretty normal day, did some Spanish homework only to find that the professor is sick and has been replaced for the time being by a substitute with a very hard to place accent – Caribbean?

Leftover curry for lunch, crepes with marmalade and toast with humus for dinner. It was my first time having marmalade with crepes, it was alright. I definitely prefer both nutulla and lemon and sugar though. I’ve decided my demand for nutella is stress-elastic. Good thing I don’t have any now with my development midterm coming up tomorrow afternoon.

The walk home was very nice. Lots of colours. Lots of leaves. A beautiful scene indeed.

Hotpot in between food orders, bubbling away with a few ingredients still soaking

I’ve been wanting to go to Grounds for Coffee for cinnamon buns for a while today, and I decided to on waking up this morning. It’s a five minute walk from my back front door. It’s known for making the best cinnamon buns in Vancouver, while also a distributor for Delany’s, Waves Coffee, Blenz, and Bean Around the World. It was delicious indeed. Still warm from being baked that morning, with a healthy portion of icing on top. I’d say they’re the cinnamon bun equivilant of a Honey’s donut. Unfortunately I forgot my memory card in my laptop, so no pictures.

This afternoon was speant with Adam, Wesley, and Victoria from honours econ at Posh Sukiyaki on Broadway at Burrard. It’s a Japanese hotpot restaurant. Hotpot is where sukiyaki sauce is mixed with vegetables and meat and is left bubbling over a burner. The food is then consumed as desired. It’s an all you can eat place, so the waitress came around with order forms and we checked the boxes beside the raw items we wanted. My favourites were the pork, beef, bok choi, and udon noodles. The udon noodles are thick so they soak up a lot of the flavour within the liquid. Delicious! Although as always with AYCE, I probably ate to the point of negative marginal utility. The plus – no need for dinner tonight

Pledge retreat last night. Went up to Squamish around 9pm with David and met the rest of our group at hotel called Executive Suites. It was a pretty small room for the number of people we had there but it was good fun. We played a bunch of drinking games, stayed up late into the night, and slept sprawled out over the floor throughout the place. I’m suprised actually that we got away with it and that there were no noise complaints or anything.

I ordered a drink I’ve been wanting to order at Starbucks for a while. It’s a grande, two pump vanilla, non-fat, no foam, earl grey tea misto 3/4 water – 1/4 milk, with two tea bags. It’s important to let the tea steep 3-5 minutes before drinking, and then discard the tea bags.

Made curry tonight with crepes for desert accompanied by an Italian white, a Telero Bombino Blanco. Going to watch a movie now and then go to bed.

Cheated today. This one’s of the North Vancouver Canadian Tire on Thanksgiving Day.

Not much sleep last night at the fraternity. Went to an Indian restaurant, Sitar, in Gastown. I had the lamb korma, and it was pretty cool comparing the flavours to my own curry. I’d like to start experimenting more with different spices.

It’s the Phi Delta Theta pledge retreat tonight in Squamish. I’ll be leaving in a few minutes to spend the night up there with the rest of my pledge brothers. It’s the event that always wraps up live-in-week. I don’t think I’ll bring my camera because I’m worried it’ll get stolen and it’ll be dark anyways.

I got my exam schedule today. My last exam is on December 16th, so it’ll be nice to have that extra bit of time for Christmas break. Although I do have quite a few exams back to back in that period so I’ll have to tackle that problem when the time comes.

I’m happy it’s Friday.

Picture of the whiteboard after Honours Microeconomics I today. The professor covered a lot of material. (Game theory, Monty Hall problem, transitivity, cognitive dissonance, behavioral economics in relation to reducing complex lotteries, and a whole wad of interesting economic experiments)

Woodward lecture today. It was entitled “Global Wage Inequality and the International Flow of Migrants”. I found it interesting as it was in large part about brain drain, that is, students receiving higher education in their home country and then residing / working in another country. The Woodward lecture series is made possible by an endowment from Mr Woodward and is a series in which lectures on various topics in economics are given.

I’ve got the rest of today off, which is very nice indeed. The week up till now has been pretty hectic, so it’s nice having some down time. Although I still have to make a visit to Futureshop to return my laptop. For now I’m going to stick with the Lenovo, I love how it’s so small. I think I will buy some extra memory for it from NCIX today.

Also just got my macroeconomics textbook in the mail today. $10.72 fater shipping as opposed to the $75.86 the bookstore charges. I’m really impressed by modern society’s used goods market (craigslist, ebay, amazon, etc)

Taken looking south down main mall on campus. It’s a dark and dreary day.

Last night was the first time I noticed that not having a thermostat might be a bit of a problem. There are air vents from which hot air blows into my rooms, but only when the heating’s turned on. Between the hours of midnight and six or so, Christina and John turn the heating off. This would normally be fine, but when I’m up late it gets freezing cold.

Had some Starbucks “Brazil” coffee with breakfast today. It was alright, but nothing special. Packed the last of my turkey, a roast carrot, and some butter in between a couple slices of bread for lunch today. The bread was frozen at the time, but thawed by lunch.

I’ll actually be moving to Phi Delt this time. I’m gonna head home to grab a bite to eat for dinner as well as a sleeping bag for tonight and then head back to campus. I don’t foresee a spectacular night’s sleep.

I slept at home last night and Uncle Glen kindly drove me home in the morning. I had some leftover Thanksgiving cookies for breakfast and went to campus for my two classes today. Supposedly there’s a guest lecturer coming on Thursday, Mark Rosenzweig from Yale. It will be interesting having a distinguished economist speaking about economic development, a course in which I’m enrolled.

I decided not to stay over at the fraternity tonight because of my exams tomorrow. I thought it’d be best to keep distractions to a minimum. The most exciting part of the day was around 10pm when my dad came and brought the old big old TV from home. I’ve now got a working TV here connected to an XBMC so I can watch movies and listen to music. In fact, I’m listening to one of my landlord’s many music CDs at the moment while studying monetary policy. It’s pretty cool with the accompanying visualizations, if not slightly distracting.

It’s 2:45am now and I don’t expect to go to bed tonight. Although I did have a bit of a nap around 6pm so I am somewhat rested. It’s time for energy drink #3 of the night

Crepes as usual for breakfast. Met with Adam, Bev, Wes, and Dmitry (in that order of arrival) at Starbuck on 39th and Cambie. It was my first time using the Canada Line, an adventure indeed! What’s most fascinating is that cell phone reception worked well underground. Underground cell phone towers? Perhaps. I left early from the study session to head home for Thanksgiving. This involved a very quick skytrain-ride from Oakridge Center to Waterfront, then the Seabus to Lonsdale Quay.

It was good to get home, look through a fridge full of food and decide what to eat, and unbox my brand new laptop (A Lenovo x200). Dinner was quite splendid – turkey, stuffing, “Oma’s rice”, cranberry sauce, and cucumber salid followed by black forest cake as well as a quite delicious mystery cake and Spanish coffee. I can’t say I’m a fan of my Dad’s substitute knockoff brand liquors. Although I will be bringing a nice variety of coffee back to my place tomorrow.

Jonathan and Christopher weren’t as rowdy as normal – growing up I dare say. They just got a PS3 for Christopher’s birthday and were very good at keeping themselves entertained and out of mischief. Priska also came over at an astounding 93 years old!

I’ll be moving in to Phi Delta Theta tomorrow. Perhaps not such a good idea amid exam week. I hope for the best.

Siegle’s bagels for breakfast – delightful! They have got to be the best bagels in Vancouver. These was followed by cinnamon-sugar-lemon as well as Nutella crepes. This was the second time I’ve ever ground up a cinnamon stick in the spice grinder. I feel like it’s more fresh grinding my own cinnamon as opposed to buying it pre-ground. It smells delicious as well.

I sold my 17-85mm lens along with the hood and filter today for $375. Iwas very happy to get it off my hands.

Completed a fair bit of studying for Econ 447 – Monetary Economics. I’ve still got a bit to do, but I’m happy to have made progress. I also restocked on eggs, milk, and cheese (700g for $5.55 at No Frills). Dinner was homemade hamburgers consisting of ground beef, a red chili, chili powder, garlic, ginger, salt and pepper, green pepper, and an egg. It was very good indeed. I also made some oven baked matchstick potatos with salt and olive oil. They were a bit too greasy for my liking, but salty and good. I think some more thought into the seasoning would have enhanced them.

Thanksgiving tomorrow. I’m looking forward to a splendid turkey dinner, but will greatly miss my mum’s cranberry sauce.