What I wrote last week

This time I write you from the laundrette. Yes, they have a wireless connection here, which is very convenient while watching my clothes spin.

The three weeks of math camp are over and they were actually quite enlightening. Not only did I learn quite a bit of new stuff, but I can actually boast a little intuition on eigenvalues, vectors and such, which where mainly mysterious definitions to me before the course. I think this was the case for most people, except for a handful with serious math degrees - mostly Chinese. The final exam was yesterday morning, and even though I had a hard time getting myself to sit and study (as usual), I think it went reasonably well.

Afterwards there was much celebration and beer. I cannot understand the European/American obssession with beer. Dark, yeasty beer. Light, frothy beer. They may have different shades or nuances of bitter, but they all taste like, well... beer.

There were many more people than I expected in the course. Close to 50. Only 20 or so are economics students. The rest are a combination of exchange students, business school, agricultural economics, political science and civil engineering students (the last two groups are limited to those taking an MA in economics). The majority of these people will continue studying with me throughout the first year in the microeconomics sequence, and some in the econometrics sequence as well.

Now there is a short break for a few days, and with a bit of luck this weekend should be spent out hiking with some school friends somewhere near San-Francisco. The fall semester starts on monday, and I've registered myself for two city planning courses aside from the economics curriculum. I'm toying with the idea of estimating the effects of bridges on the spread of population and on real-estate markets. In particular, I have the Bay Bridge between San-Francisco and Oakland in mind (as well as the Chunnel and a more recent bridge between Denmark and Sweden that has made "cheap" Malmo into a distant suburb of Copenhagen). This will require me to do some homework before I can tell if it's a feasible topic to pursue, but one professor who I spoke with this morning gave me a couple of useful tips.

Other than that, not much news. I will shortly attach some photos of the new place.

Till next time.