Packing my Wellies

So tomorrow afternoon, Nick and I fly for our week-long trip to Italy. I have to get to Gatwick in the morning, which is going to be tricksie, but not impossible (Nick is responsible for getting my giant suitcase there himself). We then fly to Venice, which is now somewhat less flooded than it was a few days ago, and stay there until early Tuesday morning. Then, we take a train to Florence in the morning, stay there just for the day, and take another train to Rome in the evening. We stay in Rome for four nights, until Saturday morning, at which point we fly back to England!

I have a number of other quick Nika updates/comments:

As Eugene pointed out, on Wednesday Barbie beat Bratz dolls pretty decisively -- it looks like there won't be any more Bratz within a few months. Now, I think the judge was being pretty strict with his interpretation of the jury's verdict, but at the same time, I really like Barbie over Bratz, so I'm not too distraught.

Then, on Wednesday night, I went to the OUMC Christmas dinner which was fun. I don't have many stories to tell about it, which actually means that it was quite successful.



Another interesting thing that is going on is that HLS is apparently considering moving their On Campus Interview program for 2Ls interviewing at big firms way earlier. Traditionally, Harvard has held OCI quite late, beginning in late September, but now there is a proposal to move it almost a month earlier so that HLS students are interviewing at around the same time as students from many other schools. In the past, HLS didn't seem to be too concerned that all the jobs would be filled before their students got to interview, but I guess they're getting more worried. There's a memo about this, but you're only going to be able to get to it with an HLS username/password.

Finally, Zeb, Rachel, and some others we know are competing in Continentals this weekend. There's a live feed of the event available, but good luck trying to make out which blurry short girl with a ponytail is which. The running order is, in theory, available here, but in practice the difficulty running order doesn't seem to be listed at all, while the speed competitors are at least, listed, but not necessarily in running order. Good luck USA!

It's Official

As discussed, HLS has changed its grading policy to a High Pass - Pass - Low Pass - Fail system. There was apparently a lot of debate at the law school about how the transition would occur. It appears that Dean Kagan has decided to implement it with no retroactivity, so only the current 1Ls will have transcripts that are all in the new system. Additionally, current 3Ls are not going to have it implemented for them at all -- this year, they will still be graded with letters. Meanwhile, current 2Ls are the stroppiest -- they will be graded with letters this year but next year, as 3Ls, they will be graded with the P/F system. They're a bit cranky about what this will mean for their transcripts and for honors.

Of course, I'm kind of a 2.5L right now. This means that next year, during my final HLS semester, I will most likely be getting P/F grades. Additionally, this year will show up only as a P/F on my transcript (with no HP/LP options for this year). Meanwhile, I'll also have two years of undistinguished letter grades. So this will be tricky to explain to people. I don't really mind other than that, though, and I also figure that I'll already have some explaining to do based on this year alone. However, some of the other kids from HLS doing this program with me are getting somewhat up in arms about the whole thing. Additionally, current 2Ls who would do this Cambridge program next year would be in the same position -- they'd have two semesters of grades, a year of P/F based on their time in England, and a final semester of HP/P/LP/F. I wonder if they'll be stroppy too.

Two other bits of news:

1. Halloween isn't a big deal in England, so apparently my college seems to have no qualms about having a Halloween bop on November 1st. November 1st is the day to gorge yourself on candy and be recovering from events -- not the day to have a Halloween party. Halloween is over by then! Arghh. Also, I had a craving for candy corn the other day, which they definitely don't sell in England, so I've made Nick buy some for me in America and bring them to me on Friday.
2. I have been working on laundry for the last couple of days, which has unsurprisingly been a bit of a bumpy ride. I've found some interesting things in laundry machines along the way, though. The other day I found a L1 coin in a dryer, and then today I found a metal spoon in a washing machine. Curious.

HLS Transcript*

Meanwhile, back in the other Cambridge, HLS seems to have changed it's grading system from the old one of A, B, C, D, F (with pluses and minuses also available to subdivide A's and B's), to a new one of Honors-Pass-Low Pass-Fail. Now, I have honestly never particularly worried too much about my grades at HLS (and my grades at HLS have somewhat reflected this). So I don't really care, either way. Under the new system, I think the Honors mark corresponds with an A, Pass is a B, Low Pass is a C, and fail is an F. The one issue is that I have managed to scrape up a number of B+'s and A-'s in my time (pretty middle-of-the-road, gradewise, at HLS), that would undoubtedly be equivalent only to Passes, rather than Honors. So, were I to start again today, I'm quite sure that my transcript would simply be an undistinguished sea of Passes. Oh well, whatever.

The one concern that I actually have now is that my law school transcript is going to need to now come with a longwinded explanation from me. My first two years were graded with letters (which are converted into numbers for determining GPA -- except even the numbers don't correspond correctly -- an A is a 7, not a 4.0). My next year, here at Cambridge, is truly pass-fail as far as my law school transcript is concerned (however, my Cambridge degree will indicate what sort of honors I graduate with: first, 2:1, 2:2, etc. (2:2 may be more likely -- as long as I avoid the dreaded "gentlemen's pass")). Finally, my last semester at Harvard will have, in theory, Honors-Pass-Low Pass-Fail grades, which I'm hoping will all be Passes. That's going to be somewhat interesting to explain.