The Domino's Effect

Today I ate at the newly-opened Sharpe Refectory, where I've had breakfast the last couple days. Pretty much everyone I've talked to and I greatly prefer the food at The Sharpe Refectory to that at Vernon-Wooley, which is somewhat annoying since it now means I have to deal with a longer walk to class after stuffing myself with pancakes galore.
Once again we had a long but interesting Macro class (I know I've called pretty much everything we've learned in this course interesting, but I genuinely am interested in everything we've learned so far, and have yet to find a boring aspect of economics, although I've been told I won't have to look too hard to find one), this time branching off into more global ideas. We went through the basics of inflation, and why a decent amount of economists believe that a bit of inflation is a good thing, and yet next to no economists think deflation would be a good thing. We went over the differences between long-run and short-run aggregate supply, and the concept of "sticky wages," a term I had never before heard of. "Sticky wages" is the idea that, contrary to classical economists' beliefs, wages don't quickly adjust to the market, meaning if a company does well, it takes a while for wages of its to increase as well, and likewise if the company suffers. This is important because it means that in the short run, if wages remain fixed, the more money a company makes, the more items it can produce, which form the short-run aggregate supply curve.
I promise it was more interesting than it sounds, but after a quick workout and study session, it was time for the Brownies to attend the pizza party with Domino's pizza for everyone in the Brown Partnership Programs, which the ILC is included in.
The first 10 minutes involved mingling with the 50 or so other students there, and consisted of a slew of the all-too familiar questions (Where are you from, what course are you taking, do you like it? And so on). It was nice to meet even more new people, and after a slight delay (there were no plates or napkins, and since this event was held at the floor our classroom is on, we didn't really want to make much of a mess. That problem was quickly taken care of, and we all broke off into smaller groups to get a chance to talk to an alum or current Brown student about all things college. I got to meet with Ben, a rising senior and football player at Brown, who talked about the struggles of being a first-generation college student, and what it was like to not really have anyone he could ask college-related questions. This made me appreciate my parents even more, and made me appreciate the fact that even outside of my family I have a great support system, where I can ask just about any college question and find an answer one way or another. What stuck with me the most however, was Ben talking about how if there's a will, there's a way. Obviously that wasn't the first time I had heard that expression, but the way Ben described what exactly that meant to him made me realize that I just push myself as hard as I can, I will be able to get into a good college, and if I push myself at a good college, I'll be able to get a good job, and so on and so on, until everything falls into place. I've been learning new things every day, and I am able to finally understand exactly what the college students I've met with mean when they say you learn way more outside of class than you do in it.
Also, I walked by the Rock, and had to take a picture, as well as these pictures of the nearby scenery/houses.

The Rock

The view down into Providence