when i first saw my grade for my Chinese paper (written in English) my first instinct was that my prof was being really harsh and that i probably really didn't deserve that grade... and i even asked how the class fared... and later tried to justify my grade with the knowledge that even with 4 grad students in the class there was only one A-.... shifting blame to him... but on hindsight, after going for office hours to talk about it, i concede that i really didn't do a good job. yes, he might be a little strict, but not unreasonable... and after reviewing some errors i made, i figured i really did write a mediocre paper... which reminds me how it's so easy/tempting to grow complacent if one receives good grades consistently... there's always room for improvement but we don't always consistently progress in that direction, whatever the reason might be... and so my next challenge is to try to get an A from him (instead of secretly cursing how evil and harsh he is; in fact, on the contrary, he's actually a very approachable and friendly prof)
also didn't do too well for history midterm.. i almost failed my IDs!! haha. i just am rather bad at giving these nitty gritty details. and so i have to work extra hard to churn out a good response paper on Saturday. seriously i'm so tired from doing work all week... but sigh. just two more days and i can finally rest on Sunday. it helps though that we are starting to read texts on Mao Zedong, which i find really interesting. =)