Woke up around 10:00 today, and Adam, Emily, and Katie came over to make breakfast in my kitchen. The four of us went through a whole dozen eggs. The biggest egg size I have seen here are extra large, and even those aren’t very big. We decided that we need to do this little group breakfast get-together more often, and brainstormed possible breakfast meals for the future. Afterwards, Adam, Emily, and I went into campus to talk with STA Travel about possibly getting a group rate on our tickets to Thailand. The woman working said that someone had already come in and talked to another employee about the trip, and this person was with our group, so we just left. I had some time before my class at 2:00, so I faxed my “Credit Only” form back to Miami and walked around the Campus Centre for a bit. Now, only two of my classes’ grades will transfer back to my GPA. I then went off to find my building and, naturally, got lost. The buildings here are differentiated by numbers instead of names, and it is common that two different “buildings” are connected, making it, in actuality, one building. The room numbers aren’t any easier, as they usually have both letters and numbers, such as SG05 or E2. I finally found my classroom and saw a guy I knew standing outside. He was also in the class, and after a few minutes, we went inside. Today’s class was an economics course called Globalisation and Economic Systems. It seemed pretty interesting, and UM doesn’t offer a similar course, so I decided to take it here. It is supposed to be about the different types of economic systems that countries in the world have and then the end is about globalisation (that’s how they spell it here.) I think it’s gonna be a interesting class; the professor seems really into the material, and I think he knows a lot about the subject. At one point at the beginning of the class, he had a slide of famous economists up and was asking the class to name them. He got to a picture of Milton Friedman, and only one kid in the class of over 100 students knew who he was. I was pretty surprised because if I were in an upper level economics class at Miami, I think most of the class would have recognized him. This economics class also seems different from back home because we won’t be using any numbers or graphs or anything. All my econ classes at UM relied heavily on numbers and math. Here are a few other differences I’ve noticed about school here: since you have both lectures and tutorials as part of classtime here, the time spent learning new material is only 1-2 hours per week, far less than in classes at home; in my 2 hour lectures, the professors give 10-15 minute breaks after about an hour, the only breaks I got in college classes at Miami were the 2.5 hour ones; professors pass out thick packets about 20 pages long, both front and back, as syllabi, my ones at Miami were 3 pages, max, and often only 1; the majority of the grades in most of the classes here come from a major essay and a final, there is minimal, if any, coursework throughout the semester aside from keeping up with the reading. We didn’t have the tutorial today, so I came back to my room earlier than a normal Wednesday, beginning my weekend. Having had all three of my classes, I decided to organize myself and figure out when all my things will be due. Howitt Hall sponsored a “Beach Party” in the banquet room of the dining hall, and they served us pasta and drinks for free. I finally had another opportunity to wear my Hawaiian shirt! After the dinner, I went down to the basement for a little, where a lot of people already were, and then came upstairs to pack. Tomorrow night I’m leaving for Sydney. I’m really looking forward to the trip because I haven’t been there yet, except for the one night I spent in the hotel near the airport three weeks ago from tonight. Tomorrow, I don’t have any class, so I am planning on going shopping during the day to buy some ridiculous costume to wear to the Mardi Gras Parade. I won’t be able to blog over the weekend again, but I should have some sweet pictures and stories when I get back on Monday.
No comments:
Post a Comment