First Week of Class at VUW

I officially survived my first week of school. Not that it was hard or anything, but it definitely was not the best week I’ve ever had. School here is very different than what it is in the states. There are some things that are different here that seem to make sense like the fact that all the buildings are connected so you stay out of the wind when moving from building to building. I’d really enjoy this luxury on a cold winter day back home! It is also nice that my flat is literally five minutes away from essentially of the buildings that my classes are held. Despite these convenient factors, for the most part, I do not like how things are run here at all, but I’m biased.

Currently, I am enrolled in four papers (classes). My classes are: 1) Global History, 2) Gandhi, India, and the World, 3) Visual Perception, and 4) Discursive Social Psychology. I have each of these courses anywhere from 2 to 3 times a week in a large lecture hall. Starting next week, I have a two hour lab for each of my psychology courses and an hour long tutorial for each of my history courses. The large lectures are very different to me and I feel they will not fuel a positive learning environment for me. I love to have discussions in class and get to know my professors. Here, professors are called lecturers because that’s what they do, they lecture and that’s it. The tutorials are designed to be more discussion based; however, from my understanding they can be hit or miss depending upon the students that are in them. I was not happy to learn this week that I would be in class an additional six hours each week between tutorials and labs. Each student schedules labs and tutorials the first week of class. Back in the states, you know exactly what your schedule is right when you register. It was frustrating to make sure each tutorial and lab didn’t interfere with lecture times. I will never understand the logic of not having this all done right away when registering.

The biggest difference in classes is how they are structured. For most of my classes, I have two or three random assignments that are required throughout the semester as well as a final examination. It does not give me a lot of room to, well, slack. There are a lot of readings for each week that are recommended. However, “recommended” readings in the states = me not doing any reading. I’ve met a number of people who say that they do all of the readings and also a number of people who do not do the readings. Clearly, I agree with the people who do not do the readings much more. I am not sure how well I will adjust to all of this extra reading. It makes me miss UWL and what I am familiar with when it comes to how to be a college student. I just do not know how to do it here and I have way too many distractions that are preventing me from figuring it out. In all honesty, I have never been good at doing readings for class, but it hasn’t mattered because class covers the readings (at UWL). Here, I do not know yet if I can say the same thing. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I also found out some somewhat bad news this week. There is a possibility that I may not graduate in May 2013 because my Discursive Social Psychology course here will not transfer back to what I was hoping it would at UWL. I have basically just enough credits left to complete that will involve 18 credit semesters and some winter or summer courses. Long story short, I am trying to take a fun class in place of it. It is a 300 level class, which involves a lot more work than a 100 or 200 level class here does. I do not want to do the extra work if it won’t help me towards graduation. My logic: I’d rather take a fun class that hopefully involves less work so I can travel around more on the weekends. I am hoping to get this all figured out first thing on Monday.

Sorry to have a somewhat negative blog post. This week has just been one full of adjusting. I am confident things will work out. My college career has gone somewhat sporadically (compared to others) due to a combination of being a state FFA officer, transferring, and switching my major. Studying abroad has been extra work and more challenging since I am doing it as a college senior. Most people do this as sophomores. Regardless, I am happy to be here and am doing what I can to make things work out in the most enjoyable way.