School Life and Canberra

Hello there! Since school started, I haven’t been doing too many exciting things. I just finished my second week of classes (I don’t have Friday classes), and there are quite a few differences between UC (University of Canberra) and UT that I’ve noticed. I haven’t decided which way I like better, but I think UT will win. This blog post is happening because I have a paper I should be writing, but writing a blog seemed better. :-) 

One difference is that even though I have 4 classes, I have 3 exams the ENTIRE semester. Including finals and everything. I have two classes where my grade is based off two papers, each paper worth 50% of my grade. The classes with exams still don’t have very many assignments, so if you mess up on one thing, you’re pretty much screwed. I’m used to having things to cushion my grade, so if I mess up on one thing, I can make up for it. But, that is not how it will be here. Definitely much different than UT. 

Each class has two different meetings a week, one being a lecture and the other being what is called a tutorial. Tutorials are smaller groups of your lecture class, so for those of you at UT, think discussion groups. But, you don’t have your lectures or tutorials every week, so you have to figure out what classes are actually running in a given week. I only have one class that has a lecture and tutorial every week of the semester. One of my classes only has the tutorial every other week and another class only has 6 tutorials the entire 14 weeks of classes. No complaints there, it’s just different! Also, teachers record lectures, so lots of students don’t bother to go to lectures and just listen to them later online. For me, it’s easier to just go at an assigned time for lecture instead of relying on myself to actually make time to listen to them later. But, I know some people who schedule to work during lectures because they know it doesn’t matter if they come or not. While some classes are like this at UT, I cannot imagine scheduling to work every week during a class, because I know I have to at least go sometimes! 

I’ve also noticed that during class, the US is mentioned quite a bit! We did something in one of my tutorials the other day involving Super Bowl ads, and there were some people in my class who didn’t understand how big of a deal the Super Bowl is. But, we also talk about Australia sometimes, and I still don’t know that much, so I can easily get lost sometimes. I had to work with a partner in an activity dealing with the local ruby team, the University of Canberra Brumbies, and I was useless during that activity because I knew nothing! Haha Oh well, it’s a learning experience! Anyways, enough about school life!

View from Mt. Ainslie

Yesterday, I went with 2 of my roommates and 1 other friend to explore some of Canberra. We went to Mt. Ainslie, which is a place that overlooks Canberra. I had been up there at night, and it was so pretty to see all the lights, but this was my first day time trip. It was so gorgeous and so cool to see all of Canberra right there in my view. We then went to the Australian War Memorial, and since I LOVE studying about wars, this was awesome. We went when the museum was about to close, so we only got to walk around about 20 minutes, but I will go back and easily spend an entire day in there and be completely content. I also think it will be great to learn about some Australian history.  Since I've been here, I've noticed how little I know about anywhere except the US. And let's be real...I am terrible at US history too! Canberra is the capital of Australia, and thus government business goes on here, so we stopped by the Parliament House next. We walked inside, but were only there about 5 minutes, but I’ll go back there as well at some point. The day definitely gave me a good look at things to do in Canberra, and I can go back and visit places later and stay longer! To end our adventures, we had dinner at a Turkish Kebab place. The kebab was HUGE and only $9.50, which is cheap here! I could have easily made 3 meals of it if I had really wanted, but I ate a lot and made two of it. So. freaking. good. I finished the night off by going out to The Lighthouse (or The Lighty, as everyone says), which is a bar near campus. I bought one drink and learned that even during their Power Hour, drinks are still $6 for something as simple as rum and coke. Therefore, that was my one and only drink, and I enjoyed the night hanging out and dancing with some exchange friends. All this basically to say that yesterday was a great day and one of the funnest nights I’ve had since being here! 

Australian War Memorial

Parliament House

Well, I feel like I just rambled on about nothing much, but it’s been a while since I updated, and I’ve had some requests to write a new blog. The first 2 weeks went by pretty slow, but this past week has gone by fast! Overall, life Down Under is going well, and I am loving it here!