First Week of Classes

So my first week of classes was pretty lame. On Monday I had Intro to Pacific History which consisted of a ton of American students and a professor who simply rambles on and on for the entire lecture. I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to be writing down and what I wasn't because he just skipped around in time. After history I had an hour break in which I would usually have a tutorial for my Race and Racism class, but since it's the first week of uni, we don't have tutorials. Another girl and I walked around to see if we could find where our tutorial was going to be and then went our separate ways to our 12 o'clock classes. Mine was in the Clocktower and was my Turning Points in Western Music class. After wondering around trying to figure out where my lecture theater was, Becca and I realized that we had done a full circle from where we started. Stupid, I know. That lecture was two hours and was probably one of the most interesting classes I'll be taking this semester. After 2 I had the afternoon off and just went the to book store to buy my course reader and some supplies for class.

On Tuesday the only class I had was my history lecture again which would usually be followed by my history tutorial. Since there was no tutorial, I decided it would be best for me to head down to the grocery store and pick up some things. I always hate going to the grocery store because it's such a long, hot walk there and back. Not to mention you're carrying 20 pounds of groceries uphill. That afternoon, I skyped home with my family and talked to my brothers a little bit.

On Wednesday, I usually have class at 3 for a Pacific Studies tutorial but I only had my Race and Racism class at 4. I think that this will be another class that's very interesting because the first lecture we had we talked about how race is a socially constructed term and that between races, there is very small differences biologically contrary to popular belief. My professor is from upstate New York and is in NZ working on research about Pacific Island races.

Thursday I just had my Pacific Languages and World Views lecture. I don't know exactly how I feel about that class because one of the professors is so soft spoken that it's hard to understand and hear what she's saying. It doesn't help that she's Tongan, so she has a bit of an accent.

Overall, I think that all of my classes will be interesting, but I think I'll only have a difficult time with my history class simply because my professor doesn't teach chronologically. It's a good thing all of his notes are in our course readers. And by the way, I only had to buy 2 course readers for school. One for history ($20) and one for anthropology ($16). We get our music course reader for free and all our readings for pacific studies are on CECIL (UofA's version of Blackboard). It's definitely my cheapest book buying semester I've had since being in college.

Since I don't have class on Fridays, Becca, Leah and I headed to the beach to hang out. It doesn't actually rain, but the entire time we were there, we totally thought it was going to. Sometime this weekend, we'll be going to Rangitoto Island off the coast of Auckland to go on an adventure. From what I've heard it's an inactive volcano, one of the most unique places near Auckland and sweet as.

Love and Miss you All :)