So I’m sitting on campus in this weird lab slash café
thing. There’s this REALLY long couch
basically that you have to awkwardly straddle and climb across and THEN you’re
sitting at the computer. And if you’re
printing off syllabi or “unit guides” as they call them, you have to keep
climbing over this bench thing. There
are other computers, but they are at these tall tables and frankly I’m not so
sure I can get up onto the stool without making a total ass out of myself.
Everything here is like our new student union. Only somehow (sorry Wright
State) they pulled it off
well. Everything is brightly coloured
and modern looking. (HAHA! *pause* I just wrote “colored” and Word keeps
saying it’s wrong. I kept deleting it
and writing it again and I thought I MUST be going crazy. I’m sitting here thinking I have gone through
THREE YEARS of college and I can’t spell colored? What is WRONG with me? They spell it “coloured”. Got it.)
Anyway….it’s a pretty nice campus and there are people EVERYWHERE. Literally.
Nothing is quiet but the library.
You can go into almost any building at WSU and study in dead silence at 10:30 am, but not here. Here there are people just swarming. The grassy areas outside remind me of those
pictures from history books of the people picnicking on the hill during the
Civil War. What was that battle? Battle
of Bulls or of Bull Run or something? I’d Google it if I were in the states.
Anyway, I wrote this long entry about my first day of
classes yesterday and realized today it didn’t post so that’s this.
My first class I was terrified. I didn’t think I’d ever find it. I wandered around DETERMINED not to be that
girl staring at a map. I figured I’d
just find the building…I knew its GENERAL location. Finally I gave up, and sat down on a bench
just inside a building where it was cooler.
I pulled out my map and found building “b”. It was right next to building “j”. I could SEE “j”. Where the HECK was “b”? Then I looked at the door to the building I
was in and realized I was IN building “b”.
So then I had to find Lecture Theatre 11. I was staring at this sign that said “Lecture
Theatre 3 to the right, Lecture Theatre 5 to the left, Room 16 up” but NO
Theatre 11. I turned around to see if
there was another sign and there was Lecture Theatre 11.
It was exhausting.
My first class was Health Education or something like
that. Basically how to incorporate
physical activity into education so that our kids don’t get fat and then later
in life have health problems. Just
IMAGINE the ways they ripped apart the US
in that class. For example they showed a
chart of the obesity rates in children over the years. She pointed to Canada
and Australia
and talked about them, and there was one line that basically went off the
charts, and she briefly pointed and said “This is the US. I don’t really need to explain” and the
ENTIRE lecture hall burst into laughter.
Great.
Just great.
My professor (or whatever they are called) looked just like
Carol Brady. Not 1965 Carol Brady but
Celebrity Fit Club Carol Brady. She wore
this terrific bright green shirt and an odd large silver chain around her
neck. I think she borrowed it from Flava
Flave and removed the clock. She really
pulled it off though. I was impressed.
I really liked her.
She was really bubbly and I could understand her (which I seem to have
difficulty with). She’s really all about
education technology and yelled out when her animated icon of a book with
turning pages popped up on her power point “Look at that! Aren’t I CLEVER!”
Apparently every other week we are having practicals. It’s basically gym class. BOY am I EXCITED! Basically I’m screwed. I can’t catch and I can’t throw. I can run but not very fast. Hopefully our games involve kicking. I’m good at kicking. I’m REALLY good at that parachute game where
you throw it up and hide underneath.
Let’s pray for that. Remember how
we had to do the electric slide in elementary school? I doubt they do that here.
I’m screwed if we just play a “simple game” of footy or
cricket. God knows I have NO clue about
that!
My second class was in a HUGE lecture theatre that was
painted puke green. The sad part is it
wasn’t left over from the diaster that was the 70’s. It was fresh paint. You could smell it. The seats were all a distractingly shade of neon
orange but based on the stains, they were chosen in a past decade and therefore
ARE excusable.
The class was Environmental Sustainability. So once again, sorry home country, but we
were TORN apart. I just spent the last
hour reading an assignment for that class.
Basically “sustaining” isn’t based on fixing it’s based on
progressing. As a “world unit” we need
to fix and progress. Learn and
educate. Save and plan. It’s very repetitive and VERY vague. A lot of “what do you thinks?” and “how would
this help?” with a few “the US
wastes everything’s” thrown in to keep me paying attention.
The professor was oldish and she didn’t really hold my
attention well but the class seems interesting enough. It was approved as a match for Geography 101
so I’m guessing I got a good deal.
On the way home yesterday this old guy was following
me. He was using an electric wheel chair
and he wouldn’t pass me but would speed up and slow down with me. I had this weird feeling he was PRETENDING to
be old. But you can’t really whip around
and ask someone who’s using a wheelchair how old they are. God knows with my luck he’d say “94” show me
his license and make me feel like a complete a-hole.
I wasn’t worried though because I was twice his size and I
didn’t have my iPod (clearly) or my wallet.
If he wanted to steal my text books, well, I might have let him. That’s just desperation.
Anyway he had no choice but to keep going when I got to my
house because there’s a step. I mean, he
might have actually just been going my direction, but I doubt it. He was suspicious looking. And I judge him for that.
(just in case you don’t think I’m a horrible person mom, I’m
just being humorous)
Anyway I was going to buy Lindsay dinner because she had a
horrible day. She went to her Plant
Biology class and it was ALL over her head. She left mid class because she knew she was
just going to have to drop it. They gave
her a list of terms and said “if you don’t already know these you should leave”
and I didn’t even know all of them. I’ve
had 3 college level bio classes, one being based COMPLETELY on plants but I don’t
like biology so I guess that’s not really accurate.
Well she wanted to buy her own dinner so she did. Well her mom did (her mom buys her food up to
$1,300 here). I figured we deserved some
real food after so much peanut butter. I
think the lining in my stomach has been replaced with Cole’s brand crunchy
peanut butter. Can’t say I’m not getting
protein!
Today my first class was a bit terrifying. First of all I’m not completely sure it
matches up with my home class as much as previously thought but what can you
do?
Nothing.
So I sat through it.
It’s about children’s literacy.
It doesn’t seem like a hard topic but the guy made it sound scary. I think maybe it was because he was wearing a
really tight shirt and talked about a million words a minute. I think he is from the United
States.
If you close your eyes he sounds just like Scott Patton, but visually he
looks more like Johnny Bravo. You know that
weird swoopy blonde hair and arms that look like they could burst canned goods with
a single squeeze? Anyway the reason I
think he’s from the US
is he mentioned he didn’t know how to play cricket and he has a US
accent. The reason I’m unsure is that he
got really loud at one point and said “THEY ARE JUST UNSURE” and he sounded
like he was fresh out of Boondock Saints. (Dear goodness they are playing Hey There
Delilah. CATCH UP WORLD. Just one of the overplayed songs I get to
experience being overplayed again.)
Anyway he made this BIG deal about the final being worth 40%
of the final grade and as if that wasn’t enough he made a BIG deal about how
much 40% of your final grade is worth.
And as if THAT was enough he made an even BIGGER deal about how much
your final grade is worth.
Exhausting.
I can say this, however.
Education majors look the same the world over.
Everything in that lecture hall was pink. I can’t WAIT to go to my Teaching Children’s
Text’s class. I can guarantee it will be
the same.
In other news, I am trying to kick my Coke habit. A bottle of Coca Cola just got me $3. I can’t afford that.
I suppose it’s a healthy plan anyway.
I doubt it will work.
I don’t have many vices, but that is one of them.
In even other news, I’m slowly dying without my music. My mom says I’ll be able to hear something I’d
otherwise have missed if I’d had my ears plugged. But at the moment I just hear funny accents and
a lot of gossip about boys. I can’t even
really concentrate on breathing it’s so loud.
Not to mention when you’re studying with music on people generally think
interrupting is okay. But when you have earphones
in, they leave you alone. I like the
solitude.
So if you have a discarded iPod, are on the market for a new
one, or have some strange mp3 player (unless it’s a Zune because that is against
my morals) that you no longer need, I’m willing to barter. Granted, it must be understood that I am
cursed and you may never see said mp3 player again. It is a fate I am willing to accept.
If this were real news, I’d put in some story about death
and destruction. Thank GOODNESS it’s not
the real news.
My one exam I have during the allotted exam weeks is “to be
determined” date wise. Somewhere between
June 16th and June 27th which means it could be the DAY
BEFORE I LEAVE or it could be June 16th. The problem being is I really hoped I’d be
able to plan a trip of sorts and travel around Oz a bit during that time. Maybe I won’t. To be continued…..
It got REALLY hot yesterday and all my pictures curled at
the edges. It looks funny now.
Paris and Danny are very strange and very perfect. I enjoy their company and every once and
awhile am sad because I know I can only know them for 4 more months.
Nick’s friend Rob is going to hang out with us this
weekend. He’s looking into penguin
season for the parade so I’m not sure that will be this weekend but we’re going
to do something. I think it’d be neat if
I came home with a goofy picture of us and Nick’s mom. Hopefully we get to meet her too.
I haven’t learned to surf yet. That’s on my list of things I want to do. I don’t have to accomplish it, I just want to
learn. I guess I could call Long Island
Matt. He’d probably be able to teach
me. I should write down my list of
things I want to do. I bet I’d
accomplish more of them if I did that….
Things to think about.
My mom and sister have been looking at places for me to live
when I come home. Many are on the verge
of being affordable. It makes things
harder living alone. There’s still the
Chris/Josh option but imposing is NOT on my list of things to do. That is also to be continued….
Anyway
I miss you, home!
Murs
