After the first shock at the workload I decided to just take it one day at a time. Get up, go to uni, go home (doing any necessary shopping on the way), read homework for next day, make dinner/do housework, go to bed, repeat. In between I have Starbucks (short peppermint hot chocolate, no whipped cream), do my email, call home (Monday and Thursday, 21.00) and watch DVDs.
Mainly for my parents, this is my uni schedule:
Monday, 9am: assignments are due
Tuesday-Thursday, 10.30-13.20 – lecture (which isn’t really a lecture as there’s no lecturing and a lot of active participation)
Tuesday and Friday, 13.40-14.30 – tutorial (where we discuss case examples using what we learned in class)
Now it’s weekend and I started on my first assignment, due Monday morning. So far so good. The paper (as they call courses here) is demanding but also interesting – and my previous study experience is coming in handy: I’m probably about 5 years older than most of the other students, I’m used to talking in front of an audience, and when something needs to be done I go ahead and do it. All of which made the rest of my tutorial group (with whom we also do tasks in the lectures) select me as leader, together with a girl from Iceland – I wanted her to be leader, because she has previous experience, but she asked to be my deputy instead. Europeans rule! 😛
Also, the fact that we are pretty much always in our smallish tutorial groups (mine consists of 12 or 13 people, I think) means I have the chance to actually get to know some of the other students a bit better, which is cool. Five weeks to make some local friends… Wish me luck! 🙂
Tomorrow, other than write my assignment, I’m meeting Kathrin for a late breakfast, either in town or in the Chocolate Fish Café, depending on the weather. And I need to buy some sports clothes, so I can check out the gym in the residence hall up the street that I can use for free and maybe find a uni sport group I like – at the moment the walking I’m doing is enough (20 minutes one way to uni, and that’s steady walking, not just strolling, and doesn’t include any detours/trips to the shops/to the harbour to enjoy the sun/etc.), but once I adjust to my rhythm here, I think I’d like to become a bit more active again.
But right now it’s almost 22.30 and I’m pretty tired – here I wake up at 7am, like clockwork, after a garbage truck makes an awful ruckus around 5.30, plus I have a bit of a cold, probably caught from Kathrin during our trip last week. Therefore I wish all of you a good night and a good weekend!
Edit: Btw, I’m still having some internet issues, hence the lack of photos. But they’re coming, I promise!