I figured I would post an update since I got my first coursework assignment back today. I should preface this by saying that everyone says grades in Britain are generally lower because the grading process is done by adding points to 0 rather than subtracting points from 100, so anything above a 60 is considered to be pretty good.
For both my Labour and Environmental Economics courses, we are required to submit at least 2 pieces of coursework to be graded. The coursework does not count toward our final grade (which is 100& examination), but completing it allows us to sit the exam. I decided to submit coursework for Environmental last week, and I got it back in my tutorial yesterday and I got a 90 with the comment "very good"! It's too bad that the 90 doesn't go toward my final grade, but it's still exciting nonetheless since everyone told me that no one gets 90s.
On a similar note, my European Macro teacher approached me on Monday to tell me that I will not have to have an exam for the class. Instead, he is going to take my second submitted coursework and use that for my final grade. I believe his exact words were "I don't want to freak you out with an exam, so you can use your book and notes and stuff to do this coursework." I wish my other Economics teachers had the same attitude!
This is a completely random note, but I have discovered the wonders of Caffe Nero over here. It's a coffee place that's just as big as Starbucks (in other words, there is one every few blocks. In fact, Tottenham Court Road goes something like this: Caffe Nero. Boots. Starbucks. Tesco. Caffe Nero. Starbucks. ATM. Tesco. Boots. ATM. Caffe Nero. You get the idea) it's a wee bit expensive, but it's my coffee of choice when I'm not on campus at UCL. Apparently it was voted #1 coffee house in the UK for the 6th year in a row now.
As far as traveling, I'm not doing nearly as many big things as some other people here (lots of people have already been to Scotland, Ireland, Amsterdam, Italy, etc.) because traveling is just so expensive. But, I do have a few trips planned. This Saturday I'm going to Stratford-upon-Avon for the day which I'm really excited about. The weekend after, I'm going to visit Johnny at Cambridge. Although I've been there before, I think I'll appreciate it a lot more this time. The week after that is my reading week (no lectures or classes) so I'm spending half of it in Cardiff, Wales with my friend Kate. It's only a 10 pound bus ride, so we're going to stay in a nice B&B rather than a hostel. It should be really relaxing. The following weekend, my dad comes to visit and I'm going to see my family in Kent. That Saturday is also the Butler trip to Canterbury and Hever Castle, which are conveniently also in Kent. The weekend after that I'm going to Paris with Sam, and on December 8th I'll be going on the Butler trip to Bath. So, most of my trips are trips around the UK, but that's fine with me--I did come to study in London because I wanted to be in the UK!
Meanwhile, I'm trying to get as much work done as possible in these next two weeks. I'm sad that I can't watch the Red Sox in the world series! The games all start around 1:30am here, so there's no way any place would be playing it. I met some English students the other night who were actually really into American football--one of them was a big Patriots fan who absolutely loves Tom Brady and Randy Moss. I asked them about baseball and apparently no one likes baseball here--they think it is too slow, but they love football! I guess that makes sense, because rugby is very similar to football.
Not much else is new. It is getting VERY cold here--in the mornings it's usually around 40 degrees. Luckily, it hardly rains! I think it rains more in New London than it does here. Watch, I probably just jinxed it.
I plan to take some pictures of UCL itself soon (I realized that there is so much beautiful architecture on UCL's campus and I haven't taken any pictures of it!) so check my picture site sometime soon!
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Hampton Court Palace
Another post so soon!
I went to Hampton Court Palace yesterday and it was amazing. We took the train from Waterloo tube station, and it was only 5.70 round trip! The palace itself was 10.50 with a student discount. Anyway, I'll divide the palace up into its sections:
The Tudor kitchens: These were pretty cool. I thought it was amazing how small the doorways were around the kitchens, my friend Kate had to duck to get through. This was the only place I could really take pictures indoors.
The Queen's Apartments/King's Apartments: Both were amazing. They date from the 1700's, around Queen Mary II and William III's reign. It's interesting to see how many rooms they have in each apartment. For example, in the Queen's I remember seeing a room where the guard stood, an audience chamber where the Queen receives people, another chamber beyond that for socializing with people, a chamber for dining, and a bed chamber.. I know there was more! In both the Queen and King's apartments there was original furniture, including the original bed from the 1700s--a little creepy, if you ask me. Also, all the rooms had these gorgeous murals painted on the ceiling, and huge fireplaces and wall-to-ceiling windows.
King Henry VIII's Apartments: Unfortunately, they were rather small, since monarchs after him built things over them. But we did see the infamous "long gallery" by the chapel where Katherine Howard supposedly ran through screaming after she found out she was to be beheaded. She supposedly haunts the gallery now.
Young King Henry VIII Exhibit: This was pretty cool; it was set in some of Wolsey's old rooms, and they had written quotes all over the place, and had lots of portraits hanging.
The Georgian Rooms: Similar to the 1700's apartments--they were absolutely gorgeous, and one of the few places in the palace that actually felt warm! I couldn't believe how freezing the majority of the palace was, it felt colder than outside.
The Gardens were also incredible, they were so big there was no way we could walk through all of it.
Overall it was a great experience, though I was sad that I couldn't take pictures of most of the cool stuff inside because of portraits hanging from the Royal Collection... I guess the Queen is kinda paranoid about them getting stolen.
Be sure to check out the pictures that I could take: http://www.picturetrail.com/justinekelly
I went to Hampton Court Palace yesterday and it was amazing. We took the train from Waterloo tube station, and it was only 5.70 round trip! The palace itself was 10.50 with a student discount. Anyway, I'll divide the palace up into its sections:
The Tudor kitchens: These were pretty cool. I thought it was amazing how small the doorways were around the kitchens, my friend Kate had to duck to get through. This was the only place I could really take pictures indoors.
The Queen's Apartments/King's Apartments: Both were amazing. They date from the 1700's, around Queen Mary II and William III's reign. It's interesting to see how many rooms they have in each apartment. For example, in the Queen's I remember seeing a room where the guard stood, an audience chamber where the Queen receives people, another chamber beyond that for socializing with people, a chamber for dining, and a bed chamber.. I know there was more! In both the Queen and King's apartments there was original furniture, including the original bed from the 1700s--a little creepy, if you ask me. Also, all the rooms had these gorgeous murals painted on the ceiling, and huge fireplaces and wall-to-ceiling windows.
King Henry VIII's Apartments: Unfortunately, they were rather small, since monarchs after him built things over them. But we did see the infamous "long gallery" by the chapel where Katherine Howard supposedly ran through screaming after she found out she was to be beheaded. She supposedly haunts the gallery now.
Young King Henry VIII Exhibit: This was pretty cool; it was set in some of Wolsey's old rooms, and they had written quotes all over the place, and had lots of portraits hanging.
The Georgian Rooms: Similar to the 1700's apartments--they were absolutely gorgeous, and one of the few places in the palace that actually felt warm! I couldn't believe how freezing the majority of the palace was, it felt colder than outside.
The Gardens were also incredible, they were so big there was no way we could walk through all of it.
Overall it was a great experience, though I was sad that I couldn't take pictures of most of the cool stuff inside because of portraits hanging from the Royal Collection... I guess the Queen is kinda paranoid about them getting stolen.
Be sure to check out the pictures that I could take: http://www.picturetrail.com/justinekelly
Thursday, October 18, 2007
A quick update
Not too much has been going on lately, but I figured I'd update anyway. I feel like I'm finally starting to catch up with the reading for my courses, though still not entirely caught up, of course (in other words, there is always reading that I COULD be doing at any point in time). Believe it or not, I actually have the LEAST amount of work for my history course. You would think that course would have the most reading, and that my economics courses would have the least amount, but it's actually the other way around! It's very hard to get used to reading economics, because at Conn, we are given ONE textbook and are really only supposed to refer to it if we need further explanation. Here, we are given 3 or 4 textbooks and loads of articles and essays to read. The old rule of thumb at Conn is "if it wasn't covered in class, it won't be on the exam" but that rule certainly does not hold here, so I basically have to take notes on EVERYTHING while I read. I'm trying not to highlight any of my books so I can sell them back at a good price later, but that just means I have to take notes on everything, which is extremely time consuming.
Another reason why I have more work for my economics courses is because my final grade is determined by 100% examination. We have one exam at the end of the term, and that grade we get on the exam is our final grade, essentially. With history, all I have to do is write 2 5-page papers on basically any topic I want having to do with medieval history. This will not only be much more enjoyable, but also much less stressful. If I know there is a topic I won't have to write a paper on, I basically don't have to pay it much attention.
While on the topic of courses, I should mention that I've had to start thinking about my courses for the Spring at Conn! It seems so soon, but the pre-registration process starts next week. Luckily for me, Conn FINALLY got on board with online registration (think it took them long enough?) so registering for classes should be relatively easy for me.
One thing I have noticed about professors/teachers here in the UK is that they don't seem as into teaching as back home. At Conn, most of my professors are really excited about what they are teaching, and tend to get really into it. Here, teachers seem lke they are just teaching because they have to. They all tend to speak in a fairly monotone voice as if the material is stuff they just HAVE to know about and not stuff they are actually interested in. I guess the one exception is my history teacher, but she isn't great either since she just seems to read directly from a textbook.
Moving on, today, I went into this huge bookstore that I pass every day on the way to class. It's where students get their textbooks most of the time (I didn't get mine there because buying them used off amazon is cheaper). Anyway, it's about 4 floors and has a huge Tudor history section. I was very tempted to buy this book that just came out, but it was 20 pounds! I could buy 4 books at New England Mobile back home for that price... so I resisted the temptation.
Tomorrow I'm planning on going to Hampton Court Palace with my friend Kate (who is incidentally another big fan of historical fiction novels). It's about a 35-minute train ride away, so not bad at all.
I'll have to end this post with a little rant about my living situation. I've accepted the fact that I have a small room, and that the showers are awful because they turn off every minute and the pressure is bad. BUT, today I got really fed up after we had our 5th fire alarm in less than a month. Fire alarms here are much more annoying than fire alarms at Conn because we have to wait for the London Fire Dept to get to the dorm, which usually takes a while (I don't want to think about what would happen if there was an actual fire). Plus, there are 250 of us, so it takes forever just to get back to my room when it's all over. The main thing is that I feel like we've had a fire alarm every week, it's ridiculous. On top of that, there is only 1 working shower on my floor now for 17 girls. We have 3 all together in the bathroom; one of them has had an "out of order" sign on it since I arrived here on September 18th, and then another one broke just last week and also now has an "out of order" sign on it. Coveniently for me, whenever someone takes a shower in the ONE working shower we have, the pipes drone sooo loudly near my room. It's a horrible sound. And since it's now the only working shower, I hear that drone quite often. I'm also amazed at how much paper is wasted here. I get a flyer, sometimes two, under my door everyday for some club promotion. The problem is that a lot of people kick them out into the hallways and now the hallways are always a mess. Lastly, our kitchen is a mess. This isn't so much Astor College's fault, but more the people who live on my floor. You would think that the girls' kitchen would be cleaner than the boys', but it isn't. There are pots and pans in the sink every time I go there, so it's really difficult to wash anything out. People also leave their pots on the stove top, so you always have to move things if you want to cook something (which, trust me, I don't do very often). Actually, tonight I made something quite excellent--I put shredded cheese in a tortilla and put it in the microwave. Brilliant.
Lastly, thank goodness for tv-links.co.uk, it has helped satisfy my new Gilmore Girls obsession. Unfortunately it also keeps me from doing work. Oh well.
til next time!
P.S. Just to let you know, if you have a google account of any kind (gmail or something) you can leave a comment on my entry. Comments are fun!
EDIT: I forgot to mention that it's getting a lot colder here! This morning it was about 45 degrees... and the rest of the week it's not supposed to go above 55 degrees. I might have to say goodbye to my flats soon!
Another reason why I have more work for my economics courses is because my final grade is determined by 100% examination. We have one exam at the end of the term, and that grade we get on the exam is our final grade, essentially. With history, all I have to do is write 2 5-page papers on basically any topic I want having to do with medieval history. This will not only be much more enjoyable, but also much less stressful. If I know there is a topic I won't have to write a paper on, I basically don't have to pay it much attention.
While on the topic of courses, I should mention that I've had to start thinking about my courses for the Spring at Conn! It seems so soon, but the pre-registration process starts next week. Luckily for me, Conn FINALLY got on board with online registration (think it took them long enough?) so registering for classes should be relatively easy for me.
One thing I have noticed about professors/teachers here in the UK is that they don't seem as into teaching as back home. At Conn, most of my professors are really excited about what they are teaching, and tend to get really into it. Here, teachers seem lke they are just teaching because they have to. They all tend to speak in a fairly monotone voice as if the material is stuff they just HAVE to know about and not stuff they are actually interested in. I guess the one exception is my history teacher, but she isn't great either since she just seems to read directly from a textbook.
Moving on, today, I went into this huge bookstore that I pass every day on the way to class. It's where students get their textbooks most of the time (I didn't get mine there because buying them used off amazon is cheaper). Anyway, it's about 4 floors and has a huge Tudor history section. I was very tempted to buy this book that just came out, but it was 20 pounds! I could buy 4 books at New England Mobile back home for that price... so I resisted the temptation.
Tomorrow I'm planning on going to Hampton Court Palace with my friend Kate (who is incidentally another big fan of historical fiction novels). It's about a 35-minute train ride away, so not bad at all.
I'll have to end this post with a little rant about my living situation. I've accepted the fact that I have a small room, and that the showers are awful because they turn off every minute and the pressure is bad. BUT, today I got really fed up after we had our 5th fire alarm in less than a month. Fire alarms here are much more annoying than fire alarms at Conn because we have to wait for the London Fire Dept to get to the dorm, which usually takes a while (I don't want to think about what would happen if there was an actual fire). Plus, there are 250 of us, so it takes forever just to get back to my room when it's all over. The main thing is that I feel like we've had a fire alarm every week, it's ridiculous. On top of that, there is only 1 working shower on my floor now for 17 girls. We have 3 all together in the bathroom; one of them has had an "out of order" sign on it since I arrived here on September 18th, and then another one broke just last week and also now has an "out of order" sign on it. Coveniently for me, whenever someone takes a shower in the ONE working shower we have, the pipes drone sooo loudly near my room. It's a horrible sound. And since it's now the only working shower, I hear that drone quite often. I'm also amazed at how much paper is wasted here. I get a flyer, sometimes two, under my door everyday for some club promotion. The problem is that a lot of people kick them out into the hallways and now the hallways are always a mess. Lastly, our kitchen is a mess. This isn't so much Astor College's fault, but more the people who live on my floor. You would think that the girls' kitchen would be cleaner than the boys', but it isn't. There are pots and pans in the sink every time I go there, so it's really difficult to wash anything out. People also leave their pots on the stove top, so you always have to move things if you want to cook something (which, trust me, I don't do very often). Actually, tonight I made something quite excellent--I put shredded cheese in a tortilla and put it in the microwave. Brilliant.
Lastly, thank goodness for tv-links.co.uk, it has helped satisfy my new Gilmore Girls obsession. Unfortunately it also keeps me from doing work. Oh well.
til next time!
P.S. Just to let you know, if you have a google account of any kind (gmail or something) you can leave a comment on my entry. Comments are fun!
EDIT: I forgot to mention that it's getting a lot colder here! This morning it was about 45 degrees... and the rest of the week it's not supposed to go above 55 degrees. I might have to say goodbye to my flats soon!
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Visitors, Westminster Abbey, Tower of London, Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, etc!
Lots to update on, as I've recently visited quite a few places. A little while ago, my friend Kate and I visited Portobello Road and Markets, which was a lot of fun. The market had a lot of antiques that were beautiful.
We also went to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens the other day, which was really nice. It's amazing that there is so much open land within the city.
On Friday, my friend Emily from Conn came to visit (she is currently studying in Florence) and we walked around a bit and had dinner. Friday night, Johnny visited from Cambridge. We went to a nearby pub with Kate called "The Court", but quickly abandoned it to go to the UCL Union Bar for cheaper drinks! We met up with some of my other friends there, too, and it was a lot of fun.
On Saturday, Johnny and I went to the National Portrait Gallery. They have a fairly large Tudor gallery, so I was very excited--it houses a bunch of the original Tudor portraits. From there, we journeyed to the Tower of London, which I have already seen but Johnny wanted to see it. Unfortunately, both the Circle and District lines were closed for the weekend. These are major lines in central London, so it was really inconvenient for everyone. Instead, Johnny and I walked along the Thames to the Tower. It was a very long walk--probably around an hour or more--but totally worth it because we got to see a lot of London in the process. The Tower was fun, aside from the fact that I got fish and chips and a bird flew into my container and grabbed a bit of food for itself. Subsequently, I now have a fear/hate of birds.
The Tower Hill station was completely closed, so we had to take the bus to a different tube stop, and of course the bus was completely packed since there were no tube services. I was also angry that I had to pay twice using my oyster card, whereas using the tube I would have only had to pay once.
Later that night we went to the UCL Union again to watch the big rugby game, England v. France. It was hard to follow everything, but fun to see all the English students get so into it. England won, by the way.
Today, Johnny and I went to go see Westminster Abbey. It's an amazing place, and much more interesting than I thought it would be. I didn't get to go inside, because of Sunday services, but it's 7 quid to get inside anyway--and that's with a student discount. We also witnessed a very interested event--we were standing behind the abbey, and a bunch of fancy cars were arriving, and men dressed in red robes and wearing fancy jewel things around their necks came out. It looked like really important people, and we later learned that it was probably the lord mayors of London. They all had sceptors and everything!
This upcoming week is going to be really tough, as I have two big coursework papers due on Thursday for my econ classes. They don't count toward my grade (as my grade is 100% examination), but they allow me to sit the exam.
I uploaded close to 100 pictures on my photo site: http://www.picturetrail.com/justinekelly
Keep in mind that you'll need to click on each thumbnail to see the full size picture--for some reason, the photo site lets me rotate pictures but it won't let me rotate the thumbnail, so to see the image correctly you'll need to click on the thumbnail!
We also went to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens the other day, which was really nice. It's amazing that there is so much open land within the city.
On Friday, my friend Emily from Conn came to visit (she is currently studying in Florence) and we walked around a bit and had dinner. Friday night, Johnny visited from Cambridge. We went to a nearby pub with Kate called "The Court", but quickly abandoned it to go to the UCL Union Bar for cheaper drinks! We met up with some of my other friends there, too, and it was a lot of fun.
On Saturday, Johnny and I went to the National Portrait Gallery. They have a fairly large Tudor gallery, so I was very excited--it houses a bunch of the original Tudor portraits. From there, we journeyed to the Tower of London, which I have already seen but Johnny wanted to see it. Unfortunately, both the Circle and District lines were closed for the weekend. These are major lines in central London, so it was really inconvenient for everyone. Instead, Johnny and I walked along the Thames to the Tower. It was a very long walk--probably around an hour or more--but totally worth it because we got to see a lot of London in the process. The Tower was fun, aside from the fact that I got fish and chips and a bird flew into my container and grabbed a bit of food for itself. Subsequently, I now have a fear/hate of birds.
The Tower Hill station was completely closed, so we had to take the bus to a different tube stop, and of course the bus was completely packed since there were no tube services. I was also angry that I had to pay twice using my oyster card, whereas using the tube I would have only had to pay once.
Later that night we went to the UCL Union again to watch the big rugby game, England v. France. It was hard to follow everything, but fun to see all the English students get so into it. England won, by the way.
Today, Johnny and I went to go see Westminster Abbey. It's an amazing place, and much more interesting than I thought it would be. I didn't get to go inside, because of Sunday services, but it's 7 quid to get inside anyway--and that's with a student discount. We also witnessed a very interested event--we were standing behind the abbey, and a bunch of fancy cars were arriving, and men dressed in red robes and wearing fancy jewel things around their necks came out. It looked like really important people, and we later learned that it was probably the lord mayors of London. They all had sceptors and everything!
This upcoming week is going to be really tough, as I have two big coursework papers due on Thursday for my econ classes. They don't count toward my grade (as my grade is 100% examination), but they allow me to sit the exam.
I uploaded close to 100 pictures on my photo site: http://www.picturetrail.com/justinekelly
Keep in mind that you'll need to click on each thumbnail to see the full size picture--for some reason, the photo site lets me rotate pictures but it won't let me rotate the thumbnail, so to see the image correctly you'll need to click on the thumbnail!
Friday, October 5, 2007
Trip to Brighton
Yesterday I took my first trip away from London. My friend, Kate and I went to Brighton, which is a seaside town on the coast of the English Channel. We took a bus there, because it was cheaper than the train, but it took about 3 hours (mostly because we were sitting in traffic trying to get out of London, and the bus stopped at Gatwick Airport on the way). We finally arrived in Brighton at around 7, and we checked into our hostel. We booked beds in an 8-person room, because of course that was the cheapest option. We did not know, however, that the rooms were co-ed. We also didn't know that the hostel doesn't change the bed linen in between customers, so I had a bed that was unmade from the last person who slept there. Kind gross, and the whole room was stuffy and smelled funny.
Anyway, once we settled in, we went to dinner at a Thai restaurant which I was very happy about. We went back to the hostel for a bit and then went out to a cocktail bar. We managed to get two cosmopolitans for 5.50, which is a great deal, and the drinks were very yummy. Unfortunately, we ran into a crazy Romanian woman. She must have been in her 30's, and she started talking to us and seemed kind of nuts. The people who worked at the bar came up to us at one point to tell us that the woman is, in fact, nuts, but they think she's harmless. We quickly exited the bar and ran from the crazy Romanian woman. We walked down the beach until we found a club that let us in for only a pound (it's usually about 6 pounds in London). The club was extremely empty for a long time but got pretty busy toward the end, so it was fun. We went back to the hostel around 1:00 AM and went to bed.
Surprise, surprise, I didn't sleep so well. The guy in the bunk below mine was making some strange noises, and snoring quite loudly. We woke up at 8:30 and got free breakfast downstairs (which consisted of instant coffee and cereal.. but what can you expect from a hostel?) and then started exploring Brighton. It's a really pretty town, actually. I'll be putting up pictures sometime soon on my picture site (they are already up on facebook). One thing we realized is how used to living in a city we are, already. At night we couldn't believe how dead it was.. like, where are all the people? Even the club being empty was sort of a shock to us. It was a fun trip, but it felt good to get back to London.
As far as other news, I already have a lot of work to do after only a week of lectures! Tutorials start next week, as well. For Econ of Labour and Environmental Econ, I only have tutorials 4 times per term, but for European Macro and my history course, I have tutorials once every week. Tutorials are the classes that you need to prepare work for; so I have an exercise to prepare for European Macro on Monday, and readings to do for History for Tuesday. The work is much different from in the US; for example, my European Macro exercise has problems on it that we didn't discuss in lecture at all--you are expected to read up on it on your own and figure it out. That's fine, but because the teachers give us so much reading with little direction, it takes forever to complete the assignment!
That's all for now, check out my picture site for Brighton photos: http://www.picturetrail.com/justinekelly
Anyway, once we settled in, we went to dinner at a Thai restaurant which I was very happy about. We went back to the hostel for a bit and then went out to a cocktail bar. We managed to get two cosmopolitans for 5.50, which is a great deal, and the drinks were very yummy. Unfortunately, we ran into a crazy Romanian woman. She must have been in her 30's, and she started talking to us and seemed kind of nuts. The people who worked at the bar came up to us at one point to tell us that the woman is, in fact, nuts, but they think she's harmless. We quickly exited the bar and ran from the crazy Romanian woman. We walked down the beach until we found a club that let us in for only a pound (it's usually about 6 pounds in London). The club was extremely empty for a long time but got pretty busy toward the end, so it was fun. We went back to the hostel around 1:00 AM and went to bed.
Surprise, surprise, I didn't sleep so well. The guy in the bunk below mine was making some strange noises, and snoring quite loudly. We woke up at 8:30 and got free breakfast downstairs (which consisted of instant coffee and cereal.. but what can you expect from a hostel?) and then started exploring Brighton. It's a really pretty town, actually. I'll be putting up pictures sometime soon on my picture site (they are already up on facebook). One thing we realized is how used to living in a city we are, already. At night we couldn't believe how dead it was.. like, where are all the people? Even the club being empty was sort of a shock to us. It was a fun trip, but it felt good to get back to London.
As far as other news, I already have a lot of work to do after only a week of lectures! Tutorials start next week, as well. For Econ of Labour and Environmental Econ, I only have tutorials 4 times per term, but for European Macro and my history course, I have tutorials once every week. Tutorials are the classes that you need to prepare work for; so I have an exercise to prepare for European Macro on Monday, and readings to do for History for Tuesday. The work is much different from in the US; for example, my European Macro exercise has problems on it that we didn't discuss in lecture at all--you are expected to read up on it on your own and figure it out. That's fine, but because the teachers give us so much reading with little direction, it takes forever to complete the assignment!
That's all for now, check out my picture site for Brighton photos: http://www.picturetrail.com/justinekelly
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
First Week of Lectures
On Monday, lectures finally began. I had European Macroeconomics from 11:00-1:00, and then Environmental Economics from 5:00-6:00. I really like Macro so far, but it's very similar to the Intermdiate Macro class that I took at Conn. I'm hoping the European aspect will kick in soon, but so far it's a very easy class for me as it's just review.
Environmental Economics I do NOT like, and it's probably my least favorite class, mostly because of the lecturer. He is extremely uptight, and gave us so much reading. He began the class by saying that everyone got low marks last term in this course because it was clear to him that they didn't read enough, and that he would be expecting a lot more reading from us. I had this lecture again at 9:00 AM today, and he started giving handouts to a few people, so naturally people talked while he did this. Then he stops and says "I'm going to lay down some ground rules.. No talking during lecture." I think he just needs to chill out. So far all we've been talking about in lecture is externalities in the economy--so that's a total of two hours talking about externalities and different definitions of the word "externality" and I'm getting a little tired of talking about it.
Moving on, after my 9:00 AM Enviro lecture, I had to run to my 10:00 Economics of Labour lecture, which of course was in a different building (None of my Econ lectures are in the Econ building; Enviro is in the Anatomy building on Monday and the Engineering building on Tuesday, Econ of Labour is in the Archeology building on Tuesday and the Engineering building on Thursday, European Macro is in the Medical Sciences building, but halfway through the semester it switches buildings--it's all very complicated and strange). I like Economics of Labour so far, but was a bit thrown off when he said we'd need to brush up on our Basic econometrics, which is a class I haven't had yet. We also have a lot of reading for that course.
After Econ of Labour, I once again ran to the History department for my 11:00 AM Europe in the Late Middle Ages, 1000-1500 lecture. I like the material for this course, but I'm not a huge fan of the lecturer. She basically just read from a sheet of paper the whole time, rather than just glancing at notes and lecturing. It was like listening to an audio version of a textbook. We are also expected to participate a lot during tutorials, which begin next week (I will have 1 hour of lecture a week and 1 hour of tutorial)--this is different from other departments, because in Economics there isn't much discussion. I also had to buy multiple books for this class. I'm hoping the sellers on Amazon will be speedy in sending the books to me so I can start doing some work... I feel like it is all piling on already.
I feel like I appreciate having a printer at home much more than I used to. There is a lot of stuff we need to print for lectures (for example, a lot of teachers put their lecture notes online and expect you to print them out before lecture), and to do that I need to go to the library, which is of course no where near my house. We get a small amount for free printing, but I have a feeling that will run out quickly.
Tomorrow (Wednesday), I don't have any lectures, so I think I'll try to do some printing/reading then. Thursday I only have one lecture, Econ of Labour at 10:00, and Friday I don't have any lectures (everyone tried to avoid having lectures on Friday so they could travel). Speaking of traveling, Sam and I are planning to go to Paris at some point in November, which should be fun--and I'll be able to put my French to use. I hope to travel more, too--I know some people who have already been to Ireland and Italy. I at least hope to make it on some day trips around England, besides the ones that Butler provide. I'd like to go to Stratford-upon-Avon at some point, and me and my friend Emily are planning to go to Hampton Court Palace soon (I wanted to go this weekend, but it's a Jewish holiday... sigh).
Lastly, I need to rant about the laundry situation over here. It's ridiculous! First of all, it's extremely expensive. To give you some comparison, it costs $1.15 to do a 38-minute wash at Conn, and 1.15 to do a 60-minute dry at Conn. There are usually multiple laundry rooms in each building. Here, at Astor College, it costs 1.60 pounds (that's $3.20) to do a 34-minute wash, and .20p (40 cents) to do a 12-minute dry. Of course, 12 minutes doesn't dry anything, so you have to spend more money. To get your clothes completely dry, it takes about 3 gos... so 60p, or $1.20. Besides the cost, there are 4 washers and 4 dryers for 250 people in the building, and one of the washers is broken (been full of water for days now). I'm not even finished yet. 2 of the washers (including the broken one) will take 1 pound, 50p, 20p, or 10p coins to add up to 1.60. However, the other two machines will ONLY takes 20p coins and nothing else. Accumulating a bunch of 20p coins is not something most people do.
So, sorry for the rant, but I felt I had to share how silly the laundry situation is. I hope I don't have to do it too often.
The only other news is that I still haven't gotten rid of my cough. I get this awful tickle in my throat, and it's completely embarrassing when I get that tickle during class. Yesterday, during Euro Macro, I had a coughing fit and the girl sitting in front of me was clearly angry (she kept turning around and glaring at me, then eventually moved her seat over one so she wasn't directly in front of me).
Also, I'm going to a Fashion society meeting tonight--it's called Modo. Should be fun, and Butler stressed the point about joining clubs and societies, or else your social life will go downhill, or something.
'Til next time!
Environmental Economics I do NOT like, and it's probably my least favorite class, mostly because of the lecturer. He is extremely uptight, and gave us so much reading. He began the class by saying that everyone got low marks last term in this course because it was clear to him that they didn't read enough, and that he would be expecting a lot more reading from us. I had this lecture again at 9:00 AM today, and he started giving handouts to a few people, so naturally people talked while he did this. Then he stops and says "I'm going to lay down some ground rules.. No talking during lecture." I think he just needs to chill out. So far all we've been talking about in lecture is externalities in the economy--so that's a total of two hours talking about externalities and different definitions of the word "externality" and I'm getting a little tired of talking about it.
Moving on, after my 9:00 AM Enviro lecture, I had to run to my 10:00 Economics of Labour lecture, which of course was in a different building (None of my Econ lectures are in the Econ building; Enviro is in the Anatomy building on Monday and the Engineering building on Tuesday, Econ of Labour is in the Archeology building on Tuesday and the Engineering building on Thursday, European Macro is in the Medical Sciences building, but halfway through the semester it switches buildings--it's all very complicated and strange). I like Economics of Labour so far, but was a bit thrown off when he said we'd need to brush up on our Basic econometrics, which is a class I haven't had yet. We also have a lot of reading for that course.
After Econ of Labour, I once again ran to the History department for my 11:00 AM Europe in the Late Middle Ages, 1000-1500 lecture. I like the material for this course, but I'm not a huge fan of the lecturer. She basically just read from a sheet of paper the whole time, rather than just glancing at notes and lecturing. It was like listening to an audio version of a textbook. We are also expected to participate a lot during tutorials, which begin next week (I will have 1 hour of lecture a week and 1 hour of tutorial)--this is different from other departments, because in Economics there isn't much discussion. I also had to buy multiple books for this class. I'm hoping the sellers on Amazon will be speedy in sending the books to me so I can start doing some work... I feel like it is all piling on already.
I feel like I appreciate having a printer at home much more than I used to. There is a lot of stuff we need to print for lectures (for example, a lot of teachers put their lecture notes online and expect you to print them out before lecture), and to do that I need to go to the library, which is of course no where near my house. We get a small amount for free printing, but I have a feeling that will run out quickly.
Tomorrow (Wednesday), I don't have any lectures, so I think I'll try to do some printing/reading then. Thursday I only have one lecture, Econ of Labour at 10:00, and Friday I don't have any lectures (everyone tried to avoid having lectures on Friday so they could travel). Speaking of traveling, Sam and I are planning to go to Paris at some point in November, which should be fun--and I'll be able to put my French to use. I hope to travel more, too--I know some people who have already been to Ireland and Italy. I at least hope to make it on some day trips around England, besides the ones that Butler provide. I'd like to go to Stratford-upon-Avon at some point, and me and my friend Emily are planning to go to Hampton Court Palace soon (I wanted to go this weekend, but it's a Jewish holiday... sigh).
Lastly, I need to rant about the laundry situation over here. It's ridiculous! First of all, it's extremely expensive. To give you some comparison, it costs $1.15 to do a 38-minute wash at Conn, and 1.15 to do a 60-minute dry at Conn. There are usually multiple laundry rooms in each building. Here, at Astor College, it costs 1.60 pounds (that's $3.20) to do a 34-minute wash, and .20p (40 cents) to do a 12-minute dry. Of course, 12 minutes doesn't dry anything, so you have to spend more money. To get your clothes completely dry, it takes about 3 gos... so 60p, or $1.20. Besides the cost, there are 4 washers and 4 dryers for 250 people in the building, and one of the washers is broken (been full of water for days now). I'm not even finished yet. 2 of the washers (including the broken one) will take 1 pound, 50p, 20p, or 10p coins to add up to 1.60. However, the other two machines will ONLY takes 20p coins and nothing else. Accumulating a bunch of 20p coins is not something most people do.
So, sorry for the rant, but I felt I had to share how silly the laundry situation is. I hope I don't have to do it too often.
The only other news is that I still haven't gotten rid of my cough. I get this awful tickle in my throat, and it's completely embarrassing when I get that tickle during class. Yesterday, during Euro Macro, I had a coughing fit and the girl sitting in front of me was clearly angry (she kept turning around and glaring at me, then eventually moved her seat over one so she wasn't directly in front of me).
Also, I'm going to a Fashion society meeting tonight--it's called Modo. Should be fun, and Butler stressed the point about joining clubs and societies, or else your social life will go downhill, or something.
'Til next time!
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