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!