Class and Work
(Pictures have been updated under the Ireland section! Take a gander with the web-address on the left. Also, I've created a special "pictures related to blog" section so that if I write about it and have a picture, it will probably be in this section.)
First of all, Happy Birthday to both Anna and Collin. They're 19 now and it was great to talk to both of them last night. Before I know it they'll be all grown up, which will make me an old man, and mom and dad ancient.
This weekend was very much work themed and oriented, which wasn't too bad of a thing. I could spend a bit of time whining about how we didn't have enough people on the floor, were swamped, lazy co-workers, (the usual restaurant rants ;), but I won't. I'm still having a great time and the free food at the end of the day makes it all worthwhile anyway (well, that and the tips/paycheck), and slowly accruing the necessary funds to take a tour of continental Europe before I fly back to the states. I might take some time off from school as well to take some trips around Ireland. With spring break approaching and most of my friends heading to Europe then, I'll probably have more time to do just that (Dublin and Belfast are at the top of the list currently.)
So, with that in mind I thought I'd take a little time talking about the school system here, how it works and how it's catered to us visiting students..the benefits and the downsides. First off, the benefits: Classes are easy. They really aren't difficult at all. You go to a twice weekly lecture and a bi-weekly tutorial (basically a small-group discussion of the lectures.) Each history class has one mid-term and then a final exam (I'm opting to take all of the exams, I think I do better on those than gargantuan final papers that are easy to procrastinate on.) On top of that, Whitman and Butler (the program I'm studying through) have a sort of agreement where only our credits transfer, our grades do not. So, let's say I get a C in a class..all that matters is that I passed said class rather than achieved a high grade because the grade isn't factored into my overall GPA. Now, this doesn't mean I've been lazy academically, on the contrary, while most of my friends skip their lectures as a matter of course I've been going to mine (it's the nerd in me, I enjoy my history lectures.) So don't worry mom and any other relatives/past teachers reading this blog. There's simply less pressure, which is nice. Being a foreign student also gives me some leniency. One friend of mine on the student council told me that I don't need to worry about classes at all because the college will never fail foreign students...they want us to come back and study there for grad. school.
The downsides are pretty big though. For one, all of my lectures are huge (around 100 people in some of my largest classes.) Now, I've been spoiled by Whitman as far as small class-sizes and interactions entailed there, so this complaint really doesn't carry much weight for state-school people. Along those same lines, the library runs on extremely bad hours (8 a.m.-10p.m. weeknights. Yuck.) and it's almost impossible to get the relevant reading materials for a class when there are over 60 people in it. So by the time I'm able to get sources together, it's almost too late to really gain much value from the readings. Compared to Whitman, this college is big and impersonal. Once again, I'm spoiled by my home school with regards to things, and I'm glad I get to experience a "real" (albeit foreign) institution for a semester.
That's all for today. Once again the pictures have been updated. Hope all is well and keep those comments coming (ooh, and check out my new "website of the day" link down below. Beer lovers: rejoice!)
Cheers,
-Nate
"I resolve to call her up, a thousand times a day. And ask her if she'll marry me, in some old-fashioned way." -The Police
Special link of the day: http://ohhh.myhead.org/list/1act1.html This lovely link features a numbered rating of the world's top beers. Looks like I need to visit Belgium.
First of all, Happy Birthday to both Anna and Collin. They're 19 now and it was great to talk to both of them last night. Before I know it they'll be all grown up, which will make me an old man, and mom and dad ancient.
This weekend was very much work themed and oriented, which wasn't too bad of a thing. I could spend a bit of time whining about how we didn't have enough people on the floor, were swamped, lazy co-workers, (the usual restaurant rants ;), but I won't. I'm still having a great time and the free food at the end of the day makes it all worthwhile anyway (well, that and the tips/paycheck), and slowly accruing the necessary funds to take a tour of continental Europe before I fly back to the states. I might take some time off from school as well to take some trips around Ireland. With spring break approaching and most of my friends heading to Europe then, I'll probably have more time to do just that (Dublin and Belfast are at the top of the list currently.)
So, with that in mind I thought I'd take a little time talking about the school system here, how it works and how it's catered to us visiting students..the benefits and the downsides. First off, the benefits: Classes are easy. They really aren't difficult at all. You go to a twice weekly lecture and a bi-weekly tutorial (basically a small-group discussion of the lectures.) Each history class has one mid-term and then a final exam (I'm opting to take all of the exams, I think I do better on those than gargantuan final papers that are easy to procrastinate on.) On top of that, Whitman and Butler (the program I'm studying through) have a sort of agreement where only our credits transfer, our grades do not. So, let's say I get a C in a class..all that matters is that I passed said class rather than achieved a high grade because the grade isn't factored into my overall GPA. Now, this doesn't mean I've been lazy academically, on the contrary, while most of my friends skip their lectures as a matter of course I've been going to mine (it's the nerd in me, I enjoy my history lectures.) So don't worry mom and any other relatives/past teachers reading this blog. There's simply less pressure, which is nice. Being a foreign student also gives me some leniency. One friend of mine on the student council told me that I don't need to worry about classes at all because the college will never fail foreign students...they want us to come back and study there for grad. school.
The downsides are pretty big though. For one, all of my lectures are huge (around 100 people in some of my largest classes.) Now, I've been spoiled by Whitman as far as small class-sizes and interactions entailed there, so this complaint really doesn't carry much weight for state-school people. Along those same lines, the library runs on extremely bad hours (8 a.m.-10p.m. weeknights. Yuck.) and it's almost impossible to get the relevant reading materials for a class when there are over 60 people in it. So by the time I'm able to get sources together, it's almost too late to really gain much value from the readings. Compared to Whitman, this college is big and impersonal. Once again, I'm spoiled by my home school with regards to things, and I'm glad I get to experience a "real" (albeit foreign) institution for a semester.
That's all for today. Once again the pictures have been updated. Hope all is well and keep those comments coming (ooh, and check out my new "website of the day" link down below. Beer lovers: rejoice!)
Cheers,
-Nate
"I resolve to call her up, a thousand times a day. And ask her if she'll marry me, in some old-fashioned way." -The Police
Special link of the day: http://ohhh.myhead.org/list/1act1.html This lovely link features a numbered rating of the world's top beers. Looks like I need to visit Belgium.
posted by Nate at
7:28 AM
2 Comments:
yay pictures! :) the street in galway is really cool- i love the buildings!
jilian
yay pictures! :) the street in galway is really cool- i love the buildings!
jilian
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