For background on this series of blogs, see this intro post.
Commentary
Two and a half weeks after arriving in Australia, having fun, and getting acclimated, it was finally time to start classes. There were definitely some differences to get used to, such as the radius and “zed” items mentioned in the journal entry. But the class structure was also quite different. The class schedule at Monash was much less “structured” than at OU. At OU, the classes were generally at the same time and in the same room on Monday/Wednesday/Friday or Tuesday/Thursday. At Monash, the classes didn’t have that structure. They weren’t necessarily on M/W/F or Tu/Th, not necessarily at the same time on the different days, and possibly different rooms. We even had one class where we switched rooms in the middle of the semester. So it was definitely much tougher to memorize the schedule. Haha. Another piece of why it was a fun and unique experience.
The Journal Entry
This morning I got up at 7. I felt better this morning than I had the past two. I got ready and then left at 8 to go get breakfast at the campus center. I got an apple danish from Coffee HQ. It was pretty good. I waited to walk to class with Elizabeth by building 63 until 8:55, but I wasn’t sure if she was going to show up, so I left. I guess she showed up about a minute later. She showed up in the classroom a couple minutes after I did. Our first class was ATM 3040 lecture. There were only about 14 of us in that class. That was pretty crazy. It will be weird having a class that small. We switch professors halfway through the semester. After that we had an hour break. We went to the library so Elizabeth could print some stuff off. We found out she couldn’t do it there, but that we had to go to a computer lab. So we went to the computer lab in the campus center. She printed her stuff off and then we went to the science faculty office to get our enrollment forms signed. They wouldn’t sign them, but told us to get a form from student services. After that we just hung out for a few minutes until our next class. Our next class was ATM 2211. The lecturer was really boring. He is a TA, and he was lecturing because our professor is in China. That class seems like it’s going to be a lot of work, almost like measurements was last semester. After that class was over, we went to the campus center. We saw Vicky on the way there and visited with her for a couple minutes. I got something to eat from Meeting Point (Chinese) and then Elizabeth and I went upstairs to eat. We had to sit on the floor to eat because it was so crowded. Erin showed up shortly after and then Aliza a little while after that. We visited with them for a while. Elizabeth and I left a little before 1 to go to our last class. It was ATM 2020 lecture. That was a good class. I really liked the professor. That was definitely my favorite class of the day. Our professor used “a” for the radius, which was really weird. Then he said “x,y,zed” and that made both Elizabeth and I laugh. I think every time I hear him say zed in that class I’ll laugh. Anyway, he visited with us a little bit after class, which was cool. After that class was over, we went to check the line at the student services center, and it was really long, so I got my cellphone. That took a while longer than I thought it would. I got an Optus phone. After that Elizabeth and I came back to the dorms. I started laundry and then got on Skype and chatted with Mom for a while. After my clothes were done in the washers, I put one load into the dryer and couldn’t get it to turn on. I checked the other dryer and it had somebody’s stuff in it. So I just brought my stuff to my room and laid it all out. After a few minutes I took the stuff out of the one dryer and put my whites in. After that I went through all my syllabi (course descriptions here) and updated my calendar. After that I got my whites out and put some colors in the dryer. At about 6:30 I got dinner at the cafeteria. I got chicken schnitzel. It was pretty good. After that I came back to my room. I watched 24 at about 7:30. After I finished that I started writing this.
Brent Umphlett Photography Blog 