First week over

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!