First Week of Classes = OVER!!!!

Okay, the first week of classes are over, THANK GOD. It was definitely a bit of a hectic week that resulted in a bit of a break down when it finally reached the end yesterday. Classes here are quite a bit different. They are MUCH stricter than I am used to. It is TOTALLY frowned upon to skip classes here and they are not really lenient with the “3 skips” like they are in the US. Not that I have ever skipped a class up until this point, but I was actually hoping to cut a few times this semester and it seems that I will not be able to do that! The paper here is a lot longer than in the US (a waste if you ask me!) and does not fit into my folders, etc. The classes themselves and what you are graded on is really different here too. For example, I am used to being graded on a bunch of different things: presentations, writing essays, tests, etc. Here it's pretty much one or the other, they do not give you the opportunity to make up for an area you lack with another. If you suck at presentations, oh well. If you suck at writing, oh well. There is no mercy. I also seem to be a bit overwhelmed already. I have a bunch more homework (some even due on a SATURDAY!!!!) than anyone else so far and yea. Anyhow, enough rambling, here are the courses I am taking:

My Newspaper Production Course seems really fun, but also like it might be a bit overwhelming. We are overseeing and running the entire production of The Regent, the school newspaper. However, the lecturers Leslie and Phil are really great and some of the other students in the class really seem to have a lot of great experience too. I know that working on CHC’s newspaper has helped me, and that this course will also help me when I return to CHC in the fall as the editor-in chief of that and will have to take over the responsibilities. The other REALLY great side to the class is the HOTTTTT Australian boy named Julian… =)

The British and American Musical Theatre class had caused a bit of an issue for me since the first day I got here. The class meets for 3 hours on Mondays, but we go to the theatre to see our musicals on Tuesday nights. Well I had advertising Tuesday nights until 9, so I had to drop advertising and pick up another class. However, the class itself seems really great. It is taught by a Mr. Olaf Jubin (great name, I know!!) and we get to look at a lot of really great musicals as well as go and see 6 in the theatre.

The ones we get to study in preparation for class are:
Gypsy
Show Boat
Kiss Me, Kate
Oklahoma!
West Side Story
My Fair Lady
Oliver!
Company
Chicago
Jesus Christ Superstar!
Evita
Cats
The Phantom of the Opera
Beauty and the Beast
The Lion King
The Producers
Dreamgirls

And the 6 we get to go and see are:
Spring Awakening
Saturday Night
Revival of A Little Night Music
Billy Elliot
Sunset Boulevard
Hairspray

Contemporary British Fiction: Breaking Boundaries seems like it should be a really great class. The teacher seems really great and the books we are studying definitely sound interesting. We are reading Atonement by Ian McEwan, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon, The Siege by Helen Dunmore, and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, along with a bunch of other short stories and such.

Health Psychology is the class I added in the place of advertising. It is hell. The teacher and I do not seem to like each other. The class will be a bitch and I am going to need to muster every ounce of my strength and confidence in order to get me through it. I have no more I want to say about it right now. I do not want to think about it again until Tuesday when I ABSOLUTELY have to. Thank you.