“I don’t have to go to class until Week 9!?”

“I don’t have to go to class until Week 9!?”  Is what many American or International students were thinking when the final timetables for classes were posted with the information about when each class was to take place.  To our disappointment, we realized that the week that most of our classes were to start in was indeed the first week of the semester, which is the 9^th week of the year that our timetable website was referring to.

Regardless, classes began on Monday.  I had one class (Math) at 10am and then I relaxed at my flat, Skyped, and just hung out until 5:30 when I went to a barbeque.  Here in New Zealand, instead of meeting in a classroom or enticing people with ice cream or pizza, clubs host barbeques! Needless to say, I have had my fair share of sausages on toast this week (the common BBQ food: a “sossie” on toast with butter and sauteed onions- you can add tomato sauce & mustard if you wish).  After the BBQ, I went to a meet and greet for ODA- Otago Dance Association!  I got there a bit late, but just in time to play some goofy get-to-know-you games and hear a bit more about the club!  For a wee $5 membership, they host weekly dance classes FOR FREE!!  So really, it’s a bunch of dancers dancing together and teaching each other!  I am stoked to start dancing again and to get to know some of the crazy as people I met at the meet & greet!

Tuesday, I had 3 classes.  Usually, I’ll have 4, but my math class was cancelled because the professor who is supposed to teach on Tuesday/Thursday was out of the country!  During a break between classes, I explored the giant library a bit.  It’s a sweet as place!  So big and modern and quiet, with heaps of corners where I can see myself studying in the near future!  The library is also where most textbooks for courses are.  It is easy to get by without buying the textbook, because they have so many copies of needed reading available for the students to use in the library!  I only had to buy 1 course reader and 1 math text book!

Classes here are quite large, considering the school has upwards of 22,000 students!  All my classes on Tuesdays are in the same building, either lecture room 1 or 2!  One of my professors looks like Einstein, one of my professors is so excited & motivated about the material that I can’t help but feel invincible in her class, another class gets taught by a different professor each week, and the last class is filled with international students so it is quite different from being one of the few or only International students in the classroom.  Classes here also have tutorials, which are a smaller version of the class where you get more attention or help, or you get more individualized assignments.  So that’s an extra hour to add on to each class time each week!

Today, I had one class again, Math.  Then I went to the supermarket, made lunch, and hung out again until I went to another BBQ!  This BBQ was a welcome night for a Christian group on campus!  It was cool to meet Christians on campus and to talk to people who can relate to me in a different way.  I learned some things about Christianity in New Zealand, and I am looking forward to getting more involved in a Christian community!  It is different coming from a small Christian school filled with Christian community to a huge school where about 4% of the population goes to church. 

Tomorrow, I have 4 classes, a coffee date (like coffee dates at Hope!), and my flat is cooking dinner together!  I’d better get a bit of homework done!

Goodnight!

Kelsey