October 1-6, 2006
This week was another busy one. I had two “major” assignments this week, which were a 10 minute presentation about a scientific paper detailing loggerhead shrike genetic population structure on the California Channel Islands, and a 1000 word critique of an Australian text for my literature class. I didn’t particularly enjoy writing the critique (I personally think most work in literature classes goes above and beyond what any author ever expected to be done their writing, and it helps ruin reading for me – I hardly read books as it is, but when I have to analyze one to death, it helps ruin any enjoyment I got out of reading it!). I managed to sit down and pump out a critique today though, and I handed it in about 20 minutes before it was due. I have no more papers to write for my literature class anymore – and since I never plan on taking another literature class in my life, that means I’m DONE with any educational aspects of literature! Yay!
My presentation in the conservation biology class went well. I managed to keep it right around the 10-minutes it was supposed to be, and I’m pretty sure I answered all of the questions well at the end. :) I’ve only talked to a handful of the students in the class previously, so I wonder how many of them found out for the first time that day that there was an American in the class. My accent is pretty obvious and my powerpoint was certainly filled with American spellings for some words, such as “program” and “analyze”, just to name a couple.
Classes sure are different here than they are in the U.S.A.; conservation biology is one example of a class that is far different from any other biology classes I’ve had back home. For starters, back home many classes have “strongly encouraged” attendance, as well as exams and other assignments throughout the semester. This class, however, has no exams, you never know who’s going to show up for class, and there are only a few assignments that will end up determining my entire grade. I was amazed last week when I saw one girl in the class that I don’t recall ever seeing before. She was back again this week because she also had to give her presentation, but then even more amazing was the presence of another girl this week that I hadn’t ever seen before! I’ve never had a class back home where people don’t go to class for the first 11 weeks of the semester and then show up to complete their assignments. Well, perhaps these girls were there on the first day of classes and I don’t remember them, but they definitely haven’t been there since. I guess they must be getting together with other members of the class to work on our group projects though, as I realized this week that our group projects are going to count for 70% of our grade. Yikes. I better get to work!
Another thing that’s different about this biology class aside from its structure is that I have three lecturers… yes, three. And they’re never teaching the class together. It’s a very different setup than I’m used to, but each has been lecturing us on the aspects of conservation biology and conservation genetics in which he or she is more of an expert. Early on this semester our lecturer was Will, and with Will we focused more on the ecological issues of conservation. After that we had Steve for several weeks, and he lectured us on some genetic aspects of conservation. The past couple of weeks we’ve had Nancy as our lecturer, and she’s been lecturing us on how analyses can reveal information about the genetic structure of populations and contribute to choice of conservation strategies for species and subpopulations within species. I talked to Will at the beginning of the course about a few things, and I’ve never really talked to Steve at all, and this week after my presentation Nancy realized I wasn’t Australian, so she asked me where I was from in the states and how I’ve liked it here so far, and how much of Australia I’ve gotten to see, etc.
I had an exam last week in my intro to exercise science class, but our grades haven’t been posted yet. This week the lecturer allowed students that missed the exam to have an opportunity to take the exam (with a proper, documented medical excuse, of course). I’m expecting to find out this weekend or early next week how I did. I felt much better than the first exam, so I’m sure I passed. Maybe I got an 80% this time. :)
The weather this week has been beautiful. Because I’ve been busy working on my assignments I haven’t gotten out running every day, but I did get out and run once every two days this week. Hopefully in the next few weeks I’ll be able to run more regularly. I’m definitely enjoying the sunny, low-70s weather every day and it feels great to get out and run in the evenings!
This week I began planning for my end-of-semester travels also. Another difference between college here in Australia and back home is the final examination period: back home it is 4 days (M-Th), but here it is almost three weeks (Nov. 1-17). Since I plan to return home soon after my final examination period ends, any travels I do before going home will take place during the examination period. It turns out I only have two exams during the examination period, so I have 10 free days after my last final before I go home – here I come New Zealand! This week I bought myself a travel guide for New Zealand and also purchased my airline tickets – so hopefully the rest of my plans will fall into place shortly.
Buying the plane tickets was kind of interesting. The listed fare price said “inclusive of taxes” – all together the roundtrip fare was $240. I clicked “book now” and when it came up with the subtotal, they were charging me $461 – over 200 dollars in taxes! That made me kind of upset, because it was the same site I used to get my ticket to Perth – and there were no extra taxes on my flight to Perth. I messed around on the site (and a few others) to see if I could find a better deal -- and I figured out a loophole. For some reason it was JetStar’s fares that were quoted really low, but were really at least double the advertised price after taxes were included. I changed my one flight to a “more expensive” VirginBlue flight and found out that the VirginBlue ticket had no hidden taxes. So, by selecting a more expensive ticket, I actually lowered my total bill by $80. Does that make any sense? Nope. But I’m happy I figured it out and was able to save $80! :)
Tonight I made some sort of rice/cheese/tomato concoction and ate it with steamed broccoli. It didn’t turn out quite as I was expecting, but it still tasted pretty good. Only 6 more weeks of cooking for myself! Then it’s back to the Fast Food Nation. ;) Don’t worry, I won’t eat all fast food when I get home. But I will eat at Wendy’s a couple times. They don’t have Wendy’s here in Australia and it’s my favorite fast food restaurant. I want a frosty! Just a little more than six weeks left! Time sure does fly!
My presentation in the conservation biology class went well. I managed to keep it right around the 10-minutes it was supposed to be, and I’m pretty sure I answered all of the questions well at the end. :) I’ve only talked to a handful of the students in the class previously, so I wonder how many of them found out for the first time that day that there was an American in the class. My accent is pretty obvious and my powerpoint was certainly filled with American spellings for some words, such as “program” and “analyze”, just to name a couple.
Classes sure are different here than they are in the U.S.A.; conservation biology is one example of a class that is far different from any other biology classes I’ve had back home. For starters, back home many classes have “strongly encouraged” attendance, as well as exams and other assignments throughout the semester. This class, however, has no exams, you never know who’s going to show up for class, and there are only a few assignments that will end up determining my entire grade. I was amazed last week when I saw one girl in the class that I don’t recall ever seeing before. She was back again this week because she also had to give her presentation, but then even more amazing was the presence of another girl this week that I hadn’t ever seen before! I’ve never had a class back home where people don’t go to class for the first 11 weeks of the semester and then show up to complete their assignments. Well, perhaps these girls were there on the first day of classes and I don’t remember them, but they definitely haven’t been there since. I guess they must be getting together with other members of the class to work on our group projects though, as I realized this week that our group projects are going to count for 70% of our grade. Yikes. I better get to work!
Another thing that’s different about this biology class aside from its structure is that I have three lecturers… yes, three. And they’re never teaching the class together. It’s a very different setup than I’m used to, but each has been lecturing us on the aspects of conservation biology and conservation genetics in which he or she is more of an expert. Early on this semester our lecturer was Will, and with Will we focused more on the ecological issues of conservation. After that we had Steve for several weeks, and he lectured us on some genetic aspects of conservation. The past couple of weeks we’ve had Nancy as our lecturer, and she’s been lecturing us on how analyses can reveal information about the genetic structure of populations and contribute to choice of conservation strategies for species and subpopulations within species. I talked to Will at the beginning of the course about a few things, and I’ve never really talked to Steve at all, and this week after my presentation Nancy realized I wasn’t Australian, so she asked me where I was from in the states and how I’ve liked it here so far, and how much of Australia I’ve gotten to see, etc.
I had an exam last week in my intro to exercise science class, but our grades haven’t been posted yet. This week the lecturer allowed students that missed the exam to have an opportunity to take the exam (with a proper, documented medical excuse, of course). I’m expecting to find out this weekend or early next week how I did. I felt much better than the first exam, so I’m sure I passed. Maybe I got an 80% this time. :)
The weather this week has been beautiful. Because I’ve been busy working on my assignments I haven’t gotten out running every day, but I did get out and run once every two days this week. Hopefully in the next few weeks I’ll be able to run more regularly. I’m definitely enjoying the sunny, low-70s weather every day and it feels great to get out and run in the evenings!
This week I began planning for my end-of-semester travels also. Another difference between college here in Australia and back home is the final examination period: back home it is 4 days (M-Th), but here it is almost three weeks (Nov. 1-17). Since I plan to return home soon after my final examination period ends, any travels I do before going home will take place during the examination period. It turns out I only have two exams during the examination period, so I have 10 free days after my last final before I go home – here I come New Zealand! This week I bought myself a travel guide for New Zealand and also purchased my airline tickets – so hopefully the rest of my plans will fall into place shortly.
Buying the plane tickets was kind of interesting. The listed fare price said “inclusive of taxes” – all together the roundtrip fare was $240. I clicked “book now” and when it came up with the subtotal, they were charging me $461 – over 200 dollars in taxes! That made me kind of upset, because it was the same site I used to get my ticket to Perth – and there were no extra taxes on my flight to Perth. I messed around on the site (and a few others) to see if I could find a better deal -- and I figured out a loophole. For some reason it was JetStar’s fares that were quoted really low, but were really at least double the advertised price after taxes were included. I changed my one flight to a “more expensive” VirginBlue flight and found out that the VirginBlue ticket had no hidden taxes. So, by selecting a more expensive ticket, I actually lowered my total bill by $80. Does that make any sense? Nope. But I’m happy I figured it out and was able to save $80! :)
Tonight I made some sort of rice/cheese/tomato concoction and ate it with steamed broccoli. It didn’t turn out quite as I was expecting, but it still tasted pretty good. Only 6 more weeks of cooking for myself! Then it’s back to the Fast Food Nation. ;) Don’t worry, I won’t eat all fast food when I get home. But I will eat at Wendy’s a couple times. They don’t have Wendy’s here in Australia and it’s my favorite fast food restaurant. I want a frosty! Just a little more than six weeks left! Time sure does fly!
posted by itsbenrael at 9:39 PM
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