An Ordinary Mind on an Ordinary Day...

It's 11:17 AM and I have just returned from my Modern Literature lecture, which by a vast margin, is proving to be my favourite course. It is not only wonderfully challenging and immensely thought provoking, but I love that it is taught in such a subtle, subdued manner. I've found lately that the secret to understanding vague, abstract and encompassing lectures is to actually read the material beforehand. The lectures seem to briefly touch upon all the relevant issues, and give you a sort of boost in synthesizing the material into a coherent whole. But of course, you do have to do the work.

I must say that I really do like this British/European teaching system in some ways. For one, I seem to have a lot less work, but on the other hand, without sheer personal motivation, I don't think most learn their course material as extensively and as in depth as we do back home. For example, for my cognition, emotion, motivation class, I just found out that the exam is in short form, essay questions (which definitely will work to my advantage) and so you don't really need to know every little detail in great depth. Anyone who's done a decent amount of studying can probably figure out what some of the questions will be. But the fact that all my exams are worth somewhere in the avenue of 75-100% of my total mark is quite scary and intimidating!

Another feature I love about the school system here is that you finish high school when you are 16. As little Amy was explaining to me yesterday, you can basically get a job at that point if you want, or go on to two years of what is called 'sixth form', which is an extension or continuation of high school. You pick 4 subjects to study, and drop one (if you want) by second year. What I really like (and envy- because I never got the benefit of this), is that you get to experiment with different subjects BEFORE coming to university. Although, once you get here, the courses of study are much more concentrated- programs are quite a bit more specific, and course selections are almost entirely through your own department. Meaning, without arts and science over here, I'd be quite lost.

I'm currently undergoing my own sort of 'sixth form' experimentation here at university and I seem to be getting more confused by the day. My literature class had inspired me to seriously consider becoming a literature or philosophy professor of some sort, but my trip to the hospital yesterday to get my hearing aid fixed got me thinking about being a doctor and made me waver on my career choice. Tough stuff!

Anyways, I seem to be a good influence on the flat, as I've gotten both Amy's into going to the gym! It's always fun and more motivating when you have people to go with so hopefully we will keep eachother on our toes about getting in shape!

This past week has been quite hectic. I've just handed in a couple of essays, one for literature, 1700 words, which doesn't officially count for anything, but I was probably a perfectionist about it anyway, and one for my environment and society class about 'food miles' and the sustainability of the current global food supply. Although it sounds pretty technical, it's a first year course, and still seems like a joke/ bird course, however much I should probably be thankful...

We are going to Dublin this weekend, and of course, I am soo excited. We are flying on Ryanair and there must be around 20 of us, so we'll probably monopolize the plane for ourselves hehe. What's really great about going there is that modern literature is mostly centred in Ireland/England (at least the stuff that we're reading), so there is a James Joyce (one of the writers we are studying) museum there, etc. How cool! Not to mention the Guinness beer factory.... I'd still like to go to Cork and see the Blarney Stone but that may have to wait until another trip... Oh, and I LOVE MY FLATMATES!!! (and extended flatmates too!!! and yes, that is my room in the photo, see if you can spot yourself in one of the photos on the wall!!) xoxo.