Professors, Dennis, and Meningococcal B

Monday is the Day of School for me. I originally had class from 10-12, tutorials from 1-3, and class from 5-6. My 2-3 got moved to Thursday at 4, but that is still the most amount of class all week for me. I try to take care of all of my university things on Monday, as well, which leads to a lot of running around. I did pay tuition, buy books, have a gym consultation, AND talk to STA Travel about Fiji, though, which is a productive day. However, as I have now had all of my professors for a week, I have formed opinions about them. I still do not know their names, though.

POLS 244: (International Relations) This professor is fairly young, in his early 40s I believe, and very energetic. He really looks for good discussions, and the way he presents his material is enjoyable and entertaining. He is having heaps of guest speakers come in, which is exciting. This is an election year in New Zealand, and foreign policy is having more of an electoral effect than ever before, so we are having senior policy advisors and leaders of all the political parties come in, as well as some retired UN Ambassadors and activists. Our tutorial is a round-table discussion about the readings from class, and I really enjoy hearing the other points of view. I am the only American in the class, so I always get a chance to speak my mind (something I can do fairly easily, I think). I may not want to write the essays, but I do like the material.

POLS 248: (Conflict Analysis) I don't believe this professor could be more vague if he tried. He was born and raised in Hong Kong, which makes for a bit of a difficult accent (I spent a large portion of today's class interpreting "environmental"), but it is more his teaching style that I do not fit well. The class is too open-ended for me. For example, there is no prescribed text book. There is merely a "suggested reading" list to prepare for the next lecture. Firstly, these readings are from books in the library, and he does not put them on course reserve, so you can never get a copy to actually read. When we brought this to his attention, he was response was as such: "Well, just go to Google or YaHOO, type in conflict, and read about what you think class will be discussing." Do you know how many entries you get when you type "conflict" in Google? I do. About 74,000,000. Hmm. Secondly, some of the suggested readings are from an encyclopedia of conflict or something like that. However, he does not specify which entries to read. He prints "selected entries" on the sheet. Very vague. I don't like it.

GEOL 113: (Fundamentals of Geology) This class has many different lecturers, but the main on is this lady who I really believe was a strung-out hippie back in the day. She is so cool, and she really loves her rocks. She reminds me of a quirky grandmother. I really want to video her and send it to people back home. I love listening to her describe things. She gets SO EXCITED about lava flows and sediments. She is a big fan of using overhead projectors for pictures. She seems like she is very smart and accomplished but not quite with it. Also, she is an American, which I picked up on today when she said she grew up in Minnesota and lived in Oregon. That's when I realized she didn't have a Kiwi accent. Funny, I never noticed it before.

So, that's the class business. 2 out of 3 is good enough, I think.

For everyone back home being drowned in rain now: I am sorry! Crazy hurricane season. I hope Dennis isn't too strong and that everyone stays safe.

Finally, apparently New Zealand has a Meningococcal B epidemic. There has been a massive amount of advertising, both print and TV, about being vaccinated. Currently, there is a huge queue outside the computer room for free vaccinations. I don't know why it is so bad here, but it is a big deal. All of the bus stops have ads for being vaccinated, and I see it all the time on TV. Stay safe and be vaccinated! I hope I am!