First Week of Class

This week classes began, which was bittersweet. I wanted classes start so that I could get to know people (campus has been soo dead), but then I was not ready to do homework and all of that good stuff. It has been nice just doing whatever we want without a time schedule.

On Monday my first class was Australia’s Ancient Aboriginal Past at 11 a.m. I thought this class would be interesting and it will be, but I am going to have to invest a lot of time into this class since I know little about Australia’s history. My professor reassured me that I would be fine and he was there to help me. The class was different because it consisted of a lot of older people. One lady even brought her child to class. The lecture was interesting, but all I could do was stare at the professor’s very crooked middle finger (it is crazy!). Also, I have a tutorial for this class on Wednesdays where we go more into depth and have class discussions, which I will enjoy much more.
Then at 3:10 I headed over to Children’s Literature and after looking at the required book list I became very excited. For this class we are reading Harry Potter, Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, and etc. However, I did not much care for the professor, but this was only the first week. During lecture she read straight from her notes and the Powerpoint. I was not very impressed, but hopefully in the tutorial there will be more involvement.

Tuesday, my only class is Reading Stories (an English class) and it starts at noon. Before class I had lunch with Paige and Shelley at the café called Saltz and had some tasty lamb. Lamb is very common here and it is good. For Reading Stories, like the name says we will be reading all kinds of stories and the professor was very energetic and knowledgeable. This will be a fun class, except there are about 50 of us taking it. Again this class has a tutorial too and we are broken down into smaller groups so that we can discuss and do hands-on activities with the material.
After class I finally met one of my neighbors, Victoria and she took around to meet everyone in our building. She is a first student from Hobart and I think we are going to get along just fine. There are only two other girls in my hall that actually come out so we went upstairs to meet people. I was the first American a lot of these Aussies had ever met, which was funny. They like trying to imitate me (they make fun of the way I say banana and burger).
That night I went to my first BBQ over at Leprena (where all the other Butler people are) with Victoria. There Wendy and Graham grilled up some burgers, sausages, and chicken. We met some more people and I introduced Victoria to everyone.

Then on Wednesday, I had my drawing class that I had been looking forward to all week. For this class I had to take the bus down to Invermay, which is about a ten-minute bus ride. All of the art classes are held at this mini campus and my class was in this old looking factory building. Inside there was art everywhere and little galleries throughout the first level. Then on the second level there are studios where my class was. This class was small and made up of a lot of older people. My professor had a great sense of humor and called me the American. I wish I could take all art classes because the building, staff, my professor, and their appreciation for art is unbelievable. I am excited to see what all we will be doing in this class. After class my professor showed me a place to get my art supplies across the street and I stocked up and the gentleman working was nice. He said my accent threw him off, but after telling him I was from Indiana he was like ohh, that it explains it. He gave me a discount, which was a nice surprise.

So today and tomorrow I have no classes. I have lots of reading to do and we might go check out some other sites around Launceston this weekend.

It is funny when I ask the Aussies if they know where Indiana is. A lot of them only know about LA, New York, and Texas. Some people do know about Butler because of the final four, which really surprised me, but there are a lot of Duke fans here which needs to change.

Random Stuff:
The weather has been nice during the day. It has been raining quite a bit at night. I have been eating well (I need to workout!).
Finally hung some pictures up in my room so now it feels more like home.
I am addicted to Tim Tams (cookies) and Shapes (like Cheezits).
Learned that a shopping cart is a trolley and wine is goon.
Went to Hungry Jacks (like Burger King) and it was normal except they don’t have ketchup packets or dispensers (they did put it on my cheeseburger though).
We all hang out at Stew’s place and eat dinner there so the Aussies call it America.
A lot of people have called us Yankees too. The lunch lady calls me precious, which cracks me up.
Victoria is going to take me to see some wallabies!
I have a new fave show called Send in the Dogs. It is like cops, but was made here and it is hilarious.
I realized that this is the first time in my life that I have had a room to myself and I must say I do not like it. It is way too quiet, but maybe that’s what I need. haha