July 29th, 2010
| 08:25 pm - the nightmares of africa. so.. in south africa, if you dont get into class early enough, you sit on the floor. (from one of my econs mates here) at least that has been my experience for 3 classes in 2 weeks.... life here is quite chill, people sit on the grass and talk, have lunch, nap. postcard perfect. its what all universities use for publicity purposes...even NUS. but of course, no one does it! except maybe the construction workers just because its easily accessible.but i'm sure if they were given a choice, they wouldnt be there.. but anyway. today was the first time i didnt feel treated like an idiot in class. took my first postgrad class on monetary economics & i had a blast! seriously, this guy is the first prof that didnt insult students' & their memories. maybe i am being too judgmental here & i dont know the education system here, but every lecturer here treats students either like sec sch kids or idiots, directly & indirectly. they'll give u a page number & point out the sentence for you in the readings during lecture, they'll ask really basic stuff & actually review those stuff when they dont get a response, or like one prof i have, he'll just openly insult the education standard in the university. back to the point. i realise i digress a lot recently. i like this class, the work sounds interesting, and the people are quite awesome (: too bad its only once a week. i had a crazy nightmare yesterday morning too. and it was just soooo bad that when i woke up, i was breathing really hard, & suuuper thankful that it was only a dream. pft. somehow, nice sweet dreams are always too elusive to be remembered whereas nightmares ingrain themselves in your memory. and next weekend looks set to be an exciting one. (: |
July 26th, 2010
| 10:16 am what a weekend. (: and of all the times, inspiration chooses to strike at 11pm... but as usual. productivity doesnt kick in until approximately 2hours later. it is now 4:08am. and i have settled the audio and profile pictures for the simple video that i'm attempting to make of the UGC outreach. if this is to succeed, i need to get it all done by friday. (plus the photo editing, of which i am notoriously slow with).... but its fun & i ought to be sleeping, given that i have an 11am consultation with the prof who's offering to tutor me one-on-one for a previously non-existant theology module... BUT. i think i've slept too much these past few days. and i'm barely sleepy now.... africa is treating me waaay too well. goodnight world. or rather, good morning. my housemate is going to be awake in 3hrs for 7.30am class. ooh la la. bad habits die hard. |
July 23rd, 2010
| 06:22 am - interesting days. module registration is a BEACH. (as sebastien would say) so.. my run-in with university mess-ups hasnt ended yet. wednesday i managed to find out the time & place for Monetary Economics, a post-grad (honors) course and so, at 5.20pm, i happily made my way to the humanities building, found the classroom at 5.30 and very contentedly found a seat as i waited for the 3hour class to start. i waited, and i waited and i waited. then i waited somemore. all this while, i thought, ok, so the lecturer is a little late, maybe its a small class thats why no one is here yadayadayada. by 5.50pm, i was still waiting. i toured the entire 3rd and 4th floors' classrooms.. i had spent the ENTIRE wednesday going up and down different buildings and offices looking for this course to be approved and i was not about to give up. ... by 6pm, it was hopeless...... a good thing was that i got to go to mary-lou's church that night. i seriously hope this never ever happens again. wednesday afternoon, one of my social work modules location changed and only after the lecture on innovation started did i realise i was in the wrong place. checked and re-checked the timetable, and ended up going to the dept to find out the actual classroom. no one knew, until someone checked the system and saw a last minute change in venue. *applause* i went into class 20min late (and it was RIGHT NEXT TO WHERE I WAS EARLIER, *more applause*). but at least i made it, attendance was probably 50% of the enrollment. THIS. IS. AFRICA. amazing. really. but its been a great here. i'm enjoying this sabbatical even if i do miss people a liiiiittle bit, i'm in my happy place. i wouldnt trade this for all the ban mian & yu pian mi fen & prata & char kway teow & what-have-you in the world! i'm gonna have a HUGE withdrawal period when i get home. dieeeeee. heh. but at least i get to escape a whole semester of bidding & chionging!! HEE. i will enjoy it while it lasts. speaking of studies, its also interesting to see how academics vary so little even across continents. there are those who couldnt care less, who cant teach for nuts, who criticise policies&institutions upside down, who genuinely care for students, etcetc. but their education system is really quite crap. econs students are only introduced to the idea of PPP in a 3rd year course?!?.......& this is a very reputable university we are talking about... another thing about africa, drinks are SO CHEAP. a cocktail costs me 5bucks, a beer, 2bucks. weird thing is that food can be more expensive than drinks. hmm. some highlights, i cooked pork soup today (: and it was a success. skyped w xin&joel as well which was really nice. one thing good about being away is that i'm not the one getting disturbed anymore. i think i'll be going home to some interesting new dynamics.cant wait for the travelling to start...... but school is quite awesome even if classes are SO early.. July 21st, 2010 |
| 06:21 am - THIS IS SOOOOOO AFRICA. up down up down up down up. pft. modules are kind of driving me nuts. for one, i got registered for a course that doesnt even exist. exegesis of the OT. which is a cool course because i will get to study Psalms and Ecclesiastes. so the prof has offered to take me one-on-one which is amazing, but its a postgrad course and now i'm not sure if i can handle it... so now as i'm looking for another course that IS being offered so that i dont waste the prof's time, i find out that the other course i have registered for doesnt seem to exist on paper!! it has a timetable & a venue, but the admin at the school of theology says that it isnt offered by them... this is crazy. i will give it ONE LAST SHOT TOMORROW. i really do want to take the chance here to go for a course on the bible, but it seems like i'm taking one step forward and three steps back. thats not the end of my problems. my module on the history of development economics (stated on the website & unchanged since its inception(as i understand from the prof)) has, in the span of 5minutes, morphed into a module on HEALTH economics.... the method it was changed was like this, the prof walks in, introduces the course, and says, the original content of this course has been bumped up to a third year module (which i am ALSO registered for, and says NOTHING about a change in syllabus), and we will now be studying, health economics. yadayadayadaya. very good. i was ready to take on Todaro (the guy who wrote my previous textbook) and everything about development, and i'm stuck with health economics. mmhmm. TIA ttm. and FINALLY, (as of now) my last problem is getting a module verified. at home, i am qualified (by now) to take the level4000s which are honors classes, but here, because i'm a year 3 student, i cant take Money Economics because i have not done the year 3 modules HERE. i've cleared ALL the level 3000 core modules at home which probably covers way more i'm sure, but noooo, i'm a year 3 student, so i cant take postgrad (honors here is postgrad) modules. and so i've been going up and down the entire economics building from one office to another, and even though some of them are really helpful, it sucks that in Africa, everybody goes home by 3pm. so today, after i finally found the name of the person who's qualified to certify me, lo and behold, the offices are empty and everyone's GONE! wooohooo. its like a treasure hunt with a time limit. or maybe, patience-limit. hooray me. 9.30am class again tomorrow, and then i have 2 hours to play treasure hunt again before another 4 hours of class. south africa is getting on my nerves. (but maybe i shouldnt be complaining because bidding & appealing for modules back home is a whole lot worse)..... hooray. but a sincere hooray for social work. which seems to be an awesome course to take with awesome lecturers anywhere in the world. Current Mood:  annoyed |
No comments:
Post a Comment