Wow, we are almost up to current events! Yay me!!
Well the first week of classes went really well. I really like my class schedule and all my subsequent free time. But first and foremost, a New Zealand vocabulary lesson:
Paper: what American’s would term a class. It’s a specific series of lectures,held by a lecturer (or multiple, depending on the paper), which fulfills requirements for a course.
Course: A field of study. What American’s would term a major.
Lecture: A weekly meeting of a paper.
Class Schedule: An outline of the paper for the semester. What the US would call a class syllabus.
Class Timetable: The schedule of the papers one have throughout the week.
Tutorial: It’s a smaller section of the class held once a week by a tutor, or in some cases the lecturer. This is the same…just thought I would throw it in there to say that all my classes have these.
Lecturer: Not to be confused with a lecture— a lecturer is the person who teaches the paper. Also, one should never refer to a lecturer as “Professor” unless that title has been awarded to such person.
Professor: A very prestigious title only given to those who have worked in the department for an extended period of time and have millions of things published. It seems to me, in the US we would think of it as a teacher who has received tenure.
Now for someone new, who does not know this jargon and is taking an English class, on the first day of class, when the lecturer is explaining the essays we need to write for the paper, and that we should check on our class schedule for the tutorial times so we can choose a time that fit into our class timetable…it all becomes quite confusing! But I talked to my Kiwi friends, and got it all straightened out later that day. lol
I am taking 3 papers over here (which translates into full credits back at UVM…I’m stoked!): New Zealand Lit, Marketing Communications, and Social Marketing.
New Zealand Lit: This paper seems like it is going to be a good class. We have 5 different lecturers, so it will be nice to constantly have a different view of the material being presented. However, it seems like it might be a little bit more work in the beginning for someone who is not familiar with the culture. The first class we talked about the National Anthem (God Save NZ) and its significant and importance; however, no one ever handed out the words, so after the class I looked up the lyrics so I would have a better understanding of what my notes meant!! It meets three times a week (Mon, Tues, and Wed. which is nice), at 10am, which gives me a reason to get up—also nice. It also has a tutorial that meets once a week. The tutor is actually the head lecturer, so the discussions seem like they will be very helpful throughout the class.
Marketing Communications (301): It started out rough on the first day: our first class being 2 hours long! But it is getting more interesting as we progress through the material. The teacher was nice and only kept us for an hour and a half for the first class. She started out very tough as she “laid down the rules of the class” and was pretty dull, but as the lecture went on she started to warm up a little. Since our first class was actually on Tuesday (my other two classes meet on Monday), I was a little worried at the beginning of the lecture that I wouldn’t like this class as much as my Social marketing paper. The lecturer for that class is very energetic and excited to teach her lecture, whereas this lecturer seemed to not be enthused to be teaching Mark 301. But after a while she warmed up and in the end the paper seems like it will be a very interesting paper. I’m more interested in this class, since it’s all about Marketing and advertising, but I don’t think I will like my social marketing paper any less (if anything I will probably end up liking it more because of the lecturer). 301 only meets two times a week (1 two hour class, and 1 one hr class), but it also has a one-hour tutorial once a week.
Social Marketing (316): Last but not least. I really am looking forward to this paper. The teacher is really nice, and is VERY excited about what she is teaching. She started off really energetic, and didn’t lose any momentum as the class went on. I think I would be a lot like her when/if I am a teacher (so that gives you a better sense of the speed and energy she brings to lectures lol). The topic is fairly interesting to me. I really chose it because it fit into my timetable and didn’t meet on Friday’s lol. It’s all about public service announcements/ campaigns and how they market an idea/ behavior. Basically, the class is about all the public service announcements and campaigns that the government and other agencies put out; like the stop smoking adds and breast cancer awareness, and all those wonderful commercials. It also meets two times a week (one long class one short class) with a tutorial.
I do have to say, it is really nice to have so much free time and get Friday’s off. Especially at the beginning of the semester, when I am still trying to get settled in my flat and have to walk everywhere because I don’t have a car and also I don’t have enough energy to sit down and figure out the bus schedule. It’s also so nice out I don’t really mind walking up and down all these hills. Like I am sure I have already told all of you—Wellington is like San Francisco on steroids! No one could have prepared me for the 45º hills, or the gale force winds that really can blow a person over if your not expecting it (seriously, when I was crossing the motor way the other day, I had to hold on to the guard rail to stay on the sidewalk. No Joke!). But I do enjoy being out side in this lovely weather, so for now I will not complain so much.
It was also a fun week: Monday classes started, and we had just gotten back from the South Island so we all kept to ourselves and got to know our flatmates better. Tuesday the group got back together for our first pub quiz down at the local Irish pub. That was heaps of fun!! We had a huge group (probably 10+ of us). Mostly American’s with a few Kiwi friends to help us with the NZ trivia. Overall we got 5th place, out of 15 teams, so, for the obnoxious Americans in the bar, we thought we did very well. However, if we had chosen better for our bonus rounds (there are 10 rounds and you know all of their titles before hand, so as a team you pick two that you think you will excel in and your score for those rounds are doubled), we would have tied for 2nd and won bar tabs. Too bad, next time we will know better lol. Wednesday was student night downtown, so we started off bowling (they call it dice night—you are given two dice, and what ever you role you pay for one string. I ended up rolling a three for the first string and snake eyes for the second…I was lucky, which never happens). Later on, we went out dancing since none of us had classes before noon on Thursday. Thursday night was another quiet evening. We all took a break from going out and caught up on our sleep. Friday a few of us went to an all day international cricket game. It started at 2:00 and normally would go until 9:00. But the weather wasn’t great and they kept on delaying the game due to some drizzle, so by 5 I decided I wanted to go home and change and do some work before going out with the group that night for some Chinese food. We were all very disappointed to find out that General Tso’s Chicken does not exist in this country. L How these people every survive I have NO idea. We all decided that “hot chili chicken” (which was my best guess for closest to General Tso’s on the menu—nothing like it) is tasteless, and that Orange Chicken or Sweet and Sour Chicken (my personal favorite from the evening) are really the way to go. But I digress. After dinner we all went back to our perspective flats for the evening.
Saturday was our first Butler organized event, and we had to meet Rebecca at the train station by 8:30am so it was nice we called it an early night on Friday. The trip was up north (about a 2 hour bus ride) for some outdoor activities followed by some New Zealand culture. In the morning, the group was split in half (based on what we had filled out on our trip form privously): those of us who wanted to go quad biking on ATVs (that’s what I did) and those who wanted to go horse back riding. Quad Biking was a lot of fun, but only 2 hours, so we didn’t get to go too far. The trail was very pretty, through some bush, over some hills, and through some rivers—a very picturesque ride. Sadly, I was driving so was not able to get very many shots of the actual views. And Oh were my arms sore after! It took a little getting used to control it (the accelerator was very jerky and it was really heavy to steer!), but once you got the hang of it, it was a very easy ride.
After our 2 hour ride, we met up with the horse back riders at a farm where lunch was served. After kai, there were some dog trials and we got a tour of the farm’s wool shed. The dog trials were really fun to watch. Basically, the farmer was showing off what his sheep dog could do. The dog (with a few commands from the farmer) gathered the sheep into a mob, and then directed the mob down 3 fields and through 2 gates to get them into their proper pen. It was awesome to watch. The dog was really funny to because before he was working, he was the most social dog who wanted attention from EVERYONE. But as soon as he saw the sheep it was down to work, and boy did he looked mean! Lol The wool shed was also cool. I kind of expected everything that the farmer showed us from my Drumlen Farm days (sp?). But it was still interesting to see him sheer a sheep and explain the NZ wool market and why it has been such a cornerstone to their economy.
After the farm we went to the Golden Sheers competition in Masterton. That was absolutely amazing to watch. It’s an international competition between the best sheep sheeres in the world (really what else do Kiwis have to do when the sheep population equals 12 sheep to every person??). Those guys could sheer a sheep in under 45 seconds! The judging is also really interesting. They start at 0 and are given points for every mistake. A mistake would be a second swipe at the sheep because they missed a spot or that the coat coming off the sheep is not one continuous blanket of wool. Then once the sheep is sheered, the sheerer pushs it down a shoot where another judge inspects it and judges the sheerer on the tidiness of the sheep. So if they nicked the sheep and the judge upstairs missed it, someone downstairs will see it. The competition is not just for the sheers either; it is also for the people who take care of the wool after its off the sheep (I forget their actual title). They are judged on how well they throw the wool blanket on to the cleaning table, and how much bad stuff they take out of the wool and so on. I didn’t really understand that as well, but they were judged down to the time it took them to sweep up the floor after all the sheep were sheered.
After the semi-final competitions ended (which was around 4:30), it was back on the bus to Wellington. It was a really fun day and a very interesting introduction to another aspect of the NZ culture. I was very happy I decided to go. We got back around 7pm where we all grabbed some dinner and hung out for the night!
For pictures go here.
Sunday was very uneventful; I think I did laundry lol. I still have yet to get up and go to a church service on Sunday, but I know of two churches I can go to: the Wellington Cathedral or a smaller church a little further downtown (St. Peters I think).
so again this post became longer than I thought it would, but now I am pretty much caught up, so shorter posts from now on. lol
cheers for now!
~Marjorie
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