Friday 13 July 2012

First Week of Class

I have now finished my first week of classes here at Otago! I am taking Genetics, Abnormal Psychology, Intro to New Zealand Politics, and an anthropology class called Conceiving Reproduction. I've gotten to see quite a few of the lecture halls here - for genetics, I have class three days a week at three different times in three different places! Why would they do that?! Despite the strange timetable, I've enjoyed the class so far.

For my politics class, my professor said that the course assumes no prior knowledge, but we did a mock election on the second day! I could not tell you anything about the candidates or political parties' platforms, but I still had to "vote" for one of them. Hopefully the people who actually voted in the election were better informed than I was! (As a side note, my prof mentioned that 2011 had 74% voter turnout, the lowest number in over one hundred years! If America had a turnout of 74%, I'm sure we would give ourselves a big pat on the back for being so involved in the democratic process.)

I haven't gotten into much work yet since it is only the first week (and my nights have been taken up with re-orientation festivities), but I'm sure there will be more to come about my classes. For now, enjoy some pictures I've taken around campus and in town.

the (often-photographed) clock tower on campus
church on George St
Dunedin

the rugby stadium

and some New Zealand sheep

1 comment:

  1. Hi Elizabeth,
    Those sheep look tasty!
    I am so glad you started this blog. I love to see how you are doing in New Zealand. I was thinking of you as my daily planner has a picture of Bridal Veil Falls on the North Island this week, but not being on Facebook limits my ability to keep in touch. Keep up the blog, your writing is great too.
    I just finished a great book you would love, Atonement, by Ian McEwan. Check it out if you have some spare time and can read.
    Uncle Darrin

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