What am I studying?

Just finished my International Relations class, which is one of four courses I'm doing. The others are
Crime & Justice in Post Modern Society, Constitutional Law and Sociology of Immigration. Needless to say, courses and college are way different here then they are at home. But thats what you get with an endowment of $2.2bn dollars. Thats right, 2.2 BILLION!


We all have several large lectures back home and a couple of small tutorials. Here, its tutorials all the time. Every class is small (between 12 and 18 people) and can be anywhere between 50mins and 170mins long. The structure isn't one lecturer talking endlessly and students taking notes. Instead, the lecturer [called a 'Professor' even if they aren't technically one] talk for a few minutes and then open the floor to discussion. Participation counts for anywhere between 10 and 40% of your grade, so staying mute isn't an option!

Reading is assigned for each class, and since they form the basis of the discussion then you have to do the reading. Papers, presentations and pop quizes all make up a large chunk of your final grade. So if I'm slow responding to e-mails, you'll understand why!

The good news is classes are kinda easy. The perception of Americans being uninformed is somewhat true, especially in Sociology and Politics courses [which are the ones I'm doing] so the Professors take it quite slow. I'm not saying American students are stupid, just that when you have FoxNews as your primary source of information then getting a sane grasp of the world can be hard.

Right, thats all for today. I've gotta get some reading done for tomorrow!