The class week in review

Aussie word of the day: dodgy - sketchy, shady, of ill repute

Monday: Psychological research methodology lecture - the prof, as I mentioned before, was considerably more laid back than I was led to believe any of them would be, although he certainly seems to know his stuff when it comes to stats and whatnot. Gonna be a medium class on the difficulty scale, from what I can tell. The trouble with this, and all the classes, is that the grades are made up of very few assignments...screw up one assessment, and it's your ass, it seems. Tutorials/Practicals for this and my other psych class begin next week.

Tuesday: Gender and the postmodern seminar - I actually thought that I was going to drop this class for sure...until I took it. Yes there are a lot of (kinda pricey) books, yes the papers are likely to be challenging as hell, but it seems so interesting! Some of the books are available at my local library, so that will help. I don't think I can pass this one up, insane as I'll likely consider myself half way through. It's all about artsy gender theory and turning standard convention on it's head. I dig that. Another plus; it's a small class with no tutorial session!
Neuroscience for psychologists lecture - this one's gonna be kinda tough, as it seems to be made up a decent amount of memorization of big medical words that represent itty bitty brain bits. On a plus side, there is no cumulative final, just a series of mini-assessments and written assignments through the course. Team lectured by an Aussie man and an American woman.

Wednesday: I went to the first Gender, Culture, Race lecture and realized that I basically took the class last semester, in America, and it was called "Women in society." That which I didn't cover in my college class, I covered in my high school senior English women's studies class. I have actually read over a third of the course material already. I spoke with the prof after the lecture, and she agreed that it seemed the best thing for me to drop the course in exchange for something, as she put it, "more advanced." She went on to talk about how pleased she was to see a student from another country, or any student for that matter, so well-versed in the subject. I think she's the head of the women's studies focus at UQ. Yay points for Maddy! My options for my second gender class are discussed below.

Thursday: Crime, race, and gender lecture - seems a little dry, but I'll see...it's much less women's studies geared and more a critical look at the Aussie judicial system and its treatment of Indigenous people. Not totally sure if I'm keeping this one...I'll see, I've still got a couple weeks to decide. My other possibility is a different sociology class about households and the family structure. I'm gonna sit in on this coming week's lecture and decide which I like better. Dr. Garcia approved both, so now it's up to me.
I also made friends with an Aussie UQ student named Samantha who, as it turns out, lives in my apartment complex. Small world.

Friday: No class, rainy day, went on campus to do Yoga, but got to the gym early enough to do some time on the stationary bike first. Did I mention I signed up for the gym and a selection of group fitness classes? Well, now I've mentioned it for sure. Yoga may be the hardest thing I've ever done. I'm actually looking forward to the simplicity of the weight training class I've signed up for! Also went to Friday night dinner as hosted by AUJS. Lovely time, and the chef was nice enough to make the curry chicken gluten free in my honor. I spent much of the evening discussing eBay, Shakespeare, and how where I grew up is nothing like the representation of California culture by that bloody awful (sorry Adina, but it is) television show, "The OC".

At present, I have unreliable, or "dodgy" internet access in my home. That is to say, the guys have it, and if I sit with my laptop in the kitchen, I get one bar of signal if I'm lucky. Samantha (Sam) is in the process of convincing our wireless router that it is actually an access point, in order to boost the guys' signal in our apartment, so that we can utilize it more reliably/comfortably. That being said, I may be online a tidbit more often, but not with any real consistency until we get this access point thing hammered out. Good times. Ah well, it's getting late and I'm getting tired of standing in the kitchen waving my computer around for reception. It's not as light as a cell phone, ya know. I hope all is well in the lives of my faithful readers, and I look forward to being able to be in better contact with you soon. Keep the comments coming, they make me feel loved.