Green Living: Save the Polar Bears

Al Gore is everywhere. Today I went to a class entitled Ecological Thinking and Action in Management...little did I know that I was in store for the class that might as well have been called Inconvenient Truth 2 (and yes, An Inconvenient Truth is on the reading list). I'm actually rather excited about it. How can you not like a class that shows a short clip on the plight of polar bears during the first lecture? That thrilling lecture was hard to top, and after my classes, I made my way down the hill on the "bright orange" bus and decided to wander around an take pictures of the city like a true tourist. As I was weaving through people on the main shopping street however, I decided to hide the evidence and blend in with the rest of the crowd. I've playing a dodging game when walking down that street because there are always people trying to sell you "The Big Issue" and get you to donate to various things. I forgot to mention that I'm horrible at this game. Every time I walk down the street, I seem to be singled out among all of the other people. I even try to keep my head down and quicken my pace, but then they start to call me by names such as "Hey, bag lady!" or my favorite today "Hey, snow white!" due to my large oversized white coat that I'm considering never wearing again due to this nickname. Anyway, its always an adventure...

UVA vs. University of Bath

Today was my second day of classes at the university, and I am beginning to notice a few differences that I find entertaining:

1. The School of Management has two hour classes, and each class is once a week (did I mention that the earliest possible class is 9:15 AM). Yes, it is possible to have all of my classes on 2 days, I'm still in the process of working that out.

2. Another large difference for those of us who are claustrophobic, some of the smaller lecture halls have rows of seats the don't have aisles that allow people to pass by your seat. Therefore allowing for that akward musical chairs shift at the start of the lecture so that the late comers to class can have an end seat, while those of us who arrived early are then smashed against the wall and bumping elbows like true friends.

3. Cheers! I can't say I've quite figured out all of the language differences, but I have taken to starting my own english dictionary in the corners of my notebooks to list American translations. Heres a taste of what I've learned so far: queries=questions, mobile=cell phone, moodle=uva's toolkit/blackboard, biscut= cookie... Needless to say, at least I am amused by my "profs" (as my canadian friend calls them) accents, rather than the lecture material.

4. The bus is my best friend. My school is at the top of a huge hill that takes roughly 40min to climb. I walked up and back one night with some friends, and lets just say that the next day I caved in and purchased the rather expensive semester bus pass... I think this is the best investment I've ever made.

5. My favorite or should I say favourite difference with the first week of classes is that the prof usually goes through the syllabus and then give a ten minute break in which anyone not interested in the class may leave. I must say that in the classes I've had so far after that 10min break the room is much more comfortable. I also think that if professors did this at UVA, I would have saved a lot of wasted time the past few years "shopping" for classes.

6. King's is the equivalent to UVA's whitespot...and I also think it might possibly be the only thing in Bath other than the pub's that is open past 5pm. A city after my own early to bed heart :)

Well, thats about it for now. Now that I have this new blog, I'm sure I will post more often (sadly there will be no more podcasts, I know everyone is disappointed). We all know technology is not my strong point, but throw me into another country and well, what did you expect?

The Best Nap Ever. (a recap of my first day)

One plane ride and two train rides later, I’M HERE! Today was quite an adventure. I flew in style, and my seat was pretty much fully reclinable...not that it helped. I can never sleep on planes. Anyway after arriving in London I somehow found my way onto the two trains to get to my school, upon getting onto the second one my suitcase was a bit too much for me to handle. Of course, like some sort of mary kate and ashley special there was a handsome young man right there to help me out. We ended up sitting across from each other on the train and it turned out that we were headed to the same school. Well after we both lugged our suitcases down the cobblestone road, we finally made it to the dorm. After I unpacked, I walked around in a sleepless daze searching the city for the essentials: shampoo, sheets, and food. Sheets being the most important because as soon as I made my bed, I passed out like a dead man and forgot to set an alarm. Anyway, I met some of my neighbors and we went out for some dinner and got lost like true tourists. I’d say its been quite a day!