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?