My first class was at 10am, British Politics. Before I even went to class, I had to find out where it was. As I said before, they do higher education a little differently here and the various departments spent all of last week figuring out where and when the classes would be. Each department puts out a timetable with all of their class locations at times. This is different than at Villanova and even most of the US because we usually sign up for our classes months before the semester starts and the teachers, times and locations are all available when we sign up for classes. My American flatmate Kate also was taking British Politics, so we left our flat at 9:30 to figure out our individual timetables. The politics department was on top of things and had timetables posted in their office.
British Politics was from 10-11 and I had a class right after that, at 11. We still had about 15 minutes before class started so we walked upstairs to the history department to get my location for my next class, Building the American Nation: The United States, and the line was ridiculously long. We qued (here, waiting in line is called queing...I'm not sure how it's spelled but it's pronouced like the letter q) for 10 minutes then decided to just go to British Politics and I would figure it out after.
BP was in a big lecture hall in the Arts building and the professor mainly told us about the requirements and how the course would be set up. Although I don't know that much about the British political system, it seemed like as long as I keep up with the reading I'll be fine for that class. We have two essays and possibly a test, I can't remember. We have one book to buy, I haven't bought it yet, that only costs 30 pounds. We got assigned to seminar groups, which are smaller discussion based groups and they're at different times. The seminar groups have about 10 people in them, as opposed to the lecture which had at least 50 people. My seminar is on Mondays from 12-1 but I didn't have it today because we haven't read anything yet. The professor for that class seemed really nice and helpful also.
We got out of class a half hour early because it was the first day so I went back to the history department. Luckily I ran into a girl I met at Drapers last week and she was in the same history class as me so she knew where the room was. We walked to the class together, in the Law building, so I made it to the right class on time. It was also a big lecture hall, with about 40 people in it. We didn't go over the syllabus in this class, our professor mostly just lectured, but it was nice because it was the history of the US from the Revolution to about WWI in 40 minutes and I basically knew it all. I'm so interested to see what we learn in this class exactly because I want to get their perspective on American history...I'm really interested in their views of us, that's why I keep asking people I meet about what they think of us. I'm sure it will be on the liberal side, but most written and taught history is liberal. Last fall I took a history class about the British Empire; I think it's cool that I took a British history class in America and I'm taking an American history class in England. Maybe I should have done it the other way around, but that would be too boring for me.
After class I realized that I had to go back to the history department to get my assigned seminar time because my professor didn't tell us our times. It ended up being simple to do that, I kind of cut the line. Anyway, I went to lunch at Mucci's (the on campus pizza place) with Kate and Sammi and had amazing pizza and a piece of chocolate cake. It's so cheap there too! It was only 3.80 pounds, about $5.
At 2 I went to my history seminar in the Arts building. The seminar was just an introduction, there are seven of us in there right now but more people might show up next week. We have two small essays and a big test in that class and we also have presentations during the seminar time. I signed up for a presentation in week 5 (the week of October 25) about slavery. It's more specific than slavery but I can't remember exactly what it is at the moment. There were American, English and and Norwegian students in my seminar, so that will give it a good mix of perspective. We have some required reading to do and some recommended reading that will help us on the exam if we do it, but it's not absolutely necessary.
After class I headed back to the history department to get my course pack, which is basically a collection of the required readings for history. It's a huge pack of papers that has different excerpts and it only cost three pounds. Then I went to the English department to buy my course packs for my two English classes and those packs cost 18 pounds total. From what I've seen the reading materials seem to be a lot cheaper here than they are in the States.
At 4 I went to a history induction where the professor explained to us what they look for in our essays and recommended some essay outlines for us to look at so that we're on the right page. The essays are expected to be a little different here, more direct and use a lot of primary sources, and also cite multiple historians' writings/opinions. She also introduced the concept of historiography, which I've never heard of. If we include that in our essays we should get higher grades. She told us that historiography was the study of how history is written about by historians. I understand what it is I think, but I guess until I actually study it and try to write about it I don't know how to explain it.
Another interesting thing she told us is that the grading system is different here. For example, 100-70% is an A, 69-60% is a B and 59-50% is a C. I kind of like that way of grading better, but I guess I'll find out. Apparently the requirements translate though...a B here merits the same level of scholarly work that it does in the States, even though in America a B is usually 92-86% (at least at Villanova).
Alright well I need to relax a little bit before dinner. After more than four months of not having class, today was a big step for me and I'm worn out. I have some reading to do for my history class next week and I'm going to see if I have anything to read for either of my English classes.
Last night I booked a day trip to Stonehenge with my friends! I'm really excited about that. For some reason I'm not really that interested in seeing much more of England than London (I guess because I traveled around Ireland a lot with my aunt last summer), but I think Stonehenge will be exciting. The trip is October 16 and we go to Salisbury and Stonehenge. (Embarrassing, I don't even know what Salisbury is, I need to look that up.)
Just to add a picture, here is me in front of Buckingham Palace before our tour, notice I wore my pearls in case I met Prince Harry...
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