Yesterday I had my first class at Strathclyde. It was actually a lot different than McMaster but I enjoyed it. The class had only 20 people in it, and it involved a lot of class discussion instead of lecturing by the professor. I felt like I was in one of my labs I taught last term as a teaching assistant, except I was the student contributing to the class discussion instead. Before class I was very nervous because it was actually a graduate class. The class looks extremely interesting though but it has a report that is worth 80% of my mark, which is intimidating. I looked at future slides for the next class and I've already learned a lot of the material. I laughed when I saw it because it is supposed to be a graduate class, but I learned some of the stuff in 2nd year. Maybe it is in more detail, but I'm not too worried about this class. I was also surprised about the variety of people in the class. I thought that I would be the only one with an “accent” but there were a variety of people with different backgrounds present. There were other North Americans, someone from Pakistan, a bunch of Brits, and of course Scots.
Today I had my 2nd class but I didn’t enjoy it at all. Thankfully I’ll probably be able to drop it and take a different course instead. Of course my courses STILL aren’t finalized. This course had huge equations later on in the course that scared me when I saw them later in the courseware, so I don’t think I have the background knowledge to take it. Most of the people in my class yesterday seemed to be in this class as well. I also had orientation today so I had to miss most of the one class I had. I met a lot more exchange students, and everyone is going to the pub night tonight held by the international society here. Apparently anywhere from 100-500 international students attend the weekly pub night EVERY week. I can’t believe that one pub can fit so many people! Tonight is the night everyone is excited for to meet lots of other exchange students. Mike is also coming so he can meet the few friends I’ve already made, and to meet more people. Should be a fun night!
