school started today...

classes (they call them papers) commenced today, and i had sports history at 9am, world politics at 1pm, and modern philosophy at 3pm.  we mostly just got syllabi today, but the classes are normally two hours of lecture each class period, twice a week.  it seems like a long time, but i think the profs encourage discussion so maybe it won't be too unbearable.  plus they seem to be pretty cool classes.    there's only one exam, a final, for each paper that is 50-60% of the grade, which is a little daunting, but they've already given us previous exam questions so that's good.  other than the final, i'll have one to two essays (20-25%) and possibly a presentation or participation grade.  it kind of makes me nervous to not have anything due until april though... i don't have my other paper (politics of culture) until friday.  yeah it's only once a week for two hours as far as i know.

it's way different from what i'm used to, so if you're interested, the breakdown of my schedule is as follows:  monday 9-11, 1-3, 3-5; tuesday 3-5; wednesday 3-5; thursday none; friday 9-11, 1-3.  not too bad- at least i get most of my classes done towards the beginning of the week.

it's "super O week" here, which apparently is a pretty big deal.  i guess the first week of the semester is like a big celebration.  tomorrow there's a "foga" party (foam-toga; i'm not sure if that really appeals to me), there's also several bands playing on campus throughout the week and some new zealand comedians that are coming.  i'm sure there's free food somewhere in there too.

we're also trying to get a weekend trip set up to go to the bay of plenty and cape reinga (to go dune surfing!).  hopefully we can get that going before everything gets too crazy with school.  oh yeah, and unfortunately, i don't think i'll get to see an all blacks rugby game - the only game reasonably close is in wellington and it's june 20 - the day we're flying out :(. oh well, we'll just have to go see the super 14 or whatever they are.