The End of Classes

So, the school term is drawing to a close. My last class in New Zealand happened today, and my second last semester in undergraduate studies will be done on Friday when I hand in my last essay. I couldn’t be happier that school is almost over, because this means I get to travel. But I was thinking today, and I realized.

I really like the University of Canterbury.

We had a get-together today, for the linguistic students in my Ling310 class and for the ling honour students. Instead of going to class, we handed in our assignments and then there was free pizza and pepsi. They congratulated us on having finished another year, as they went around and read the posters we had created for our project, and congratulated us on our work.

I feel strangely proud of my poster, I gotta say

To tell the truth, I wasn’t very enthused at first about the classes I had to take here. To me, they just sounded like stuff that I had to get out of the way so I could travel.

But I found myself thinking today, as I sat there eating pizza, that I’m not really looking forward to going back to the classes at the UofA. Really, I’ve had good quality courses here (alright, even though I’m only taking two of them), and I’ve really enjoyed actually going to school here. My classes are fun. Interactive. Laid back.

And there’s pizza. (jk, that’s not actually a reason. The linguistics department at UAlberta often does free pizza too, so I can’t say I’m missing out on anything.)

But really. When I go back home I will just sit in a class where I am just another face, and do boring readings and write boring assignments and be super busy and still not really learn very much.

While I’ve been here, I’ve learned so much.

In Ling310: (New Zealand English) I’ve learned that I love doing data-based research projects. I like having a project that is my own, that evolved from an idea that I created, that pushes against the boundary of human knowledge and adds something to it.  It’s something like this (Except that I’m not quite doing a doctorate. But that’s a little bit of how I feel.). It’s the first time I’ve written 17 pages and liked it all, it’s the first time I’ve gotten a feel for what graduate studies are like.

In TEPE112: (Land Journey and Ethics) I’ve learned navigation skills and survival skills. I’ve learned a little bit more about camping and nature and the outdoors – but not in a classroom. We had four field trips: 2 just using class time and 2 overnight on the weekends. I learned because it was hands-on, I learned because I could practice what was preached at the time, I learned because we had fun.

Oral presentation being given about the explorer who charted the area we’re in (Torlesse)

And that’s the thing, I think.

Why does normal school have to be so boring?

School should be fun. The only interactive class I’ve had at the UofA was CMPUT 250, where we made a 30-minute video game from nothing but our skills, our ideas, and enthusiasm. (and a little help from the Neverwinter Nights Engine I guess.) That was fun. Actually it’s probably the best class I’ve ever taken. But it now officially has two contestants for the position.

https://sites.google.com/a/ualberta.ca/cmput250award2013/nominees/emerge

http://blog.bioware.com/2012/11/19/cmput-250-winter-2013-admissions/

(I even went back to be part of the volunteer team in the following term: http://500px.com/photo/30965799?from=set/740097)

But that class was one of a kind at the University of Alberta.
Why can’t usual classes be more like that?
You learn so much stuff, real-life skills, and you remember it all when it’s more interactive.

 

Not only that, but the pace of life here.

I may have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. I haven’t seen many students working through the night to complete assignments here. The one time that I stayed at the computer lab until 10pm to do work, there was no one else there with me. It seemed so strange, because I’m sure at the UofA I wouldn’t’ve been alone.

Main library entrance.
4pm on a Monday and this school’s not very happening.

I thought to myself, where are all the people? The hard working students? Doesn’t anyone have a paper to finish? Supper to miss, sleep to skip out on?

But then I realized that no, actually the pace of life here is such that they don’t.

Here, an undergraduate degree is only 3 years long. You only have to take 4 classes per term. You get 2 weeks for term break. The classes aren’t that hard, and they’re fun. Compare that to the UofA, where a degree is 4 years long, you have to take 5 classes per term and you only get 1 week for term break. (and not even that, in the first term)

AND the classes are boring at the UofA. I mean, the content may be interesting, but the manner in which the classes are taught is boring. I wish more courses were like the ones I’ve taken here. Granted, not all UC classes are so interactive. But, I did sit in on a few other classes to see what they were like: the Maori class I sat in on had a weekend field trip coming up, and the astronomy class had us do group work to figure out a problem. I heard of another linguistics course where you learn how to do data collection. (in your second year!) And it was a group of engineers from the UC out on a weekend field trip that picked us up when we went hitchhiking in Arthur’s Pass.

Overall, there is much more interactivity at the University of Canterbury than at the UofA. And I like it. It might also have something to do with smaller class sizes.

I heard that the University of Canterbury was well recognized across the world for its quality as a university, but I didn’t understand why at first. The classes seemed too easy and too slow. Now I understand. It’s cause you actually learn, and you actually put things into practice.

At least, that’s my experience.

Yay for unrelated picture content!

The First Week

I arrived in Christchurch on the 28^th of June after a 26-hour flight. The University of Canterbury has a free pickup service for international students, so there was a taxi driver waiting for me when I got to the airport.

My first confusion/culture shock/whatever-you-wanna-call-it moment happened when I went for the passenger door, and realized that there was a steering wheel there. Oops. Right. They drive on the wrong side of the road.

My apartment is quite nice, at least for what I was expecting. I have my own room, fluffy blankets and pillows, and I share a kitchen and living room with four other people. We have no oven, but the microwave can act as one if I absolutely need to use an oven (and I probably won’t).

I’ve met 3 of my flatmates so far. Two of them are identical twins named Pat and Mike. They’re Kiwis from the north island, and I think I can finally tell them apart after all this time. They helped me out quite a bit at first, telling me where to go to buy a cell phone, how to buy a bus pass, etc. My other flatmate arrived a little bit after me, her name is Kristina and she’s from Austria. I have come to learn that Austrians speak German – but Germans are to Austrians as Americans are to Canadians. As are Aussies to Kiwis. Please take note 😉

All my flatmates are, I’m happy to say, perfectly okay with me singing as I do dishes. (and anything else, really)

The international services at the uni (see me using kiwi slang already >.<) organized a few events for the international students right at the start, so that everyone could get together and meet each other. The first such event was a bonfire with free food, music, and poi dancing.

Photo courtesy of Jürgen Brandstetter

Photo courtesy of Sheila Wesa

The second event was called “Maori Experience,” where they cooked a hangi for us. A hangi is (was) the Maori way of cooking. Since they had no ovens, they would dig a hole, heat up a bunch of rocks, and bury the food with the hot rocks underneath. Several hours later the food would be ready and they would dig it back up again. So they did that for us, and we got to experience a Maori-style meal.

Afterwards, the Maori group danced the Haka for us, which was a sight to see.

If you don’t know what the Haka is, just read the first paragraph here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haka

It was pretty impressive. I would be scared if I was the opposing group.

Those two events were pretty much how I got to meet people. I’ve noticed that there are a lot of Americans studying abroad here. They are by far the largest group of international students. Some of the other nationalities I’ve met are: French, German, Malaysian, Welsh, Danish, Chinese, and a few countries I can’t remember the names of. I’ve also met a few other Canadians, all from UBC.

The first hiking adventure I got was the last Sunday before school started. A few other international students and I decided to go to the Port Hills to do some tramping (kiwi slang for hiking). Christchurch is generally a very flat city, pretty much like Edmonton. Actually I think Edmonton has more hills than the Canterbury plains do, just because of the river. But, Christchurch is surrounded by mountains. The Port Hills, for example, are just a half-hour busride from the middle of town.

We took the bus towards these hills, our destination being an area called Victoria Park. After a short hike we came to the top of a mountain and we could see all of Christchurch laid out before us, with the Southern Alps to the North and the ocean to the East.

When we were at the absolute top and looked South, we could see Lyttelton Harbour.

Photo courtesy of Will Rynearson

Group photo! From left to right, the people in this photo are Will (USA), Heiko (Germany), moi, Andy (Austria), Gabe (USA), Carmen (Germany), and my flatmate Kristina (Austria).

After tramping the whole day, we decided to do a group dinner. We decided on pizza, since it’s pretty easy. Most of the group also live in the Ilam Apartments, so we had to go to Heiko’s place off campus since he has an oven.

The pizza was delicious, but kinda sweet. We all wondered why, until afterwards when we were cleaning up and we realized that we had put ketchup on our pizza in lieu of tomato sauce…

I mean, we’d all been told that kiwis call ketchup “tomato sauce,” and that it can be confusing, but none of us even thought about it when someone put a can of “tomato sauce” into the cart.

Who puts ketchup in cans anyway?

Well it doesn’t matter, it actually tasted pretty good, and we ate 5 pizzas among 6 people.

Photo courtesy of Carmen Widera

This being my first adventure, and what I came to New Zealand for, I was a super happy camper after that trip.