Well, that's it folks. I officially finished all of my lectures and have begun finals. It's finally starting to hit me, that the semester is quickly coming to an end. And I still have so much to do! But before I go on any more adventures, I want to reminisce about all of my classes.
I'm going to start with my least favorite class. But, by no means does this make it a bad class. On the contrary, it was a wonderful class. It just so happened that all of my other classes were better in comparison. Voice and Movement was my theatre paper for this semester. I had it once a week: lecture for an hour, and tutorial (where we used our voice and moved) for two hours after the lecture. Our text were various readings about the voice and theatre practices. We did a series of warm-ups and exploratory exercises in the tutorial, which was by far the better half of the class. What made this class so exceptional, though, is what makes most theatre classes: the friendly atmosphere and the subject matter's relevance to everyday life. You do a lot of things that look silly in a theatre class, share personal experiences and feelings about situations, and work together all the time. It's pretty clear how friendships and camaraderie develop in a short amount of time. Also, I use my voice and my body everyday, and this class focus on the health and proper use of both. And I could feel the effects leak over into my everyday life to generally make me feel healthier.
The next class on the list is Animal Physiology, and the only reason that it is lower than Maori society is because it had less relevance in my everyday life. I missed science over the summer and this was an incredibly informative and fun class. Lectures met twice a week and we had lab fortnightly. My favorite part of this class was working in a collaborative group to carry out our own research on Drosophila melanogaster, aka fruit flies. We wrote a research proposal, treated the flies with chemicals, and observed them for 2 weeks, then gave a presentation together and wrote individual lab reports. While it may seem boring, we kept it fun by being energetic and giving constant updates on their cute, sexy development from a larva to adult.
Next, I had Maori Society. Now, this class was simple, with only 2 lectures a week (which were massive) and a weekly review seminar which were all an hour long. But, this class was the second most informative and relevant class. Every time I traveled in New Zealand, I used some sort of knowledge I gained from this class. But, Maori Society, Animal Physiology, and Voice and Movement are no where near comparing to my all-time favorite class: Dress and Society.
Dress and Society was the class least related to my university studies. Biology is my major, so I took Animal Physiology and my minor is Performance and Communication Arts, hence the Voice and Movement class. My school requires a New Zealand specific course in order to get a Diversity credit (something I need to graduate), so Maori Society seemed like the best choice. My only inspiration for Dress and Society was that it sounded interesting and it could possibly help me on campus because I work in the Costume Shop. I quickly discovered that this was true, and so much more. Every topic was interesting and my marvelous lecturer had me hanging on every word. I thought that fashion history was the only thing that would help in the costume shop, but dress is a part of culture, a person's identity, and distinctly human. This can help me pick out accurately symbolic things for a character to wear. Plus, I look at fashion and dress completely different now. I look at people differently, look at cultures differently, and look at time periods differently. I could go on about this topic, but I want to show the significance this paper has had on me. One of my flatmates asked me at the beginning of the year, "If couldn't study what you are studying right now, what would you study to be?" When she asked me this, I responded with English so I could become a writer. Now, it would be Textile sciences to either study them in museums or design (more so for theatre), and this new opinion is all due to this class.
My classes at Otago have been wonderful, but I think I just liked the general atmosphere of school more. There were less internal assessments. That meant less stress during the school year, no tests every week, more time to relax and enjoy life and your studies (instead of constantly stressing about both). But, with less internal exams comes finals that weigh around half of your final marks. While this could be daunting (who am I kidding, it is) the time frame of finals makes it all possible. Usually, I have 2-3 days before my first final at SLU, and then a week to fit in the other 3. Here, there is a 3-4 week study period for finals and I was one of the lucky ones that had each of my finals one week apart. I had plenty of time to review, memorize, and understand while still being able to have a social life and procrastinate by watching Pushing Daisies and Supernatural with my flatmates. I have time to cook home-made meals instead of rushing to eat all my buffet food from the dining hall. I've had time to truly enjoy New Zealand and not just stress about schoolwork.
The next class on the list is Animal Physiology, and the only reason that it is lower than Maori society is because it had less relevance in my everyday life. I missed science over the summer and this was an incredibly informative and fun class. Lectures met twice a week and we had lab fortnightly. My favorite part of this class was working in a collaborative group to carry out our own research on Drosophila melanogaster, aka fruit flies. We wrote a research proposal, treated the flies with chemicals, and observed them for 2 weeks, then gave a presentation together and wrote individual lab reports. While it may seem boring, we kept it fun by being energetic and giving constant updates on their cute, sexy development from a larva to adult.
Next, I had Maori Society. Now, this class was simple, with only 2 lectures a week (which were massive) and a weekly review seminar which were all an hour long. But, this class was the second most informative and relevant class. Every time I traveled in New Zealand, I used some sort of knowledge I gained from this class. But, Maori Society, Animal Physiology, and Voice and Movement are no where near comparing to my all-time favorite class: Dress and Society.
Dress and Society was the class least related to my university studies. Biology is my major, so I took Animal Physiology and my minor is Performance and Communication Arts, hence the Voice and Movement class. My school requires a New Zealand specific course in order to get a Diversity credit (something I need to graduate), so Maori Society seemed like the best choice. My only inspiration for Dress and Society was that it sounded interesting and it could possibly help me on campus because I work in the Costume Shop. I quickly discovered that this was true, and so much more. Every topic was interesting and my marvelous lecturer had me hanging on every word. I thought that fashion history was the only thing that would help in the costume shop, but dress is a part of culture, a person's identity, and distinctly human. This can help me pick out accurately symbolic things for a character to wear. Plus, I look at fashion and dress completely different now. I look at people differently, look at cultures differently, and look at time periods differently. I could go on about this topic, but I want to show the significance this paper has had on me. One of my flatmates asked me at the beginning of the year, "If couldn't study what you are studying right now, what would you study to be?" When she asked me this, I responded with English so I could become a writer. Now, it would be Textile sciences to either study them in museums or design (more so for theatre), and this new opinion is all due to this class.
My classes at Otago have been wonderful, but I think I just liked the general atmosphere of school more. There were less internal assessments. That meant less stress during the school year, no tests every week, more time to relax and enjoy life and your studies (instead of constantly stressing about both). But, with less internal exams comes finals that weigh around half of your final marks. While this could be daunting (who am I kidding, it is) the time frame of finals makes it all possible. Usually, I have 2-3 days before my first final at SLU, and then a week to fit in the other 3. Here, there is a 3-4 week study period for finals and I was one of the lucky ones that had each of my finals one week apart. I had plenty of time to review, memorize, and understand while still being able to have a social life and procrastinate by watching Pushing Daisies and Supernatural with my flatmates. I have time to cook home-made meals instead of rushing to eat all my buffet food from the dining hall. I've had time to truly enjoy New Zealand and not just stress about schoolwork.
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