« Another Female in the Gym! | Main | On the Road Again... »
March 03, 2005
Bad Planning
The way that the HWS professors have scheduled our classes here means that I have two classes on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and a different class on Wednesday night. Thus, over the weekend I spend hours preparing mostly for Tuesday's and Wendesday's classes, so that at the end of every week I have a lot of work to do for Thursday and Friday and not much time to do it. For example, this weekend I worked for the majority of Saturday and Sunday. I had Combinatorics on Monday, two classes on Tuesday, grocery shopping for most of Wednesday followed by a class until 8:30 at night, and I had 130 pages to read and a short paper to write for today. Furthermore, I got an assignment in my Combinatorics class this morning that is due tomorrow at 2:00, and I have relatively little free time between now and then to get the work done.
Note that I am not complaining about this situation, as I am a college student and I understand that this is why I pay thousands of dollars a year. Some people here are voicing frustration about the workload that our professors are placing on us, noting that they didn't come to South Africa to sit in their rooms and read all day. And while I have much sympathy for these people because I am going through the same thing, they did sign up for the same study abroad trip that I did. The material that we're reading has everything to do with the country we're temporarily residing in, and it's very interesting to be able to apply what we're learning to the environment that completely surrounds us.
In conclusion, my study abroad trip to South Africa has involved much studying, despite the warm summer-like weather and my proximity to the ocean. With that said, I am enjoying my time here more than I initially expected, as I have become much more aware of what is around me and conscious of the fact that my time here is quickly passing. I wish that I could bring everyone here just for a day or two to show them what I've been learning about! If anyone happens to be heading to South Africa before the end of May, let me know...
Posted by rgutwin at March 3, 2005 07:10 AM
Comments
Ahem. You can bring us back there for a visit.
Also, you may want to expand your thinking about the lots-of-work-no-time-for-fun thing: A friend of mine is fond of telling the story of getting an assignment from his manager; my friend asked when the manager when the assignment needed to be completed (it was sizeable). Without missing a beat the manager said "today - if I had wanted it tomorrow, I would have asked you for it tomorrow".
Posted by: Paul Gutwin at March 4, 2005 09:19 PM
Or you could just bring me to South Africa so I could show you around a very select few areas in Johannesburg, Mpumalanga, and the Western Cape...
Posted by: Rebecca at March 5, 2005 03:30 AM