I'm a student again!

[Lu]

Sooo came from my orientation today :)

For those who do not know I'm doing my honors in archeology this year.

Seems I have 2-3 classes each week. So I will not be on, on a Tuesday, Wednesday and every 2nd Friday.

Then there are going to be excavations, internships and lab work.

So very excited! We don't have exam dates because we are going to sit down and choose a date that works for all of us.... where in the world...

Anyway I seem to be the most organized of the bunch lol so hopefully they teach me to relax a bit :)

[Lauren]

That's so awesome :)Except for the exams - they shouldn't make you do exams in honours!

Let me know if you need any help with group stuff.

Enjoy!

[Lu]

Agreed! Atleast it seems to be only 2 :)

Will do thank you!!

[Chrizette]

That sounds awesome! Enjoy.

[Barbara]

It sounds like a typical bunch of archaeologists to me. :)
We had some of the same issues just in the regular studies over here.
I hope you have fun and pass your exams whenever they are. :)

[Lu]

Thank you Barbara and Chriz :)

[Varla Fiona]

Hope you have a great year. We also choose our exam dates in my Zoology Honours year. Exams consisted of writing an essay in 8 hours, fully referenced. We could take whatever we wanted into the venue (computer lab) but could not access internet during exam. We did not know the question before the exam but had to read as many articles related to the work we had covered to be prepared.

Excursions should be fun...

[Lu]

Oh wow that is interesting! Never heard of an exam like that, but I like it!

Yea I always like excavations :)

[Lauren]

Varla Fiona wrote: "Hope you have a great year. We also choose our exam dates in my Zoology Honours year. Exams consisted of writing an essay in 8 hours, fully referenced. We could take whatever we wanted into the ven..."

Wow, I don't know if I could handle an exam like that. I think I'd be ok in terms of information and referencing, but to work under pressure for 8 hours sounds very daunting. How did it go for you Varla Fiona?

[Varla Fiona]

At first the idea was terrifying, but by the time we wrote the exam we had read so many papers about the topic and discussed key ones, that the essay wasn't too bad. We were allowed to come and go as we liked so we could take a break as often as we needed as long as we finished on time. I go decent marks for all my subjects 55-70% range, even though I was working full time, so it can't have been too intense!

[Lauren]

Ah ok, that's not so bad then!

Speaking of odd exams, my boyfriend did politics, and for one course the lecturer actually gave the exam question (an essay question) ahead of time. The catch was that they were expected to write a proper essay in the 2-3 hour exam period, not just regurgitated study notes because they'd been given time to prepare.

[Barbara]

I once had to retake an exam and the professor put us in a library and left us there all alone. The first question was to put a number of cities in order when you went done a certain river and there was this big map of the area on the wall, so we could check if we had it right. The answers of the other questions could be found in the books that were all around us if we needed them. After and hour the professor returned and graded our exams. Of course we all passed!

[Carolien]

I had two 24 hour exams in my 1st year. You walked in at 8 in the morning and was given the material which included a map and then had to do a complete analysis of the site and layout of a suburb. Before 8 the next evening you had to present your design to the lecturer. Obviously by that stage you were too tired to provide any logical answers to their questions and critical analysis of your presentation style was not appreciated. It did not improve the situation that my drawing and general artistic abilities are severely limited to start with...

[Bian is always tired]

Lu (Sugar & Snark) wrote: "Sooo came from my orientation today :)

For those who do not know I'm doing my honors in archeology this year.

Seems I have 2-3 classes each week. So I will not be on, on a Tuesday, Wednesday and ..."

I did my honours in archaeology last year at UP.

[Chrizette]

I wish I could have gone to university . . . always wanted to study psychology :)

[Lu]

Chrizette wrote: "I wish I could have gone to university . . . always wanted to study psychology :)"

Never too late :)

Bianca wrote: "Lu (Sugar & Snark) wrote: "Sooo came from my orientation today :)

For those who do not know I'm doing my honors in archeology this year.

Seems I have 2-3 classes each week. So I will not be on, o..."

That is awesome Bianca! What are you doing now? Masters?

Carolien wrote: "I had two 24 hour exams in my 1st year. You walked in at 8 in the morning and was given the material which included a map and then had to do a complete analysis of the site and layout of a suburb. ..."

Wow that is crazy!

[Bian is always tired]

I'm taking the year off, thinking of doing my masters overseas next year.

[Carolien]

Chrizette wrote: "I wish I could have gone to university . . . always wanted to study psychology :)"

Agree with Lu, it's never too late. I've started studying again this year after a 10 year break. Also, these days you can access various university courses from across the world and actually build your own courses from some awesome institutions.

[Lu]

Bianca wrote: "I'm taking the year off, thinking of doing my masters overseas next year."

Oh great! Any topic/field you are interested in?

[Bian is always tired]

Well my honours was about K2 juvenile burials and I'm interested in household archaeology, historical, personal adornment, funarary practice, childhood and gender.

[Lu]

Great stuff!

Any idea where overseas you want to do you Masters?

[Lu]

So I had my first class today! It was great.

The sucky part = 4 hour commute a day!!!!!

[Chrizette]

4 hour commute!! Oh.My.Goodness! Do you drive yourself or public transport? Well at least you have your audio books :)

[Lu]

Drive to the gautrain, take the train, switch trains, take the bus, walk and yay there :)

Then the same back.

Yea will get through a lot of audiobooks!

[Varla Fiona]

That is quite a commute. I get annoyed when it takes longer than 20 minutes to get to work...

[Chrizette]

Varla Fiona wrote: "That is quite a commute. I get annoyed when it takes longer than 20 minutes to get to work..."

I agree - I lived about 15 minutes from work and when I had to sit in traffic for up to an hour, I was really in a bad mood. 4 hours would be a bit much for me . . .

[Lu]

Yea I was damn tired. Just had a nap. Standing around and climbing from one thing to another was surprisingly tiresome. Who knew!

Not looking forward too tomorrow's. I will have to park my car at a shopping mall near me and then take the bus to the station. Because my class is 1:30-3:30. So when I get to the station there will be NO parking. Hell when I got there today at 8 there were only a few.

Coming back at that time... fun times on the train. Will probably have to stand the whole way.

[Chrizette]

Lu (Sugar & Snark) wrote: "Yea I was damn tired. Just had a nap. Standing around and climbing from one thing to another was surprisingly tiresome. Who knew!

Not looking forward too tomorrow's. I will have to park my car at ..."

I am sure you will get into a routine pretty quickly with all the possibilities figured out. Then it won't seem so bad.

[Lu]

I hope so :)
Atm it seems so daunting!

[Lauren]

Wow, with a commute like that I'd consider moving! At least you can read on the bus and the train.
What about going in early on your class days and just spending the extra time working at UP? Then you can choose to travel at the more convenient times and get parking.

[Carolien]

That's a horrible commute because of all the switching. If it makes you feel better mine is 20 minutes at 5:30am and took me 90 minutes yesterday at 8 am. Afternoon is anything between 40 min and an hour. It's all of 30 km.

[Lu]

Carolien wrote: "That's a horrible commute because of all the switching. If it makes you feel better mine is 20 minutes at 5:30am and took me 90 minutes yesterday at 8 am. Afternoon is anything between 40 min and a..."

Ouch!!

Lauren wrote: "Wow, with a commute like that I'd consider moving! At least you can read on the bus and the train.
What about going in early on your class days and just spending the extra time working at UP? Then ..."

Yea when the lab opens I plan on going in and working in the lab and then go to class :)

[Lu]

I had an awesome class today! And the travel went a bit better now that I knew what to expect (still the same time tho). I have also decided to stop listening to Beautiful Creatures because what a bore! So I will finish it by reading it and choose a bit more captivating audio book for next time :)

[Carolien]

Lu (Sugar & Snark) wrote: "I had an awesome class today! And the travel went a bit better now that I knew what to expect (still the same time tho). I have also decided to stop listening to Beautiful Creatures because what a ..."

A friend of mine who uses the Gautrain enjoys listening to the TED talks on her phone during the ride. She says they're a good match in terms of the timing, a talk is about the length of a Hatfield - Sandton trip. The nice thing is the variety that you then have available.

[Lu]

Not a bad plan!

[Lu]

So this week I have been driving to see which is better. And the driving is definitely faster for me. So I will be doing that.

Just to put it somewhere, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays I'm going to be very very quite. Just so you guys know if you email me or something :)

[Barbara]

At least we don't have the choose wisely challenge now and we won't be getting anxious if you don't reply the second we ask for a new task. :)

[Lu]

Heheh yea so true :)

[Chrizette]

Lu (Sugar & Snark) wrote: "So this week I have been driving to see which is better. And the driving is definitely faster for me. So I will be doing that.

Just to put it somewhere, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays I'm ..."

Isn't the driving more stressful . . . I can image that you sit in traffic quite a lot. Maybe the soothing sounds of your audio books will help there :)

[Lu]

It's much better than I thought. Because I don't leave the house before 9. But sometimes I come back a bit late, but still much quicker :)