I realize I am posting this a bit later than usual, but I had a lot going on this week. Perhaps most important of all, this was my first week of classes. After over 4 months of vacation, it felt a little strange to go back to studying. I don’t want it to sound like I am not excited about it, though. Im taking three courses at QUB and a fourth one with CIEE, which is the program through which I applied to Queen’s. The CIEE one is an anthropology class on the culture of Northern Ireland surrounding The Troubles. I am also taking a class on the politics of the conflict, so the two modules complement each other nicely. My third class is another politics module. I was originally supposed to take a class on Arms Control, but it now seems like it will be cancelled. I now have to decide between a module called Security and Terrorism and one called Asylum and Migration. Both sound equally interesting, so I’ll definitely have to do some research in order to decide well. Last of all is more of an elective, or rather a module I am simply taking for the fun of it: Criminology 101. I fell in love with the course immediately. Nevertheless, the class requires a lot of readings.
Courses are called modules in Northern Ireland (you might have noticed that I keep using the words interchangeably). Most humanities courses consist of one lecture and one tutorial, which I have yet to have but I assume are where you would discuss what you learn at the lecture. The Asylum and Migration course is a two hour seminar, however. I’m guessing that is definitely a discussion-based class. Something I noticed is that the first class can often be simply a review of the module guide (syllabus). The lecturer might choose to go into great detail, but they tend to be a chill start to the term. Another thing that is different is that on top of he required reading, lecturers suggest a long list of readings that would be helpful to do. Although this is not unheard of at Wellesley, the number of suggested readings here seems abnormally high. Lastly, I have also noticed that the university is very laid back; students have to take charge of their learning. My advisor suggested that I treat my education as a 9-5 job. If you don’t have class at any point between those two hours, you should be studying/doing homework/researching. This concept was eye-opening to me, and although I doubt I can stick to it entirely, I do believe having a set schedule would keep me in check.
This Wednesday I will post about my trip to Stockholm, Sweden! I am here for the weekend, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it.