Things have slowed down since my last blog, which I suppose is a good thing, but it is only the calm before the storm. I’m sure things will start to pick up since classes start on Monday, September 10th. I’m both excited and nervous about classes. Carol, the International Student Support Manager, told us a bit more about what classes will be like on Tuesday. According to her, students that tend to get As or Bs at their home university will get Cs at Liverpool because of how strict it is. In the United Kingdom, there are very few assignments, absolutely no extra credit of any kind, and no attendance grade. The fewer assignments mean that each assignment is worth a large chunk of my grade; at Susquehanna, there are always plenty of assignments, which leaves more room for mistakes and missed work! Sometimes professors offer extra credit but not all the time, and attendance can only harm your grades at Susquehanna.
At Liverpool Hope, a course is sometimes separated into two types of classes: Lectures and Tutorials. Lectures are what I think of when I think of a formal college class. The Tutor, or professor, gives the class a ‘lecture,’ presenting the information to the students, but a tutorial is a more informal class. A tutorial separates students into small sections for more discussion-based learning. For example, my History of the Welfare State and Topics in Contemporary Theatre classes have appeared in my schedule twice; once as a lecture and another time as a tutorial. At Susquehanna, each class is more of a seminar, a mix between lecture and tutorial, but that balance depends on the type of class I’m taking. The statistics class that I took in Spring 2019 was more lecture-based, and the professor provided some time for the class to work on math problems together, but my Creative Writing and Publishing & Editing classes are especially discussion based.
There are a few things that I should update you on that happened this past week.
Union strikes
As I’m sure you have noticed, there has been a stronger effort to institute unions in America recently. Unions are necessary. They ensure that businesses treat their workers fairly by representing their needs. To Americans, it is often a surprise that unions work out. American companies work tirelessly to knock down any unionization efforts like in the case of Amazon, who spent millions in union busting. Here in Liverpool, union strikes are normal, planned even. Both the staff at Liverpool Hope University and railway workers have had strikes since last week.
Creative Campus
I finally got to see the Creative Campus this past Tuesday. It was fairly small, only three buildings. During the tour, we visited where our classes would be. I’m going to be spending a lot of time there.
Library
I got a library card in Liverpool on Wednesday. I’m trying to read for pleasure more, and this will be another step in the right direction. I only got one book, Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard; I didn’t want to take more because it’s likely that I won’t be able to get through the one I borrowed.
Chester
We visited Chester today, which was cool. Chester is a city south of Liverpool. It was my first time out of Liverpool since arriving here from the airport two weeks ago. At first, the shopping center looked deceptively like an outlet with stores on the first and second floor, but if you enter the second floor and follow through the hallway, there was this huge shopping center that takes up a whole block. I’ll post some more pictures of the trip by next week in the Gallery tab, which already has pictures posted from my first week in Liverpool including a tour of Liverpool Hope University’s main campus and more!
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