First Week of Classes

Classes started this past Monday (February 28th) and luckily for me, my first class on Mondays isn't until noon! I start my week off with my CLAS108 course: Art and Archaeology: Of Gods, Heroes, and Men. So far this class hasn't exactly been my cup of tea (Minoan architecture, not so interesting) but here's to hoping it gets better! Starting on Week 3 of my semester I will have my Introduction to Conversational Maori tutorial. A tutorial is a way to have smaller groups out of the class come together to ask any questions about the material, or to be quizzed on the material since lectures can be quite large. That ends my Mondays, at 2:00!!!

Tuesdays I go to the Geology Building at 9:00am (so early!) to my ZOOL221 class: Animal Designs for Living. This class is so great, we are looking at the diversity of animals, their functions, and learning to identify animals based off of these functions. Our first lab was this past Wednesday (I had to buy a lab coat, so official!) and we ended up doing a lab I had already done at Unity. Specimens of freshwater invertebrates were brought in and we were tasked with using a dichotomous key to identify the species of each one. Next lab we get to take kick nets out and collect and identify specimens from the Leith River while in the field.

The Geology Building, only 4 minutes from my flat! 

At 11:00 I go on to ECOL211: Ecology of Communities and Ecosystems. This class looks at the diversity of ecosystems and the communities within them. Finally, Tuesday ends with my MAOR110: Introduction to Conversational Maori lecture, which has been pretty interesting so far. My lecturer is Irish, Scottish, and Welsh (I think) but has been speaking fluent Maori for 10 years. Maori pronunciation is  a bit like Spanish, especially with the pronunciation of the vowels and the rolling of their r's. Another day ended at 2 pm (go me!).

Wednesdays I have my second ZOOL221 lecture, CLAS108, and finally my ZOOL221 lab. Lab goes on until 5 pm! What a day! The rest of my week is pretty easy, with only 2 classes on Thursday and a lab on Friday for ECOL211. In this lab we began looking at mites on leaves and their use of domatia (small pits found on the surface of leaves near the veins). What an interesting world you find under a microscope!

Such an easy schedule gives me plenty of time to explore the enormous campus that is the University of Otago.

Some of the old buildings on campus

The Physics Department

The Archway

A look down the Leith

The clock tower!

After a long week of adjusting to classes, I didn't get to do much exploring this weekend, but here's to more adventures to come!