I started university a couple of weeks back and that has kept me pretty occupied during weekdays. Trying to get back to the habit of studying is a slight pain after not having studied since last May. But, I'm starting to get it slowly but surely! At the moment I'm taking 5 different courses which equals to 20 credits in the local system, transferred to ECTs it's 30 - the rest I need in order to complete my bachelor's studies and graduate once I get back to Finland. Studying 20 credits in one semester is the maximum it is possible to take here and most people take less - meaning three to four courses, depending on their picks. So in a way I'm in a bit of an unfortunate situation since I need to study so much but then again, the courses I'm taking seem really interesting so I bet I'll be fine.
So what courses am I taking then? Japanese, consumer behaviour, human resource management, media technology & representation and philosophy. Since I'm an IB major I need to take courses that relate to my field of studies and besides that I was cut some slack by being allowed to study the language and one voluntary course from another discipline - which in my case is the philosophy course.
About the practicalities then. The lectures here are held twice a week and 90 minutes in length - with the exception of Japanese that I have every morning from Monday to Friday for 90 minutes. The courses are blocked so that the first block starts at 9:15 and ends at 10:45. Lunch break is then from 12:30 till 13:30 but good luck trying to get to the cafeteria at that time, not even mentioning the konbini.. After each lecture there is a 15-minute break to allow you to run from one building to another in search of your next classroom - whereas that is nice it also makes the days ridiculously long if (like me) you happen to have a lecture on the fifth period that starts at 17:00 and finishes at 18:30. At least I was wise enough to not pick any courses to the sixth period...
What else.. The attendance policy here is strict. Very strict. Luckily I'm already used to it from my home university because otherwise it might have been quite of a shock. Once you're enrolled on a course, you are expected to attend. And that really means it. Most of the courses allow two absences without penalties but after that, you will start losing points from your final grade. For me, this is hardly a struggle but there were some (exchange) students who were clearly shocked by the info. You are actually expected to study here.
Otherwise the professors are nice - apart from the introductory lecture. They were scary. And when I say scary I mean it. The introductory lecture basically consists of telling the course requirements and policies - it is held during the time you can still switch around your courses and that really reflects to the professors' behaviour as well. Because the class sizes can be quite big, they are trying to scare off at least some of the students - and their success rate is high, from our consumer behaviour course, around 20 people dropped the course after the introductory lecture and now we're down to a rather reasonable class. So yeah, that was a bit of a,,, shock. But after that the professors have turned out to be very very nice, humorous and great. No complaints so far whatsoever!
A couple of little unnecessary facts I've also picked up during these two weeks..
1) The style here is formal. Professors are referred with their surname and often a title "doctor" rather than "professor" even though both are (usually) fine. Mr. and Mrs. are strictly banned. Also the e-mail protocols are strict - people expect to be treated professionally.
2) The classrooms and how quickly they can change.. A good rule of thumb is to check every morning from our intranet where the class is actually held instead of trusting that it will be held in the classroom the original schedule says.
3) Roll call is often silent. People don't respond to their name with "here" or "yes" but instead just raise their hand.
4) The trains. If until now I've lived in the firm belief of Japanese trains always being on time.. well, that's definitely not the case in the mornings. I am so glad our commute is so short so it doesn't really make much difference to leave a bit earlier. During these two weeks there have been maybe two days during which our train hasn't abruptly stopped in the middle of nowhere and waited there for other trains to pass or something alike. The problematic part in this is that whereas usually you have a 15-minute gap to arrive to class (meaning, if the class starts at 9:15, it's still okay to come in class until 9:30), after that giving the excuse of "the train was late" is not a plausible excuse for being late.
I guess that's me done with talking about some basics of the university experience here. Something missing or wanna know more? Please let me know!
