Classes

Hi!
Well its about that time of the semester where things start getting a bit hectic! Lots of big papers and assignments (which are called assessments here in Aussie Land) coming up in the next few days! Thought I'd let you know about how all of my classes are going so far:

1. Australia and the World- Its surprisingly difficult for a freshman level course. It goes in depth with Australia's history with other countries however I don't know much Australian history in general which makes the class a bit more difficult. My professor expects me to know my American history very thoroughly when the US comes up in the discussion and I find it very frustrating when I can't recall the specific details he wants me contribute.

2. Popular Culture and Society- I LOVE this class. It is so interesting to hear the Australian perspective on pop culture especially when the US gets mixed into the conversation. For example, we were recently discussing television in class and the fact that most TV in Australia is American. This raises issues with educating children about emergency practices because they are used to hearing "Call 911" on TV but really in Australia the emergency number is 000. People have to make extra sure that their kids know the right number to call instead of doing what they see on TV.

3.Digital Culture- This is my online class and its pretty good so far. Not too time consuming. We usually have some readings to do each week with a task that we have to complete and then write about. Lately the tasks have been dealing with search engines or wikis. Last week one of our assignments was to update a wikipedia page.

4. Tourism Principles and Practices- This class focuses on management practices in tourism. I have a paper due very soon which has to be based off a contemporary toursim issue. This is a good class because it talks a lot about Australia. Just recently we were discussing Uluru which was exciting for me because I get to go there next week!

The grading system here is much different than the US. Instead of grades A, B, C, D, and F they have High Distinction, Distinction, Pass, Credit, and Fail. Apparently High Distinctions are much harder to come by than As. All of my classes will transfer to U of A as elective credits (assuming I pass all of them). My grades will not affect my Grade Point Average. Well I better get back to work if I want to finish my assessments in time!
Until next time,
Kimmy