13 January 2014: "Real People School."

Today, I had my very first lecture and seminar at the University of York. Since the lecture was at 1pm and the seminar at 2, I naturally woke up at 8:30 so that I wouldn't be late. I guess it's good that I did, though, because there was a fire drill at 10:15 and I was wide awake for it...but that's another story entirely. Anyway, I made myself some cheesy scrambled eggs, checked the room numbers 30 times each, got ready, did some daily self affirmations in the mirror, checked the room numbers another 20 times, and left my house at 12:15. You know...so that I wouldn't be late.

After using the map skills that were drilled into me in preparation for my 4th grade IOWA test, I found the building that my lecture was in with 20 minutes to spare. I awkwardly sat on the edge of a bench outside of the room, opening my laptop again to make sure that the lecture was, indeed, in the room that I was sitting near. It was. When it was time to go into the lecture hall, I couldn't believe my eyes. The room was huge. There were layered bench seats with long bench desks that went up about 10-15 rows. The benches were long. Each could easily hold 30-40 people. At Wooster, the biggest class I'd ever been in WAS 40 people! I awkwardly walked up several rows, slid into the middle of one, and took out my notebook.

While the room filled up, everybody was talking. Then, without any cue being given by the lecturer, nor bell ringing, nor anything else that I could see, the entire lecture hall fell silent. The lecturer then began to speak, just diving right into the lesson. There were no notes written on the board, no power points, no nothing. I quickly realized that the teachers in my high school WEREN'T lying when they said that most college professors just spoke and you had to be responsible for writing down what was important. This task was especially hard for me not only because I'd never learned like that before, but because I had to watch her lips to make sure that I was understanding the accent correctly.

After an hour of this, it was time to go. As I closed my notebook, the room burst into applause. I was stunned. I'd never known that people actually clapped at the end of college lessons. I mean, it happens in movies all the time, yeah, but I didn't know that it was a real life thing. I quickly joined in the applause, then packed up my stuff to head to the seminar for that class.

The seminar was in a completely different building and was supposed to start one minute after the lecture ended, so I naturally spent the next 15 minutes following confusing signs, turning around, crossing over bridges (I'm not being dramatic here. My campus is covered in bridges), and having mild panic attacks until I arrived at my desired room. I was obviously a couple of minutes late, but the tutor for the seminar didn't care. The seminar felt a lot more natural to me. There were only 14 students in the class, which is still a bit big for my Wooster liking, but is MUCH better than that 200 person lecture. It was interactive, hands-on, and even involved group work. I felt MUCH more at home and am completely thankful that that seminar exists.

I'm not going to lie. I'm feeling completely overwhelmed from this whole experience. However, to quote The Mountain Goats...