First Week of School

Yay! We've officially completed our first week here at the uni.  I'm taking four classes: Maori100, New Zealand and the Pacific (Anth), Psych102, and an Ed. course.  There are about 120 in most of my classes, but my Psych class has 400!  The teachers lecture for the whole hour (or two hours) and we sit there and take notes.  Its really boring, and definitely not the best way to learn.  However, another part of the curriculum are "tutorials."  These are mandatory sessions that you sign up for once a week.  The tutorials are run by grad. students studying the specific course subject, and there are about 25 students in each tutorial.  Tutorials gives students the opportunity to ask questions and get clarification on things that were covered in the lecture.  They are mandatory and last about 2 hours.  I'm not too sure what else goes on in the tutorial; they start next week.

This is a picture of my Maori class.  There are about 70 students enrolled.  In this class, we learn about the language and the culture. Actually, we learn about the culture through language, if that makes sense. 
I really like my Anthropology class.  The professor assigned a book of readings, which has articles by Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa, and a bunch of other well known Pacific activists.  We discuss really interesting issues that are very relevant to the Hawaiian culture.

My other two courses are blahhh.  I'm taking the Psych class for Linfield credit, and I'm taking the Ed. class to see how they teach Educational concepts compared to the States.
This week was also known as "O Week."  It happens the first week of every semester, and basically during this time, the students go out EVERY NIGHT of the week.  Each night is a different theme, and people get all dressed up and go to the clubs.  We went out Wednesday and Thursday night and it was crazy, but so much fun! (Pictures on facebook.)

Logan will tell you about his first week at school!:
NZ is super cool! The landscape is amazing and the people are so hospitable.  I've met so many new people and have made so many friends.  So monday i started class at 5 pm.  It is a treaty of Waitangi paper and its really interesting.  Kailee is not in this paper with me but the other Hawaiians are.  On the first day, we had to go around the room and do introductions.  All the Hawaiians introduced themselves in Hawaiian, but I couldn't because my Hawaiian sucks, so I did the English thing.  Well turns out all SEVENTY people in the class are Maori language majors so I was the only person to introduce myself in English! haha that was embarrassing moment number one.  But other than that everything has been pretty good.
Kailee and I are both in this Maori 100 class that teaches us history through language.  Its going to be really elementary for the first couple weeks because there are a lot of European kids in the class.  I am also in the Kapa Haka class, which is really cool.  I figure since I'm here that I should get the full experience, plus I thought that being in a class with mostly domestic students will boost my status with the Maori's! haha.
My 4th paper (class) is a paper I was not planning on doing, but was one of the only classes that fit in my schedule.  Coincidentally, this is my favorite paper so far!  It starts at 9 am on Wednesday, so I was happy that I woke up for it, but the class is amazing.  My professor is originally from Holland so he has that funny accent where they use "V" sounds for "W", but he is so knowledgeable and a complete wise cracker! I forgot to mention that the class is a political science paper called "Conflicts and Crisis in the Middle East and Asia".  It is so awesome.

So this past week was called Re-O, or re-orientation week!  To the college kids, this means party EVERY night of the week!  It has been absolutely ridiculous here.  It is totally socially acceptable to drink here, especially because 18 is the legal drinking age, so the kids go all out. I'm thinking things will start slowing down from here on out.