Orientation...

Today was my first day of orientation at the Uni. Within the first 5 minutes, it was clear that this is not a dry campus. Next Tuesday, all students are invited to attend the re-launch party of the campus bar. The president of the student association is also a member of the Brewing Society of Monash (as in beer brewing). And most, if not all, of the speakers mentioned something about bars or drinking. Aside from learning about partying, orientation offered the chance to sit in on a practice lecture and practice tutorial. The practice lecture focused on the history of terrorism, which I found to be quite interesting and even a bit embarrassing when the lecturer mentioned that terrorism has increased by 660% since Bush's War on Terrorism. The practice tutorial, or tut as they call it, presented a new way of learning outside of a lecture. It is set up as a small group discussion to supplement the lecture with additional information and exploration. As a graduate student, my courses are actually seminar style, which means they are a combination of lecture and tut in one.