1. AGE is no limit to education here in Australia. Much to my surprise older (and by older I mean 10+ years older than me) people are still just getting around to attending uni! I have heaps of classmates who are quite possibly, mums and dads and professionals-turned-students again! I find it to be awesome because I've never experienced being in a class with a wide age range. In my old school, I even used to be close to being the eldest.
2. BLENDED ADULT LEARNING is pretty cool. I was supposed to have 2 lectures every Monday, but, as it turns out, the course believes that blended learning optimises learning, and so all lectures for that class has been made into e-lectures. Story made short, no more face-to-face lectures for Intro. to Research Methods on Mondays. In addition, my Human Behaviour lecture isn't compulsory, either. The lectures are downloadable as PODCASTS! How cool is that. Lulz.
3. The WEIGHT of each course is so much different from what I'm used to. I remember having an early summer/Christmas break cos I didn't have final exams, but all my subjects have sit down, 3 hour exams. Plus there's heaps of research and papers to make, and it seems like I can't 'write' my way out of it. I'd usually just blab and reiterate important points on my papers (sans REFERENCING) but written works are taken so seriously here!
4. Speaking of REFERENCING, all universities here in Oz have this thing called Turnitin (turn-it-in) where you can (rather, highly encouraged) to submit your work before submitting it to check it against a MASSIVE database of all previous students' works, other published material etc. They're big on plagiarism here, and to emphasise, the database covers around 4 billion websites, 10 million past students' works, and journal articles. Yes, one has to be careful before handing in an assignment.
5. WiFi is ALL OVER the uni!!! It's so exciting. You can lay around on the grass and still be browsing the net. The government funded the uni $2.1 million for all UWS campuses to have it! I've activated mine on my laptop yesterday, and wow, the speed of the net considering the amount of users was really good!
6. Best of all, people are SO NICE! My campus isn't filled with Asians (AKA FILOS!) unlike the Parramatta one and I was at first really anxious about meeting friends and that. But hey, I've only been there 2 days, and what I noticed was that when I accidentally look at someone he/she just smiles at me. When I ask for something I missed during the lecture, they answer politely. My seat mates in lectures chat to me and are very friendly. I like the mix of the student population in my uni. Mostly there's Wogs (1. a non-Anglo-Celtic European, esp. from Southern or Eastern Europe (e.g. Greek, Italian, Balkan, Slavic, etc.) ; 2. an Asian, esp. a West Asian (e.g. Lebanese, Turkish, Armenian, Iranian, etc.), but now also inclusive of South Asians and Pacific Islanders*), then Australians, Blacks, Chinese, Korean and Japanese. So far, I've only spoken to the Wogs and Aussies, and they've made me feel as if I'm no different. I remember back in Manila, when you accidentally look at someone you don't know in school and try to smile at them, they pretend they don't see, or act like you're a freak.
7. And last, but most amusing, the university has a BAR. I haven't checked our one yet, but in Parramatta, they sell beer. Yes. Alcohol is available for purchase here in uni, but not cigarrettes! I guess they really believe that people who go to uni are adults and to be assumed responsible and treated as such. The one in Blacktown/Nirimba campus stopped selling because of the fights. I should check our one soon.
Yeah, so those are the things I learned in school this week. I am 7 points smarter. Lol.
