Although I “only” have three courses (whereas I would have had eleven subjects if I were in my university), they take place several times a week, so I roughly have less than a dozen of hours per week (including the course I am auditing). As a result, you could easily think: “how nice! Not a lot of classes so more free time for me, hurray!”. Guess what? This is an illusion. Do not delude yourself, this so-called free time is ideally for homework purposes! Because I am not taking Chinese this semester (remember, I am too good to be a beginner but not enough to reach the intermediate level), my timetable is lighter. I have classes on Monday until Thursday, which means the weekend already starts on Thursday afternoon!
Even though the rhythm is more intense, I am glad to have a fairly normal schedule, compared to that of my home university. For some reason, the planning staff has always been terrible (hello euphemism) at…planning. They pretend it is because of the lack of classrooms. You therefore end up with a timetable that leaves you gasping.
For instance, you are likely to have a class at 1pm, the next one being at…7pm! You must also take into account that from my house to school, it takes around forty minutes (when the trains are not on strike, do not have so-called technical problems, when people do not faint in the train or decide to end their lives in the railroads, therefore making people’s day complete). How happy I was when I went to school for only one class and found out that the professor was absent. There are cases when your second class is right after the other, whereas you are at a different place, located twenty-minutes away from your next class! Well-organized, isn’t it? Worse, I have had lectures that took place at 8pm…school closes at 9pm. By the time I came back home, it was 10pm and in most cases, I had not eaten yet. Classes would naturally start at 8am the next day. What I strongly dislike about my university is that of course, you do have classes on Saturday, as an addition of having a terrible schedule. That ruined my weekends. Not only Saturday mornings, but also till the afternoon! Unbelievable. Way to have fun on weekends. Good job, home university. That is why the schedule at Middlebury College is heaven to me, who has encountered hellish plannings.
For instance, you are likely to have a class at 1pm, the next one being at…7pm! You must also take into account that from my house to school, it takes around forty minutes (when the trains are not on strike, do not have so-called technical problems, when people do not faint in the train or decide to end their lives in the railroads, therefore making people’s day complete). How happy I was when I went to school for only one class and found out that the professor was absent. There are cases when your second class is right after the other, whereas you are at a different place, located twenty-minutes away from your next class! Well-organized, isn’t it? Worse, I have had lectures that took place at 8pm…school closes at 9pm. By the time I came back home, it was 10pm and in most cases, I had not eaten yet. Classes would naturally start at 8am the next day. What I strongly dislike about my university is that of course, you do have classes on Saturday, as an addition of having a terrible schedule. That ruined my weekends. Not only Saturday mornings, but also till the afternoon! Unbelievable. Way to have fun on weekends. Good job, home university. That is why the schedule at Middlebury College is heaven to me, who has encountered hellish plannings.
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| Davis Family Main Library (one minute away from my dorm) |
To sum it up, sure, a lot of personal work is required at Middlebury College but at least you do have a nice schedule!
EDIT: A month has elapsed and my Midterm exams are coming up. Naturally, I am now revising intensively. Do you know why? That is because I still have not learned from my experience, ie, I have not worked regularly. I will never learn apparently!
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| Starr Hall: my good old dorm. |
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