So this was my first week of classes. I only have class on Monday and Tuesday, and a few other additional meeting times on Monday and Wednesdays later in the semester. So It's a great schedule, and gives me free time to get my readings done, and be social on and off campus. I have decided to join the Forensic Society and also the Photography Society on campus - both will look good on my CV and are a great way to make friends.
Monday, the class that I had was Forensic Science. I really was a little uncertain about what we would be covering in that class. The way that we get our classes here, is a little different from back home. They 'assign' you a schedule, and you take the classes with the other people in your postgraduate program. In my case, I am FBA (Forensic and Biological Anthropology) - but I take alot of similar classes with the FA (Forensic Archaeology) and Recovery (Recovery of Human Remains) post grad students. In total, between all three programs - there are about 50-60 of us. So in the Forensic class, it is the FBA and FA students. We meet in a lecture hall, and its actually one of the nicer ones that I've been in. Although that first day, the a/c was on and the room was freezing cold! The explanation of the class was interesting. We will be having alot of guest lecturers from all different areas of Forensics, throughout the course of the term. And we will have a few short and long papers to write. But in general, we are learning about how all the different disciplines of Forensics come together and perform their tasks on a crime scene and or while in the field for research. We also meet for that class on Tuesday at 1pm (same time), but we meet in another building.
Tuesday is a bit of a rough day. I can't complain too much because my schedule is pretty open most of the week - but the amount of time I am in lecture on Tuesday, is quite exhausting. I start the day at 11am - so I usually will take the 10:10 bus. The first class is Legal Studies: Crime Scene and Disaster Management. That class seems like it will be interesting, our professor is a lawyer. He went over in general what we will be covering. It will be a lot of learning the proper procedures while working a crime scene, so that when we are called as expert witnesses we can better do our jobs. In the summer, there will be a "trial" were each one of us will be called in a mock court - to be an expert witness. Not yet sure what we will be experts on - possibly a paper we have to write, not sure yet. So it really is a hands on class, should be good information to learn. The only downside I see, is learning not only the US legal system and terminology - but also the UK one as well. The classroom that we are in, is a bit tiny for the amount of people that are crammed into it - they might move to a larger room? not sure. We have that class from 11-1 straight. Then immediately following, in the same classroom, we have Forensic Science. And then after FS (Forensic Science) We head over to our main Forensic building, across campus, to Human Skeletal Anatomy and Development. That class is one of my favorites, although I feel like I will be doing the most studying and work for it. My one osteology class did not prepare me enough for all that we will be learning....lol We will in depth, need to know all the bones in the human body - as well as a large majority of muscles. After the lecture part of the class, we have lab. The first lecture went by really fast - thank god she posted the power point on our blackboard - but it was an overview of what we will be getting into. Also for the lecture portion, we will have two tests. They are a mix of a sit down test and a lab practical - with diagrams and pictures. The lab that follows the lecture is broken into two groups, alphabetically - luckily I fall into the first group (so I'm done by 4). In our first lab, we were given boxes of human bones - both real and fake. And with the people at our lab stations, we were to put the skeletons together as best we could. I think they just wanted to see where everyone is at. Some people have no previous experience with any anatomy or osteology. Me and my friend Lauren (from NYC) did really well with our body. Most all the bones were in the correct locations, some of the left and rights were reversed. And we were so happy, all our ribs were correct - but they also were flipped around (the left ones on the right...lol ) So I think that working in the bone lab will be really great. We are allowed to go there anytime (we all have special codes to get access) and we can practice with the bones and later in the year - boxes that only have fragments of bone (not ready for that yet...lol) And when ever you are in the lab, everyone has to wear a white lab coat (they have them there) and gloves.
Wednesday I was able to finally get my computer back from IT, and its working great :) And I also had to go on campus. We have a "personal tutor" per our department, and she is there is any of us need anything. So she was holding sessions to meet everyone and have us fill out sheets about ourselves. So I met some friends and attended an afternoon session.
Thursday, I stayed in - and tried to clean my room and get a little bit more organized around my flat. I have to go to campus tomorrow and get some books from the library for the weekend. I have a paper that is due in about 2 weeks, and I have to get started on it. Its a 1500 word paper, but the hard part is that it must have between 15-20 sources. Mostly from books or journal articles. That is the first of many papers I will have to do while I'm here. I also attended the BU Photography Society meeting tonight. They had the meeting at a pub in Landsdown (by Bournemouth) and my friend Lauren lives 5 minutes from there - so I met her at her flat. We walked to the 'meeting'. It was upstairs at this cute pub, and we basically had drinks most of the night and got to know the other members that came out. We will be doing scavenger hunts and maybe some trips later in the year. I had a fun time, and met some really cool people.
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