First Day of Classes

I have just completed my first day of classes and I'm looking forward to learning a lot this semester!

My first class was Service Management from 10 am to noon. My lecturer's name is Juliet, and she had us introduce ourselves and tell about a time when we had bad service. Of course, I told about my awful broken ankle/flight home from Spain story. I made a friend in the class, and it was interesting because I am the only American in the group. The class is going to be about service culture, and we will be telling stories of real life experiences of service and look at different people who have made empires that are focused on great customer service. In that class I will have two presentations - one group presentation on a reading, and one on my own about a leader from my home country - an essay, and my final. I have found that here almost all of the final exams are worth 50 percent which is a little overwhelming right now, but I'm sure it will be fine!

At lunch I watched the Super Bowl in our cafe with other American Students. It was a very different Superbowl experience. We were all wearing our business suits, eating lunch of burgers and "chips" (fries.) I was able to see the halftime show and the second half (obviously the Colt's downfall.) It was being played on the Australian network "ten" so there were not many superbowl commercials played, only a select few they picked out. Also, during time outs Australian Sport announcers talked about the game... it was strange hearing football terms in Australian accents!!

After lunch I went to my next class, Intro to Hospitality from 2 to 4. I have two lecturers for that class, one on Monday (Chef Alex) and one on Tuesday (Chris Harris.) It is a general intro course on how hotels, restaurants, bars, and casinos are run. Next Tuesday we have a group presentation that we only have one day to prepare for - luckily it isn't graded! We played two truths and a lie for an "icebreaker" because people in hospitality "need to know how to tell small lies to appease customers." In this class I will have a report to write, an online quiz midway through the course, and my final exam.

My next class was Intro to Sport Management from 4 - 6. This class is taught by Elizabeth - she seems to really like Americans/study abroad students! We only have two assessments in this class, a paper and a final exam. Mary is in the class with me, but besides us and a few other girls the class is mostly boys.

My final class on Mondays is Contemporary Health Issues from 6 to 8 pm; the lecturer is Kristen Beck who has quite a few degrees in Health Science and Human Nutrition. The class is rather small, and both Olivia and Mary are in the class with me. It will be some biology and current health issues relevant to sport management. It sounds really interesting! Again, only a paper and a final exam- which is 60% of my grade! are the assessments.

Overall, I've noticed that classes here seem much more practical than the ones in the U.S. They don't really worry about the whole "liberal arts" aspect or taking classes in different subjects. The school focuses you right from the start on your area of study. This is why everyone here will graduate with their degree within three years, as well as getting 1200 hours of paid industry training for two of the terms. Another thing I've noticed is that most of the "lecturers" are younger than in the US, and they have all worked/or are working in those fields. For instance, Juliet, my hospitality lecturer, is working at a hotel in the area as well as teaching. Chef Alex has prepared food for all sorts of celebrities including Madonna, Elton John, and Michael Jackson, and mentioned he may bring food in for us! He has worked all over the place in different 5 star hotels. Kristin, my health issues lecturer, writes for health magazines and runs a health website. They are all very knowledgeable and experienced in the fields they teach.

Right now I'm still in the "yay first day of classes" stage. Let's see how I feel in a few weeks... =)