First Week of Classes

So, I have officially finished my first week of classes and didn't skip any of them...success!!  That's big time news being that i have THREE 9am classes, one being on Friday.  While here I am taking: Human Nutrition, Finance, HR Management, and International Marketing.  The grading structure here is SO different and making me miss MSU quite a bit.  The final exam is worth at least half of your semester grade, with finance being 70%!!! of my grade!  CRAZY...I know.  Then some have projects, presentations, or papers but on a whole you have to do well on everything to do well on the class, which is intimidating.  However, I guess this is why we get about a month off before finals to study!  The lectures are pretty similar, but 3 of my classes are 2 hours back to back instead of being split between 2 or 3 days a week.  Then on top of the lecture, we have to attend a "tutorial" for one hour a week to have a smaller group learning style.  The only nice part about my classes is that I don't have classes on Monday or Wednesday.  They refer back to the US quite a bit in all of my classes which is awesome  and makes me feel proud to be an American! (Not that I didn't before coming over here.)      

It's so funny how much American culture is grasped over here.  They watch a ton of American TV like Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother.  They also listen to A LOT of American music, so the culture shock in those aspects never really occurred, which is fine because I love American TV and music! 

We are going downtown today for Valerie's 21st birthday!!  She is one of the American girls I became friends with in AustraLearn.  We are going to the Casino, which is apparently HUGE and AMAZING, so I am super excited!  My birthday is in a month and I will be 22, which is depressing being that most of the people on my floor are 19 and 20! Anyway, I hope everyone is staying cool back home I heard it is HORRIBLY hot!  I love you all :)