Rants about tutorials this week (the first week of tutorials)
Anthropology 102 - Monday, 1pm at Anthropology Conference Room.
Our anthro tutor is a Dr Greg Martin - some guy who has a degree in law... so we had our normal introductions and all.
"Hi my name is Tracy and I'm a mature-age student. I'm currently doing my second year blah blah."
"Hi my name is Kyra and I'm in my honours year. I'm doing Anthro 102 because my course coordinator said I'm missing a first year unit in order to graduate."
"Hi my name is Chloe and I've never did Anthro 101 (the Semester 1 Anthro unit) before. I'm doing this unit because I think anthropology is interesting."
"Hi my name is Will and I'm from Singapore. This is my first semester here, so I've never done Anthro 102 before."
"Hi my name is Jeremy (my friend) and I'm from Singapore too. Also starting my arts degree this semester."
And the introductions went on and on... and I was relieved that I had already given a (bland) introduction of myself.
Jeremy: "psst. did you notice that we're the only two guys here? (besides the tutor?)"
*looks around furtively* *gasp*
So for Anthro tutorial, we have Jeremy and me versus 12 or 13 girls. fascinating.
And for my colonialism experiences essay, I'm supposed to research on lives of Puerto Ricans under the Americans. There was actually an option to do Vietnamese under French rule.. and all the Asian girls were fighting to do it... possibly, because everyone did Vietnam during JC. For me, I'm intrigued by what I'm reading in ISOR (In Search of Respect - the anthropology ethnoggraphy) and the lives of the inner-city Puerto Ricans in East Harlem, NYC.
History 152 - Tuesday, 10am at Arts Seminar Room 1.54B
Here, we've got a Fiona as our tutor. The lecturer is a Dr Jeremy Martens who looks like Ricky Martin. not kidding.
Like, I remembered Jeremy and I entered the room and there was this girl who didn't look much older than us asking me "Isn't the weather incredibly cold to'dai or is it just me?". And i went "yeah pretty cold last night."
Then this same woman wrote on the board "Fiona Groenhout" and Jeremy was writing on a piece of paper "she's the tutor!!!" heh.
I think, among all the four units, History 152 is the most mundane one.. *surprise surprise*. For this week, we're doing European ideas of race before and after the Enlightenment. And i can tell u, it's not very helpful when you're labouring through pages and pages of reading and each *** French count writes about "how yellow people have big heads, small noses, a sense of inferiority, cannot differentiate between right and wrong."
Political Science 102 - Tuesday, 2pm at Social Sciences Seminar Room 4.
Liza Beinart as the tutor and she plunged into tutorials right away after introducing ourselves. Presenations already allocated and I'm supposed to present sth on how the media shapes perception and the role of the media in politics.
One of the major componenets of PS 102 is a stimulation exercise based on diplomacy. This is to take place in early October and if i'm not wrong, the topic is on "how to improve the multi-national force in Iraq?"... So we have to play different actors (Kofi Annan, Bush etc..) and tutorials will be = UN general assembly where we present viewpoints etc etc. AND the interesting thing is that we've got to engage in secret diplomacy too... through the use of the Web CT (= tjc's matrix) to get what we deem as our national interests.
European Studies 102, Wednesday 3pm at Arts Seminar Room G27.
Caroline Finander as tutor AND lecturer. gasp. I'm the ONLY Asian in the tutorial of like 14, 15 people. For the introductions, we had to say our names (duh) and name a country which we'd like to go to.
"Hi my name is Will and I'd love to visit East Europe because I went backpacking to Germany last year and was very intrigued by the differences still inherent between East and West Germany and that's why I'm doing ES 102."
Sounds like i'm trying to justify why I'm in European Studies and not Asian Studies. :)