My not-so-smooth first full day of classes.

First full day of classes was quite the experience. I got up at 7:30 so I could hit the snooze button a few times before I had to actually get up and ready for my 9:00 class. I left 30 minutes early in preparation for my inevitable confusion about the location of the room.

The room number was P.LTA96. From what I was previously told, I understood the P to mean the Pathfoot Building (there are only two buildings: Pathfoot and Cottrell), the letter represents the block, and the number is the room.

When I arrived at Pathfoot, I headed straight to the L section, thinking, “Yes! I understand this system! I’m going to find my class and be there early!” However, there was no TA96 in the L section, which was the farthest side of the building from the main entrance. I gave in and asked the journalism office in the G section, and they told me LT stands for Lecture Theatre in the A section of the building. Right by the main entrance.

I raced back to get there in time for my lecture. I made it at 9:01, and the lecturer wasn’t there. Fairly normal, since I’ve been told classes generally start five minutes after the hour and end five minutes prior to the end of the next hour. Someone screamed out, “Tutorial sign ups are up, but there’s no WiFi here!” And thus began the mad dash to the computer lab to get first pick on tutorial times.

I quickly logged on and got one of the last spots available for the tutorial closest to the lecture time. Then, someone noticed on the syllabus the course is listed as starting at 10:00 instead of 9:00. This worried me as I opted for a tutorial from 10-11 to fill the gap between my magazine lecture and tutorial. I went to the journalism office for clarification, where they insisted the syllabus would have the accurate time above anything else, and that the timetable must be wrong.

I ran to the history department office and asked to switch my tutorial time. They told me all sections were full, but eventually agreed to squish me into the 2:00 class. Satisfied, I headed to my now 10:00 class.

After five minutes of class time, another lecturer entered the room and told my lecturer that we would have to leave, as the room had been double-booked and we shouldn't be there. We headed to a much smaller classroom that maybe had 30 seats for the 45 people in my class. We finished the lecture and headed to the tutorial.

One of the things I enjoyed most from the lecture was the lecturer asking the class how many people wanted to go to the "dark side," referring to public relations. It is interesting that they have the same nickname as all of my journalism professors in Ottawa, so I'm wondering if it is the common name in the business. The other Canadian student told me she wanted to, but wouldn't admit it to the class. It was quite different from at Carleton, where a huge chunk of journalism students actually want to go into public relations.

During the tutorial, we analyzed magazines that we brought to class, examining the section formula for each magazine. It was a bit of an introductory class, so I am still looking forward to actually getting to the meat of the class.

Finally, at the end of the tutorial, the course coordinator sent out an email apologizing for the mixup with the time and room, and letting us know that it indeed will be at 9:00 as scheduled. Frustrated, I asked the lecturer to clarify and he said it is almost definitely right.

I went to the 2:00 tutorial since I didn't want to use my one freebie class absence on the first day, but I ended up getting back into the morning class. I just hope the lecturer doesn't surprise us with another time change next week.

The system here is quite different from back home. Professors in Canada seem to have a lot more power than lecturers here. They can sometimes override class maximums (usually if the student needs the class for their degree, and with the assumption that another student will drop out) and they seem to have more of a say in the class requirements. Here, it doesn't even seem like the lecturers have chosen the required texts, though this may not be true in all cases. It makes it difficult to know who to approach when there are administrative problems, such as this morning.

I have found it to be much more organized at Carleton than at Stirling, though I suspect being an exchange student restricts my access to certain things, such as the ability to change my classes online.

Nevertheless, I'm quite looking forward to seeing the differences between journalism in Canada and the UK. Hopefully it isn't too different, or I'm not sure I'll survive these upper-year journalism classes!