first week of classes

Monday:

• 1:30-2:50 IELM 225 Operations Research II (Stochastic Processes): The professor (obviously) noticed I was an exchange student and took the time to come over and introduce herself to me. I found out later that she did her Phd at Northwestern and taught at Cornell for a few years! But right now, the class is a basic review of probability. Since I took a probability class last semester, its pretty boring right now...and just brings back bad memories of my previous statistics classes.
• 4:30-5:50 Math 201 tutorial which I didn't have this week.
  

Tuesday:

• 9:00-10:20 ISOM 366 Logistics Management: Seems like it will be an interesting class. The class was smaller and the students were much more respectful. But maybe this was at 9am. There seems to be a lot of group work, which will be a good way to get to know local students, but I'm worried that I will have to play proofreader and head writer on the 10-25 single space case study we have to produce by the end of the semester.
• 4:30-5:20 IELM 225 tutorial which i didn't have either
  

Wednesday:

• 1:30-2:50 Math 201 Intro to Analysis: Well, definately not the most stellar class I have had. We get lecture notes at the beginning of class and the professor basically copies them verbatum onto the white board...although he uses many different colors! This is definitely the most hardcore math class I have had in a while. It is a lot of mathematical proofs, something I have done little of in the past. Although the topics we will cover I have seen before in other classes, usually multiple times, it seems like we will be proving them rigorously. Lots of crazy symbols!
• 3:00-4:20 Lang 113 Introduction to Mandarin: This class is almost all exchange students. Today we were learning the alphabet, different vowels, basic sounds and tones. It was pretty hilarious as the teacher would say a letter and we would all repeat after her, often quite badly. There were points where I could hardly keep myself from laughing. It is hard to keep all the minute differences apart and is kind of all over the place. But I'll do my best!
  
• 4:30-5:50 Fina 111 Finance: I am sitting in on this class since I wanted to get an understanding in finance for my internship this summer. It is my largest class by far, there are about 600 students enrolled in 3 different lectures. The seats in these lecture halls are so comfortable. If this class were any other time than 4:30-5:50, I might fall asleep. But so far the lectures are interesting and engaging.

Thursday

• 9:00-10:20 ISOM 366 again
• 1:30-4:20 Sosc 178: Economic and population growth in china. I'm not sure if I want to take this class or not. I want to try relax this semester and be able to take the time to travel and explore.
• 7-9 Orchestra rehearsal! What an experience. The orchestra is VERY small. Only about 20 people. There is barely a full string section (no bass), there are 2 clarinets, 3 flutes, a trumpet and 3 trombones (somehow!), and a percussion player. Still they are playing reputable music, parts of both carmen suites, another Bizet suite, an arranged version of Jupiter Symphony (same version I played in my first orchestra experience back in 8th grade!) and we sight read Tchaikowsky's Cappricio Italienne. Thankfully, I had my A clarinet, but my other clarinet friend did not. They conductor made a joke that for $20,000 HKD you can change the key signature from B major (5 sharps) to C major (no sharps!). The rehearsal was was quite chaotic: playing when stopped, talking, cell phones, coming in late...nothing like that would ever pass for any rehearsal I have been in in the US! Plus, everything was in cantonese...I was barely able to figure out where we were starting. But everybody obviously was just there because they loved playing music, which is why I am there too! We are playing 2 concerts jointly with Hong Kong Polytechnic university in March.

Friday

• 9:00-10:20 IELM 225 again. A lot fewer people here today than monday. Probably because it was 9 am!
  
• 1:30-2:50 Math 201
  
• 3:00-4:20 Chinese
• 4:30-5:50 Finance

So I am in 16 credits right now, only 13 if I drop the sociology class. I almost feel bad taking so few classes. The some students I talked to are taking 6 or 7 classes! Crazy! I would never to that to myself at Cornell. But like I said before, I want to be able to relax and have fun while I'm here and not focus on school work so much.

It seems that there is a lot less time spent in the classroom. Maybe this means more must be spent outside of class, but I will have to wait and see if that is the case. But taking 5 courses at Cornell, I would often have 2 to 4 commitments to classes each day. Here, even with 5 courses I usually only have 2 classes a day only having 3 classes once. I'm not a fan of the 6 hour breaks in between, or the classes going until nearly 6:00.

The culture of the classes also much different than at Cornell. In some classes students speak up more, but often students are talking in the background. But from what local students tell me, the students from Mainland china are in the library all the time and always mess up the curve. While the classes seem easier, it seems harder to do well in them. At least my grades don't count in my GPA! Regardless, should be a fun and interesting semester.