Classes So Far and Other Eventful Things...

Lauren Young London, England

Date

September 24, 2014

It's the first week of classes here in the UK and so far I've only managed to walk into the wrong room twice, and being that I've only been to three classes so far that's lower than my usual walking-into-the-wrong-place statistic. Although, I did walk into a stopped bus this week but I will not include that in the previous statistic.

Moving on from my clumsiness, my classes have been far from what I was expecting. First off, I figured lectures would be cut short being that this week is, by American standards, syllabus week or known at USC as "sylly week​." Nope, not in the UK. They like to utilize their full three hour time slot to lecture, yes I said three hour time slot (some even last four hours). Secondly, most of my professors and their assistants aren't actually from the UK. From my experience so far, the staff at Westminster, as well as most of London, is very culturally diverse, different from anything I've experienced before.

The lectures are very detailed but the professors seem to have a different idea in mind. They want us to want to be there. They want us to learn rather than just listen. It's a lovely feeling knowing that someone actually cares about teaching and hearing students opinions rather than just reading off of a powerpoint and dismissing class.