Friday the 13th??

Friday the 13th didn't really feel like it at all! That is, nothing too bad actually happened to me on the day, or to others as it seems! Congratulations to new learners Gwen, Zahir and Diane! We welcome you to the streets!

Maybe the worst that happened to me on the day was when I was crossing the road to get to the Auckland University Medical School to buy my swipe card. I was focusing too much on the cars that I didn't see the Maori cyclist I nearly ran into, who shouted out

"OOOIII!!!! WATCH IT!! F*(&KING MORON!!"

So I stuck my foot out and knocked him off his bike. Nah of course not! It was a little embarrassing, but fortunately the cyclist kept on going and went around the corner, and I just pretended as though nothing had happened as I walked into the medical school.

While it sounds pretty cool to have a $10 swipe card to get into the medical school, it's a little underwhelming in that it looks like a white card (it's a little thicker than card though but nonetheless pretty plain!)

I went back to the city campus to get course guides for my other subjects and I suppose you could call this another instance of (mild) bad luck. You know that feeling after you browse through a course guide and realise just how difficult the course is going to be? Well that is what it was like after I looked through my MEDSCI142 course guide!

The Health Psychology course guide actually got me all excited about the course, as we'll be learning all about sleep patterns, child/adolescent development, memory loss and other interesting stuff!

Last night though when I read the announcement I got from the Philosophy department on the General Education paper I'm going to be taking, I got a little put off by the comment:

"It is recommended that students who want to obtain a satisfactory passing grade for this course should have a mastery of both written and spoken English.

I don't actually know if that warranted worrying, but the very mention of English frightens me! So I set about seeing if I could rearrange my timetable so that I could either study ASIAN140G (Asian Studies) or POLITICS107G (yeah NZ Politics). My German friend was taking Asian Studies so I was considering that, but I'm really interested in politics, so I was leaning that way too. However after my 2nd year law friend (and year 12 ball partner couldn't forget!!) Ayesha strongly recommended I not take Politics, I started fretting and started searching for another General Education paper I could take that wouldn't require too much work or essay writing. Hope was starting to fade and the likelihood of reverting to Philosophy increased, but just then I found ECON151G (Economics) - Understanding the Global Economy! Now I know I've been putting down (teasingly!) my brother Hamish for doing economics (although he has switched to Accounting and Finance now), but maybe taking this course will bridge the gap between me and Economics! Also, there is plussage and a multiple-choice/short answer exam! :D I'm just waiting on Ayesha for her opinion before I settle on my timetable, or else I will switch back!

To round off Friday the 13th, it was Diane's last day in Auckland and so while I was stuck in the car on the way home with my parents and Hamish and the radio stuck on The Breeze and its sappy music, we reminisced for a little while!