So they want us to take master's courses here, because they're easier than the undergrad courses, which usually have midterms and other assignments, whereas the master's courses only have final exams/papers to deal with. Master's classes started last week, so I went to a few law classes to check them out. We have until the end of September to officially decide which classes we're taking.
About half of the classes didn't happen - apparently the first day of class is pretty unimportant here - so I'll see about those this week, but the ones that I did attend were a mixed bag. Financial law was understandable but a bit boring, intellectual property was in a huge classroom and I could only make out about half of what the professor said, and comparative constitutional law was fantastic. I'll probably stick with it, though it's going to be a lot of work. It's a second year master's law class, and they all took US constitutional law last semester, so they're familiar with that already. This semester is research into French, German, and British constitutional law and their differences with Chinese law. The professor is great, though, and the class is 50% participation and 50% the final paper. There are only about 10 people in the class, so I'll get lots of discussion experience. We'll see how it goes this Tuesday.
I'm probably only going to take one law class this semester. They're a lot of work, and we have an advanced written Chinese class, a Chinese media class, and a grammar class that everyone in the program has to take. For my other elective, I'm going to try out several other classes this week, one a higher education research class and maybe some poly-sci and econ classes. On top of classes, we have service hours to do and reports to write every week, and we have to do 5 hours of tutoring each week with our live-in tutor roommates. So here I was thinking I had escaped the BYU flagship workload, and it turns out that it's the same here. At least I won't be practicing 25 hours a week on top of that!
I haven't found a roommate yet. I met with both of the people they gave me to select from in the last week, and they were both pretty good, but not really what I want. The first is a third-year law student from a tiny little village in Henan. He would be a good tutor, but he's doing an internship this semester that has him working from 7 am to after 6 or 7 every day, so tutoring wouldn't be very convenient. And he really has no interests besides law. The second is a philosophy student who also plays the piano pretty well - they figured we would get along well, I guess. The plus for him is that he's more interesting and we would have more to talk about. He's not very outgoing, though, and he might have an internship and classes this semester, so he's not entirely sure it will work out. The search continues.
Well, I'm more familiar with Nanjing than I was a week ago - I've been on the subway three times and bought a bike a few days ago. Yesterday I went to a big furniture mall to look for a couple of ottomans or beanbag chairs for people to sit on in my living room. I had heard this place had a huge selection and range of prices. I was slightly deceived, however. Picture the nicest furniture store you've ever been to. Now make it even pricier. Now imagine two shopping malls full of hundreds of stores just like that one. That's basically what Hongxing furniture mall was like. This place went on forever, and every store looked like some movie star or royalty's fashion guru personally designed it. The prices were outrageous; after walking around for an hour I had only found three places that even sold anything like what I was looking for, and their beanbag chairs were over 600 kuai (100 dollars), more than a nice couch at IKEA here! Needless to say, I didn't buy anything. But I might go again just to gawk at the furniture and pretend I'm filthy rich.
Church this morning was really inspiring. I love bearing my testimony and hearing others bear theirs, and that was exactly what I needed today. I've been feeling a little low spiritually since I got here, but church was a helpful boost. We have a gospel principles class in Chinese, which helped me feel like I was back on the mission, and priesthood with everyone in flagship was nice. Even though I've had classes with them for a whole year, I've never really seen them completely as they are. Being in the same priesthood quorum will be a great experience.
Flagship classes start tomorrow morning; wish me luck with all of my homework and finding a roommate! I'll need it. I can't believe I'm putting myself through more school...
About half of the classes didn't happen - apparently the first day of class is pretty unimportant here - so I'll see about those this week, but the ones that I did attend were a mixed bag. Financial law was understandable but a bit boring, intellectual property was in a huge classroom and I could only make out about half of what the professor said, and comparative constitutional law was fantastic. I'll probably stick with it, though it's going to be a lot of work. It's a second year master's law class, and they all took US constitutional law last semester, so they're familiar with that already. This semester is research into French, German, and British constitutional law and their differences with Chinese law. The professor is great, though, and the class is 50% participation and 50% the final paper. There are only about 10 people in the class, so I'll get lots of discussion experience. We'll see how it goes this Tuesday.
I'm probably only going to take one law class this semester. They're a lot of work, and we have an advanced written Chinese class, a Chinese media class, and a grammar class that everyone in the program has to take. For my other elective, I'm going to try out several other classes this week, one a higher education research class and maybe some poly-sci and econ classes. On top of classes, we have service hours to do and reports to write every week, and we have to do 5 hours of tutoring each week with our live-in tutor roommates. So here I was thinking I had escaped the BYU flagship workload, and it turns out that it's the same here. At least I won't be practicing 25 hours a week on top of that!
I haven't found a roommate yet. I met with both of the people they gave me to select from in the last week, and they were both pretty good, but not really what I want. The first is a third-year law student from a tiny little village in Henan. He would be a good tutor, but he's doing an internship this semester that has him working from 7 am to after 6 or 7 every day, so tutoring wouldn't be very convenient. And he really has no interests besides law. The second is a philosophy student who also plays the piano pretty well - they figured we would get along well, I guess. The plus for him is that he's more interesting and we would have more to talk about. He's not very outgoing, though, and he might have an internship and classes this semester, so he's not entirely sure it will work out. The search continues.
Well, I'm more familiar with Nanjing than I was a week ago - I've been on the subway three times and bought a bike a few days ago. Yesterday I went to a big furniture mall to look for a couple of ottomans or beanbag chairs for people to sit on in my living room. I had heard this place had a huge selection and range of prices. I was slightly deceived, however. Picture the nicest furniture store you've ever been to. Now make it even pricier. Now imagine two shopping malls full of hundreds of stores just like that one. That's basically what Hongxing furniture mall was like. This place went on forever, and every store looked like some movie star or royalty's fashion guru personally designed it. The prices were outrageous; after walking around for an hour I had only found three places that even sold anything like what I was looking for, and their beanbag chairs were over 600 kuai (100 dollars), more than a nice couch at IKEA here! Needless to say, I didn't buy anything. But I might go again just to gawk at the furniture and pretend I'm filthy rich.
Church this morning was really inspiring. I love bearing my testimony and hearing others bear theirs, and that was exactly what I needed today. I've been feeling a little low spiritually since I got here, but church was a helpful boost. We have a gospel principles class in Chinese, which helped me feel like I was back on the mission, and priesthood with everyone in flagship was nice. Even though I've had classes with them for a whole year, I've never really seen them completely as they are. Being in the same priesthood quorum will be a great experience.
Flagship classes start tomorrow morning; wish me luck with all of my homework and finding a roommate! I'll need it. I can't believe I'm putting myself through more school...
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