Monday, September 7, 2009

Once Upon a Time ...

I was finally a student again! After 8 months of working two different internships back to back, I finally took my rightful seat in the classroom looking at powerpoint slides today! Ok, a little dramatic, but seriously, I'm pretty excited to be back in classes.

A rundown of the day started bright and early at 8 am with the cheerful awakening by my cheap phone. First lecture was at 9 am! I had already laid out my clothes and backpack the night before so I was in my seat about 10 minutes before class. It was a beautiful morning- the clearest skies I have seen since I arrived last Monday! Wait, here's the shocker- I even busted out the sunglasses!

First class of the day was Business Management. It's a three tiered course for Ag students that rotates lectures between business organization, business finance and business marketing. Considering I've had a good deal of finance already, I'm interested in marketing and the organization aspect of it is totally new- should be a good class!

I had an hour break before my next class, so I walked back and grabbed a quick bite to eat. My next lecture was at 11am and was Equine Health and Husbandry. My first lecture was probably close to 100 students and this one was a grand total of 5 students. Supposedly more to come as some of the Equine students are finishing their required work experience. This is going to be a really good class, challenging though as it has been awhile since I have taken any Animal Science courses. The lecturer is really good though and the class is all about horses- I think Ill be alright.

Yet another hour break! I hopped online and figured out the Blackboard system that most of my professors are using to post documents and information about my courses. I printed some notes and played around online for a little bit and checked out the pictures from the AQHA Amateur Select World Show that just concluded. Congrats to all the winners and other competitors, it looked like a great show! 1 pm and I was off to the another building (thankfully all my classes are only in 2 different buildings).

Intermediate Microeconomics! This was the largest lecture I had of the day with probably about 150 to 200 students in a larger lecture theater as they call them here. This course is also broken down into different segments, but is taught one segment at a time all the way through. First we get to peel away the demand curve and the consumer side of economics, next the supply and producer's share and finally putting it all together and looking at equilibrium. Once again, I'll claim my dorkyness and admit I like this stuff so I'm really looking forward to this class. My first professor for this class is American and really cool- but warned us that this was going to be a hard class- hmmm.... a challenge maybe? The biggest challenge is the fact that this course's only source of assessment is the final! 100% of my grade relies on one exam and one exam only- GREAT!

Finally- two classes right in a row without a break in between. Back to the Ag building for the class that I was most looking forward to, Irish Equine Industries! Yep, an entire class dedicated to the study of the horse in Ireland and the industry surrounding and dependent upon it! Once again, I went from a large lecture to a classroom setting with 9 total students this time! This was my longest lecture of the day as it was 2 hours long, but soon enough we'll be taking field trips to local sales and farms! A chance to break out of the walls of Dublin! Oh and get this, we have a final media project that we have to do at the end of the semester of writing a newspaper article! I haven't gotten the details yet, but seriously, how much cooler could it get? As soon as I heard that, I immediately thought, "Psshhh... I got that covered!" (No journalistic pun intended there.)

Exhausted from 5 hours of lecture today, I was totally content with a quiet evening and had already decided to give myself the day off from my workouts. Then a friend texts me saying that they were going to the gym to take a class. "Trainer's Choice". Hmmm? Why not? It was a blast and a good workout! Running can only get me so much, so this was great resistance and sculpting. The instructor was a riot and his name was Shay and he led us through a meriad of exercises in his semi-drill sergeant way, all of course in the Irish accent and very peppy about it.

So there we go- first day of classes, both mentally and physically! And it is way past my bedtime. Two classes tomorrow, Farm Management and my Equine Health and Husbandry Class.

Now let's just hope the rest of the semester goes something like ... happily ever after! :)

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