Search This Blog

Saturday, October 16, 2010

"I Love College"

1st week of school

So the first week of college hasn’t exactly been like Asher Roth’s infamous song “I Love College” but it is getting there. Stam. (Just kidding)

Classes have been, for the most part, very interesting.

Here is my list of classes, get ready:

Positive Psychology; 2x a wk

Biological Foundations; 2x a wk

Probability; every other wk

Intro to Psych; 2x + recitation wk

Intro to Communications; 1x wk

Departmental Seminar; 1x wk

Intro to Stats; 2x wk

Applied Psych Workshop (3.5 hrs); every other wk

8 classes. 4-day week. 3-day weekend.

I’ll do a run through over the classes, periodically in the coming weeks once I’ve experienced all of them and know more about what is going on in them.

Positive Psych – I was worried that this class was going to be a bunch of “New Age” mumbo gumbo and was going to hate it. The first class, (which I was a bit hung over for, sorry mom, but it was my birthday the day before) proved this to be utterly false. The professor, Tal Benshachar, (brother of my David Project class that I had in Bat Yam) studied and taught at Harvard before moving back to Israel. He moved back after a health scare and realized where he need to be—in Israel.

Biological Foundations – is taught by Dr. Daniel Levy, he used to do research at UCSD, so he talks about home a lot, which is the only time I’ve been homesick, so far. It is interesting so far. In the recitation we have been reviewing the cell. It is very different going over the cell from an Israeli research student. Luckily I did okay in my biology class in high school and remember enough to get by from the books.

I and others have found a few things that are very special to IDC and/or Israel: They serve beer on campus, not just at our first night meet and greet on campus, but throughout the week during the day (we don’t think this will continue throughout the year, but who knows?) and they tell us to copy our books in the library and not buy them. Thankfully I bought 4 of the 5 books for only $40, so I only have to copy one of the books. It is really cheap and kind of nice only having to carry around a chapter at a time. Also, you hear a million different languages on campus.

For my three day weekend, I spent Thursday in Tel Aviv at the Azrielli Center with Moran, my madricha from Jerusalem on YC. It was really nice catching up with her and I cannot wait to see her again, hopefully next week for a BBQ before all of my friends join the ARMY! After a late brunch, I met some friends at the beach in Herzliyah. Friday was spent at the Beach, catching the last bus home and arriving ten minutes before Shabbat comes in. I jumped into the Luke Warm shower and quickly got ready for a Hillel Shabbat. The service was really nice, even though Talya (Californian/Israeli that lives next door) and I were late. Don’t worry the sermon included telling the boys to pick up girls. After dinner a bunch of people went to someone’s apartment, where they have a beautiful view on their roof overlooking downtown Herzliyah. It was a really lovely Shabbat evening.

Shabbat Day consisted of studying, kiddish lunch with my roommate and a bunch of her friends, more studying, coffee, face masks at the neighbors, wine and an AEPi bonfire where, not naming any names, but a few people, may or may not have gone into the ocean.

It was a lovely evening and now I am off to bed for two classes tomorrow morning beginning at 9:15.

Lila Tov

3 comments:

  1. ha i get to comment before jessica :)
    glad you like positive psychology (not just an oxymoron hahahaha) and yay for hillel. glad your not homesick, cuz im rachysick:( have fun in statistics hahahahaha dont worry i think i have to take that this year also

    ReplyDelete
  2. so it sounds like you are going to school in the states, AEPi, Hillel, I bet Jessica did the same thing this week:). Then the beer on campus, yes isnt it great. At Haifa U they have it every wednesday for student day from 2-3 so i would usually bring a beer to class, but dont do that, your classes are more serious than mine. Miss you...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tali, the only reason why I am not the first to comment is because I had a busy week and didn't have time to check her blog. I feel so cool to be mentioned in the above comments.
    Seth, the only difference is I got a HOT shower (and no beer on campus)!

    I can't believe you are taking so many classes...is that the average number of classes people take? Just had my first stats test yesterday. I was a maniac. I need to "chill my boner" as Cara would say. Like I know I didn't do so good. MAYBE if you would go to a stinkin' internet cafe we could skype about stats! I'm so so so happy you are enjoying yourself and starting to feel like IDC might be the right scbool for you!

    ReplyDelete