Well hello there friends!
It’s been a month since I’ve been in London, and life is pretty great. I’m settled into my classes, using the tube system, and the general hectic life that is living in London. Richmond is a great university with some gems for professors!
Mass Communications & Society–It’s a great course so far that spans the role of media in the the 20th and 21st century, from the early propagation of mass consumerism to the proliferation of new technologies and today’s constant bombardment of various spectacles. We’re starting out with more philosophical readings, like Ortega y Gasset, Debord, and Adorno. Loving it.
Signs, Image & Meaning–A class on semiotics. It’s a really cool topic that I’m interested in. How various symbols affect us consciously or unconsciously. I love learning about societal views through subtlety. I also sort of hate it because the way society views things makes me sad.
Anyway.
Video Production– Another good class that teaches technical aspects of filming as well as more artistic and creative options. Very fun! So far we’ve had two projects, but it’s really cool seeing how different the projects in the class are even though we have the same assignment.
Scriptwriting– This class is so much fun. We learn the methods of writing scripts for stage and for film. We have a big group of really creative people (almost all girls), and we get to read out each others’ scripts. Our prof is really good, and after a bit of a scheduling fiasco, I’m glad to finally be in the class.
Overall, life here is… well, weird for me. At Quest, I am used to a very fast-paced style, reading 2-3 textbook chapters a night and writing an average of an essay per week. Here, since I have a 4 months rather than 3.5 weeks, everything is very calm. 1-2 textbook chapters for one week for each class? What? Also, Vid Production and Scriptwriting are project-based, so there’s no midterm. OH. We have midterms at this university! Who’da thunk it?
My first fear coming here was that I would procrastinate a lot since I’m used to doing marathon work. I could pull doing lots of work at the last minute since every minute kind of seems like a last minute at Quest. But luckily, I’ve spread out my work well and adapted to the multi-class term system.
My second fear coming here was that after three and a half weeks, I would need an intense break, where I fall into a coma for four days. Well… with three day weekends every weekend, that’s not really a problem. :]
Til next time!
Isha
