The schedule that we were given sort of tricks the eye when you first look at it. If you count the hours on it, it looks like 25. But in reality, it's much less.
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| Our timetable for the autumn semester |
Firstly, there are two hours of tutorials (Physics T and Chemistry T) on the schedules. They aren't compulsory, but you can attend them if you feel like you didn't understand what was said in the lectures.
Secondly, the module called Early Patient Contact only has one hour of lectures per week, that's the purple box on Wednesday morning. The purple boxes on Thursday and Friday afternoons, Clinical Skills, also cause confusion. It seems like you would have four hours of Clinical Skills per week all semester long. In reality each student only has ONE two-hour session of Clinical Skills. The class has been divided into groups, and a time slot has been assigned to each group. I'm in group G and we will have our Clinical Skills lesson next week. After that I don't need to worry about Thursday and Friday afternoons.
Also, the purple box on Monday afternoon, Clinical Activity, is not what it seems. The class has also been divided into two blocks, and Block 1 will have their clinical activity first during a four-week period, and after that it's Block 2's turn to do the same. I am in Block 2. Which leads us to the last purple box on the schedule on Thursday morning. It is the seminar, which goes on at the same time as clinical activity for each block.
So the amount of hours per week depends on the week! Next week I will have 16 hours (18 if I want to attend the tutorials), the week after that I will have 14 hours, and sometime in the future I will have about 20 hours (during clinical activity). Which is not too bad at all.
This would be a very light course load if we didn't have a lot of "empty hours" in between lectures. But even with them it's not that bad.
In the spring semester we will not have Early Patient Contact, as it is replaced by Anatomy.
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| Spring semester schedule |
Also we will start Chemistry Practicals in spring. This schedule looks a bit heavier. I have heard rumours that we will be cutting up a real human being in anatomy practicals, but I don't know if it's true. We will see in a few months!
Apart from these schedules, the handbook we were given is pretty much useless. It has so much misleading, inconsistent and confusing information that I don't trust it anymore. In fact, on the first orientation day (10th September) they gave us this handbook, and a sheet of paper with the schedule for Monday 12th September, and both of them turned out to be the most confusing and misleading documents I have ever had the misfortune to read. Also, we don't know who to ask for more accurate information, and when we do happen to find someone, they usually don't know.
So I have spent the majority of the first two weeks here in confusion, not just about the studies and the daily schedules, but also about the huge amount of other important things we need to do, that have been mentioned, but not explained properly.
I know I have signed a "statutory declaration". I guess I've now officially told the university that I am a good person or something, and for that I had to wait in line for 45 minutes, because it had to be signed in front of a certain witness. I don't know if that had to do with the Garda Vetting thing, that they sent so many letters and e-mails about, but I am under the (probably false) impression that someone will let me know if I still need to do something.
I have also been to the health unit and paid 20 € to get my blood drawn. Next week I will go in and ask them if all my vaccinations are in check. I hope they are. And I think most of them should be. I am prepared to get one or two shots, but I will be surprised if I need to take more than that!
Anyway, I am very happy that I am an EU-student, because the non-EU people have so much more to do! They have to get all sorts of documents about finances and insurances etc. and they have to register with immigration and everything... So I'm glad I don't have to do that.
There have been a few extra costs that I didn't expect at first. In addition to the 2224 € registration fee we have to register for lab practicals. It was 30 € for physics and 20 € for biology. Like I said, chemistry labs don't start until spring, so I will pay the 20 € for that later on. I am pretty sure we have to pay another 20 € for biology for the second semester, but I'm not sure about physics.
Also, at first I thought that I wouldn't buy the text books, since they're expensive and heavy, and I might be able to do without. I thought I could borrow the books from my friends and the library. But then after a few fast-paced biology lectures I thought it would be better to buy it just to have it at home in case I wanted to check something, and that way I wouldn't depend on other people when I wanted to study. So I ended up buying the Biology book and the Physics book second hand for a total of 60 €.
Another investment I had to make for school supplies was the dissecting kit. It was available in the Student Union shop on campus and it cost 22 €.
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| Leather packaging.... |
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| The insides of the dissecting kit. |
So far I have been able to keep up in the lectures. I understand pretty much everything, and the content has been familiar to me so far. The lecturers do have quite a fast pace though, and I (and a lot of others) are hoping that they slow down as we start to get into the slightly more unfamiliar subjects... One new thing for me (and I think for everyone else too) are these "clickers" that we use in lectures. You know how in some game shows they ask the audience for their opinion on a question or something? This is sort of the same kind of gadget. The lecturers have questions on their presentation with multiple choices, and we get to press a button!!! It's so fun. My favourite part of class. If I'm falling asleep, I always wake up when there's a clicker question.
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| This is what the clicker looks like. Shiny and new! |
As far as "student life" goes, meaning the night life, there has been a lot less of it than I expected. We don't have any tutors or other people who would direct us to parties or get-togethers. There supposedly was this thing called Fresher's Fortnight, but during these first two weeks we only went to one party, and it wasn't even that much fun. What I've noticed though, is that the Irish students seem to like partying a bit more than the international students. It can get pretty wild here in Dunaras during week nights, I've heard that even the Gardaí have visited some apartments... The weekends are very quiet on the other hand, when most Irish students go home. The internet here is also much faster during weekends!
Culture night was yesterday, and we ended up going to see a concert and then a dance thing. Here is a little video about that:
There would have been more events going on, but my friends called that they were going to take a taxi back to Dunaras, so I decided I wanted to be on that taxi. I didn't feel like walking alone for half an hour in the dark, plus it was cold and raining. But I got to see some of the culture night and got a warm ride home! A taxi from the city centre to Dunaras costs 8-10 €, which is not that bad alone, and is totally worth it when there are several people sharing.
I think that's it for now, I will write more soon! You can leave comments and ask questions if you like!
