Back to University (for one day) - Dedicated to All the Life Long Students of Life I Know

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8.26.08 (Saturday)

Let me begin this blog by saying that I may need to call someone for a voice check. To date I’ve received 8 to 10 comments from non English speakers that my accent doesn’t sound “American”. I think that I may have discovered the cause for their confusion, and am embarrassed by the conclusion. From past experience (especially when working at the Hotel in Oxford) I’ve learned that when speaking to non English speakers I slow the pace of my words and try to annunciate each syllable clearly. If the person I’m speaking to has a reasonable grasp of English they very rarely ask me to repeat a sentence. I think this clarity temporarily alters my voice and speech patterns. I’m really worried that these non English speakers may think I have a speaking impediment or handicap!

Saturday was Auckland University’s recruitment day for freshman. The school offered free half hour to hour long lectures by professors in all the programs of study. The schedule was a full day long and more than 60 lectures were available to choose from. I couldn’t pass up the chance to spend a day on campus attending classes.

Rather than sleeping in I was up by 7 and showered, threw on a pair of kaki’s, blue dress shirt, my comfortable penny loafers and backpack. I was off to university for a day, and all the hassles that come with the first day of school.

The first problem I encountered was finding the classroom locations. The university buildings were not clearly marked and the lecture halls were numbered in a fashion that had no rhyme or reason. Rather than using a numeric numbering system (ie 210 for a classroom on level 2) they used a system of combined letters (which did not correlate to the level or building name) and numbers. For example one lecture hall was EMI1, which was on the second floor, a similarly lettered room EMI2 was actually on the ground floor. I never cracked the code to room numbering during the day, but am certain if given 4 years I may have been able to sort things out!

First class (1hr), Urban Planning, in the architecture department was at 9am, by 9:30 I’d nearly been talked into a Masters program, and by 10am I was nearly certain that I would sign up for the program. I’ll struggle with choices like this for years to come. If possible I could spend my whole life at university, but realize it’s not probable or practical. Starting salary for a graduate planner in NZ is easily $48,000NZ according to the director of the department. 30 to 40 students are accepted into the undergrad program each year.

I did speak with the director of the department, she’s going to help me do some networking while I’m here.

I had five minutes to dash off to the next class titled “Qualities of Good Political Leaders”. I had the same trouble locating the classroom, if fact to save some writing time just assume that every time I went to a new lecture I had 5 to 7 minutes to locate a room that I’d never been to before.

The lecturer, who looked like an anorexic version of Richard Gyere (in that wedding movie with Julia Roberts), was one of the better lecturers I listed to that day. He discussed what makes a good leader and if a leader is made or born. He argued that the prime minister position in NZ is becoming more and more like a presidential position, “has the mystique of the president”. He felt that there are two types of PMs, 1) mobilizes - those that cause great change, and 2) reconcilers - those that heal the wounds caused by the former administration (mobilizer). The prof seemed to think that the Prime Minister position is more about healing than causing change.

He then had the class grade on a scale of 1 to 5 the NZ’s PM and the opposition party minority leader. The audience overwhelmingly seemed to be more tilted liberal. I must give the lecture credit for not being a Kerry or Bush basher, he didn’t let his personal feelings into the lecture.

Next class philosophy, the title was something like “Can Philosophy prove the existence of God?” The planned instructor did not show for the lecture so an associate gave the presentation. I must give the guy credit he didn’t know that he was going on until the last minute, but I have to say this lecture was like every philosophy class I’ve had before. The prof started about by saying that he recommended philosophy because it teaches good judgment. By the end of the lecture I had made up my mind that it was good judgment that had lead me away from philosophy as a major. The guy loved to listen to his voice, and at every opportunity would break words down to their original latin and greek meaning. Once he turned around and began writing on the chalk board I could tell he lost the whole audience. He was most definitely enjoying himself as he wrote out nearly word for word everything that he said. His train of though jumped back and forth I certain that those teenagers still half asleep that early on a Saturday morning lost him 30 seconds into the presentation. I did appreciate being reminded of the Socrates quote I had forgotten: “an unexamined life is a life not worth living.” In the end he shared his secret answer to the question of god - Reversionary Theism. Very simply that is to say there is no god but we can understand those that do believe in god, which to me seems to me does not really answer the question.

Anyway that’s neither here nor there, the best part of the lecture was when he went overtime. His time was up but he kept going, finally some people started to get up and leave for the exits, yet he made no signs that he was nearly done speaking, he kept going and going and going, I felt so embarrassed for him. Finally after 3 to 4 minutes of this the next lecture that had been waiting to speak entered the lecture hall, walked up on the state, over to the podium and dropped her lecture material on the podium. The philosophy professor looked mortified and upset and mumbled something about “these half hour classes aren’t nearly long enough.

Off to the next class, presentation by the architecture department, titled “Architecture” (creative?). Now I can’t think of any architecture lectures that I’ve sat through that have disappointed me, but there is always a chance for a first, and Saturday was the day. I do need to give the guy credit for putting together a series of beautifully colored slides (sexy presentation we used to call it), but I quickly picked up the fact that these were merely buildings and photos that I’d seen in the last 16 months of Architectural Record. Worse yet his lecture seemed to be a synopses of the AR articles that went with the photos, now I’m not accusing this guy of plagiarism, but come on he could be a little bit more imaginative than just AR, couldn’t he? And then the truth came out I kid you not he said “for you students starting next year I suggest you start reading AR”. What’s he trying to do create a generation of architects that can do no better than the thoughts of architects that started projects two or three years ago and are now published? I’d had enough and left…..

Free eating events on campus generate the same foods and attract a similar group of students. Yes, I did wait in line for that unhealthy BBQ hotdog (sausage here), hey it was free. The students in line looked like they each could eat a horse and at every opportunity would swipe two or three hotdogs from the service table when in actuality they should have only taken one.

Next class was and Egyptian history course titled something like the “History of the Pyramids (the actual title was more interesting). This was another case of the professor deciding that they had something better to do on a Saturday afternoon, but in this case was good enough to arrange a graduate student to present. The women was well versed in her history. Her humorous line for the presentation was “Why major in history and can you get a job with the degree? Studying history will teach you how to propose theories and argue for your theory. The assumptions made in your papers may be dead wrong but if you have a good argument we’ll give you an A.” PAUSED “But I should clarify that you cannot argue that the pyramids were built by aliens. No matter what you write on the subject you will fail!” LUGHTER by the audience.

The last class (1hr) took me back to the planning department. This was to be an interactive class were we would work with actual Auckland City Planners. The presentation started out with some information on the planning dilemmas faced by Auckland.

Facts:
Since 1964:
1. The number of people in Auckland has increased by 73%
2. Land use 100%
3. vehicles 314%

Anticipated number of people by 2050, 2 million or about 750,000 more than right now.


I think that I mentioned this in an earlier blog, but if not I will say it here, Auckland is the second largest city by land mass covered. In other words given the relatively small population the density of Auckland is very, very low. The councils goals is to increase density but only in limited so called “Town Centres”. I guess a number of communities in Auckland have fought off planning expansion up, which leaves it up to other neighborhoods to take up the load. I spoke to the planners and may have some volunteer opportunities with them while I’m here. Perhaps more to follow on this subject in another blog.

By the time I wrapped up with this course the day was over (3pm). As I was leaving the campus it hit me, I was tired. This by far was the most exhausting day in my stint in Auckland. It was like that first day of classes each semester/quarter. I had planned to go flat hunting but realized that was out of the question for the day.

I went to go see a movie ($15nz) My Super Ex Girlfriend, which I am sorry to say was probably the worst movie I’ve ever suffered my way through. If it wasn’t for the fact that this movie has already been released in the States I would suggest that you avoid it. It was not worth the time or money. Had I been more awake I may have left halfway through.

I was working on this blog when I got a call from Alison, asking if anyone had plans. Unfortunately most of our friend from the last two weeks have departed Auckland, or were busy. We met at the famous Borders( from a prior blog) and headed out to a nice German pub that served some great oysters and salad. In the end later Saturday evening I went to the internet café and started hunting for flatmates. I sent out a handful of emails and posted my information in a few locations. I’m already getting a number of calls from these enquires, too many choices….

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Photos

The Shortest Semester Ever (7 hours)
Sign hung on a campus building

Archaic Computers
Bonus points to the person that can identify each of the computers shown.

Uncomfortable lecture hall seating
These seats were just bad and were in every lecture hall I went to. Very uncomfortable, no back support and caused poor posture. No room to stow your backpack, and if your the lucky person sitting in the middle of the row and need to get up during the middle of class, everyone in your path needs to stand up, lift up their seat and let you pass.

Who Said There's No Such Thing as Free Lunch
I guess I did have to wait in line for 30 minutes. After waiting 10 minutes I thought about skipping the offer, but once I'd spent this much time I wasn't going to give up.

Comments

[Uncle Cliff]

Bangers and Beer
Ah, food of the British Empire....Bangers and Beer....would even make the Queeny fart herself

[Call 2 Adventure]

No gas in the YHA hostel.
Proud to say that gas was not the bad odor in the room.