Queuing, Queuing,and More Queuing

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Yesterday, I began registering for classes, and what a day it was. Kate, Alex, and I had to register for a science class at two. This class registered at the Suton Bonnington Campus which was a good 20 minute ride away from the main campus. So, at about 12:40 we left the flat - and it started down pouring, this should have given us a clue about how the day would turn out - caught a Medlink to the Queen's Medical Center (QMC), and walked across the road to campus. We waited about a 1/2 hour for the hopper bus to Sutton Bonnington. Of course, were soaking wet, even though we had umbrellas, so it was not a very comfortable wait. We arrived at Sutton at 1:52 and found the room we were supposed to be at with 2 minutes to spare. Now, there are several different study abroad programs that UNott has, and we do not seem to fit into any of them because we are not full time students at the University. This causes much confusion. At the meeting there were 4 other study abroad students. Three of them had no problem, but the rest of us, they didn't know quite what to do with. We thought that they were supposed to sign our module registration sheets, but they claimed they were not supposed to. So began the longest run around in my life. The lady in the meeting sent us to the office, the office tried to send us to the regular students meeting and then back to the lady. We returned to the office and then went back to the room we began in. A different lady approved our courses but said she couldn't sign them because she wasn't the head of the department, so she sent us to another room to wait for the head who was going to be there to register the rest of the first year students. We waited there, determined to be first in queue, for at least 45 minutes. Little did we know, he was the one given the opening lecture to the first year students. While waiting we debated about whether or not to go find his office, what we would do if he wouldn't sign our forms, the merits of on-line registration, and whether or not I would make it back to campus by 4 to register for a history class. Finally he arrived, with about 300 first year students all trying to queue up and get their classes. He debated about signing our forms, finally decided that he could, and we were free. How were we supposed to know that the next hopper bus back to campus wouldn't come for another hour? But instead of waiting for the hopper, we went to a nearby bus stop that was going to stop at the QMC, right where we needed to be. The bus was ten minutes late. But it was warm and dry, since it had started to rain again. 20 minutes to a 1/2 hour, we thought, because we had passes no towns on the hopper on the way out and we seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. An hour and a half later we finally arrived at the QMC. Turns out there are quite a few stops on the Rainbow 5 bus route. It was now 5:24. We ran to the Medlink stop to catch one of the last ones - the Medlink stops at 6. We might just, we thought, make it home for dinner. We caught the wrong Medlink. We got a very scenic tour before we finally arrived at our stop. We arrived at the flat wet, cold, tired, and really hungry. They had just sat down to dinner - spaghetti. It had taken us nearly 6 hours to get one signature. Needless to say I did not make it back in time for history, so I will be registering for a class on Thursday.
Today the queuing continued. I needed to register for American and Canadian Studies and Religion. Both started at 9:30. The English system of education is quite different from ours, I will go into more detail in another blog. In University they study one subject - example History - and don't branch out like we do unless it is for a language or a supporting class. So UNott students usually don't have problems with this kind of registration because they only have to go to one school to register for all of their classes. At 9:07 I joined the queue that was already forming for 9:30 registration for American and Canadian. At 9:45 when they finally let us start registering, the queue was down the hall and around the corner. At 10:15 I finished there and headed upstairs for Religion. I was excited - there were only three other students!! The professor let us into his office, told us our classes looked good and to register we needed to go down 4 floors. Begin again the queuing. An hour later I reached the table where two people sat, one for 1st semester and one for 2nd, with their computers. I had them approve my one class and then left campus as fast as I could. I got back to the flat at 12:15.
After this experience I have a great appreciation for on-line registration. We get to register for classes nearly a semester before we take them, we know whether or not we will have the classes we need and have time to figure out a schedule if one of our classes doesn't work. I don't have to have each department approve my classes, just my adviser. There is no queuing, no run around. It is a wonderful system compared to what they have here. It also seems that there is no seniority for class registration because today I stood in line with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year students all vying for classes. Madness. Complete madness. I will never complain about on-line registration again.

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Comments

[Jim]

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
Who would have thought that a mere semester abroad would make you long for the online registration process of good 'ol Luther! I get worn out just reading what you had to do just to get into your classes. I enjoy reading your blog....keep up the good and regular writing. Jim