Well, the first week of IOP is done and I am getting a feel for the block. The students this block are so international! The mix is incredible. The last blocks were pretty varied, but this new block is just amazing! We have 5 other Americans (which is a huge increase compared to just me), 4 Spanish (from Spain), 18 Dutch, 8 Chinese, 1 Vietnamese, 2 Korean, 1 German, 10 Hungarians, 6 Polish, 19 French, 3 Turkish, 4 Finnish, and who knows if there may be any more, since you never know who might show up late.
After some dreadful news about my exams, I am left with the goal of passing my resits. So my agenda is packed with study time. IOP leaves every Friday free and only my Dutch class on some Mondays. This opens the door to a three or four day weekend almost every week. Plus, there are many holiday breaks (which is why our last block ends the first week of July). The weather is still on the cold side and it rains quite often, so I plan on staying home without too much travel for the beginning of the block.
IOP is filled with group projects, papers and presentations. But a lot of what we cover is actually review for me, since I took SMA my first block. I was told, by some of my friends who already had IOP, that it was extremely easy and fun. I’m not sure about that, but I guess if you like a lot of papers and presentations, then they were right. It’s hard for me to work with 4 other people on projects when we are all thinking differently about what to work on. Especially with a bunch of different projects and different groups all at the same time. But I believe that this will prepare us for real-life, business situations where we will be on different projects and teams, handling different things simultaneously. And what an experience to speak with so many nationalities! It’s already been fun just this first week.
Posted by T.M. on 02/01/2007 at 01:42 PM. Filed under:
