Homework already...

After completing my first official week of classes at Wesley, this is what I’ve discovered…

Wesley Institute has a dramatically different feel compared to IWU. Even though both are Christian campuses, Wesley Institute is a commuter school with only about 400 students. Needless to say, the campus is definitely smaller than what I’m used to because of the fewer students and the lack of dorms (sadly, there’s no intramural sports either…). However, it definitely has its own charm, complete with librarians who remember you by name :)

Also, Wesley is predominately an arts school, focusing on dance, music, drama, and graphic design. They offer degrees in theology and counseling as well. This combination of theology with the arts gives this school a unique feel and allows them to offer classes that specifically center around the role religion plays in art (such as Faith and the Contemporary Artist). Throughout this semester, I’m really looking forward to taking a closer look at my responsibility to art in respect to theology.

Another thing I’ve noticed is how easy it is to distinguish the music students from the theology students, the graphic design students from the drama students, etc. Each major seems to have its own persona. It’s kind of comical to watch sometimes. The cool thing is, though, there always seems to be someone playing guitar, singing, or messing around with drumsticks in the student center.

In case you’re curious, here are the courses I’m taking this semester…

-The View from Australia: historical and current local and world issues which affect Australia as interpreted from an Australian perspective

-Indigenous Culture, History and Identity: study of the Aboriginal people of Australia

-Faith and the Contemporary Artist II: provides framework of evidence for Christian faith in contemporary context in the arts, for Christian thinking about Culture and the Arts, and for artistic renderings of faith

-Drawing IV: increasing visual awareness of light, tone and form through drawing the human form (life drawing)

-Advertising Design II: focusing on bringing critical analysis and an application of market research to the creative process through designing a single campaign using a range of media/merchandise

-Musical Instrument Study: Guitar Lessons

Classes are a bit different than they are back in the States. For one, each class is only once per week (3 hours per class). Most professors are very much involved in their chosen fields, teaching college courses on the side. Exams are rare - most classes have very few exams (if any at all). Generally, your grade is determined by a select number of projects/papers due toward the end of the semester. We’ve also been told that most Aussie students don’t care what their grade is as long as they pass (they have no GPA to maintain). The Australians think it’s funny when these uptight Americans come in and stress about receiving high marks in their courses.

Right now, I'm lacking all motivation to do homework. Apparently my mind doesn’t think I should be starting classes yet. However, I keep telling myself that the more work I do now, the more I can run around Australia once the weather gets nice :)

This has nothing to do with classes, but I thought I’d share it anyway….

Last Friday I went to the movie theater with a couple girls to watch Inception. We all went to separate registers to purchase our tickets (which ended up costing A$17.50 each!! and I thought movie tickets in the States were expensive…). Apparently, they have assigned seating in the theaters here, which we were completely oblivious to. They even had an usher inside each theater to direct you to your seat. Even though I went to the same movie as my friends, I didn’t actually get to sit by them…lol. In order to get seats together, we would have had to go to same register and tell them we’re in a group. It was a good movie though!!

That's all for now. Happy August!!