Scheduling Conflicts

Ni hao, all!

I finally got all my classes signed up for! It was a very different experience from what I’m used. It was on the computer, but it was in a much more difficult program than NAU’s LOUIE system. A lot of it was in Chinese, but I had one of my new IFT Buddies, Mandy, to help me out. I was able to get all of my classes easily, since we signed up before the rest of the school. I also got the very last available spot out of all the Wine Studies sections. : )

It was difficult to pick sections of my classes, though. At NAU, you will have a particular class only on certain days, like Tuesday or Thursday for example. The class will be at the same time on both those days. Here, the classes were on different days at different times. Here’s my schedule:

Tourism and Hospitality Marketing
Tuesday at 9:00 am to 10:20 am
Friday at 3:00 pm to 4:20 pm

Tourism Destinations
Tuesday at 11:30 am to 12:50 pm
Thursday at 11:30 am to 12:50 pm

Club Management
Tuesday at 3:00 pm to 4:20 pm
Wednesday at 10:40 am to 12:00 pm

Principles of Management
Wednesday at 2:00 pm to 3:20 pm
Thursday at 3:30 pm to 4:50 pm

Wine Studies
Thursday at 5:00 pm to 6:50 pm

I think it’s a nice schedule, with Mondays off and late-starting classes. It gives me plenty of time to travel, actually squeeze in lunch every day, and have plenty of flute practice time. Also, Wine Studies for two hours will be a nice, relaxing way to spend a Thursday evening at the end of the week. I also don’t have to rush to any of my classes except from Principles of Management to Wine Studies, but the campus is so small that it won’t be an issue. It’s more the size of an American high school, and there are actually only around 1,000 students here. The only problem is that it sits on a hill, so it feels like a hike just to get to class.

I took only five classes, since that’s the minimum you can take at IFT, and I felt I would need the extra time just to adjust to a new school system and whatnot. But most people here take seven or eight classes, and everyone kept asking me, “Is that’s all you’re taking?” It started to get annoying, like they were implying that I was lazy or something, and for those of you who know my course load at NAU know that’s NOT the case at all. But Cindy, my roommate is also taking five, and Stella is taking six.

I also looked into their extra-curricular activities today, since my schedule is so open. I really wanted to take their Mandarin Chinese class for non-native speakers, but it is on the Taipa campus on the other island, and it conflicts with my Wednesday schedule. English Debate Team also looked fun, but again it conflicted with my schedule. So did Choir. And Swim Team. All these clubs are on Wednesday early afternoon, when most of us actually have class!

I did see a beginning guitar class that looked like it could work. I’m going to e-mail the instructor and find out two things:

1. Where is the location of the class (venue is still to be determined).
2. Is it in English?

Once I figure those things out, it might be able to fit into my schedule well! We’ll see what happens…

Sincerely,
Kati