First Classes!

So, I just finished having all of my first classes. I had my first religion class on Monday. I know it's October and this is my second week of school... London is the greatest! Classes here are structured very differently from the ones back at home. Here my science classes are two hours once a week. My religion class is an hour lecture once a week and an hour seminar once a week. And because of this I only have class four day a week. (No class on Friday!)

In all of my science classes at home, I had homework, quizzes, and tests. I never had to write any papers and only had one group project in my first two years at Emory. Here, however, I have essays in all of my science classes. Both of my Biology classes assigned essays that are worth between 40-50% of my grade! I don't know if I'll be able to handle all of this writing.

My religion class is going to be the most interesting out of all of my classes. It is titles "Thinking About Evil" and is going to discuss the problem of evil in religion and how different people have tried to explain it. I have also decided to sit in on a lecture series at King's College called "Thinking About God". It looks at how different religions have described and tried to explain God. The first lecture was on Hinduism and its origin. These classes are so interesting! I'm glad to be able to take them here because at Emory I don't really have as much time to take as many religion classes as I wanted to. Hopefully they will discuss the Jewish point of view in these classes though I don't have much faith they will. I don't think there are many Jews here in London. On Yom Kippur, I went to the Chaplain office to ask about finding a synagogue for services and they couldn't find one. They also didn't know what Yom Kippur was. It was an interesting experience coming from Emory where every other person there is Jewish.

Most of my classes are at Guys campus 5 minutes away from my dorm. But my religion class is at Strand campus which is a 45 minute walk away. I'm going to get in great shape but I think I'm going to have to take the tube there some mornings when I'm running late because I didn't hear my alarm clock.

I'm glad classes have finally started because I was feeling pretty lazy sightseeing all day long. Thursday evening, Diane and I are going to Munich for Oktoberfest. I can't wait to see the city and what the Biggest Folk Festival in the city is like!