Classes, reading and mid-terms: what are they?

I feel like apologising for the lateness of these posts will become a habit of mine. I do apologise for how long this has taken but I expect to be posting several in quick succession which will catch you all up on what I've been doing and maybe go a little ways as to explain what exactly I've been so busy doing that I haven't posted.

Classes:

Classes here are very different from those I experience last year at Keele. Here I am taking four classes (first difference, they call them classes not modules) and instead of being an hour lecture and an hour tutorial for each like I'm used to, instead I have a 3 hour seminar for each. Basically, a seminar is like a cross between a lecture and a tutorial. The professor, there's a another difference: they are all professors and TA's here, stands at the front and lectures but then every so often he'll stop and it will go into tutorial mode and we the students will be asked various questions linking to the readings and such. All my classes, despite the 3 hour mind bogalingness are incredibly interesting and challenging on different levels.

Readings:

I never knew books could cost so much money. I know appreciate Keele's use of many an online journal so much more than I did before. Here they still love their books and something called a course kit. A course kit is a bunch of articles from different source all put together for our reading pleasure. This would all be ok if it didn't cost so much more than it does in the UK. Also, the amount of reading they do here for most subjects is about double that of what I had last year, even for required readings. All I can say is it's a good thing I love to read!

Mid-terms:

These are things we have vaguely heard about in popular culture but had never had the joy of experience. I was lucky enough not to have any mid-terms just an essay due in but many of my friends have been hit with weeks of studying for exams based on a few weeks of material. It just seems incredibly odd to all of us to be tested on part of the course now and then the rest in a few more weeks. Good news though, most people are coming out of them happy and pleased with their performance. Now, everyone is waiting to get their marks back and just hoping that marking isn't incredibly harsh here. These will be everyone's first assessments so we just don't know what to expect.

As exchange students we have the very difficult job of fitting these things in around experiencing all that this other country and culture has to offer. So far so good, we have managed to attend class, read and sit exams/write papers while have a blast. Here's hoping we keep it up!