Tuesday
I'm exhausted. Woke up early and prepared for Induction, walked into uni with Ruth, my blockmate from across the hall.
Induction was good. It started at 9:30 with a general presentation on the courses and the schedule and everything, and how to pick our optional modules &c. Then at 10:30 we got lumped with the BA freshers in a lecture theatre to watch the Department academic staff introduce itself. We got quizzed on perceptions of crime, Ruth and I did pretty well on that, especially on the topics of our interest.
Returned to our first seminar room to have a spot of lunch (we were all famished by then) and got the assignment to mingle and try and complete a sort of bingo card of characteristics. I got to impress people by being able to sign the 'speaks three languages' square, though I didn't really tell them that I'm not exactly fluent in French or German.
Afterwards, a very long but very interesting session on the core and optional modules. Definitely will be signing up for Media and Crime and for Psychology of Evil, I haven't decided on my third optional yet.
Finally, some stuff on the library and the IT services and all that.
Ruth and I left at about 4:30, got caught in a downpour on our way back.
The academic staff seems really pleasant; though also a bit mad, but of the good sort, the sort of mad that I presume you have to be in order to be a proper Criminology scholar or indeed any scholar at all. There is, for instance, this one lady who looks all sweet and innocent at first and then you get to discover that she is interested (she used my favourite word, 'obsessed', to describe her interests... extra points in my book) in what she calls the darker sides of humanity, like serial killers and genocide and all that. She teaches the Psychology of Evil course. Another is the man who teaches Understanding Crime, which is supposedly quite a hard course - but he showed up wearing a wickedly awesome combination of brownish slacks and a vest, with a green jacket to complete the three-piece-suit get-up, and wore it with a dark richly patterned button-down. He had wonderful examples of for instance the punishments for cross-dressing in Victorian times. And they're all like that, all memorable, even for a person like me who is awful with names. So I'm clearly looking forward to my classes - three courses per semester, all assessed through a 4,000-word paper at the end, so six courses in total and then my dissertation. It'll be a wondrous time.
Wednesday
A very early morning. 9 am. I completed my optional modules by picking Transnational Policing as a third option, and Crime, Justice and Psychology as a back-up. Then elections for student representative, one per stream (four streams within the Criminology MSc: 'straight' Criminology, what I do; Applied Criminology, which includes a placement; Clinical Criminology, which is on the psychological stuff mainly, and Terrorism, Security and Policing, which is, you'd never guess it, on terrorism 'n stuff) and then one for the part-time students. The representatives for Applied, Clinical and Part-Time were easily picked because only one person ran for each (congrats Ruth on the Clinical!), but for Terrorism and 'straight' there were two for each. Aside from me, a very intelligent and ambitious guy from Canada ran for the 'straight' and I feared that I didn't stand a chance; eventually I did win, with a difference of one vote. I'm very happy with this, also because I just really want to be involved this year.
Info 'n stuff on plagiarism (don't do it!), sources (Wikipedia is evil!) and how to write an essay (introduction, body and conclusion!), then drinks at the department, then lunch at Shimla Pinks, an Indian restaurant. I love spicy Asian food, so I had a good time eating something and I managed to spill none of the brightly coloured food on my bright white blouse. I'm proud of myself for that. While eating, we (that is, the Canadian guy, Lisa, who is one of the instructors, another girl and me, as well as the rest of our table) had interesting discussions going on about criminal behaviour not being criminal within certain groups within society (I got to bring up the Mafia, yay!), poverty, Canadians missing Tim Hortons, serial killers and much more.
At night, Ruth and I took an undergrad fresher who was by some misunderstanding or another placed in a postgrad hall, to Revolution, a bar where we met up with another of my fellow students and left the fresher with the rowing team so she could make fresher friends, while we three postgrads went on to a few more bars and then took a taxi to the Student Union before I decided to go home because I have had some trouble sleeping the last few days. I'm going to have to get used to drinking pints instead of half-pints, though Strawberry Woo-Woos are something I would not mind having again. It was crowded at the Student Union and one of the security guys gave me a stern lecture on that I should really not walk home by myself, but of course I did so anyway - but I did not trudge through Victoria Park, like he said I shouldn't.
Thursday
Woke up late, sui-cycled to the Criminology Department to pick up my books (free course books! Yes, happily surprised me too. How absolutely wonderful!) and will go sit on my bed in a few, listen to music and read some chapters.
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