First Day of School! First Day of School!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWXOurnVTYg

Watch the above video... then proceed.

All done?

OK! That was me! I wasn't able to belly flop onto my father but I was equally as excited! Although I did have a hard time getting out of bed this morning..

My first class was International Human Rights at 8:30am-11:30am. This was my last choice as far as classes went on my wish list but I was pleasantly surprised. I thought that it could be interesting, but I also thought it had tremendous potential to be wicked boring...but luckily that wasn't the case!

The class is taught by the ever passionate Dr. Ann Claire Larsen. She has been teaching at ECU for 12 years and has a masters degree in Human Rights. She emphasized that this class has no textbook as current events provide enough information for us to observe, study, and discuss. Also she said she thinks textbooks are a waste since they are so expensive and you only use them for a few short months.

We spent class discussing the Declaration of Human Rights (which I didn't know existed) and other various introductory elements of Human Rights and what exactly that means. Its a philosophical class in the sense that we aren't focused on learning cold hard facts, but rather thinking critically and exploring the theoretical ideas of Human Rights and the practical/possible application of a universal equality when it comes to Human Rights. (I don't know why I keep capitalizing that... I'm going to stop now)

I'm excited for this class because I don't pay attention to global news... if it doesn't happen in America I don't really know about it, so this will force me to pay attention to the news as we are urged (required) to keep up with current events that concern human rights then discuss them in class. There are only 2 assignments for the whole semester and that makes up your grade (which is scary!) But I am excited for the critical thinking aspect of this class and to see how it will challenge my ideas about humanity and the world and equality.

Now for the comic relief... Because I am a total dork and silly things always happen to me something embarrassing had to happen to me on my first day! There was a really interesting bloke in my class who sat in the same row as me and he was constantly contributing to the discussion and challenging ideas presented and contradictions in thought (For example...in the Declaration of Human Rights it obviously stresses the importance of universal equality for all people, but then it also advocates for cultural relativism (which means that there are differences in cultures that must be respected and not interfered with) but if some country's cultural relativism means they get to cut off every woman's right leg so they cant escape the men in their household doesn't that violate their human rights? When do you interfere and when do you respect "cultural relativism") This dude blew me away with how smart he is. So naturally every time he talked I would look at him and gawk at his brilliance.

Well... Just my luck, I walk by him on my way out the door after class and he totally pulled a Hermione and said "Hey you've got ink on your nose...just there (and he points) ...you might want to take care of that ya??"

Great.

So I said thanks and pulled up the camera on my phone to examine the damage and it was quite an ink smear on the front of my nose (between the two nostrils). Ugh!

My next class wasn't until 5:30 so I had a break. I went to the mall and bought a hair dryer but couldn't find a curling iron that I liked. I'll just have to blow dry my Simba mane until I find one I like.

5:30 rolls around and its time for Criminal Justice and Forensic Science. This class is the one that I have been most excited about. It was my first pick! Taught by Stuart Bartels Superintendent of the Western Australian Police Department. SERIOUSLY?! Can this class be any COOLER?! This man has 20+ years experience in law enforcement so he knows all about practical application, and he is super high as far as chain of command goes. Its like being taught forensic science by a combination of the police chief and head medical examiner at home in the U.S.

How amazing of an opportunity is this! I am so so so enjoying this opportunity. The class did NOT disappoint. (It also helps that he is easy on the eyes and has a beautiful accent ;)

He has guest speakers lined up for us for every specialty... ballistics, blood spatter, homicide, fingerprinting, DNA.... I'm like a little kid on Christmas right now I am so excited! His connections are endless and the resources I will be getting to experience are priceless. There are no final exams in this class... we have one online test that is open book, and the rest of the assignments are based on how we solve REAL crime scenes. That's right folks... he takes real solved crimes from the police department and 2 sundays this semester we spend the whole day walking through the various actual crime scenes; his officers that work below him will present us with the actual evidence (pictures of it because we can't touch the real things for obvious reasons) and without him helping us we have to solve the crime based on the forensic science knowledge we learned in the class. HOW FREAKING COOL IS THAT?! SERIOUSLY?!

Our 3 long class was composed of watching an hour long episode of CSI, then an introductory lecture, then photos and the story of a real crime scene (which I won't talk about in detail because its horrendous) and then he dismissed us having shown how hollywood has glamorized the forensic science world, when in reality it is a ugly traumatic yet necessary occupation.

It was an amazing first day and I am looking forward to the rest of the week! :)