"ANYTHING BUT THE WATER!!!!"

I forgot to include this story about the beach today!

As Chene and I were walking on the beach we saw a couple with their "tough" dog.

It was a large dog that kiiiiinda looked like a pit bull, but wasn't a pit bull... but it was brown and black-ish and large.

So anyway, this dog DID NOT. UNDER AAAANNNY CIRCUMSTANCES, want to get into the water. So the man picked up the dog and carried it, like a widdle babyyyy, into the crashing waves. Once he and his partner were about waist deep, he dropped the dog in the water.

IMMEDIATE panic ensued and the dog was having the worst, wet, nightmare of his life.

Doing, (what I'm sure was the most logical thing in his mind) the dog realized he needed someone to 'lead' him out of the water, and since his owners were the ones to put him in this mess, he promptly scooped up his leash in his mouth, swam to shore, and led himself out of the water, to the top of the beach to safety, where he promptly laid down, dropped his leash, and gave his owners the biggest look of contempt I have only ever seen matched on Riley's sweet face when forced by Trevor to tolerate other dogs.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

I have never laughed so hard at a dog in my life. So much attitude in one animal, I loved it.

SPRING YOU'RE NOT INVITED!

So, Australia and Spring aren't friends... because it went from being boots, jeans, and sweatshirt weather... to being tank top, shorts, and flip flop weather, in a matter of days.

I am totally not joking.

If I didn't love the beach so much, I would be upset.

The last few days it has been 88, 90, and today 91 degrees!

I live in a building with NO AIR CONDITIONING PEOPLE!

So when Chené got home from prac (her internship at an elementary school, where she teaches, aka practice, shortened (like all other words by the australians) to "prac") and woke me up from my blissful sweaty nap to ask me to go to the beach... I couldn't run out the door fast enough.

As soon as we got there we ran into the water. It was a very nice relief after the best (albeit sweaty) nap I think I have ever had (probably because I fell asleep reading Harry Potter ;)

I remembered to take some pictures today.

The sun came out purple? Must be an Australian thing ;)

my point of view

Chene!

SCHOOOOOOOLS OUT. FOR. SUMMMMAAAAAA!!!!

That's right my friends. It's summer break for me HEEEYYYYY-OOOO!

I had my last Offender Profiling class today. It was bittersweet. I can't believe all these truly amazing classes that I have had here are now over, but I am so excited to be one step closer to seeing my family, my friends, and my boyfriend. Sadly today's class was extremely dull.

At the end of class she gave us some "test prep" for our exam in 2 weeks. I put "test prep" in quotes because her idea of "test prep" was to tell us to read the entire textbook (680 pages), re-listen to all the recorded versions of the lectures from the semester, and review all the powerpoint slides for each lecture.

OH IS THAT ALL??? THANK GOD, I THOUGHT IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN SOMETHING MORE EXTENSIVE. (That's my sarcasm talking... **insert eye roll here**)

Obviously she received some flack about this "prep" from the students in the class, but I commend her for making the following point:

"You are third and fourth-year students. You have taken more exams than I am sure you could keep track of. You have taken enough exams to know how to prepare for exams. Focus on the content that you believe is what you should take away from the unit. Key concepts, typologies, theories, and patterns. There will be 60 multiple choice questions, and 6 essay questions. You have two weeks to prepare, and as long as you manage your time wisely, I see no reason why you won't do well on the exam."

TOUCHÉ.

So I have two weeks to review a ton of information, but being a seasoned veteran at this whole college thing (7 years in now..holy cow I need to graduate) I know how delineate testable information from rubbish.

But all that studying can wait. The beach is calling me :)

A Great Day... A Crappy Night...

Saturday the 26th rolls around and I am ready for a break. I had been working on my Family Law workbook all week (my last assignment, YES!) and I was going a little crazy with Aussie Cabin Fever since i was rotating between the library, my room, and classrooms.

Saturday was the perfect day. It's starting to get hot here in Perth (its in the 80s) and so we decided to go to the beach! It was an absolutely perfect day. There was a breeze, it wasn't scorching hot, the water was amazingly blue, and the tanning was ready to be absorbed! I even jumped all the way into the ocean and played in the waves! The water was surprisingly warm. Later, Chene and I took a walk along the shoreline just talking and enjoying the day... it really was great.

*Someone remind me to make a separate post about the Shark Helicopters*

After the beach Chene and I went to sushi for lunch and it was my first experience eating sushi. It was SOOO GOOOD. I had a chicken roll of course and it was by far the best food I have had in Perth in my time being here.

Next we went to Mount Lawley which is the other campus for ECU. I wanted to go there just to check it out and walk around since it is part of the University I go to. So we walked around some more then finally decided to go home and get back to work on our assignments.

Thats where the story gets sad :(

Basically, because I have the worst Rowland luck with electronics possible, I wrote (and researched), putting HEAPS of work into the last 10 pages of my assignment, and I LOSE IT ALL. Somehow it didn't save (I have no idea, and yes I tried every retrieval process possible) and I went to go watch a movie on my computer as I fell asleep, my computer just shuts off all of the sudden, and reboots.

OH NO. I thought I SURE HOPE MY ASSIGNMENT IS OK aw don't think like that Kayla of course it's fine.... WELL I BETTER RE-OPEN IT AND CHECK IT TO MAKE SURE....

YES. That's exactly what I did, and looked like, mixed with a ton of snot and tears, as I discovered all the hard work I did, over the last 6 hours, on my LAST ASSIGNMENT, that is due Monday, disappeared into the black hole of my laptop's soul. So I did what any girl would do in my situation... called my boyfriend and blubbered and screamed and cried while he sat there helplessly knowing there was nothing he could do to help the situation. Finally, (after all my crying gave me a head ache) I decided to go to bed and tackle the assignment ALL OVER AGAIN in the morning on sunday before the due date on monday.

Needless to say it took all day sunday for me to do it all over again (lots of breaks for moping, complaining, distractions, and procrastinating... oh and a fire!... but thats for another post too)

I turned in the assignment online on Monday and after I did it I realized I completely forgot a section (BAHHHH! UGHHHH) but at least it is over with now and I am done!

Last assignment completed! Tomorrow is my last normal class session, Wednesday morning- Offender Profiling, and then I have 2 weeks off before my one final exam on November 12th and then I fly home that night! YAYYYYY! :)

Progress Report

Remember those? We got them in junior high and high school and we had to show them to our parents and if our grades were bad we had to get them signed by our parents and turn them back in. Haha, I just remembered that.

Anyway, here is MY Progress report. These are my grades so far for the assignments I've gotten back:

1. Forensic Science Test- 36.5/40 = 91% - High Distinction- A (I was right I did kill it!)
2. Forensic Science Critical Essay- 38/50 = 76% - Distinction - B+
3. Family Law Workbook Part One- 21/30 = 70% - Distinction - B
4. Family Law Presentation- 23.5/30 = 78% - Distinction - B+
5. Reaction Paper #1 (Counselling)- 10.5/15 = 70% - Distinction - B
6. Reaction Paper #2 (Counselling)- 14/15 = 93% - High Distinction - A
7. Counselling Simulation Video- 42.5/50 = 85% - High Distinction - A
8. Literature Review(Offender Profiling)- 18.5/30 = 61% - Credit - C+

A lot better than I thought actually! I am satisfied with them all except my Literature review of course. That was a new type of assignment to me and I didn't really understand it, and my teacher is a REALLY hard grader. Oh well, I did the best with what I knew how to do.

Here is the translation of grading if you are curious:

Hannah told me that teachers in Australia don't give out perfect scores, that it just never happens because nothing is perfect, so I should be proud of the high grades I have attained. Hannah is a very dedicated student, in the honor society and all that, so I am sure she knows what she is talking about. I am proud of my grades, but I always wish I did better....its the OCD perfectionist in me ;)

Assignment OVERLOAD

The end is in sight people! I have one big assignment, and one big exam left before I am all done with my work in Australia. Can you believe it?! Time has flown and dragged all at the same time. I will write a sappy post later about how sad I am that classes are over (Last night was my last forensic science class and I am truly sad that its over!) But right now I want to talk about my recent assignment predicament.

I was responsible and finished four hard assignments that were due the day after I got home from Sydney, before I even left to Sydney so that I could relax in Sydney for 2 weeks… but sadly my fore sight ended there…

As I explained, I left to California after getting home from Sydney and being in Perth for only two days.  What I neglected to notice was that I had FOUR assignments due the week after I got home from California. MEANING that I landed Monday night (11:45pm) in Perth, had a presentation Tuesday morning, and then had Tuesday-Sunday to finish four HUGE end of semester assignments.

AND THE ASSIGNMENTS ARE! (drumroll please…)

Due October 21, 2013:

#1: Forensic Science Essay (Forensic Science Class)

#2: Family Law Workbook (Family Law Class)

#3: Reaction Paper (Counselling Class)

#4: Offender Profile (Offender Profiling Class)

My Family Law workbook is worth 50% my grade in that class and also functions as my final exam for the class.

My Offender Profile is worth 50% of my grade in that class.

My Forensic Science Essay is worth 30% of my grade in that class.

My Reaction Paper is worth 30% of my grade in that class.

When I couldn’t sleep Monday night after my momentous traveling, and I lie awake in my vastly uncomfortable twin dorm bed, I realized the massive undertaking I had ahead of me. I decided to e-mail my Family Law teacher and ask for an extension on my assignment because she is the most understanding of all my teachers, and she hates for students to be stressed out by assignments. She gave me a week-long extension making my workbook due October 28^th. So I was able to cross that assignment off, and prioritize it as “the coldest fire” in my current situation of putting out the hottest fire first.

So starting Tuesday after class I began to organize. I re-read all the instructions for each of the three assignments, highlighted the rules, concepts, or ideas that were most important for me to include, and then retired to bed. Wednesday, after my Offender Profiling lecture I took a break for lunch, then headed to the library to begin the massive amounts of research that were necessary for each assignment. I spent hours in the library. Thursday, I began to actually write my assignments. I started with my Offender Profile but after a few hours I got frustrated and stopped. I decided to do my Forensic Science Essay first instead because it was the shortest assignment out of the three, and I figured I could knock it out real quick and move on to the harder more complex assignments.

By Saturday I felt like I was making good steady progress having finished my Forensic Science essay, and having the majority of my Offender Profile done (so I thought) but come Saturday night the panic was beginning to set in. I hadn’t even started my Reaction Paper for my Counselling class, and my Offender Profile wasn’t completely finished, and I only had Sunday left to finish them! I wasn’t upset at myself because I had literally spent the whole week in isolation, oscillating between my room and the library, with zero social interaction, and only my music (and Harry Potter movies) to keep me going. I knew that I did a good job maintaining my focus, and that I really was doing the best job I could do.

Sunday proved to be a great day for progress as I finished my Offender Profile, and had started AND finished my Reaction Paper in one day (I was really proud of that fact).

So here comes D-Day… Monday October 21^st… a day that will live in infamy. (okay not really… but you get the idea) I slept in until 11 (boy that was nice! I had been getting up early to work on assignments) and then began to edit my three assignments. All three of them were due online by 11:59 pm you see, so I had time to do a final once-over and catch any mistakes. Also, I had to do the reference page for all my papers. I always leave that for last as I LOATHE the reference page and it takes proper attention to format it correctly.

I looked over my Forensic Science essay: I corrected spelling and grammar, changed the wording in a few sentences, and composed the reference page. DONE. I turned it in.

I looked over my reaction paper: I corrected spelling and grammar, added some definitions and justifications, and composed the reference page. DONE. I turned it in.

Then came the Offender Profile…. **wah, wah, WAAAAHHHHH**

(I’m trying to portray that sound on tv and movies when something goes wrong, or unexpected and you hear that three note melody where the last note is draaaaaaawn ooooooouuuuuut.)

My conflict came to an abrupt fruition.

See, they have these stupid things called word limits here in Australia, which I hate. If you know me you know I can talk forever, and especially when it comes to my academic work I always write as much as I can to ensure I prove my point (beyond a reasonable doubt). But not in Australia. The teachers here want you to be able to prove your point in the least amount of words possible. Now, I understand the logic behind that….teaching students to be succinct in their writing and show they can portray their thoughts in the shortest and most effective way possible, and it makes shorter papers to grade! And I wouldn’t have a problem with this except for the feedback I’ve gotten on each assignment I have turned in with a word limit. Each time, my teachers have said “You should have included this, or you should have expanded on this thought, or you should have given more evidence to prove this claim.”

Really? REALLY?!  I WOULD HAVE DONE THOSE THINGS IF I DIDN’T HAVE TO ADHERE TO YOUR STUPID WORD LIMIT! BAHHHH!

So, going back to my Offender Profile I was once again faced with this problem. I’m supposed to profile an offender (obviously) based on a thirty page case file I was given containing information about three homicides that had occurred, the victim autopsy results, forensic evidence, interviews, and case notes. Based on the information from the case file, information in the textbook, and relevant literature published on the content in the case file, I am expected to compose my report.

In a nutshell, I am supposed to take a 30-page case file, over 400 pages of information in the textbook, and at least 15 academic journal articles published about serial homicide and offender characteristics and condense ALLLLL that information into a 2,500 word report.

NO. JUST NO. [Dad, you know what I REALLY said here ;) ]

Seriously? Not possible. Not only is it impossible to include all the necessary information in under 2,500 words, she gave us multiple subsections that we were required to include. Which I thought were rather unnecessary, and I would have rather spent more of my word allowance on different sections.

So do you see my predicament? At noon, on Monday, I looked at my report. It was under the word limit, but I believed it sat there, on my computer, as an injustice to all the hard word and analysis I had labored so dedicatedly over. I delved so far into this project that I went as far to specifically classify the offender into a serial murderer typology, predict his psychological development in his life, and whether or not he was married and what car he drove! (Yes it is truly possible to figure these things out based on crime scene clues… the whole purpose of this class).

What should I do? Do I include absolutely EVERYTHING in my report and display all the hard work I did? Or do I adhere to the word limit and turn in a report that meets my teachers requirements? I was distressed. I wanted to follow the rules, but I also wanted my teacher to see exactly HOW MUCH EFFORT I put into this report that is worth 50% of my grade. Because I truly did go above and beyond the requirements to produce, what I think, is a stellar report.

I decided to abandon the word limit and include everything I thought was relevant and important in the report. I did my best to include those things in the shortest way possible while still explaining their justification, and I was satisfied.

...That is until I went to my Forensic Science class Monday night. 

I spoke with Hannah, a girl I sit with in both Forensic Science and Offender Profiling, and we chatted about the report. She reminded me about 3 different things that were a requirement to include that I had completely forgotten, and also reminded me of a few other things I had forgotten to include. GREAT. Now I have 3 hours to include all of those requirements that I had forgotten about and turn it in before 11:59pm! CRAP!

Needless to say I spent Monday night in a fit of frustration, anger, and crying. I turned in my report after some HEAVY editing, and it was 409 words over the word limit (not too bad) it was a total of 3,992 words but I figured she wouldn’t include the reference page, title page, table of contents, all that rubbish in the word count, so by MY COUNT, I was only 409 words over the 3,000 word limit (she increased it to 3,000 from 2,500 after multiple complaints from students).

But now, on Tuesday morning, I am finally at peace. (MAJOR brownie points to Ryan for dealing with me and my roller coaster of emotions the past few days while I was dealing with my conflicting feelings about this report). 

I realized that no matter what grade I receive, I have truly learned SO MUCH through this assignment and I am proud of how much I have learned, the research I did, and the amount of information I have truly absorbed and retained. This assignment wasn’t a copy and paste, write and forget assignment. I truly learned so much and I am so proud of myself for that. So I am at peace! And I am comforted by the fact that my personal growth through this assignment in the field of criminal justice was HUGE and that is what truly matters. The purpose of school is to learn and internalize information and that is EXACTLY what I did whether my report reflect that or not!

Ryan also put things in perspective for me when he said “Babe in the large scope of things it is just one little report. Your life will go on, you won’t even think about this report in three months. It will just be a distant memory. Be proud of all the hard work you have done! You did the best you could, and you learned so much. Be proud of yourself!”

On that note, here I am on Tuesday morning feeling relieved that at least it is over, and finding solace in the fact that I learned so much. I have a definite appreciation for all of the things I have learned from that report and my Offender Profiling class as a whole.

WOW this turned out to be WAYYYYY longer than I thought it would!

I would also like to add that (as usual) Harry Potter has gotten me though rough times! During the stressful times this past week in order to relax a little, I would watch Harry Potter on my laptop as I fell asleep, and I’ve been re-reading the 7^th book when I have time to relax. I will never get tired of J. K. Rowling’s magical world :)

Now the hard-work on my family law project begins :(

KP the Zombie

I'm sure all of you know how exhausted I must be with all the traveling and schoolwork I have been doing and if you didn't know... WELL I AM! ;)

Let's see... I had to turn in 4 big assignments before I left for Sydney on September 24th which meant the week before that I spent very sleep deprived and very school focused.

Then I spent Septemeber 24th-October 6th in Sydney relaxing with my love and doing no homework at all.

I flew back to Perth Sunday October 6th, went to class for two days, then started my journey back to California on Tuesday October 8th for Alyssa's wedding.

After around 24 hours of traveling I landed in San Francisco on Wednesday October 9th at 11am. I was home wednesday, thursday, and friday, leaving after the wedding on Saturday the 12th.

I arrived back in Perth Monday October 14th at 11:45pm. I fell asleep after a MUCH NEEDED shower (after around 30+ hours of traveling) around 2 am.

I had to be in class at 8am the following Tuesday morning (5 hours of sleep) for a presentation for my Family Law class, and was supposed to attend another class from 230-530 but it was cancelled. (Thank God)

To say I've been exhausted is an understatement.

Tuesday night I slept from 8pm-6am. I attended class from 830-1130 and then worked on assignments for the rest of the day.

Then I fell asleep just after 7pm wednesday night and slept until almost 7 am! *Insert shocked face here*

SO FINALLY after 3 weeks of traveling around the world (no complaints here) I got the sleep my body has been craving, and it has felt so wonderful!

Today I have been working on two different assignments that are both due Monday. I had a total of 4 assignments all due Monday *groan* but luckily one of my teachers gave me a week long extension on an assignment so I have 3 assignments due this coming Monday.

I finished one assignment, a paper for my Forensic Science class this morning, which means I have 2 more to go. These assignments are very complex and require A HUGE AMOUNT of work, writing, and research, as they are the last assignments for the semester. Once I turn in the 3 assignments that are due monday, and the one assignment that is due a week later...

 I WILL BE ALL DONE WITH MY WORK IN PERTH! Crazy huh?!

Well I have one final exam in my Offender Profiling class but that is the only exam I have and then I am done!

Needless to say tonight, as well as the rest of the weekend will be spent on the two more assignments I have to complete before Monday, and judging by how hard they are I will be undoubtedly working my giant butt off all weekend! Good thing I got some good sleep in...

I promise in the 2 weeks I have off before my final exam I will catch up on blogging! But for now.... back to the student grind...

xo

ForSci Saves the Day!

Anytime I get that 'Why did I come here' feeling about coming to Australia (strictly in the academic sense not social sense-- My friends here are incredibly supportive and wonderful) my Forensic Science class ALWAYS reminds me.

I honestly can't say enough how much I love and adore this class. I was bummed out over break because a paper I turned in for my Offender Profiling class got totally RIPPED APART (grading wise not literally) by the teacher (T.A.) and I was sad because I felt I did a decent job but she annihilated it for anything you can think of down to the fact that I didn't have correct australian spelling and I shouldn't have certain spacing in certain places *insert groan and eye roll* (The TA graded it not the teacher so I'm going to talk to the teacher about it at some point to get some perspective)

ANYWAY that bummed me out and made me feel like I was letting myself, my parents, and my grandparents down by being here and getting less than decent grades. But then a few days later I found out I got at 14/15 on a different paper and that made me feel slightly better. and then once again, today, my For Sci class left me awed and amazed.

We went over in complete detail a bombing that happened here on September 1, 2001. The information we were given access to is special because you cant obtain access to it in any other way... its not on the internet, nothing. Super exclusive. I can't wait to write a post devoted to everything I learned but right now I have to write another paper...

Are you surprised?! Me neither.