Class Schedule!

Last Thursday also I received the class schedule for the course work in Italy! The schedule shows the whole year but we were warned in the email at the holidays shown were not the same for all of the countries. The second half of the schedule isn't very interesting because we are working on our dissertation during that time so that is listed for every day. But I was so excited about the first half of the schedule I was studying it all that afternoon.

The masters program starts on September 6th and the coursework goes through March 31st. The second half starts right away on April 1st in the second country and goes until the middle of July. I thought that some other forms said that the program was going to finish in August nest year but they must have just said that to make sure we left enough time available.

The first three weeks seem to be composed of introductions, a pretest, and Bridging Courses. I think that the Professors will get an idea of where we all are through the pretests and then the Bridging Courses will be used to get all of the students about at the same level for the start for the first class. I would think that this would be very difficult because not only do all of the students come from different educational backgrounds but we also come from different countries and English may not be everyone's first language.

The first class of the Masters Course is History of Construction and Conservation. This will go on for about 4 weeks with an exam in the middle of the 4th week. Each class has a study day at the end and then an exam. Then at the end of all of the classes there is another exam for each class again. The 7th class which is Integrated Projects will actually be going on throughout the whole first half of the Master's Course and will finish with a Presentation right before all of the other final exams. The second course is Structural Analysis Techniques which will be taught by a visiting professor. It will be about 3 and 1/2 weeks. The third course is Seismic Behavior and Structural Dynamics and is about 3 and 1/2 weeks. The fourth course is Inspection and Diagnosis and is about 3 weeks. The fifth class is Repairing and Strengthening Techniques and is about 3 and 1/2 weeks. The sixth class is Restoration and Conservation of Materials and is about 3 weeks.

One thing that could be a good or bad thing about the schedule is that most of the tests are at the beginning or middle of the week. This means that the study day is usually Friday or Monday. This could be a temptation to have a longer weekend (probably not a good idea right before a test) or it could mean that I will spend those long weekends studying and not doing much else. I guess it will depend a little on how confident I feel on the subject matter and the amount of work I have put in during the class.

I was excited to learn when Christmas Break would be too! My first day of break will be December 23rd. My mother and brothers will be arriving in Venice on December 22nd so they will have to find their way to Padua on their own. I'm sure they will be fine though. Break goes all the way through Sunday January 9th. My mother and brothers will be leaving on December 31st. That leaves a little over a week for me to plan other things with friends or catch up on some studying. I'm not exactly sure when Easter break will be because that is in April and I will be in Portugal working on my Thesis then. From what I have heard from other students doing the course right now, the second half is a lot more on your own and you can kind of work out your own schedule with the professor(s) you are working with.

New Laptop Computer

Last Thursday I bought a brand new laptop computer! I am so excited about it. I researched for about 3-4 week trying to figure out all of the best components for my needs and asked a bunch of people for advice on what to get. I found one that had everything that I wanted about 2 weeks ago but I wanted to think about it a while before making the decision for sure. I found that it was the best value so I got it. It is an Acer Aspire Timeline X 4820TG. It has a 14" screen, weighs 4.6lbs including the battery, has battery life up to 8 hours, Intel Core i5 Processor, 500 GB Hard Drive, 4 GB RAM, Dual Layer RW DVD drive, 4 USB slots, Dedicated Graphics Card and has Windows 7! To go along with it I got a Case Logic bag, Microsoft Office 2010 (3 pack to share with the family), ESET Internet Security (4 pack to share with the family), Kensington Lock, and International Protection Plan from Microcenter so that in case just about anything happens to it, they can help me out. I spend Saturday evening and most of Sunday setting it all up. Worked out alright considering I was sick on Saturday and Sunday and didn't feel like doing much more than sit around all day. Anyways, I only have a few more things to set up on it before it is ready to travel to Italy! I'm so glad that I didn't get one any larger because with all of the extra stuff that needs to go along with it (bag, AC adapter, lock, flashdrives, external HD, mouse) it is heavy enough already.