The empty words of Health Promotion

Thinking back to my Health Promotion Foundations lecture, another thing that started my mind wandering away from the lecture and it's subject matter was the first words that the lecturer, Jane Gregg, said when she finally started. She acknowledged the traditional owners and it's something that I've never heard any lecturer do this before. Now, I don't want to sound like a racist bigot but people who come into class and start the lecture with "I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners the..." makes the person just sound like they are trying to be overly politically correct. I mean, if I was in somewhere like Scotland at a uni in a region that used to be owned by some clan I wouldn't start my lecture with an acknowledgement of them even if they had been forcibly removed from the area. Not unless, I was trying to present myself as concerned or ashamed about past government policies. The fact that I wasn't alive when they were made and had nothing do do with forcing the previous residents of their land would not make me want to let everyone know how I feel about the situation. Those policies were conducted with the support of the ruling population. It might not be right, it might have been wrong by today's standards, but it was done. There is a point where you have to move on from the past. We should try to rectify poor past decisions but empty words such as those I heard today, do little but trivialise the issues. That's what I felt the lecturers words were. Empty. By the way she said it you could tell that it was just a formality for her in showing that she was politically correct and nothing more.

Surviving the first week

I've survived my first week in of my new classes. I think I did relatively well considering what they are. I think that all up I'm going to like 3 of the subjects, Medical Microbiology, Environmental Health Risk Assessment and Food Laws. The one that I'm not too sure about is Public Health Foundations. The tutorial was pointless (as most first week tutorials are) and consisted of "team building" exercises with the rest of the class. I can accept that, it's the first week and it's good to get to know some more people. However, the lecture (which was today from 2 - 4) was another story. I expected too much thinking that it was going to relate to public health. The lecture started late and the first half (I only managed to stick it for the first 40 minutes), consisted of a slide show with pictures that were intended to be amusing with captions such as "ask for help" or "stay calm". I have seen these pictures many times before so they did not make me smile in the least. When it came to actually talking about Health Promotion it was not interesting. I'm not being unkind. It just wasn't, so I left.

And the shelves were bare

I'm now back at uni after 3 weeks break. The start of this semester brings new subjects and new room mates. My room mates have already annoyed me. At least one of them has at least. When I arrived back at the flat yesterday afternoon I found that someone had eaten half of the food I had left up there. Seriously, what kind of person eats food that without asking first. That put me in a bad mood for a start and so I've only spoken to two of my housemates quickly when I first arrived and haven't spoken to them since. I'm going to ask who took my food and do my best to get them to replace it when I get back this evening.

My timetable this semester is full of early mornings and full days. I have 2 days with 8 o'clock starts and Wednesday to Friday are all full days ending between 4 and 6 in the evening. At least I have Monday and Tuesday off so I'll be able to get a bit of study done then and if all goes to plan this semester I'll be able to get a job and therefore will be able to work on those two days. My first classes start tomorrow so I'm hoping that things get better.

Half way there

I'm now officially half way through my degree. The marks from the first semester of my second year came out at midnight today. I totally bombed out during both my exams so I wasn't too sure how I'd go. It's quite a relief to finally know that I have passed. I received a credit for public health, microbiology and justice and a distinction for planning and environmental law.

This semester was quite frustrating. I was doing two subjects that I see as a compete waste of time. I'm referring to Justice and the Australian Legal System and Health Promotion Needs and Assessment Planning. Both were frustrating in that not only were both courses poorly run with the grading expectations ambiguous, but also the content was not remotely interesting. I do not want to go into details but I am very disappointed with them and how they were run, not just my final mark. I would have liked to done better in Microbiology and believe my results in the final exam had a major affect on my final grade. In the exam I completed the multiple choice without too many issues. However, the second part of the exam, the short answer questions, was a different story. There were 5 questions each worth 10 marks each. My mind went blank and I could only write something for 2 of them. Before the test there were two pieces of assessment left, the exam and a write up of a lab activity. I was on 37% before those two were submitted. Therefore I must have performed badly on both. Once again I find the empty words flying around my head once again, "I must apply myself more next semester".

Later I found out that I received 85 out of 100 for the lab report (a distinction) and only 58 out of 100 for the exam (a pass). That's why I only received a credit and could have done so much better. If only I could remember what the western blotting technique was!