By itsmaggiegwu
I wanted to give you a snippet of what it's like being a student at GW. Week 7 of school came and went and I've finally set in my role as an American college student. It was a week packed with mid-terms, projects, home works and more. My new roommate also moved in which ends my week long of freedom.
One thing that stood out in terms of academic differences between the U.S. and Australia was that the exams here are much easier. This was partly due to the ability to bring in a sheet of notes which in other words mean cram-everything-you've-ever-learnt-in-the-course-on-the-paper. I liked the exams because they're not tricky like back home but instead focused on whether you understood the fundamentals of the course.
I also went to some student organisation panel this week which was really interesting. The Race and Racism in the U.S. and China panel hosted by the Global China Connection student organisation at GW. It was a discussion type of panel that looked at racism in the media (in particular, Fox News going into Chinatown in NYC to an idea of what American-Chinese thought about the presidential election). We also discussed the racism that exists in China, particularly towards Chinese minorities and other POC. Is ignorance a bliss when it comes to racism and racist behavior and attitudes? Should we put blame on the lack of exposure of POC to Chinese people to excuse racism? It was overall a very interesting discussion and one that many would hesitate to hold and I was glad that GCC had this.
I also managed to injure my knee over the last week's frisbee tournament at Delaware. I found out that as a club sports, we were given access to free injury evaluation which is done at the Smith Center. This saved me a lot of hassle of going to a physiotherapist and getting examined and then getting reimbursed through my home university's insurance policy.
Finally, to end this perfect week (the weather has been great as well), I decided to visit Gravelly Point Park. We took the blue metro to Ronald Reagan Airport and walked about a mile to the park. What makes this park special is that you can see the Washington Monument, The Capitol, and have airplanes fly over your head every few minutes or so. It was the perfect weather for a picnic and plane spotting. Then, we proceeded to walk from Virginia all the way back to DC along the water.
