Not gonna lie, this place is making me a little afraid to think outside of the box.

For example, for my reproductive biology class we have to choose an essay topic and write a paper within that topic. My topic is "Odour and Pheromone Signaling in Reproduction." I want the focus of this paper to be an investigation of a body of research linking pheromone signaling and the onset of anorexia nervosa. While that would probably be fine at Hampshire, I'm not so sure about here, because technically that isn't reproduction.

Another big difference between schools in America and the UK is that in America you are evaluated on a lot more. Here, there are no small assignments. Everything you turn in is worth at least 15% of your grade, and in some cases your final exam can be worth 70-80% of your final grade. Its great for the first month of classes when nothing is due, but then all of a sudden late October hits and its just constant deadlines. In the past week, I turned in three major assignments, and have two more due by Wednesday.

Its also difficult because I'm taking third year courses in a system with which I'm not entirely familiar. When they say things like "brief summary" for lab writeups, I have no way of knowing what exactly that means, while my peers who have been working in this system for two years now do.

That being said, I do still love it here. Having to miss Hampshire Halloween was maybe the first time that I got slightly nostalgic for home, but otherwise I'm having a great time (I mean, aside from all the work).