Long post.
Had the first day. X3 I'd decided to walk, just to see how long it'd take me (yeeeeah, I walk everywhere). It took me an hour and a half, exactly pretty much, which was what I thought it would be. I'm deciding to take the bus tomorrow. ^ ^;;
When I got there the place was... deserted. Pretty much completely. There were only a few people sitting around reception. I was told that the coach wouldn't really arrive until half-past so that was why. When I walked around looking for the person I was supposed to be meeting, I found that one of my honours participants was also helping out. XD
Anyway, the person eventually found us and led us upstairs and gave us our packs.
You know how I said that we'd be wearing green caps with a brain on them? I'd read her e-mail wrong - it was our name badges that would have a green dot on them, but our cap would still have a brain on it. I thought this meant that a brain was stitched onto the front.
Yeeeeeah. Not exactly what I was expecting. We were getting comments about them. XD;; And pictures taken of us, by the offical photographer.
So we put the badges and the cap on and we were told in brief what was expected of us: we sit at reception, if the person registering is from one group, they have to sign in, and then we give them their pack, and if they're in another group, we just give them their pack; we guard the whiskey (it's the prize for the competition); we also guard the exhibition room if the regular guy is off presenting.
Then we started to put up where people should stick up their posters with velcro. After we'd just started, that was when the coach first arrived so me and H (the person who'd been my participant) went down to register them in. She was registering them, while I had to try and find their names in the bundle. All the packs were labeled, and put in alphabetaical order, but we were used to Scottish names, and all the people coming to our table were European, and the person who sorted the names seemed to randomly decide if the third name was their last name or their second name was their last name. A bit daunting to begin with, but the people were patient. ^ ^ There was probably about three times as many people from just Britain, but hardly any of them registered - we were told that not everyone came on the first day.
New duties were included so that we were in charge of registering new people to the guided walk through the city (which I wanted to go on, but it got fully booked. D:), and having the key to the storage room for people's luggage, as well as labels for the luggage.
So after that was refreshments. Mini double chocolate muffins and lots of danish pastries, along with tea and coffee. Then there was the introductary speech and the keynote speaker. We weren't sure if we were supposed to go, but one of the coordinators said that she'd stay on the reception so we can go up.
It's ironic that the time I go into the big shmancy lecture theatre is when I'm no longer a student. And, really, it's very spacious. The thing is though, the speakers are standing in front of a window-wall. Fair enough the blinds are down, but the blinds, what with the sun still coming through them, it kinda makes the speakers' outline go all weird in my eyes.
We had a speech from the Vice Principle, and gave us some stats about the uni. We had another talk from someone from America which was kinda interesting (the other three helpers left ten or twenty minutes after she'd started). The whole, the students expect the right answer, and that there's only one answer, and all information comes from lecturers was defintely true. The second part about coming at a crossroads though... In her study, she'd found that a fair number of her participants would start questioning the validity of One Right Answer and where to get their information from sometimes years after uni, which just sounded odd to me. We've been constantly told to look for information ourselves and that there is no one right answer for... at least three years, I think. It might be a generational thing though, because it was a longitudinal study and the research had begun in the late eighties.
After that was lunch.
Lunch was disappointing. :( It was buffet style, and the only thing I really liked about it was the bread. The cup holders were amazing though! XD They clipped onto the side of the plate and your glass had a little niche to sit in so you wouldn't have to worry about it sliding off your plate. It shot the balance of your plate to hell though. XDD
After that, I went into one of the sessions about student retention, which was where my supervisor was presenting. The first one finished hers, and then my supervisor's group was up, but she wasn't the one who was presenting. Aww. And the two presentation's findings were really similar. When that one finished, I left, because I was getting sleepy and I didn't want to go through another very similar presentation.
Went back downstairs to reception and the other helpers looked so. Bored. XDD But there's plasma screens above our heads, so one was watching the tennis. I got bored and started writing fanfic in my handbook. XD Yey Arctic Fox fic!
When three o'clock rolled 'round, it was time for refreshments again. This time fairy cakes and brownies, along with wine, orange juice etc. etc. The icing sugar on top of the fairy cakes was ridiculously sweet. I couldn't eat all of it. XDD;;
New duties during this were to mark in new people for the dinner tomorrow.
After the refreshments, one of us had to go guard the exhibition room with all the posters and laptops in it. I volunteered for that, though I was hoping for me only having to do that for half-an-hour, since there was a presentation that I wanted to see. Was kinda bored so I continued writing the fic, while keeping an eye out. Then picked up some of the handbooks, even though I really shouldn't need Training Requirements for Postgraduate Research Students in Psychology. I'm also not sure if I need Psychology Student Employability Guide, and that's ten pounds if I want to buy that. =/ Aaaand I can get this as a PDF anyway, so that doesn't matter. :3
Turned out that the guy who was normally in the room was presenting for an hour, so I called up one of the other helpers to go there while I went to the presentation. It was kinda meh. =/ Though it was really surprising to hear that her psychology sample had seventy-one females and sixty males. There's only, at most, ever been seven guys in my year.
It seems like there has to be questions asked of the presenter, because when no-one did, she kept standing and the chair had to ask her one. That started the others up and I was kinda surprised when she said that the psychological resiliance contributed to the participants' performance, but the results of the two were not significant. So... that would mean that it wasn't a factor.
That then finished, and guess what? More refreshments!
We could leave at that point. X3
I think tomorrow's just going to be all of the same too, but it'll start earlier. Still the same number of breaks though. XDD
When I got there the place was... deserted. Pretty much completely. There were only a few people sitting around reception. I was told that the coach wouldn't really arrive until half-past so that was why. When I walked around looking for the person I was supposed to be meeting, I found that one of my honours participants was also helping out. XD
Anyway, the person eventually found us and led us upstairs and gave us our packs.
You know how I said that we'd be wearing green caps with a brain on them? I'd read her e-mail wrong - it was our name badges that would have a green dot on them, but our cap would still have a brain on it. I thought this meant that a brain was stitched onto the front.
Yeeeeeah. Not exactly what I was expecting. We were getting comments about them. XD;; And pictures taken of us, by the offical photographer.
So we put the badges and the cap on and we were told in brief what was expected of us: we sit at reception, if the person registering is from one group, they have to sign in, and then we give them their pack, and if they're in another group, we just give them their pack; we guard the whiskey (it's the prize for the competition); we also guard the exhibition room if the regular guy is off presenting.
Then we started to put up where people should stick up their posters with velcro. After we'd just started, that was when the coach first arrived so me and H (the person who'd been my participant) went down to register them in. She was registering them, while I had to try and find their names in the bundle. All the packs were labeled, and put in alphabetaical order, but we were used to Scottish names, and all the people coming to our table were European, and the person who sorted the names seemed to randomly decide if the third name was their last name or their second name was their last name. A bit daunting to begin with, but the people were patient. ^ ^ There was probably about three times as many people from just Britain, but hardly any of them registered - we were told that not everyone came on the first day.
New duties were included so that we were in charge of registering new people to the guided walk through the city (which I wanted to go on, but it got fully booked. D:), and having the key to the storage room for people's luggage, as well as labels for the luggage.
So after that was refreshments. Mini double chocolate muffins and lots of danish pastries, along with tea and coffee. Then there was the introductary speech and the keynote speaker. We weren't sure if we were supposed to go, but one of the coordinators said that she'd stay on the reception so we can go up.
It's ironic that the time I go into the big shmancy lecture theatre is when I'm no longer a student. And, really, it's very spacious. The thing is though, the speakers are standing in front of a window-wall. Fair enough the blinds are down, but the blinds, what with the sun still coming through them, it kinda makes the speakers' outline go all weird in my eyes.
We had a speech from the Vice Principle, and gave us some stats about the uni. We had another talk from someone from America which was kinda interesting (the other three helpers left ten or twenty minutes after she'd started). The whole, the students expect the right answer, and that there's only one answer, and all information comes from lecturers was defintely true. The second part about coming at a crossroads though... In her study, she'd found that a fair number of her participants would start questioning the validity of One Right Answer and where to get their information from sometimes years after uni, which just sounded odd to me. We've been constantly told to look for information ourselves and that there is no one right answer for... at least three years, I think. It might be a generational thing though, because it was a longitudinal study and the research had begun in the late eighties.
After that was lunch.
Lunch was disappointing. :( It was buffet style, and the only thing I really liked about it was the bread. The cup holders were amazing though! XD They clipped onto the side of the plate and your glass had a little niche to sit in so you wouldn't have to worry about it sliding off your plate. It shot the balance of your plate to hell though. XDD
After that, I went into one of the sessions about student retention, which was where my supervisor was presenting. The first one finished hers, and then my supervisor's group was up, but she wasn't the one who was presenting. Aww. And the two presentation's findings were really similar. When that one finished, I left, because I was getting sleepy and I didn't want to go through another very similar presentation.
Went back downstairs to reception and the other helpers looked so. Bored. XDD But there's plasma screens above our heads, so one was watching the tennis. I got bored and started writing fanfic in my handbook. XD Yey Arctic Fox fic!
When three o'clock rolled 'round, it was time for refreshments again. This time fairy cakes and brownies, along with wine, orange juice etc. etc. The icing sugar on top of the fairy cakes was ridiculously sweet. I couldn't eat all of it. XDD;;
New duties during this were to mark in new people for the dinner tomorrow.
After the refreshments, one of us had to go guard the exhibition room with all the posters and laptops in it. I volunteered for that, though I was hoping for me only having to do that for half-an-hour, since there was a presentation that I wanted to see. Was kinda bored so I continued writing the fic, while keeping an eye out. Then picked up some of the handbooks, even though I really shouldn't need Training Requirements for Postgraduate Research Students in Psychology. I'm also not sure if I need Psychology Student Employability Guide, and that's ten pounds if I want to buy that. =/ Aaaand I can get this as a PDF anyway, so that doesn't matter. :3
Turned out that the guy who was normally in the room was presenting for an hour, so I called up one of the other helpers to go there while I went to the presentation. It was kinda meh. =/ Though it was really surprising to hear that her psychology sample had seventy-one females and sixty males. There's only, at most, ever been seven guys in my year.
It seems like there has to be questions asked of the presenter, because when no-one did, she kept standing and the chair had to ask her one. That started the others up and I was kinda surprised when she said that the psychological resiliance contributed to the participants' performance, but the results of the two were not significant. So... that would mean that it wasn't a factor.
That then finished, and guess what? More refreshments!
We could leave at that point. X3
I think tomorrow's just going to be all of the same too, but it'll start earlier. Still the same number of breaks though. XDD