Tutorial

Yesterday was the 20th birthday of the other American student on my corridor. Although the legal drinking age here is 18, turning 21 is still considered a really big deal---21 is the fully-adult age here in Britain, although I have yet to find out what rights one has at 21 that don't exist at 18.

Anyway. For all the Fish & Chips & Pizza & Burgers & Kebab places around, and all the Takeaways, there are a surpringly few number of proper restaurants, but we found possibly the only Italian place nearby, and had a birthday dinner. A nice way to celebrate.


I am discovering what physics tutorials are actually about. Every week we have a set of problems to do, but there is actually only one problem due every two or three weeks, the rest are as a personal check that you understand the material and know how to apply it. Tutorials are the opportunity to work on these problem sets with other students and ask for help from PhD students (not "grad students", the term is too confusing) and possibly the professor.

You're supposed to have at least made an attempt on all the problems before showing up at tutorial, but most people have barely even looked at them. Not at all like massive weekly problem sets due every week, as at UVA.