Hopefully you will have more hands-on, practical learning after your first year. I think the first year or two in many degrees is just a bunch of memorization that you have to do before you can start learning the important things. Hang in there.

Sorry to hear that about your journal. It is YOUR journal, YOUR space, and fuck anybody who feels the need to be offensive. Get rid of anybody who makes you uncomfortable. I don't even think you need to necessarily know them fact-to-face... but you should be able to trust them. Know what I mean? Trust them to give objective comments and not be judgmental.