Monday, November 26, 2012

exams week

28  October - 4 November
exams - can anything positive be said about them besides "at least i passed"?
after such a wonderful time in italy and visiting in london i really had to buckle down and get through a few days of serious school work.
i had a paper and an exam on monday so the rest of the weekend after traveling back from London was dedicated to those two. for the paper i had a stellar group that i've been working with all term and so that came together well. the exam was for dutch and it was oral. i was extremely nervous. even after visiting family i struggle with pronunciation and forming whole sentences on my own. for part of the exam there is a prepared 2 minute dialogue with another person. my partner was from Austria so he had a better grasp as Dutch is close to German in grammar. we had practiced our dialogue and had it down to  a few seconds so that was reassuring. for the second part of the exam the professor would ask us about 5 questions based on the chapters we had covered. i thought this would be more of a rapid fire question time but i have the best prof in the school. when we got in and sat down he asked about my visit to family and made a conversation about it. i hardly realized it was part of the exam! he did his best to put us at ease and while testing us not make it seem like he was against us. over all the test went well which was a huge relief!
however, there was no time to take it easy as i still had an accounting final the next day. so it was straight home to begin studying for that. in the evening i took a study break to enjoy a pancake dinner with my good girl friends then back to the grindstone!
the next day my test went well and to treat myself, i enjoyed a coffee date with my friend from the concert. that evening, with all my finals finished, i thought i might bring a study snack to my friends who still weren't finished. so i made my way over to their places and made sure they were happily fed.
the next day was quiet. our group received feedback on our paper and i had coffee with friends B, F, and W. (sounds like i'm on sesame street and have letters for friends.) but other than that i had borrowed The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy from a friend and if you know me, you'll know that once i have a book in my hand not much else will get done.
so thursday was also spent largely with my head burrowed in the book until the evening. by now all my friends had finished their exams as well so we got together at a friends to celebrate. after some time in her tiny room, we made our way to this great place named Fiddlers where we could chat longer. it was fun to see everyone after their trips and to catch up on what adventures they had been on. after hearing from everyone it was time to head home. but in the case of B and i it was time to head back to her place to make some late night food and watch star wars.
the next day was also a good time. in the afternoon i set off with F, W, and A to walk to the market. my bike brakes had broken at this point and i needed to get them repaired so walking it was for me. we picked up groceries for the week and then proceeded to make a yummy dinner out of what we had gotten. there was a large gathering of friends that evening as well so we joined in for the evening.
it was a fine time and a great ending to the week. the rest of the weekend was quiet and spent catching up on emails, sermons from home, and of course reading. 

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