16 posts tagged “finals”

A week from tomorrow I will be hopping on a plane (yay for free flights!) and spending about 45 minutes in the air between Gunnison and Denver. Pretty excited to be home without any homework or essays or exams looming over my head!

Despite the general craziness that always surrounds the end of the semester, the last week or so is always....well...kinda fun. Even though people are a bit stressed out and frazzled, things just seem more laid back and just more friendly. Everyone's sort of united in the "thank god the semester's over and it's summer!" feeling. People are louder, people are outside, people are nicer....during the winter (which is like, from September through April) people get all moody and quiet and bitchy and rude (and I definitely include myself in that), and it's depressing, but once summer hits...mmm.

Anyway, I have ONE MORE STINKING ESSAY that's due tomorrow, and then I'm pretty much done (I also have a final in a class that I have like 99% in, so I'm not too worried about it.) I figured I should post about my gleeful summer mood now, before I start this essay and get angry again.

Oh, and by the by: caffeine is not my friend. I learned that the hard way. I was going batshit fucking crazy for a few days when I was drinking coffee/tea/pop virtually nonstop and wasn't eating well. I felt like death. So I'm limiting myself to my usual morning brew, then one or two other caffeinated drinks in the afternoon, but before about 5pm. Otherwise I can't sleep and get all wired....but then I get sort of headachey if I don't drink it. Bleh! Does this count as addiction? Maybe it's just in my head.

Hehehehhehehehe. I'm in an extremely giddy/excited/good/motivated mood right now. It's probably the two cups of black coffee (I usually have it black with sugar, but I'm out of Splenda and have no other reason to go to the store since I'll be leaving in a few days, so all-black it is) I had this morning plus the GINORMOUS mocha I'm sipping right now. Also adding to the joy is the fact that my Spanish final this morning DID NOT EXIST. Because the prof "no cree en los examenes." Fine by me! Especially considering that I'll have her for pretty much all of my Spanish classes until I graduate. Which doesn't mean that all my Spanish classes are going to be easy, just that I won't have the end-of-semester freakout that comes with most classes. :D

I actually kind of like the ends of semesters. Even though they're totally wacky and zany, they're kind of...fun.

A week from today is Christmas! Well Christmas eve, but that's when we celebrate, so....:D I'm 94.27% sure that my parents got me Super Mario Galaxy, so now I have to decide if I want to take my Wii home with me...I suppose I'll see how my packing situation is and then decide. If not then I'll just play FF3 on my computer. Mwahaha!

K time to use this energy to study for philosophy and geology.

I have 14 chapters of geology to study and 4 philosophers to study. I've already made a significant dent in those numbers by being a hermit this weekend, but OH MY GOD SO MUCH INFORMATION. D:

Tomorrow morning I have my Latin American Civilization and Culture final. No idea what it's on. Maybe immigration, but I'm not sure where I got that idea, and I wouldn't know where to begin studying on the broad-as-all-hell issue of US immigration. So in other words, no studying for Spanish. Which makes me nervous. :s

After the nerdgasm that was the first disc of Final Fantasy VII, now I'm on the less-stellar second disc. Bleh. I really don't like the whole part up at the glacier and whatever, then you do that shit with the "huge materia" or whatever, and it's just like....*yawn.* First disc is so amazing, and the rest of the game is damn good too, but...I dunno. Maybe it's because I've played the first disc so many times...

So yeah...plan is to freak out, play FFVII, freak out more, ace my finals, cease freaking out by playing FFVII, beating FFVII and then flying home on Friday morning. Blearghhhh this week is going to SUCK. But a week from tomorrow is Christmas eve! w00t.

There's no final exam in my Spanish conversation/composition class, so the final grades are based off of in-class presentations and general participation/attendance.

SO GUESS WHAT I GOT?! 100%! Thank you, thank you....*takes a bow*

So since there's no final in that class, and I already had the final for my geology lab, that leaves 4 finals next week.

Monday I have my other Spanish class, Latin American Civilization and Culture, and I have NO idea what the final will be on, though I should find out tomorrow (it's with the same teacher and we do in-class presentations in that as well so I'm hoping my grade will be somewhat as high and amazing as in Convo/Comp).

Tuesday I have Philosophy at EIGHT IN THE DAMN MORNING. That's actually not too horrible since I usually get up at 7 anyway, but I'm not used to thinking that early. Fortunately the final is only 25 questions on stuff that's super easy to study for so I should be set for that.

Wednesday I have Geology and Art. Geology is another one that should be easy to study for, though it's cumulative so I have to study like 20 chapters over the next few days. Fun! Art is just a normal chapter test, not a giant cumulative final exam, and I've gotten As on all the other tests in that class (except for one I didn't study for that I got like a B- on. omg!) so I'm not too stressed about that. Actually I'm not really stressed about anything, I have all of today, tomorrow and the weekend to study.

Thursday I have nothing, and Friday morning I fly (yes, fly) to Denver for Christmas break. w00t! Hopefully this Christmas will be better than last, and hopefully this New Years will be better than...um...the last....several? Heh I don't like New Years at all, it always falls on a bad period of time for me and I never do anything fun. Probably my least-favorite holiday. :\

One final left to go, and it's one of the easiest ones (Cine Español) so that's peachy. Though I do have to write a paper for my lit final that was about a half hour ago and turn it in tomorrow. It's on a story that I haven't read in full, and the little bits I have read I don't understand, so I don't know how I'm going to come up with a one-page response to it. Oh well, I'll figure it out. I had my historia de españa final yesterday and I got all of the 10 multiple choice questions right, and I know I did pretty well on the small written part as well, so I'm happy about that.

Aaaanyway tonight I think a bunch of us are going to the bar and stuff cuz none of us have early finals tomorrow and it's kinda the last night I can go all wild and crazy. Even though I probably won't go wild and crazy...but still. Hopefully we can get a decent crowd of people there.

I have about 60 cents in 1- and 2-cent coins (who decided we needed the 2 cent coins? Obviously you need 1 because it's the smallest unit, but 2? Why do you need that?) and have no idea what to do with them. I'd give them to the old gypsy begger women who always hang around the school area, but I'm scared of homeless people and even more scared of old gypsy women. I also realize the obvious solution would be to spend it, but people here get pissed off if you give them a 10€ bill for something that's 6€, just because they don't want to count out the change. They'd be really rather unhappy if I handed them a pile of 2 cent coins to pay for a Kinder Bueno (which are amazing candies by the way...totally going to miss those.)

But, yeah....I walked around quite a bit yesterday in search of a dorky Catalunya tshirt, but no dice (I guess there's a group of people who set up a stand selling Catalunya stuff down by the Columbus statue, but it's only there on weekends, so I'm out of luck). I'm pretty much all packed up except for clothes for the next two days, toiletries, my Wii and some other odds and ends. Two days left...I have my camera on me, I think I'm going to go pop a squat in Plaça Universitat before I go home for lunch and take pictures of all the funny people in weird clothes.

I might go down to the beach later too...it's really hot out and I need to go to the beach today or tomorrow for one last hurrah in the sand. Maybe I'll see the guy who sells donuts from a box balanced on his head, or the guy with underwear tattooed on who always walks around naked strutting his stuff (which I'm told is really rather impressive, actually).

I had to wake up early (9:00! I don't think I've woken up that early since I was home for Christmas, for serious) and went to my 10:00 language exam. It wasn't that horrible, I mean I have been studying Spanish for 7 months so I think I did pretty well. It was 2 hours long though so afterwards everyone was like "abuhhhh," and the Estudios Hispanicos department had a little fiesta for the international students in the gardens of UB (a big courtyard with ponds and trees and rocks in the middle of a 550-year-old University...yeah it's as cool as it sounds). It was cool, they had free food and drinks (I opted out of the shitty beer and had several Cokes instead, with the result that I was on a serious caffeine and sugar high) so we were all just hanging out there for a while. Afterwards I went to get coffee with Oscar, Kinsy, Ben, Katarina and Sylvia at Bar Estudiantil across from the university in Plaça Universitat. We sort of studied a bit, but mostly just sat and had some coffee and talked for a while, it was nice. Now I'm up at the ISA office attempting to study (and not being very successful, evidently) for my historia del arte español exam I have in an hour and a half at 6. I think I'll pop down to Bocatini and get a delicious chicken sandwich with tomato, lettuce, cheese and mayo for lunch...mmmm so good.

Tomorrow a bunch of us, pretty much the same crowd mentioned above plus Mike, are planning on going down to the beach. Yay! I have to go to the beach at least one more time before I leave (someone told me that I should surf during the summer, and I couldn't tell if they were serious or just poking fun at me for living practically as far away from an ocean as you can get. Either way I was not amused.)

And my left calf has been KILLING me for several days. A couple weeks ago it started hurting randomly, and it would come and go and it wasn't so bad, but now it hurts all the time and sometimes I can barely walk. It completely goes away when I take some ibuprofin though, and it's not bruised or anything. I think I might have had a charlie horse or something when I was sleeping and I didn't wake up to try and stretch it out, and that just hurt it more so now it's all fucked up. I can deal with it here, but I'm really not looking forward to traversing the Philadelphia airport completely bogged down with bags with a gimpy leg. Ah well, I guess I'll deal. Maybe I can ride around on one of those little carts with the old people.

Back to studying about bóvedas de medio cañón and alfizes and cuantos naves tienen los catedrales góticos y románicos. Yeah it's about as fun as it sounds.

Ohmygod! I was at a Mexican restaurant on Friday night (Spanish Mexican food gets about a 6 on the delici-o-meter, so it's not bad but it's not amazing either) and my mom called to tell me that two CDs had just arrived via FedEx with ALL OF MY DELETED PICTURES ON THEM. :D You have no, NO idea (I just typed "ideo"...damn you Spanish) how happy this makes me. Now I'm even more excited to get home and look at all of them. My mom uploaded them to Snapfish (sort of like Flickr, I think, though I've never used Flickr) so I can look at them all but they're kind of small. BUT STILL. Holy shit. Ok, Katie, calm down...tranquila, respira....(ohmygod!!) I'm totally unbelievably thankful to my friend who did it...he's getting a happy little thank-you gift in the mail whether he likes it or not.

So, anyway. I had a nice little "last weekend hurrah." On Friday a bunch of us went to this cool bar that had kegs under each table with a tap on top, so you'd just fill your own beer and then each table would pay per liter, and there were TV screens keeping tabs of how much each table had drunk. We ended up drinking a lot of beer (5.50 per liter, I paid 15...yeah, not very difficult math. 15 / 5.5 = very drunk Katie) and then I ended up going back to Kinsy's place and passing out on the futon. I had a total Walk Of Shame the next morning back home, that was entertaining. Saturday I went over to Gaetano and Nelson's place with Ben and his friend Alex who studied abroad in Rome and is done, so now he's just traveling around and was in Barcelona. We took my Wii over there and got down with some intensive Super Smash Bros Melee action, then we started playing Super Mario Bros on it (Virtual Console = major win). It was funny, Gaetano had two Spanish girls over and they were like "Ohhh Mario Bros!" and started playing, it was funny to watch them get all into it and swear at it in Spanish, I was amused. Anyway then last night Ben, Alex, Kinsy, Andrea and I went to Les Quintze Nits (The Fifteen Nights in Catalan...I think). It was good, they have really good veal kabob and it's really cheap for how nice and delicious it is.

Sooo yeah, finals start today. I kick of with a BANG with Catalan, which I think I might actually be able to pass (and that's a very big "might"). Tomorrow I have my langauge final and then art history, Wednesday I have general history, Thursday I have literature, and Friday I have cine. Fun! 5 days left. So weird. I'm so excited! (and I just can't hide it...I'm about to lose control and I think I like it.)

Edit: The Catalan final didn't go too horribly horrible. I'm usually pretty good at bullshitting my way through tests, though obviously that's made a bit more difficult when the entire test is in a language that you vaguely understand. But, yeah. I think I might have actually passed it, plus I turned in some papers that were due like ages ago so hopefully that'll help my overall score in the class. So I'm just going to cling to the hope that I will pass the class :) Even though it didn't go completely horrible, I think some retail therapy is in order. I need to buy some Eurotrashy clothes.

Today was our last day of language class, it was pretty sad...afterwords we were just sitting outside, the usual crew of me, Michael, Katarina, Kinsy and Oscar. So sad!! :( Oh well. I got their emails though so I can keep in touch with them, and Mike's staying here so if when I come back to Barcelona, I can at least see him. We're all planning on going and getting drinks some time or another next week during finals so I'm looking forward to that. I've known Mike and Katarina all year (they're Swedish) and met Oscar this semester (he's Dutch), but never really hung out with them outside of classes, and I think now that it comes down to the end of the year all of us are like "oh shit we need to hang out."

Anyway last night I packed up some more, and I got all antsy and couldn't sleep a wink. It's kind of hitting me how excited I am to go home, and I'm excited for some other stuff as well, so I'm looking forward to it. But...Barcelona!! Even when I do come back, I won't have the same experience that I had this whole year...but I guess that's a good thing, if something is easy to recreate then it's probably not all that special anyway.

Anyway, time to go study for finals....ugh. Doesn't feel like Friday at all, but I'm gonna have fun this weekend since it's my last one here!! :(

Oh and this is just too funny not to mention: http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/#article:9797 I think it's funny how they sexualize Hermione and not a character who's pretty much only there as a sexual interest (for Harry), like Cho (or even Ginny, just stay away from Hermy-one!)

So I had without a doubt one of the best weekends I've ever had. Friday we just went to a bar and it was the usual crowd and was really dope. Saturday night I went to dinner with a bunch of people (like 18 total I think?) to this Catalan restaurant that was really cheap and really delicious, so that was win win. Then we went to a bar really close by and I didn't spend a lot of money and was happy (actually the whole weekend I didn't spend a lot which makes me smile). Sunday was awesome, I walked up to Parc Güell (a nice 40 minute jaunt that I'd never walked before so it was nice to see more of the city) and met a bunch of people for a "picnic." It was really fun, there were like 8 or so of us and we were just hanging out and talking for a long time, then we went and got coffee and it was just...fun. Then after that we went over to Mel and Kinsy's apartment and smoked hookah and watched Elf and drank hot chocolate, it was delicious.

Today I went to Montserrat with Ben, Hana, Nelson and Lauren. It's about an hour's train ride out of Barcelona in a mountainy area, it's a monastery and it's really beautiful and has an amazing view. We went to the monastery and then hiked up both sides of the little valley area, it was a lot of walking but it was totally worth it, it was so amazing.

It's going to be so sad when all these people leave D: We're going out tonight and then tomorrow night for some last minute lovin', but after that, no mas! At least with these people, and there are quite a few of these people who I really like and think I could have a totally awesome friendship with if I was given more than just three and a half months to know them.

So tomorrow I get to pack and clean my room and everything, then go to my final and then go to ANOTHER final because I missed one last week and have to go make up for it tomorrow...so yeah...Then I go hoooome. :D There's a good chance I won't get online tomorrow, so I'll talk to yall later from Denver! Hasta luego chicos.