(260) The Dangers of Spanish

Dec 14, 2009 12:19

This morning, at 8am, I had my Spanish exam. I studied all yesterday in spite of having to having to accompany my mom in the car for an hour because she didn't feel comfortable driving this long distance to another city alone - which actually worked out fine, because I was able to spend about two and a half hours in a Marriott hotels just studying (with a free coffee to boot). I now support Marriott hotels, especially that one, because the people in there were so fantastically nice. I had been looking for a cafe in the area but the only one there was closed Sundays, so they let me sit in the dining area and gave me a cup of coffee in a paper cup and didn't even ask me to pay for it in the end (I tried and they said I didn't need to). So I got some good solid hours to work on my Spanish grammar exercises which I think helped a lot. Those people were awesome. I will go there to stay someday.

Cytosis was awesome yesterday, too. I had a ton of vocab to memorize and about forty of them that I had a lot of trouble with, even going through the lists three times, so I called him up on the phone and told them what they were so he could quiz me (my sister was being a dick and refused to do it). And it worked! We spent hours and hours doing that, and then talking, and to boost my stamina I ate half a bagel and a piece of cake and Hot Munchies and a bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream (hey, it worked) and finally got those down. And then we continued talking on speakerphone while I worked on the cultural parts of El Caribe that were going to be one the exam and made lists of the Very Trouble Some Verbs That Are Irregular In All Forms (Indicative, Preterito, Subjunctive, Command). Then we kept talking until 4:10am, when I finally went to bed. I suppose it would have been better if I had slept earlier, but I think it helped me in that I wasn't as stressed out about the exam as I could have been. So it wasn't all that bad.

The problem came this morning. I had gotten up a little late, but skipping breakfast bar one banana gave me enough time to get out the door at the same time I normally did, so that wasn't the problem. The problem was the bus - it came five minutes early, so while I was still walking down there I saw it go by. This is a bus that usually arrives at my stop at 7:27 or 7:28 and sometimes 7:31. I don't know if they changed the driver, or if it was because of the really thick fog that morning, but it was absolutely the worst thing that could happen to me - because even if I took the next bus to my exam, I would still miss the listening section, which was at the very beginning of the exam - making it crucial that I get there on time. Which it didn't look like was going to happen.

So what do I do? I run like mad to two bus stops down, making it there in three minutes (a record, because it usually takes me thirteen minutes to walk it) - because the bus usually "rests" there for a while, at least until 7:30 (if it wasn't already late). I get there and I see nothing. The bus didn't even wait, and out of breath and trying to think of what to do, I call my mom and ask her to drive me. Usually I would never ask this, because it was annoying for her and for me, and I hate asking it, but as things went that was the best option I had. Of course it took her longer than I thought it would to get back to the house and drive me to the school, which meant I was two minutes late by the time I actually got to the building. Then I had to conquer the maze of hallways (I had never been here before), and by the time I got to the classroom, the profesora was giving instructions on doing the written portion of the exam.

I sat down. And I thought, Oh, shit. Because it seemed that, as unbelievable as it seemed, the listening section had already been done in the five minutes that I hadn't been there. And the listening section was worth 25 points (out of 178).

Then following a period of scouring the multiple-choice and true-false questions and trying, by luck and logic, to answer the questions asked. I finished this, gave up on the points that I thought lost, and turned to do the vocab part of the exam - and lo and behold - the profesora says, "Now we will do the listening part of the exam."

I was saved.

Overall, I think I did really well. I knew all the vocab and was pretty good on the Preterito/Imperfecto and had a little trouble with the Saber/Conocer and Ser/Estar section, but that was about it. The writing section I was very careful with and reviewed it with corrections, so I'm hoping that the grammar is good and the content is enough. The listening section was still probably the hardest, and the reading comprehension was easy. It turned out that I did use all three hours to complete the exam, which was fine - and the biggest "danger" came later.

Sometime during all my running around I had managed to scrape bloody the back of my foot against my shoe. I had felt this earlier, but ignored it, but later on I realized that the drying scab had adhered my sock to my foot and was making walking a little painful. The surprising thing is that I wasn't wearing anything fancy - I was wearing Nike running sneakers for heaven's sake (good thing for that running, huh) and had never gotten even a blister in them before because they were so well-made and comfortable. (Buy this kind if you can - the leather never cracks, the material is breathable, the sole is molded to where you put weight on your foot and set up so that you don't "scrape" off part of the heel when you walk/run, and it'll last for years.) So now I am kind of limping around campus and looking a very funny sight, I'm sure - but it's all okay. And my euphoria of completing the Spanish exam has induced me to write this monstrously long post - and finishing it! - in a reasonable amount of time. I take too long writing posts, usually. But here you go. Half of my day. :)

exams, class, spanish

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