December 6th through 12th: And the exams begin!
Alright, take two here, since livejournal deleted well over half this entry for the first time and I had no bloody way of getting it back. I was too slow to open up a new tab and use that draft and the undo button wasn't working here. So I'm really pissed that I just spent well over an hour typing and this entry is gonna be a little terse as a result. So I just sat through all that Azumanga Diaoh for nothing too? Goddamit LJ....
So, Monday, had my Japanese oral exam in the morning. Had a little bit of trouble before the test since it turned out that our written part of the exam was due that day, not the day of the rest of the exam, and I had to scramble and get it written before my turn. Thankfully sensei was running a bit behind anyway and my oral exam went fairly well. I just messed up by saying that I went to bed at 8 am, go the verbs for wake and go to bed mixed up....
Went to my nearly empty math class and then headed off to my health class for the actual exam in there. No puddles to wade through this time thank god, and I was glad that the exam was going to be this Monday instead of waiting until the next Monday for our actual test date. Sometimes teachers will give exams on the last day or reading day instead of waiting, but apparently the administration doesn't like this as much. Oh well, not much they can do once we've done it, and the exam itself was that hard. One thing that helped was that the teacher had more questions on the test than we needed so we got to choose five questions that would be worth two points instead of three, I can only imagine that helped everyone, but since you never get your exams back in college it's hard to tell. Met Laura right before dinner so she could return my CCS manga (since she likes them I'll bring the last six along after break) and she also gave me these cute lime green earmuffs as a Christmas gift. Very nice and they actually fit me pretty well, my glasses get in the way a little but I'm used to that.
Also had the last meeting of knitting club for the semester, actually, I found out that apparently all our meetings are unofficial since it isn't written in the club rules that you have to attend a certain number of meetings, just that you have to have your own needles and that you have to contribute at least one piece to either the sale or the service project, which was why I came. Finished up that scarf thank god and it looks pretty good too. Dark blue with one black stripe at one end and two at the other, usually I don't like asymmetrical designs but it just seemed to work here. Also our Treasurer was a little down since someone, who she was trying to teach to crochet, apparently had an easier go of it when they looked at some videos about it on youtube. I think I cheered her up when I pointed out that I had picked it up rather quickly when she showed me, reminds me, need to find some of those lovely patterns that use both knitting and crocheting.
Tuesday was reading day which meant that I goofed off until late afternoon when I sat down to study for Global Themes. Turns out that another girl on my floor is in my class for that, boy did I feel dumb but I'll stick to the excuse that I sit in the front so I don't see most of the people in that class. Apparently she and a friend counted 15 people asleep in there once and one time (I think I remember this) one guy's head slipped off his hands and whacked the table, waking him and several other people up. Also discovered that almost everyone else was planning to do the same essay as me on the Five Pilliars of Islam (the teacher had already given us the essay he would make us do and the list of ones we got to choose from).
So I was feeling better about all of this and was back in my room, chilling on the computer and thinking about a shower when this blaring noise started. Cue momentary confusion and then bad words when I realized it was the fire alarm. Grabbed boots, coat, and blanket (really need to get in the habit of grabbing the laptop as well) and then hurried down the stairs, hoping it wasn't too chilly outside since I had been wearing a skirt that day.
Nope, even worse, it was raining and right around freezing point so the railings were getting slick fast. Plus it had been raining long enough for puddles to form which I tramped across (with a friend and I believe her roomie) to the dorm next to us, get turned away since there were so many people in that dorm's lobby (never knew that large groups of college students were prone to spontaneously bursting into flames), so we walked back across (and within 20 feet of our dorm, aren't we not supposed to to that?) to the dorm on the other side where we stood under the overhang. It really takes the fireman too long to get out here so we waited about 20 minutes for them (although it may have been just one) to get out there, and find the source of the alarm (for some reason that makes no sense to anyone else, the boys on the 8th floor thought it would be fun to set stuff on fire) and we managed to catch the first elevator back up the floors. Heather from down the hall was really annoyed that she had been delayed a little and could've missed the debacle all together, I certainly sympathized. Although we got off easy, it sounds like someone was fond of setting the bulletin boards on fire at Hogwarts last year at 2 am on exam week. That is just plain evil....
Wednesday was the first (official) exam day and I had my Global Themes exam from 12 to 2:30. Fairly easy, I'd written it all out the night before as practice, but I was puzzled that the multiple choice part of the test only had questions on Islam, the study guide said there would be questions about Skihism as well. Finished it in right around the one hour mark and went back to my dorm to study for Japanese.
Thursday was my Japanese exam but a little divergence first. The previous week I had turned in my portfolio for English and had to give my first book report in years. I was actually struck by how many of my classmates didn't seem to know how to give a small speech of sorts to the class. They were almost too conversational with their reports and said um quite a few times. Not to sound snobby, but I'm almost glad for all the classes I had in middle school/high school where I had to give presentations. It's certainly helping me out in the long run....
On Friday my Japanese exam was from 3 to 5:30 so I got there a bit earlier to study with whoever else might be there. A lot of other people had the same idea so I didn't lack company. XD I was actually out in the hallway at first with a few other girls and one of the guys comes out of the classroom and asks why we were out there, everyone else had been in the classroom for a while it turned out. So happy that our class is sticking together for the most part next semester, Japanese is certainly my fun class here.
The exam went pretty well here too, I forgot a few characters and words of course (who doesn't?) and went with one of the other girls (Katie) to return my textbooks after the test. There weren't many people at all when we went and I had even found my original receipt for renting the textbooks so I was in and out of that pretty fast.
Friday I had no exams and Brea and I (the girl who lived a few floors below me and I had been hanging out with during the fire alarm, she's in a different dorm now though) had decided that we would spend the day watching anime. XD Think I surprised her a little by coming through on that but I brought the Princess Tutu along like I said I would. We decided to watch Nanaho instead and I loaned her Princess Tutu for the break and she let me take Azumanga Diaoh in return.
Holy crap, I found that day that the limit for the amount of anime watched in one day is 6.5 hours. Or maybe that's just the limit for magical girl anime aimed at older men, thankfully we didn't do that in one sitting, I had to change over my laundry once or twice and we took a break to sell back the textbooks we had bought. I got $80 for mine which, while it's a lot short of the $200 I paid, isn't as bad as it's been in the past.
That might the group was planning to go to Cici's and see 2012 but, since I didn't want to see 2012 and it was understandable that I didn't want to wait for the bus back to campus by myself after dark, so I stayed in my dorm until they got back so we could also see Jingle All the Way. Man that was a bad movie. XD But we all had fun mocking it and I'm not sure when we'll do it again since Joe and Chynna don't seem to even be friends anymore. And then there was an awesome conversation after the movie ended of, if the App campus was a video game, what would be the bosses and such. XD Truly it was one of the better conversations this semester.
I went to bed at a regular time that night but Olivia and Angela stayed up super late (like, 6 AM late) to wait for the snow to start. And on Saturday afternoon we went walked around campus and the town seeing how it looked in all the snow. Really pretty actually, and I learned that jingle bell noises=snowplow a'coming, make sure to be firmly on the sidewalk! Yeah, my parents STILL yell at me for this one time in elementary school I thought I was far enough on the yard and nearly got hit by the blast of the snowplow. I swear it wasn't my intent... Anyway, lots of layers that day, I actually discovered that leggings make a good substitute for long underwear if you really need to and that handkerchiefs are a must carry if you have glasses. Saw some people traying and a few with actual sleds, I want one of those roll up ones I saw a few people carrying, wonder if Wal Mart has them....
GAH, DONE, LEAVING NOW, SIGNING OFF, BYE!
So, Monday, had my Japanese oral exam in the morning. Had a little bit of trouble before the test since it turned out that our written part of the exam was due that day, not the day of the rest of the exam, and I had to scramble and get it written before my turn. Thankfully sensei was running a bit behind anyway and my oral exam went fairly well. I just messed up by saying that I went to bed at 8 am, go the verbs for wake and go to bed mixed up....
Went to my nearly empty math class and then headed off to my health class for the actual exam in there. No puddles to wade through this time thank god, and I was glad that the exam was going to be this Monday instead of waiting until the next Monday for our actual test date. Sometimes teachers will give exams on the last day or reading day instead of waiting, but apparently the administration doesn't like this as much. Oh well, not much they can do once we've done it, and the exam itself was that hard. One thing that helped was that the teacher had more questions on the test than we needed so we got to choose five questions that would be worth two points instead of three, I can only imagine that helped everyone, but since you never get your exams back in college it's hard to tell. Met Laura right before dinner so she could return my CCS manga (since she likes them I'll bring the last six along after break) and she also gave me these cute lime green earmuffs as a Christmas gift. Very nice and they actually fit me pretty well, my glasses get in the way a little but I'm used to that.
Also had the last meeting of knitting club for the semester, actually, I found out that apparently all our meetings are unofficial since it isn't written in the club rules that you have to attend a certain number of meetings, just that you have to have your own needles and that you have to contribute at least one piece to either the sale or the service project, which was why I came. Finished up that scarf thank god and it looks pretty good too. Dark blue with one black stripe at one end and two at the other, usually I don't like asymmetrical designs but it just seemed to work here. Also our Treasurer was a little down since someone, who she was trying to teach to crochet, apparently had an easier go of it when they looked at some videos about it on youtube. I think I cheered her up when I pointed out that I had picked it up rather quickly when she showed me, reminds me, need to find some of those lovely patterns that use both knitting and crocheting.
Tuesday was reading day which meant that I goofed off until late afternoon when I sat down to study for Global Themes. Turns out that another girl on my floor is in my class for that, boy did I feel dumb but I'll stick to the excuse that I sit in the front so I don't see most of the people in that class. Apparently she and a friend counted 15 people asleep in there once and one time (I think I remember this) one guy's head slipped off his hands and whacked the table, waking him and several other people up. Also discovered that almost everyone else was planning to do the same essay as me on the Five Pilliars of Islam (the teacher had already given us the essay he would make us do and the list of ones we got to choose from).
So I was feeling better about all of this and was back in my room, chilling on the computer and thinking about a shower when this blaring noise started. Cue momentary confusion and then bad words when I realized it was the fire alarm. Grabbed boots, coat, and blanket (really need to get in the habit of grabbing the laptop as well) and then hurried down the stairs, hoping it wasn't too chilly outside since I had been wearing a skirt that day.
Nope, even worse, it was raining and right around freezing point so the railings were getting slick fast. Plus it had been raining long enough for puddles to form which I tramped across (with a friend and I believe her roomie) to the dorm next to us, get turned away since there were so many people in that dorm's lobby (never knew that large groups of college students were prone to spontaneously bursting into flames), so we walked back across (and within 20 feet of our dorm, aren't we not supposed to to that?) to the dorm on the other side where we stood under the overhang. It really takes the fireman too long to get out here so we waited about 20 minutes for them (although it may have been just one) to get out there, and find the source of the alarm (for some reason that makes no sense to anyone else, the boys on the 8th floor thought it would be fun to set stuff on fire) and we managed to catch the first elevator back up the floors. Heather from down the hall was really annoyed that she had been delayed a little and could've missed the debacle all together, I certainly sympathized. Although we got off easy, it sounds like someone was fond of setting the bulletin boards on fire at Hogwarts last year at 2 am on exam week. That is just plain evil....
Wednesday was the first (official) exam day and I had my Global Themes exam from 12 to 2:30. Fairly easy, I'd written it all out the night before as practice, but I was puzzled that the multiple choice part of the test only had questions on Islam, the study guide said there would be questions about Skihism as well. Finished it in right around the one hour mark and went back to my dorm to study for Japanese.
Thursday was my Japanese exam but a little divergence first. The previous week I had turned in my portfolio for English and had to give my first book report in years. I was actually struck by how many of my classmates didn't seem to know how to give a small speech of sorts to the class. They were almost too conversational with their reports and said um quite a few times. Not to sound snobby, but I'm almost glad for all the classes I had in middle school/high school where I had to give presentations. It's certainly helping me out in the long run....
On Friday my Japanese exam was from 3 to 5:30 so I got there a bit earlier to study with whoever else might be there. A lot of other people had the same idea so I didn't lack company. XD I was actually out in the hallway at first with a few other girls and one of the guys comes out of the classroom and asks why we were out there, everyone else had been in the classroom for a while it turned out. So happy that our class is sticking together for the most part next semester, Japanese is certainly my fun class here.
The exam went pretty well here too, I forgot a few characters and words of course (who doesn't?) and went with one of the other girls (Katie) to return my textbooks after the test. There weren't many people at all when we went and I had even found my original receipt for renting the textbooks so I was in and out of that pretty fast.
Friday I had no exams and Brea and I (the girl who lived a few floors below me and I had been hanging out with during the fire alarm, she's in a different dorm now though) had decided that we would spend the day watching anime. XD Think I surprised her a little by coming through on that but I brought the Princess Tutu along like I said I would. We decided to watch Nanaho instead and I loaned her Princess Tutu for the break and she let me take Azumanga Diaoh in return.
Holy crap, I found that day that the limit for the amount of anime watched in one day is 6.5 hours. Or maybe that's just the limit for magical girl anime aimed at older men, thankfully we didn't do that in one sitting, I had to change over my laundry once or twice and we took a break to sell back the textbooks we had bought. I got $80 for mine which, while it's a lot short of the $200 I paid, isn't as bad as it's been in the past.
That might the group was planning to go to Cici's and see 2012 but, since I didn't want to see 2012 and it was understandable that I didn't want to wait for the bus back to campus by myself after dark, so I stayed in my dorm until they got back so we could also see Jingle All the Way. Man that was a bad movie. XD But we all had fun mocking it and I'm not sure when we'll do it again since Joe and Chynna don't seem to even be friends anymore. And then there was an awesome conversation after the movie ended of, if the App campus was a video game, what would be the bosses and such. XD Truly it was one of the better conversations this semester.
I went to bed at a regular time that night but Olivia and Angela stayed up super late (like, 6 AM late) to wait for the snow to start. And on Saturday afternoon we went walked around campus and the town seeing how it looked in all the snow. Really pretty actually, and I learned that jingle bell noises=snowplow a'coming, make sure to be firmly on the sidewalk! Yeah, my parents STILL yell at me for this one time in elementary school I thought I was far enough on the yard and nearly got hit by the blast of the snowplow. I swear it wasn't my intent... Anyway, lots of layers that day, I actually discovered that leggings make a good substitute for long underwear if you really need to and that handkerchiefs are a must carry if you have glasses. Saw some people traying and a few with actual sleds, I want one of those roll up ones I saw a few people carrying, wonder if Wal Mart has them....
GAH, DONE, LEAVING NOW, SIGNING OFF, BYE!