Finals

If you're wondering where I've been for the past week, the answer is studying! I can't seem to get things under control enough so that I don't have to cram in the last week/s before my finals... Oh well. I have been getting up around 6am for the past week and a half and catching up on classes with a sleeping puppy in my lap (that part made it all a bit nicer!) ;).

I don't tend to keep up with classes during the semester because usually I can't attend them "live" and I can never seem to find the motivation to watch them once they've been uploaded into the "virtual classroom". In the past, a lot of the classes have just been repeats of the reading and so they were also a waste of time; however, this semester it turned out there was a lot of information in the classes that wasn't in the reading, which meant I needed to do some serious catch up before the exams. I probably watched about 15 hours of classes in the past week! And that of course wasn't all of them. I did feel decently prepared for most of my exams though, and so Friday I stepped onto the train for Seville without too many pre-exam nerves.

For the second time now, I stayed with a friend of ours who lives in Seville and once again the exam location was walking distance from her house--perfect. My exam Friday evening was the one in my ICT Applied to the English Classroom class. It was pretty easy. I felt a little bad because just before the exam I made a comment to a classmate that I didn't think it should be too difficult and she responded that she was worried because there were a lot of definitions, etc. They give you two hours for the exams. I finished in 45 min. The poor girl behind me looked at me with a mix of shock and envy when I turned in my exam and headed out. I should have told her I was American...

Saturday was pretty tough. I had my three hardest exams all back-to-back: Teaching Theory of Natural Sciences, Teaching Theory of Social Sciences and Teaching Theory of Spanish Language (in that order). The first wasn't terrible, but I was scribbling up to the very last min of my two hours and my hand hurt a little. I dashed to a nearby shopping mall to grab something fast for lunch and then raced back for my Social Sciences exam--UGH! That was pretty killer.

Most of the exams always have a multiple choice portion and even though the questions can be tricky and they dock points for a wrong answer (as opposed to being equal to 0), I still feel like having a multiple choice section gives a little wiggle room in terms of the final grade. Well, this exam was entirely written. There were four short-answer questions (1/2 a page each), one practical question (two pages) and one essay question (4 pages)! The good thing about this test was that as a study guide the teacher gave us a long list of all the possible questions so we could study accordingly. Of course, since I wasn't in class, I realized this a little late. I was able to study (answer) most of the short-answer questions, but I didn't have time for much else. The practical questions I had worked on weren't on the test...and the essay question was totally a shot in the dark. I answered my 4 short-answer questions as thoroughly as possible to guarantee the full four points and then pulled out my best B.S.ing skills for the rest of the exam and crossed my fingers that from the load of #%&@! I put down on the page, I'd be able to scrounge up one point to make a total of five, the passing grade.

Once again I was writing up to the last second and by this time my hand was ready to fall off. My Language Arts exam was fine except that it was hard to focus on what I wanted to say because I could swear the tendons in my right hand were swelling. I was beginning to wish I were ambidextrous! Even though I take extensive notes throughout the semester (many of the classes have all the reading uploaded online so I can't underline in the book), I'm still not used to writing so much at one time, especially not under pressure when I'm gripping the pen as though my life depended on it. But even if I were to relax a bit more, the real issue is that they give you very limited space for your answers and so you have to write small if you have a lot to say, regardless of how good you are and summarizing and being concise.

Today was my last exam: Education in Visual Arts. It was fairly easy, although I did have a lot to say and so once again my hand was hurting after an hour and 3/4. I finished at 10:20am and headed back to my friend's to pack before catching the train home. It was a good weekend really. I think I did well on all the exams except that one, although I do hope that I was able to pull a five. Repeating that test would be a nightmare, let me tell you.

So now I am home with my girls. Angelines has been slaving away all weekend with Carnaval celebrations here in town. She dressed as a pirate and was apparently interviewed by the local TV station--something she HATES! All the pubs in town got together to throw one big party and split the $$. It's a good idea, but a lot of work and she didn't go to bed "last night" until 8 am this morning! Now she's at it again since this afternoon are the celebrations for the kids. So Angelines was virtually gone all weekend, too and my poor Bela has been somewhat neglected. Some friends fed her dinner for us Friday and Saturday and even took her for walks, but she was mighty happy to see me this morning! :) I love dogs!

I just got back from a LONG walk with her and she's curled up by the wood stove sound asleep.

Life is good again.