Monday, March 24, 2014

Happy Midterms!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH



The aspirin is front and center on the desk, the Nutella has migrated out of my backpack and gained a spoon (very Bre-esque, except hers was peanut butter), the floor is scattered in notes, and all the score music has been busted out.


Must be midterm season once again.

There goes the hope

It's a short week this week - only three days - yet a boatload of hell has been packed into that short time frame.

Monday: culture test on art

Tuesday: grammar test (on grammar, obviously)

Wednesday: phonetics test on intonation and dictation

My head feels like it's gonna explode.  I swear the knowledge I'm trying to cram into my brain is pouring back out faster than I can stuff it in.

And of course the cat is all like "Nope. No laptop.  No studying for you."

You should pet me, not stare blankly at screens

Thanks cat.  Thanks.

Anyway, I busted my brains yesterday for my culture exam.  It didn't seem like much - learn some artists, put them in the correct century, and be able to recognize a painting.  Problem is, I never really liked art.  I mean, I work in an art gallery on campus in DC and I visit art museums.  I can appreciate art - its beauty, the thought behind it, the effort the artist put into it.  But I'm not particularly an art person.  My concept of art boils down to whether it looks nice and whether I like it or not.  I don't want to spend what feels like 5 million years looking at one painting and getting the historical play-by-play.  That being said, trying to memorize all the artists' names and dates and what they painted was torture.


I did it though.  I cut, condensed, and tried to guess what my professor would put on the test.  She wasn't sure, so she didn't tell us this time.  And for what I studied, I remembered about 90% of it (yay me!!).

Test day dawns.  My host mom was looking at me like I was gonna break or something - the stress must've been plain on my face.  I got to school, got my test.........and died inside.  Ужасно.


I KNOW THIS I KNOW THIS..........I don't actually know this.  Damnit


It wasn't horrendous, but there was definitely a lot more on it than my professor had initially thought she'd put on the test.  Hopefully the essay will be worth more than I think it is.  And I'll get kudos points for knowing extra about all the artists I DID remember.


I spent this morning listening to Stardust on the walk to school, so here's a musical representation of how this culture test went today:




Crap, here's the test, here's the test, LET'S GOOOOO!!! I know these things, writing words, I can do this.  Wait.......wait wait wait.  I don't recognize this.  Crap.  Moving on.  Test is harder than I thought.  Ehhhhhhh well.......things.......crap crap crap I studied for so long last night and this wasn't there.  This wasn't even in my notes and I write EVERYTHING down!!!!  Gahhhhhh keep going.  Now for the picture recognition......nope, no recognition.  I'm gonna die..........maybe if I write extra things I can get extra points??  Worth a shot.  *desperately writes all knowledge*  Essay essay essay.....I need to try.  I'm gonna lose all points if I don't.  *keeps babbling for personal opinion section*  That was awful and I don't wanna see it ever again.  No more art.

.......my thoughts in a nutshell.  They coincide very well with the music, no??

If the test went well, being a hard test and all, it would've sounded more like this:


A little more hopeful, a little more triumphant, with just a hint of "Daaaaaamn that was hard"

Hopefully tomorrow's grammar test will sound like that.  It'll be hard - I expect nothing less from the professor people in the semesters before me nicknamed "Voldemort".  Grammar lady is hard, but she is fair and truly wants people to learn.  So I'm hopeful it'll go well.

Also grammar isn't art.  I like grammar a bit better.

Aaaaaaaand then Wednesday is phonetics.  This class is mostly about being able to speak correctly, and the test completely reflects that.  It's on intonations, spoken mutations, audio dictations, and (obviously) on pronunciation.  So that test's gonna sound more like this:



Glorious

Once all these horrendous tests are out of the way, I have just enough time to nap and pack before I head off to Moscow for the weekend!!  Yay trips!!  And the hotel will have actual comfy beds.


So excited to sleep on a bed that gives me a hug when I lie down, not a creaky board

I take the sleeper train in from St. Petersburg, then three days of museums and tours and excursions in Russia's capitol.  From there Lauren and I stay one extra night before jetting off to the Baltic states for Travel Week.  During the next week and a half, two weeks ish, I won't have internet.  Fret not!!  I will be back with stories and pictures and more posts.

Ta ta for now!!

No comments:

Post a Comment