Finals, Day 1

Today was my first final, in Making Math.  After a bit of stress and three hours of knitting, I finished a pair of hyperbolic baby pants.

Three things I learned today:

1. don't procrastinate on starting, or ending, or doing in general.
2. Blackwork embroidery is really cool.  It looks the same on both sides.
3. Here's a joke:
   Three ropes are wandering in the desert and become very thirsty. They arrive in a small frontier town and go to the saloon.  The first rope goes in and asks for something to drink. The bartender says, "I'm sorry, we don't serve your kind here." The first rope leaves and tells his friend what happened.
   The second rope hopes for better luck and tries his hand at it.  He walks in and asks for a drink, but the bartender tells him, "As I told your friend, we don't serve ropes here." The second rope leaves and tells his friends about the incident.
   After two stories, the third rope is pretty sure that she would have to do something a bit different from the other two.  She gets herself tied up and ruffles herself up a bit, and walks into the bar. The bartender says, "What, are you a rope too?" To this, she says, "I'm a frayed knot."

End of Finals

hello!

My apologies for not posting in... three weeks?  I should get on that.

My excuse is that in the last week, I've spent more time in the local coffee shop in a caffeine-induced stupor, trying to remember how to decline Classical Greek nouns and writing an essay about the Anasazi artifacts and Puebloan mythology in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. (that was the biggest stressor, because, despite my being an English major and everything... writing 10-15 pages on comparisons is difficult. Even though the topic was really cool).  Anyway, that's what I've been doing.  My last exam was this morning, so I'm packing to go home to real sleep, and hoping that I can get a lot of writing and knitting done over break.

I'm excited.

On the train home (or maybe even tonight, I don't know), I'll do a Semester Recap post.

Preparations

Well, it's nearing the end of my first year of college, and there are several things going through my mind right now.

Firstly, I'm thinking about how I really should go to bed early tonight, because I lost sleep last night.

Secondly, I'm thinking about how that probably won't happen because I have to study for my finals.

Thirdly, I'm thinking that going to bed early is very unlikely, because I need to go get shots tomorrow, and that takes time.

Fourthly, of course, is finals.


The trip to Peru is going to happen in 12 days, and typing that made me realize just how close that is.

3 days until the end of classes.
8 days until my first final.
10 days until I go home.
12 days until I leave home for Peru.

I found out today that going to Peru means I need more shots than I thought I did, so I'm going to a walk-in clinic tomorrow.  Then there's the fact that I need to sign and mail some stuff for Turkey this week, but I don't have any paper for my printer, but that got fixed when my friend agreed to lend me some.  Then there's the fact that I'm depressingly underprepared for Peru.  It's just now setting in that in a little less than two weeks, I'm not going to be in the country.  I'm not going to be in the Northern Hemisphere.  I'm going to be in the mountains of FREAKING PERU in less than two weeks.

AAAHHHH!!!

Needless to say, I'm going to be a wreck for a few weeks.

I need to go freak out some more, and maybe go to the gym.

finals week

I know that finals week is perhaps the worst week in any college student's career - there is a lot of stress, and you realize how much you should have been studying (I know I have), and the prospect of the train/ car/ bus/ plane home is the only thing that might be getting you through the end of exams.

As this is my first finals week ever, I don't know how much I can relate to the feelings of going home being great - does the prospect get better?  Worse?  Stay the same?  Obviously, I'll be excited to go home, but the only thing I'm really stressed about is my Greek final, as Greek is my hardest subject and writing "It's all Greek to me" instead of a verb I forgot is probably going to get me a failing grade.  Of COURSE it's Greek to you, dummy! This is a Greek test! The professor will think as she grades the exams.  Sometimes I wonder how many first-semester Greek students she teaches would dare to put that on one of the tests or quizzes.
The first quiz?  Maybe.
The final?  Never.  Unless you WANT to fail.

Anyway, finals week could make a good climactic sequence for some story - the story of one's first semester of college, most likely, or the story of one's final semester.  Each are equally admirable - for one, it is the conclusion of a new adventure, and leaves the door open for many more to come; the other  is the conclusion of the adventure, and is probably a story about moving on.

You know what would be really interesting?  To write a series of eight novels (or twelve, if your school does a January term), about the eight (or twelve) semesters of college.  Same characters, different stories, and the end of each is finals week; the finals are the Final Test (see what I did there?).

Maybe I should do that.  That would be really cool.  I like that idea.
Now, if I only didn't have about five other novels going at the same time, and a Greek exam to study for, I would totally be willing to keep going with it.

But I have a Greek final to study for.  And then I'll work on it.