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"So, my last update post was nearly a month ago. What have I been doing you might ask? Good question; let me check my calendar.
Shortly after my last post, Tartu lit up all their main holiday display in Raekoja Plats.
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| Jõulupuu |
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| Jõululodi (old riverboat) |
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| Town Hall. The crest lights say 2014-2015 |
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| Partially for Morgan, maybe more for me. |
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| For Susannah |
And there's the sculpture of the bird of the year made of ice. You can see the name of the bird there: jäälind. Translation: ice bird. Literally, it's an ice bird made of ice. Tere tulemast Eestis, everyone.
From here my calendar turns to homework. Uh, I was called for trial jury duty but am sure that the 8614 miles roundtrip got me out of it; to be determined. There was a party on December 10th to celebrate one of my friends finally joining Facebook.
The student networked hosted a Farewell party for all the international students and handed out "yearbooks" with pages many of us had filled out on our favourite memories, restaurants, phrases in Estonian, and how many of the quintessentially UT student things we had done. We signed books, ate lots of piparkoogi (gingerbread cookies), danced a bit. It was held in one of the fraternity houses. My first frat, but absolutely nothing like any American movie fraternity. The building was beautiful, and managed to stay that way inside and out, regardless of how many cups spilled their contents all over the floors and littered the halls and rooms. It was more fun than I was expecting it to be, but we didn't stay the entire night. I came back to the dorm to find that the key card panels on my floor weren't working, so stood in the hallway while the maintenance man tried to use a key, a crowbar, WD-40, a plastic card, to get the door open. He called the house lady who brought her own set of keys. They ended up using the fire escape to unlock the other wing. Luckily, someone was coming out of my wing, and I slipped in. Turns out, the fire escape door was stuck, and I had to let the man in the door before I could hit the hay. Those are the doors you really want working all the time...
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| Signing ESN Diaries, eating piparkoogi. |
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| One of the musicians in a leopard print suit. Yes. |
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| Fraternity house. There colours match the Seahawks. Thanks to Steve & Robin for poisoning my mind with this info. |
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| Lucia, our beloved Italian genius, cutting her lasagna. |
More studying...
More studying...
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| These notecards are just for the one exam. Stacked by topic. |
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| For a pretty easy exam on English speaking countries. Colour coded by country (which matches the colour coding in my notebook). |
This week I had a few finals. There isn't a "finals week" here, just a month and a half in which each class offers 2-3 time slots in which to take the final. You show up when you want, take it, leave. My Italian friend was shocked at the idea of finals week. Doesn't that stress students out? Yes. Yes, it does. And is half the fun. There was really only one final I was worried about, so that's what I'd been studying for. Sure enough the morning of the final, I wake up to swollen lymph nodes, a massive headache, the dire need to zonk out for a year, etc. And the night previous (a Monday might I add) my neighbours threw a party. A loud party. A party with trumpet playing at 3 am. So, I hadn't really slept. It was not a good day. I continued studying between headache-relief yoga (pretty sure it didn't work), and curling back up in bed. I pull myself together enough to put clothes on, read myself, and head to my final. Once there, I park it on a bench, pull out my notes on what my professor is expecting for the exam and see at the top the time and location of my exam. Location: Not here. Time: 2 hours ago. Fan-freaking-tastic. The icing on the cake. Darn good thing there's another opportunity for me to take it. This. Day. Sucks. So, I return home, change back into my pjs, and turn on movies in an attempt to fall asleep (Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century, stellar!).
Wednesday, I had 2 finals. One written, and my Estonian speaking test. Written exam results will be in Mondayish, and I aced not only my Estonian exam, but my class. Success! That night, we had our own "final party" since a few of my friends left this morning. There was an assortment of types of salad, and I brought true-blue-American Kraft Mac 'n' cheese. We even had cheese chips in chocolate. (Say that 10 times fast.) Determination: Not very good, though the chocolate gingerbread was. Add more games and we had our selves a typical evening. However, Lucia had written us a poem, a few lines for each of us, that was absolutely beautiful. We recorded her reading it, so we could have it forever and ever. She'd only handwritten one copy, but when we all mentioned wanting it in her handwriting... we'll see how much her hand can take!
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| Ambience, fools! That's what candles are! The lights weren't even off that long, but that seems to be when all the pictures were taken. Michal from the Czech Republic & Lela from Georgia |
Feel like you were there!
Today I had an actual class. My EU in International Politics class met, presented, discussed, etc. We received a run down of the exam, and later the grades on our midterm essays. After weeks and weeks of torture only knowing the class averages, I'd completely shot my confidence, hopes, and dreams into believing that the F paper was mine. It was not. While it's not the A everyone hopes for, since this is a Masters level class, and I am not a Masters level student, I am completely accepting of what I got, especially the pointers for my final. On my way to earning a very respectable grade in my first Masters class, taught by a lecturer from St. Andrews in Scotland (you know, the one at which the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge met?). SCORE!
And that's basically it. It reads like the typical college story doesn't it? Holidays, parties, food, studying for finals, finals. Who knew eventually I'd lead a life anywhere resembling the typical college experience? Not at all the same as said experience, but sure looks that way. Huh.
