Helloooo!
Well, it's been about 2 weeks since I've last written, and a lot of things have happened... mostly, a lot of deadlines have passed and I'm a lot more chilled out.
I finished my NaNoWriMo. I am so proud. I had to finish about 25k words in a week, not an easy feat. But I did it!! I haven't touched it since November 30th, I'll be honest. It's nice to take a break from it. I'll work on it more later. :P
I've also finished up classes as of today at approximately 3:20 (the time I finished my Archaeology test). I still have finals ahead of me, but I no longer have to go to SFU every day until January. Woohoo!!
Two of the most stressful things that accompanied school were the German oral test on Monday November 29th and the History essay that was due on Friday December 3rd. I'm happy to report that I did extremely well on the oral test with an astounding mark of 92%. I'd be happy with a 92% in any class, but in German on an oral test, where I honestly would have been pleased as punch with a 70%, it's sort of staggering. As far as the essay, obviously I don't know what I got on it yet -- I only handed it in on Friday. I completed it and formatted it properly and made what I thought was a decent argument and analysis. I guess the marks will have to tell. And, what I was most pleased with, was that I didn't need to pull an all-nighter to accomplish it. I worked on it during my 3-hour break on Wednesday and on my 2-hour break on Thursday and it was done. So... yeah, it took 5 hours to write, but I managed to use my time productively, something that I think all of us tend to struggle with. I think it bodes well for the rest of university that my first paper was completed without a mad rush of panic.
And, honestly, my relative success this semester so far in the midst of... well, November, bodes well. November was a very stressful, busy month for most, but it was especially stressful and busy month for me with NaNoWriMo. Now, I know that there are those who have more horrible course loads than me, I don't boast about that, but the fact that I was able to juggle 5 courses along with writing a novel along with all of the emotional stuff that happened in November makes me hopeful that the rest of university won't destroy me.
However, Fall Semester isn't over yet, much as I'd like it to be. There's still exams that stand in the way. I only have 3 exams (although I did have tests in the other classes, they're just not finals in the official sense): Astronomy, History, and Sexuality, in that chronological order.
I'm... somewhat worried for Astronomy. I mean, despite doing well on practice exams and thinking I understand the concepts well, I didn't do well on the midterm and I'm absolutely shitty at the math component -- which our prof hasn't decided on the importance of yet. We're getting together at Kayla's house tomorrow to study together. I made a list of things that I didn't do well on on the practice exam so I can direct my studying a bit, so I don't waste a lot of time studying things I already know. The exam for that is in approximately a week, on Sunday afternoon from 3:30-6:30.
I'm very worried for History, and rightly so. It's a very important course for me to do well in. Although the prof narrowed the scope of our studies to only 80 terms/personalities to study for identification questions (instead of 200+), I am still very worried because a lot of those terms and personalities I tend to confuse or outright forget... I am terrible with remembering names and terms normally. It doesn't help when they're Arabic names and terms that I don't remember. I honestly thought, until the ID brainstorming session, that the intifadah and the infitah were the same thing. (They mean 'rebellion' and 'opening the door to foreign investment' respectively... NOT A GOOD THING TO CONFUSE.) I have a feeling that, like the midterm, the final will be about 9 million times easier than I anticipate, but I would rather overprepare than underprepare. The exam is on Wednesday (15th) afternoon, from 12:30-3:30.
I'm a little worried for Sexuality, but less so than the others. A lot of the content honestly is either self-explanatory or ingrained in my memory from psychology. The other stuff... yeah, I need to study that. The entire thing is MC, too, which makes it a lot easier. The exam is on Wednesday evening, from 7-10.
And then, of course, we have Christmas and Winter Break. Oh, happy days! :)
I intend to fill my Winter Break entirely with entertainment that I have deprived myself of in the interest of studying and being focused on school. Here's a small sampling of what I intend to watch/read:
-finish watching Dexter (began season 4 today, 5 seasons to date)
-finish watching Community (halfway through 1st season, 2 seasons to date)
-rewatch/finish watching Dollhouse (2 seasons)
-read all of One Piece (~600 chapters)
-finish watching The Pacific (1 season)
-finally listen to the Good Omens audiobook Jenn got me last Christmas
-catch up on all my mangas (about 20 chapters altogether...)
-finish reading Looking for Alaska (~40 pages left, intend to finish it between History and Sexuality exam)
-begin reading all those lovely books I bought a long time ago
Yes. I will be quite busy indulging in entertainment media. :)
I just realized I haven't posted my schedule of classes for Spring 2011 Semester here! My my, I have been neglectful. Alright, well, here we are:
HIST104 - History of the Americas from Colonization to Independence
ENGL103W - Introduction to Drama
PHIL120W - Introduction to Moral Philosophy
HUM130 - Introduction to Religious Studies
GEOG241 - Social Geography
MONDAY
12:30-1:30 - HIST104 lecture
2:30-3:30 - ENGL103W lecture
3:30-4:30 - PHIL120W lecture
TUESDAY
9:30-10:30 - HIST104 tutorial
10:30-12:30 - HUM130 lecture
1:30-2:30 - PHIL120W tutorial
3:30-4:30 - HUM130 tutorial
WEDNESDAY
12:30-1:30 - HIST104 lecture
1:30-2:30 - ENGL103W tutorial
2:30-3:30 - ENGL103W lecture
3:30-4:30 - PHIL120W lecture
THURSDAY
10:30-12:30 - GEOG241 lecture
1:30-2:30 - GEOG241 tutorial
FRIDAY
no classes
So yeah, there you go. Originally I had fashioned it into a 3-day schedule, with Thursdays and Fridays off, but one of my classes got canceled so I took GEOG241 instead. :P Overall, though, it looks like a pretty damn fascinating schedule. I think (hope) I'll enjoy it a lot.
Anyways, it's nearly 3 AM here, and while I don't have class tomorrow, I'm supposed to be at Kayla's at 1:30 to study and I need to take a shower and such before I head over there, so going to sleep now would be a very good idea. Good night~
No comments:
Post a Comment