Cultural Encounters:
From the Sand to the Snow

December 14, 2006

Being tested

The week before finals, International Services had a potluck. I ended up bringing the famous Brazilian desert, flan. The food was delicious and I actually had the chance to eat a sloppy Joe, which I had not eaten in so long. This is definitely an American dish. After lunch, we had the chance to exchange gifts with each other. We played a game that you can actually steal other peoples’ presents and since I liked mine so much I ended up stealing mine (I do not think this is against the rules, at least nobody mentioned anything about that).

Finals week finally came. I spent the weekend studying because I had five finals; two of them on Monday, two on Tuesday and one on Wednesday. I did study for all the exams but when I’m actually studying I never know if it is enough, I never know if am I studying the right thing. On one of my economics exams, I thought I had studied the things that he would ask, according to other exams, but then I studied things he did not ask. Of course I had studied everything and I know I did a good job in answering all the questions, but the main problem is that all the questions are essays and I do not know if what I wrote is what he expects. On those exams it is just hard to know whether you got it right or not (it is not like a multiple choice exam). The best strategy for me is to get the highest score that I can on the first and second exams, because finals are accumulative and you have more than one, so the chance of getting a high grade is less than the other exams.

I am definitely glad to be done and I did the best that I could. I took Thursday off because I did not had much sleep the whole weekend and I need a day to charge my batteries to start working again. The grades will be posted on the 22nd and I will be waiting anxiously for the results.