What is wi-fi? It's definitely not something that we used back in 2012 when travelling around South America. Due to this strange phenomenon of not having data or wi-fi, I've taken to writing blog posts in busses while travelling, then never actually getting around to posting them. So here's one on my last few weeks in Madrid.
I am writing this on a bus somewhere in Austria, en route to Vienna. In the space of a few weeks (short weeks on long weeks, depending on whether I was studying for exams or travelling), I can sincerely say that life has had some serious ups and downs. But because every cloud has a silver lining, when one door opens another door closes etcetera etcetera - here's an overview of them in a bullet pointed list that also frames the last few weeks of my time at uni.
Down
Spending hours and hours studying for exams, wondering how on earth I'm going to manage doing this Monday to Friday.
Up
Spending several of those hours studying with friends (and when I say study, yes, we did study) but study breaks are nicer when you can moan about your exams with other people, they can help you plan your trips, and when you place bets with each other (for coffee) about how late you will be to the designated study spot.
Down
Exams. Nobody's favourite part of the semester.
Here's how my exams went.
Exam 1: Delitos contra el patrimonio.
Oral exam. 28 topics to prepare for (and I got the wrong information so studied the most for topics that weren't going to be in the exam.) Arrived 9.15am for 10am exam. Me and two classmates entered room. Professor gave each of us three topics. From those we chose two. We wrote on a piece of paper everything we remembered about each topic. Then when we were ready, we all had a turn speaking about those topics, while the professor asked us questions, if we missed something out. Quite brutal really.
Exam 2: Derecho laboral
Multiple choice exam + one long answer question. Exam began at 3pm, we didn't started the exam until 3.30pm. Multi-choice questions were very snakey, along the lines of (well, for me at least) every answer looking the same except for one word.
Exam 3: Derecho proceso penal
Study 16 topics (that was the hard part in itself, considering I had minimal notes because of how the course was organised and what the exam topics were) and a 600+ page manual organised by topics which didn't correspond with the ones we had in the exam. Not only that, but of the 16 topics, the one I drew out of the hat and had to do a 10 minute exposition on was one that was barely in the manual and apparently I was supposed to prepare for it by looking online (which I actually had done for most of the topics, because it was all higedly pigaldy throughout the manual. I can't express how frustrating and scary it was knowing I had to study enough to be able to talk long enough from memory in Spanish on one of 16 topics which would be selected at random, when I basically had to learn all the material from scratch, not even being certain if what I was learning was actually correct.
Exam 4: European Union law
Yay, an exam in English! I had been steadily chipping away at it, thinking I was well prepared, and even had a 'go-through everything' session with a classmate before the exam. We went in there pretty confidently, got given the paper and were immediately regretting putting in all the long hours studying because the lecturer had given us an absolute brain teaser of an exam, with multi choice answers that required more logic than knowledge to solve. Something like 'A) ...' B) ... C) A is partially correct and so is B; D) A is partially correct and B is partially wrong, so C must also be partially correct'. I really felt sorry for the non-native English speaking students in my class because some of the answers literally didn't make sense.
All in all, compared to Vic exams - much much muuuuuuuch more rote learning, no chance to apply knowledge to a problem question (although in Delitos contra el patrimonio and Derecho laboral we did that in our classes), shorter exams (maybe 1 hour to 1.5 hours), oral exams, and a lot more relaxed - students regularly going up to ask the professor questions and that kind of thing.
Up
Passing exams. Probably could have got away with studying a bit less, to be honest.
Down
Being beautiful, hot and sunny outside while having to study.
Up
Not having to walk to the library/Google campus in the rain.
Down
Goodbyes. It was that time of year that everyone started leaving. Probably the worst goodbye I had to say was to one of my closest friends, in which I had to leave suddenly to run to the train station to catch a train home for a re-scheduled Skype interview, so it never really felt like I said goodbye properly. But that set the tone for all the goodbyes from there on it, because of my travelling there was always a small chance I would actually see someone again.
Up
Having friends to say goodbye to! (Haha). But in all honesty, my 'group' was pretty diverse, from many different Madrid universities and it was a cool thing that we all came together in bits and pieces and because of different reasons to do stuff together.
Down
Dragging a broken suitcase weighing about 20 kgs (retractable handles would no longer retract), two heavy backpacks and a handbag to the train station and on two trains to get to the airport, in 30+ degree heat.
Up
Dem gainz from all that heavy lifting (with the luggage).
Down
Rushedly last minute packing, switching off all the power sockets, having to stand on toilet seat to unplug shower heater and ending up with my foot in the toilet bowl because I broke said toilet seat by standing on it.
Up
Well, at least I know I managed to unplug everything. And I had cleaned the loo before that happened.
Down
Celebrating end of exams at Retiro park by having a picnic. Was great, until the sprinklers turned on exactly where we were sitting. We moved. Sprinklers then turned on in the new spot we were sitting.
Up
Being with people who, like me, saw the humour in this happening and didn't let it dampen the night.
Down
Realising that I was saying goodbye to quite a lot of people who I had only recently started becoming really good friends with, and knowing that if we had more time in the same place there was so much potential for fun times and activities.
Up
Those people (and my closer friends) being such great company and good banter.
I can't think of anymore, but hope that gives an overview of the last few weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment