Monday, December 05, 2005

Hard Week Ahead and Singing Reindeer

As you can tell by the first part of the title (I'll explain the second part later on...), this week is going to be very stressful for me. Since this is the last full week of classes this semester (finals are next week, and they don't count as actual classes), most of the instructors are testing or quizzing us before the finals. Most in my case means four out of my six classes, and the other two have the final quiz/test and the final exam on the same day. My Theology and Biology classes are the latter case, with my Biology test and exam on Tuesday the 13th, and my Theology test and exam on Thursday the 15th.

As for tests and quizzes this week, I actually had one of those this morning. This was a Chemistry test, which covered one of the largest sections of the entire course! (I'll let you know more about how it went later this week.) Tuesday I don't have any tests or quizzes, but I do get the Biology test back that I took on Friday, which I feel fairly confident about right now. Also, right after my Biology class, I have an oral interview with my Spanish teacher, in Spanish of course. In that we will discuss any random issues that she can think up, meanwhile using new vocabulary and grammar structures. On Wednesday I have a quiz in Spanish, which is really just a minor deal and only covers one or two sections that we just learned. Later that day I have my final Biology Lab test (there are no finals in Lab classes), which covers development, the nervous system, sensory organs and perception, and the skeletal system. Finally, as far as assessments go, I have a final Chemistry Lab quiz/test on Thursday afternoon (again, no final Lab exams) that covers pretty much the second half of the course. Then on Friday, all my non-lab classes will go over a review for the final exams next week. Busy, busy, busy...

Apart from tests, nothing has really gone on in school, apart from one special event in Spanish class. Everyone in my class was assigned a particular Spanish-speaking country, and at random I drew Venezuela, which was a country I knew nothing about at all! Luckily for me, I had almost three weeks to find something interesting about it, which was the assignment, and I looked up some of the recreational areas and points of interest in that country. The deal was that each student would grade each other student on a scale from 1-9 (nine being the best), the teacher would average those together, and then average in her personal grade with the student grade. This worked very well, since as one can imagine, the students tend to be a little too generous, so the instructor made sure to have her say in the whole thing. I, of course, am a very strict grader, so no generosity from me, unless they deserved it! After I did my presentation on Friday, which by the way I was very nervous about, everyone told me I did very well and spoke well too. So, today I got back my grade, and I was very surprised that I earned a 93%! Boy, was that a confidence booster! I guess I'm more fluent than I thought I was...

Ok, now to the question I'm sure you're all asking: "What's with the singing reindeer?" Well something I didn't mention about when I came home from Thanksgiving Break was that I brought a little bit of Christmas with me. A few years ago, my family visited Greg and Janie (I mentioned them in my last post), and Greg showed us this great new "toy" he had just bought. It was a moving, singing reindeer that sang "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer," with a hysterical "Murry Christmas" ending! (That's right, I said "Murry!!") Well, I just thought the thing was the greatest invention ever, and made it a point to ask about "Reinie," as he called it, every time we saw them. Much to my surprise, when we got together for Christmas that year, that was the gift Greg and Janie gave me! So, I decided to name mine "Deerie" to go along with his reindeer's name. Now, since I didn't have anything remotely Christmas in my dorm room, my mom suggested I bring it with me, and now it sits atop my desk. Below is a picture of it in it's current location.

:Here it is, my hysterically funny little stuffed singing reindeer! Maybe sometime I can upload a sound bite, so all can join in the hilarity.

Well, that's really all I have to report for today. As usual, I will have to report to everyone how all those tests and quizzes go, as soon as I have some results. Until then, have a great week, and for all of those students out there, just hold on; Christmas Break is almost here!!

No comments: