Limited Classes

Finals Weeks

Finals week(s) kicked my little American ass. It is very different having finals where you need two forms of ID on your desk the entire time. Where you have to sign in and have those IDs scrutinized. Where you use pen on a scantron… what? what happened to my number 2 pencil. Oh, and your professors… they aren’t there. It is a fend for yourself if you have a question because your proctors… they only speak Dutch. Again, what?

Silly as it seems, this is the testing system in the Netherlands which is quite a bit different from that in the United States. I am also not used to tests being the only thing (or the main thing) to determine my grade. It sucks when you aren’t a good test taker or when you suck at multiple choice that is written in poor English, almost harder for fluent English speakers because we get caught up on the grammar errors, or misspellings…whereas other internationals can read it easier. However, I would much rather be given a piece of paper with some questions and told to write, at least you can some what B.S that if necessary. 

Anyway, I am not overly proud of my exam grades, but there are always retakes and it shouldn’t delay my graduation more than a few months. (August instead of May). Either way, just picked up 19 credits for the Spring semester back in Platteville and will need 1-2 classes over the summer. Not to bad for all the anxiety I was having about it a few weeks ago. 

 

Period 2

I am also still not used to this Period 1 and Period 2 things. However, it is kind of nice to have classes for only 7 weeks instead of 16. And, we only meet once a week instead of 2-3 times a week. But, I get bored here, not always sure what to do with my time off so I take a lot of walks and take even more pictures…oh well, good solid memories. At home, I have multiple jobs to keep me busy, friends, chinese take out and steves pizza. I can’t wait to come home and see everyone and just feel “at home”. It is 58 days from today.. Crazy. And my mom comes to Dublin in only a few weeks, I am beyond excited to see Ireland and her (in person). Skype doesn’t always do it for a person 😉 But going home I get to see my babies (Ethel & Elphie – the terrible 2 cats and Ginger – my adorable dog). It will be good to be back in good old Wisconsin. However, for the remainder of my time here I am enjoying getting to know some of the international students a little bit more, and they managed to drag me out to a party, who would have thought that could have happened. I didn’t, but congrats…they mastered it. 

 

OHH! and I got news that I should have a VISA by the end of this week, finally. 🙂 

 

Well, I think that is all for now. Hopefully I am back soon, folks! Have to eat my homemade Chicken and Veggie soup. NOMS.

 

 

Until then. 🙂