Finals

I had two finals today in theater and literature... and they were both terrible. I had about a three hour break in between which was equally terrible because all everyone in the entire IES center did was complain about how crappy finals are and how much they hate IES for giving us finals one day before we leave. Which I agree with, but it just stressed me out even more. My theater final was two questions; we were supposed to choose one and answer it for 30% of our total grade. The one I picked was "Is theater a visual art?" I said yes, it was, and I really hope that's what my professor thinks too because even though I tried to back it up with things we read, here in France professors don't give you credit for opinion questions if you don't have the same opinion as them. There aren't really opinion questions... just real questions disguised as opinion questions, so there is indeed a right answer. It only took me about an hour though, which wasn't too bad.

Literature was more like three hours though... it was easier in the aspect that I think I was more on target, but it was a ton of writing and was really boring. I've got three more exams tomorrow before I'm done. Wednesday we have a farewell lunch. Somehow I'm supposed to find time to pack and be ready to go by Thursday morning. I really don't like how our finals run directly into our last few days here... it's a bad system. Trying to cope with the stress of so many finals in such a short time, packing, getting ready to leave, trying to see everyone before we split up, saying goodbye to my host family.. it's a lot to deal with.

Tonight Catherine and Lionel called to see how I was doing and wish me a safe return, which I thought was really nice. She said to make sure I keep their address/correspondance information and keep them updated.

After dinner Aurélie and Alex turned on some music while they were working on homework or something in the dining room, and I went downstairs to ask Aurélie how to turn on the heater in my room because I was cold. So she came upstairs and did it for me, then she walked out into the hallway and motioned for me to follow her quietly. So we snuck down the stairs and we could hear Alex singing along with the music, and sure enough, he was singing and dancing in the dining room in front of the mirror while gesturing with this white scarf he was wearing. It was... hilarious, to say the least. I was in the middle of writing this post actually and just a second ago he popped his head in to say, "You can forget about what you saw downstairs, you know." And I laughed and said, "No, I'm in the process of telling all my friends about it, actually!" Poor Alex, little does he know I was not kidding.

Anyway, back to the study grind... wish me luck!