So. Midterms sucked majorly. Sunday we asked for review, but we were given a reading with new vocab. Monday and Tuesday we were given new grammar that was on the test. Wednesday we took the test. That is not how we do things in America. All of us wanted to die, we were so stressed! I know this is a very academically intensive program, and I am fully prepared to study, but to give us new material to understand and process and remember on top of well over 1000 new vocab that we go over once in class is not going to help me learn anything. My teacher kept saying the test would be easy and not to worry! I thought maybe it would be like it was in the summer (there were fewer vocab words and we studied them more in class, but similar). I WAS WRONG. My teacher was wrong too. THAT TEST WAS WAY HARD. There was a reading with questions, and the reading was something about Jews and Christians wanting to build their respective places of worship next to the Dome of the Rock and the Muslims are angry? But there was something about fundamentalist Jews attacked a Mosque and trapped a bunch of students inside and didn't let people over 40 in? I really didn't understand much, and using key words from the questions tried to answer as best as possible, but I was way confused. Then we had two writings! And I didn't know a lot of the vocab, but I wrote about and compared the tactics of MLK, Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X in their struggle for freedom and equal rights. The second writing I wrote about some made up terrorist attacks in Paris (I can't spell place names in Arabic so I just went for an easy one). The grammar section I did my best, but we shall see. I didn't really study that much at all because we just learned it and I had to study the thousands of words! All of us in that test were just working, plowing through, and the only time we made any noise was either a groan or a string of profanity. I am a fast test taker. It is my motto that on the day of the test, if you don't know it you don't know it and you can bs your way through as best you can and then get on with it. But this test took me until the very last minute because it was so long and so hard and I had to read the reading like 5 times and still didn't understand it!
So I didn't feel great after the test, but it is over and I can do nothing about it. If I failed, at least I know the others failed too. And if we all failed, its not our fault, it is our teacher's fault.
Today is a holiday, I don't really know what it is about, but I think it has something to do with those two sons of one of the Caliphates who were killed? Hassan and Ha....something? I don't know. I just know they fast and then kill a sheep. I should really take an Islam class one of these days.
This leads me to my very important announcement. (At least important to me and possibly my family people who will now get to see me) I am no long studying abroad in the spring. It was the original plan, but I did some thinking and discussing with my advisers, and I can graduate early (in the fall) if I don't study abroad in the spring. I am mostly done with my language requirements, all I have to do is take another Hebrew class, then I have 3 more history/culture classes to finish my major, and 3 more GCRs (general course requirements) but one of them (writing intensive class) is the same as the Hebrew class. the hard part is that I have to get to 120 credits I will have either 35 or 32 credits to reach after this semester (depending on if I can get two dialect courses approved or not). That means I may/probably need to take a summer class, but it is still a LOT cheaper than an entire extra semester! So I am happy about that! And this means I will be home for the spring holidays and summer and fall! (well in DC but still- home = AMERICA) I can honestly say that I never truly appreciated America until all my rights and thoughts and ideas that I was free to express there got taken away from me! I LOVE YOU AMERICA! I REALLY DO! We all got problems, but at least in America we can say something about it!
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