egzamin(s)…haven’t learned plural yet…

Just finished my exams today. Well, that was an experience.

so, I have to say something about polish exams. Polish exams are horrific, come to find out. let me give you the example of my EU class. first of all,  it was an oral test. I think oral exams are some sort of holdover from the communist system; I don’t know how common it is these days but it obviously still happens. For an oral exam, you walk into the room, sit down, he asks you one question, and it could be absolutely anything, spanning the entire course….4 months of material….could be something that he talked about 5 times a day all semester or could be something he mentioned once in passing the first week of class. It was really kind of unfair because not everyone had the same question, some people got really easy questions, some people got really hard questions. Regardless, whatever we got, we had to be able to answer it and discuss it.

so, one question…………………………………40% of my final grade for the class.

I show up (feeling pretty nervous) at 8am for this, right…I walk in, sit down, and he immediately poses some question about naming in order the countries that became democratic after 1989, and their capitals…what?? really?? capitals too? no….I about had a panic attack. its only lucky I didn’t pass out. I was expecting him to ask me something about negotiation processes or future EU enlargements or the institutions of the EU and their roles…I could have even discussed EU agricultural policies if he wanted, and in great depth. merely listing off countries and capitals? didn’t see that one coming. maybe that should have been an easy question, I’m not sure. Or maybe it was because i was so nervous I couldnt think…but somehow my mind went blank on that. Needless to say, I forgot half of them and he failed me. that was a fun feeling.

I guess I can’t deny that I wasn’t prepared for that one question so maybe I did deserve to fail, but I did study, really…and I think even if I had studied more I wouldn’t have focused on memorizing countries and capitals, I would have tried to gain a better grasp on the process of transforming a socialist state into a democratic, market economy or something like that…oh well, sometimes you just can’t predict things. Luckily, Poland also has a policy where people are kind of expected to fail, i think, so you’re allowed to retake the test until you pass. The system is kind of dumb, actually…but whatever, works for them I guess. I went back today (along with the other kids who failed) and he asked me another question, this time about something I know, and I was able to talk about it and he passed me this time. yay!

still, what a nightmare!!! I hope I never have to do that again.

The other funny thing about Poland is that they almost expect students to cheat. It’s really very strange. I guess because in America it’s treated as if the worst thing a student could possibly do is cheat on a test, and everyone knows the consequences are going to be enormous (kicked out of University, perhaps?) so really, with the exception of plagiarism perhaps, I don’t think cheating is all that common. In Poland, the teachers expect it, everyone knows it happens…I even saw it happen. it’s still pretty unsettling, though….

what else? I don’t know. I’m hoping i passed my language class…Polish is pretty impossible. Its not even something you can kind of fudge if you’re on the right track, but not completely sure…you can’t guess at endings. French is the same way, really, only difference is I can formulate sentences in french and I know what it is supposed to sound like so i can kind of hear if it sounds funny and try to come up with something better, whereas in Polish even I don’t know what I’m saying sometimes, its all the same to me…and even if I do know what word I’m trying to say, I can’t pronounce it or spell it…oh well. There was an oral component to that as well. I had to introduce myself to her in polish, read some story out loud with proper pronounciation and answer questions about it, and then “act out” a scenario with my teacher, where she was the waitress and i was a customer…so I had to ask for a menu, order imaginary food, give her imaginary money….went alright until the end when I forgot how to ask for the check…and she about hit me upside the head “JEENYYFURR how you been in my class and not know that?! whyyy??!”

whoops??

well, we’ll see how it goes.

Off to sweden tommorrow! can’t wait! its one of those places I have really been wanting to go so I’m glad I get to go.  Got a little itenerary ready to go, theres some sort of Viking ship there I want to see, and a huge market…I’m excited about going by myself actually, got a little more freedom to do the things I really want to do rather than feel like I need to stick with my group…it seems like I tend to wander off by myself regardless of where I am anyway so it’ll probably be the same difference…

alright, I’m out…gotta start packing and getting things in order I suppose… love y’all!! ttyl 🙂 will be at home in raleigh this time next week…I can’t believe it….