It's Friday night here in Paris. I managed to pass out just before 16.00 and I woke up, rather dazed, at 20.30. I really didn't mean to do that. Now it's midnight and my brain is just now starting to function. I'm fine with it: I think I'll do some work and then head back to bed. Wild, wild weekend for me, can you tell?
The reason I was so exhausted is because this morning was my first exam at the Sorbonne. I think the stress of it was weighing on me more than I had realized, because I am significantly more relaxed and laid-back today than I was yesterday.
As for the exam itself, there's both good and bad news: the good news is that everything that was required of me to know I knew. I mastered the graphs, charts, and essays with little trouble. I knew how to approach every linguistic problem asked of me using the techniques learned in class. There was only one problem: in certain examples (three of them, to be exact), I didn't know the actual word in the questions (all of our exercises were semantic analyses of words). That's what happens when you take linguistics exams in foreign languages.
The questions asked us to find a phrase where you could use two words at the same point in the sentence without changing the meaning, and then another sentence where you couldn't do the substitution. An example could be:
empasize/stress
A sentence in which the two are equal:
The candidate must emphasize/stress his position on the Iraq war.
A sentence in which they are not:
Cardiovascular stress can lead to heart attacks. (Because, well, cardiovascular emphasize can't lead to much of anything)
So, obviously, that's an easy example. But we had some difficult ones in there, and we then had to follow them up with an analysis of the words in question. Not so easy, when you don't know one of the words in the pair, now, is it?
So I walked out of there a little torn. If I were in the US, my estimated grade would have been a B, in the worst case scenario a B-. That, to me, is a shitty grade, but at least it's squeeking by. The problem is that I don't know exactly how harshly they grade in this country, and from the experience I've had thus far, it's pretty tough. So I'm a little afraid I didn't pass the exam - not because I didn't study enough or didn't pay enough attention in class, but because I didn't know the freakin' words they used in the problems. That would really, really suck. I find out on February 13.
At any rate, I'm glad it's over. I studied the perfect amount - I could have probably have studied even less than I did, in retrospect. I knew everything I had to know from a theoretical and analytical standpoint, which I hope will come shining through when they correct my exam. It's not fair for me to complain that the words they asked us to analyze were too tough on non-francophones, so I won't. But, I will sit her nervously waiting for the exam results to come out.
By the way, can you believe the Frenchies post exam results on the wall for all to see? How humiliating, really. It's also very torturous - it means that everyone goes crowding around the results all at once, and thus your reaction, be it good or bad, is seen by everyone around you. I'm not a fan of this system.
The good news is that even if I don't pass, I can re-take the exam in September. That's the way it works here. Everyone gets a second chance. Handy.
That makes one down and four to go. Next up: Signification et th�ories linguistiques. I still don't understand why they call it that, because to me the class is really just about applying the language of logic to linguistics. I feel pretty prepared for that exam already, so a little revision over the weekend is probably all I'll need. That was the only class where I felt on top of everything from day one. Instead, I'll focus on Tuesday's exam in Comparative Linguistics, which I think is going to be a doozie. Everyone's pretty much freaking out about that one, which I find oddly reassuring. It's good to know that I'm not the only one trying to make sense of the madness.
Meanwhile, things are pretty much chugging in a pleasant, calm way. I've gained confidence in the classroom so that new classes no longer make me so nervous (I had three new ones on Tuesday). My schedule for next week is rather light, out of consideration by the other teachers for my exams (by light I mean I only have 10 hrs of teaching instead of 12, which I suppose is not all that different). Another good thing this week is that I've also managed to catch up with a few friends I haven't spoken to in awhile, which is always a wonderful thing.
An interesting twist, after my setback with Andre from just after the vacation, is that we managed to have a nice, pleasant conversation at the beginning of the week. I was smooth as ice, so I hope I'm back on the cool list, if only to continue this ridiculously entertaining sideline in my life. Meanwhile, however, I've noticed a new element to the story: there's another girl lurking who appears to have the hots for him. I'm pretty much just observing silently from afar, because if anybody should pursue him, it's her, not me. And, conversely, if he should pursue anybody, he should go after her, not me. I mean, unless she has a loving, caring boyfriend at home as well, of course. In that case, that bitch better get ready for some competition.
And lastly, and this is very strange, but I've noticed an unexpected but welcome weight loss since December. Nothing serious, maybe five or eight pounds, but enough so that everything fits just slightly differently. These are the pounds that always come and go, but it's rare that I notice them on the "going" side of things. I think the loss is due to the fact that I've been running around so much and have had little time to eat, usually opting for a healthy muesli-and-yoghurt breakfast around 6.30 am, followed by just some fruit or a sandwich at lunchtime. I don't usually get home until 19.30, and when I'm not home very much, I simply don't snack. Since I haven't been going to the grocery except to pick up the absolute essentials once a week, we don't have much of anything to eat in the house. Dinners have been quick-fixes: pasta, omelettes, etc. They're relatively healthy little meals (I try to get some greens in there somehow), but nothing so tasty as to inspire me to pig out. None of this is really intentional, it's just that my lifestyle has altered and thus my eating. Which I'm fine with. I don't think the weight loss is significant enough that anybody else would notice it, but there are slight differences in how my zip-up boots fit and how my pants sit on my hips. I think I'm pretty much at the weight I'm supposed to be at, so I don't expect this trend to continue much longer, but I'm certainly not complaining for the time being.
Anyhow, that's the update. I doubt this weekend will provide much material for a post, as it will basically be me, my notes, and my linguistics dictionnary chilling 24/7. But I'll let you know if something more exciting comes along. As if that's not excitement in its purest form!