It’s the most beautiful time of the year…
Finals week! The final exams are separated by your program. For example, I am a UGTC4 student (Undergraduate program) so my business exams were in the second week of December, while my French Culture and French Language classes were during the last week of November. The PGE1 students (freshmen) have finals the week after mine, and the PG3 (post graduate students) had two weeks of finals. The final exams here are MUCH stricter than UH or any other program I have been through. We received an email about the guidelines of the rules, but this is basically how it goes: When you enter the rom, you must show your student ID or you’re not allowed in. You take only what you need (pen, water, and calculator if applicable) and leave all your belongings in the front. Some proctors even make students take off coats and scarves and leave them in the front. Watches have to be off your wrist and on the table. Once you’re in the room, you’re not allowed to leave for an hour. There’s a proctor in place of the professor, which I found inconvenient, because some of the questions were ambiguous, but we weren’t able to clarify what it was asking. All of the exams, except my French Language class, followed the same format of open-ended essay questions. There were anywhere from 3 questions to 12 questions, depending on the subject, and you’re allotted 3 hours to complete the exam. Once you’re done, you hide your name so that the professor can grade with no biases, and sign out of the room. Although the exams weren’t too difficult in my opinion, the grading system here is pretty strict so I’m not too sure what my final grades will be like. We weren’t informed when we’ll be getting back exam grades, but we just go back our grades for the project we did a month ago, so I’m guessing our final exam grades will be given back by January, and I’m hoping for the best.
0 Comments
Wednesday morning was a beautiful and butt-freezing cold morning, but I forced myself out of bed, threw on two layers of pants and five layers of tops, gritted my teeth, and bared the cold, because it was finally the long-awaited day that I got to see my fellow SGL scholar, Monique. We met at IF Cafe, a cute place that she told me I would probably love because of my affinity for cakes, and she was right. We spent at least 10 minutes at the display case deciding on which cakes we wanted. We each got two cakes (#yolo) and chatted for a good hour before we headed out. We went to Vyšehrad again because I wanted to take photos in the good weather, and we did some thrift shopping along the way too. Monique took me to a cute spot near her school where the swans stopped, and HAHA who knew swans looked so dumb when they’re out of water? We took the famous (and crowded) Charles Bridge back to the other side, where we had a quick dinner at a local and cheap canteen called Havelska Koruna. We caught the tram to a lesser-known Christmas Market, where Monique tried her hand at haggling in a setting where they definitely did NOT haggle.
On Thursday, I explored the nearby farmers market before meeting Monique at Cafefin, a place I had been DYING to try ever since she posted a picture of it four months ago. I now know never to hype myself up for a place, because my expectations exceeded reality, leaving me sad and disappointed. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t as spectacular as I was hoping :( The rest of the day was spent trying to find shelter every 20 steps we took, because it was too cold for us Hawaii girls. We ended up cutting our day short, and grabbed cake at another place on my food list called Cafe Savoy, and saying our goodbyes. I knew I needed to burn off the calories I had consumed, so despite the freezing cold, I tried to be productive and find the Prague Castle that every website had written about. I searched for a good 90 minutes, going up and down a hill with my not-so-handy-dandy Google Maps, until I finally gave up and went home. Today kicks off the beginning of my last Europe trip for a while.
“Corina, you’ve had so much bad luck, why do you always risk making more traumatizing memories?” Good question. I have no idea. Nah. It’s because this week is the longest break I’ve had from school, and I knew if I didn’t take advantage of it, I would regret it. So, I contacted Monique, a fellow SGL studying in Prague, asking if she would be down to hang, and I booked my flight, booked my hostel, packed my bags, and arrived in a fairytale kingdom. My first full day consisted of sightseeing and eating – what else is new? I stopped by Bakeshop for breakfast and I literally had to look at every single bread, loaf, cookie, croissant, cake, brownie, and pastry about three times, because the prices still confused me (~23czk for $1) and because I really couldn't decide on just a few. I made my way to Vyšehrad, which was a beautiful fort alongside the water. Despite the cloudy weather, this was probably one of the nicest views I’ve ever seen. It overlooks the city and every step you take, you get to see a brand new perspective. I originally tried to make my way to a restaurant called Kantyna, but after Google Maps took me around in circles for a solid 20 minutes, I gave up and threw in a different restaurant into my GPS. After being thrown in circles for 10 minutes after that, I finally ended up at Lokal. I read that this place is really popular with both the lokals (hahaha get it, lokals, because that’s the name of the restaurant) and the tourists. I got a small portion of the braised pork shoulder and the smažený sýr (deep fried cheese) and I’d say both of them were just alright :/ I thought I’d be in loveeee with the smažený sýr but it was such a big portion (100g) that by the time it was out of the oil and on my table, it was already starting to get cold, and within the first five minutes, I was basically just eating a big chunk of breaded cheese. Prague was much colder than I had anticipated, and it was torturous to walk in the -2C weather without proper clothes, so I stopped by the Chocolate Museum in the city center, and ended up buying a ticket to enter the museum and a ticket for the chocolate workshop. Lowkey, the chocolate museum was pretty lame HAHA but I legit took a good €9 worth of free chocolate samples so I guess it wasn’t too bad. The chocolate workshop was pretty cool too but because it was in the glass window that everyone could see, I felt like an awkward caged animal making chocolate by myself. Time flies! As I was walking to school yesterday, I realized that I only have three weeks left in this city, before I head home. Crazy to think that just a few months ago, I was packing my suitcase and excitedly telling people that I would be studying in my dream country.
It makes me sad that the first two and a half months here were torture, with constantly having to move and going through a rough experience with my housing and classes. I feel like so much time was wasted on things that shouldn't have been a problem, like making the 25 minute commute to school every day to use the wifi and bathroom because of the dysfunctional ones at my house, or staying out as long as I could to avoid going back to my unsafe home, and spending time looking for a place to stay and fighting to get my money back. I told my sister, but while I was miserable here, every day seemed like an eternity. Every day I woke up, I would count the hours I had left in the day until I could sleep and get everything over with. But now that I'm in a good home and my classes are finishing up, it seems like there aren't enough hours or days left. ANYHOW, back to the reason I started this post - classes are finally coming to an end! Two weeks ago, I had my last Advertising class. Last week, I had my last CSR class. This Monday, I had my last Strategic HR class. Today, I had my last French Language class. And Friday, I have my last French Culture class, which marks the end of the session and which paves way for finals week. The finals week here is a little strange - Unlike UH Manoa where 99% of our finals are held at the last week of the semester, it seems as though only the business classes in my undergraduate program have final exams during this time (Dec. 9-13). We had our French Culture final exam last Friday, and I just finished my French Language final today. I like this method a lot more because it gives me time to prepare thoroughly for all my exams, instead of having to cram for all five within a week. My French Culture exam was extremely straightforward and simple - two essays regarding the topics we learned in class, and about our identities. My French Language exam was quite the opposite, as it was extremely complicated and broken up into three parts - speaking/presenting, listening, and reading/writing. I should also note that some of the content given on the exam was not covered in our lectures, so it was a struggle completing some of the questions. But just like with any other professor, I know that my professors here created their examinations in a way they thought would measure our knowledge the best, so all I can do now is hope for the best and prepare for the rest of my finals, coming up in two weeks! It's been two weeks since I went to Switzerland, and I've been meaning to post about my amazing time there, but things here have been so crazy, hectic, unbelievable, and chaotic, that I never got a chance to write about one of my only good experiences on this exchange.
There were so many times prior to boarding the plane that I thought “why am I traveling again? Nothing good has come from it recently.” And I know I’m right to think that, because my past two trips really have been traumatizing. That’s why, I am so happy to say that everything went right this time. More than alright, everything was spectacularly amazing. The accommodation: Geneva Hostel and City Hostel Geneva were both outstanding, and the best hostels I’ve been to so far. Beautiful, convenient location, clean, friendly staff, cheap, and hella dope free breakfast at Geneva Hostel. The food: Chou, a little cafe that specializes in choux pastries, was absolutely adorable and amazing. Bayview by Michel Roth – My first Michelin Star restaurant experience was outstanding. The service was exceptional, the food was beautifully presented, and the whole place and experience sparkled. Le Portail was a very unassuming cafe/bar/restaurant that ended up having amazing food for the price, and helped me avoid a tourist trap restaurant that I originally planned on going. The chocolate: Belgium was my first chocolate heaven experience, but we were only sampling the cheap truffles sold at souvenir stores. This chocolate heaven was a finer, more exquisite experience, because I got to sample actual quality chocolates from places like Laderach, Favarger, and Rohr, and actually ended up buying (I know, who am I) these said expensive chocolates, because they were that darn good. The flight: Air France put my anxious mind at ease by having a super smooth check-in process, being on time for all my flights, and even providing snacks and drinks for each of the short, one-hour-long flights. Public Transportation: The free Geneva Transport Card is given to all tourists staying at a hotel or hostel to use for the entire duration of your time. This helped a lot because it allowed me to ride the trams to rest my legs or shield myself from the rain, because heaven knows I never pay unnecessary for transportation, no matter how tired I am or how terrible the weather is. It also allowed me to get back to the airport safely and on time via the train (which is really fast lol) Scenery: It was cloudy and rainy for majority of my time there, but the morning of my last full day, it was sunny. I finally got to see the blue sky, tall trees, and beautiful mountains which made me a little homesick because it reminded me of Hawaii. I walked past turquoise lakes and rivers surrounded by autumn trees, and that’s when I thought “wow. I’m not in Hawaii anymore. I’m not in France anymore. I’m in Switzerland, having the time of my life.” Everything: Amazing. If I could sum up my experience in Switzerland, it was nothing short of amazing. After my first day in Switzerland, I thought to myself “I could live here. I want to live here. I want to move here one day.” The gloom and buildings reminded me of Japan (my favorite place in the world) The bed of waters reminded me of Norway & our fjord cruises last year The trees and mountains reminded me of our trip to Iceland last year The mountains also reminded me of Hawaii, which I didn’t know I could miss so much The food is just as amazing as France, which I absolutely love. And an added bonus because their two specialties are cheese and chocolates, which also happen to be my two favorite foods. The cultural diversity of all the tourists made me feel like I was back in Hawaii – I saw Japanese, Chinese and Korean tourists, which was a nice change from all the Indian, Middle Eastern, and European people that I always see here. I’m a sucker for markets (all I did in Amsterdam and Germany was going to the food markets HAHA) so when I heard about the largest food market in Rennes, I knew I had to go.
The Marché des Lices is held every Saturday, and I've made it my weekly routine to go to this market. The market spans a whole street and occupies two indoor spaces too. It’s sectioned off into flowers, produce, meats & cheeses, seafood, food trucks, and baked goods & others. There are so many vendors that it kind of gets overwhelming trying to choose the best place. The prices are pretty similar, but I found a stall that sells peaches, nectarines, potatoes, and zucchini’s for 1 euro/kg which is insanely cheap. My favorite part of this market is the food stalls (duh). You can get the signature Saussice Galette that Rennes is known for, from a few different vendors. My legs took me straight to the baked goods section, where I bought a few mini kouign amann that were the best I’ve ever had during my stay here so far. The market starts to get really busy each hour that goes by so make sure to get there early! No one has told me definitive times for this market, but as far as I’m aware they’re open from 9am-1pm. |