Saturday, November 20, 2004
Canada f***ed me twice this year (and not in a good way)
She's back. But for a limited time.
Three of the four tests are now complete. One of them - passed for sure. Results are in, and I am now registered with the NASD. The other two I will find out the results in a month, however, coming out of them I'm not as confident in my possibilty of passing them as I was going in.
For the past four weeks I've had my nose in a book. Whether it be memorizing option writing strategies or pondering Baudelaire's Le Mariage de Figaro, I've been going pretty strong for the most part. A drink here or there in between, but nothing major. It's been libraries and late nights overall. Couple that with an increasingly stressful work situation and you have one stressed out Growler. I have one more test on December 1st and then it's a book-free me for an awfully long time. (Unless the book is, He's Just Not That in to You. )
I'm pretty proud of myself though. I got my ass into gear and studied all that I could. And I went into my French exams today with the knowledge that I couldn't have done anymore in the short period I had. The first exam (Productive Language Skills) I think I did good, but not good enough. At least not for California's standards. I'm a kickass writer, but the spoken is a bit rusty. The second exam (Linguistic, Literary and Cultural Analysis) I felt good going into. This test presented an obstacle in the fact that I haven't taken a formal French literature course. I've studied certain pieces of French literature here and there in classes, but not a semesters worth of French writers. However, I thought I had studied enough about the different periods of writing in French literature that even if I hadn't seen the piece before or even failed to understand it, I knew enough about the movements of French literature that I could squeak by. Did I mention the part where I really beefed up on French literature?? So I get to the exam, go through the process of having a proctor read 20 minutes worth of formal instructions in a monotone voice, and open the booklet to find an extract from a Canadian writer, from Quebec to be exact. Well folks, I don't know much about our neighbors to the north except their flag has a big leaf on it and it's full of handsome lacrosse players who unfortunately don't know how to use email or telephones. I especially don't know jack about litterature quebecoise. So I tried my best and hope and pray to Jesus that somehow that piece had something to do with the people of Quebec's struggle to be independant from Canada. Or else, I'm f***ed. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Three of the four tests are now complete. One of them - passed for sure. Results are in, and I am now registered with the NASD. The other two I will find out the results in a month, however, coming out of them I'm not as confident in my possibilty of passing them as I was going in.
For the past four weeks I've had my nose in a book. Whether it be memorizing option writing strategies or pondering Baudelaire's Le Mariage de Figaro, I've been going pretty strong for the most part. A drink here or there in between, but nothing major. It's been libraries and late nights overall. Couple that with an increasingly stressful work situation and you have one stressed out Growler. I have one more test on December 1st and then it's a book-free me for an awfully long time. (Unless the book is, He's Just Not That in to You. )
I'm pretty proud of myself though. I got my ass into gear and studied all that I could. And I went into my French exams today with the knowledge that I couldn't have done anymore in the short period I had. The first exam (Productive Language Skills) I think I did good, but not good enough. At least not for California's standards. I'm a kickass writer, but the spoken is a bit rusty. The second exam (Linguistic, Literary and Cultural Analysis) I felt good going into. This test presented an obstacle in the fact that I haven't taken a formal French literature course. I've studied certain pieces of French literature here and there in classes, but not a semesters worth of French writers. However, I thought I had studied enough about the different periods of writing in French literature that even if I hadn't seen the piece before or even failed to understand it, I knew enough about the movements of French literature that I could squeak by. Did I mention the part where I really beefed up on French literature?? So I get to the exam, go through the process of having a proctor read 20 minutes worth of formal instructions in a monotone voice, and open the booklet to find an extract from a Canadian writer, from Quebec to be exact. Well folks, I don't know much about our neighbors to the north except their flag has a big leaf on it and it's full of handsome lacrosse players who unfortunately don't know how to use email or telephones. I especially don't know jack about litterature quebecoise. So I tried my best and hope and pray to Jesus that somehow that piece had something to do with the people of Quebec's struggle to be independant from Canada. Or else, I'm f***ed. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
