Exams finally started this week and today I completed my first final exam and with three more to sit before next Thursday I’m really not doing much but working. At least I’m not alone as most people have at least four exams or more all crammed into too weeks and little time to do much else but study for them. So my flat has transformed into a place of study, with all of us reading and writing and cramming for various subjects with varying degrees of urgency.
This increased need for study has also created and increased need for procrastination so we decorated the flat for Christmas. The kitchen is now draped in tinsel and lights and we have plans for getting a tree this weekend. That along with the no stop Christmas music my flatmate is playing and the ever increasing amount of snow is really starting to make me excited about Christmas.
This week apart from study and exams has been all about looking towards the future mostly because not studying and exams are boring. I’m looking forwards to exams being over and the party to celebrate that we have planned which is not only ten days away. I’m looking forwards to going home and seeing all my friends and family which is only twelve days away. I’m also looking forwards to Christmas and all its excitement which is fourteen days away!
The world back in the UK seems to be coming back into my mind with a bump as I realised only this week that I have to start making preparations for my dissertation work next year. For me this is slightly more complicated that most for a few reasons. Firstly as I study Geology and Physical Geography I have to decide which of these fields my project will fall and then what within these fields I want to study. To be honest I’m pretty clueless but the slightly better geography program here at Carleton has me leaning towards a project in that area. This in a way is a good thing because research into this allows me to procrastinate without feeling like a wasting my time but then again maybe that makes it a bad this because if I can justify procrastination then I might never get back to studying.
I have also been turning my incredibly short attention span towards getting one of the elusive on campus jobs as I can only work on-campus on my study permit and do not qualify for a work permit for off campus work. These will probably free-up as exchange students who are only studying at Carleton for the semester leave at Christmas. This has had me spending much of my free time writing e-mails and filling out countless application forms and crossing my fingers that I’ll be lucky.
All in all it’s been a week of stress, study, work and thinking about more stress, study and work. The only consolation is that it will all be over by next week!
