This non-travel post is especially for those who don't realize that we do study here and endure the same suffering of sitting through lectures (only in a different language), and trudging through 3 weeks of final exams.
While most students back home are well into the spring semester, we have just finished our final exams here for the fall semester. For a class that has four hours of lecture per week for 14 weeks, it all comes down to a 10 minute oral exam with the professor, "faccia a faccia." Most of the guys here say that they love this style of exam (b/c it is quick, and I would argue, a bit more arbitrary) but then of course they tell you of the horror stories, like the professor that doesn't like exams taken in English, or the one that yells at some of the guys without reason, and even called one a "little girl," etc.
My first experience, while not a nightmare, was nevertheless nerve-wracking. One of my courses was co-taught by two professors, and the exams were to be split up between the two. On my way to the exam I met up with one of the other guys who had just taken his exam in English (we normally take them in English unless we hear from others or the professor that they would much prefer Italian). He said that the professor could not understand his English, and was even asking follow-up questions he had already addressed. It did NOT bode over well for him, meaning that she told him he had failed. "Oh yeah, I forgot to check who your procter is", before he left me to sweat it out before I got to the university, only to find out that I would have the same professor in the next 15 minutes. Anyway, I stumbled through the Italian and tried to understand the questions as best as I could. Lo and behold, it ended up being one of my highest grades!
Know that my sufferings were all offered up for those of you back home going through your own trials and struggles, which I'm sure are often more serious and weighty than mine...
