More exam happiness...

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Dec 152005

After writing notes/studying for literally 40 hours, this was my oral exam:

Prof (not mine, because he wasnt administering it): Where are you from?
Me: California
Prof: Where are your parents from?
Me: Um… Vietnam
Prof: Why did China miss out on the first industrial revolution?
Me: The chinese were too proud and did not see the importance of the inventions that were brought to them from Europe. They trivalized clocks as toys and saw guns and cannons as useless. They closed off their ports to trade. In England, there were many scientific societies and journals and the people generally were literate but in China the culture discouraged sharing and innovation…
Prof: Do you agree or disagree?
Me: I agree because empirical evidence showed that europe was much more profitable than China and in Japan…
Prof:Ok ok, your professor thinks you deserve a 24 (I have no idea how he would have known that), but Ill give you a 26. Is that ok?
Me: (In complete shock) Um… can I answer another question?
Prof: No. I don’t have time. You can have a 27. (and then he gets up)

I cannot believe this school. It’s absolutely absurd. My exam literally lasted less than 2 minutes. At first I had the knee-jerk reaction of “that’s not fair!” since there were many students who passed (18+ is a pass) who did almost no work. But upon reflection, life is never fair, and at least I learned a lot about economic history.

My international and european law was much ‘better’ insofar as it actually tested knowledge and comprehension. Then again, that course was taught by a Swiss lawyer.

This is a snippet from my marketing lecture notes:
To effectively use your online community:
brainstorming: gather ideas
selection: pick the product ideas that will be profitable and practical
design: make the product
promote and sell your product online

So are marketing classes always like this? What, then, does one actually learn in marketing? I would argue that the above does not need to be taught, as it should be plainly obvious. How is it that a course called “Technology for culture and communication” is actually about “Marketing online”? Does anyone know anyone who studied and enjoyed marketing? All those I have spoke to here more or less do it because they couldn’t think of anything else to do. For the first time, I found a subject in which I have absolutely no interest and have found no one to convince me otherwise.

And really, what is it with the Italian need to know one’s ethnic background? Never, was the answer ‘California’ sufficient when someone asked me where I’m from.

Posted by Karen at 4:51 pm Tagged with: , , , ,

My first Italian midterm

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Nov 062005

The bulletin board lists 7 or so classrooms for the location of my exam. As I walk away, wondering how I know which classroom I’m supposed to be in, I see an old class mate. I turn and we smile at each other and in doing so, I miss the first stair and go tumbling down all 5. The entire hall goes silent. Yep, it’s one of those embarrassing moments where I just want to disappear into the ground. Two very sweet guys help me up.

Falling didn’t give me any insight on where my test was, so I called a classmate. She concludes that we are in room 201. We are sitting in the classroom and the students are very rowdy. They occasionally do the wave, and are constantly hollering at each other from across the room. They all start clapping occasionally. I turn to the guy next to me and ask him why everyone is clapping. “They’re clapping for the students sitting in the front row”. Oh, of course…??? Eventually the professor shows up and we realize we’re in the wrong class. We go to the international office (which is luckily on the same floor) and ask Paolo (the most amazing man it the world) how to find the location of our test. He tells us about the board downstairs. After we insist that there are no prof names nor section numbers associated with the classrooms, he goes downstairs with us to look. He examines the board, shrugs his shoulders and tells us just to look in each listed classroom for our professor. I am secretly cursing Italy again as I start to stress about the test. On the third try we find him. We sit down in the front row and the professor starts explaining the questions to us. Everyone starts laughing. Hm… I just assume the reason is that we’re foreigners and they are mocking our general inadequacies at adapting to Italy.

After the test, I stopped one of my peers in the class and ask him why everyone was laughing. He told me that people who end up sitting in the front row are either suckers or really brave. You can’t cheat in the front row, so it is the worst place to sit.

*pictures are in the process, I swear

Posted by Karen at 6:53 am Tagged with: , , , ,

looking back

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Aug 142005

I’m sitting in an internet cafe in Milan and this is the first time I’ve heard decent music in Italy. Franz Ferdinand just ended, and now they’re playing Garbage. OMG it’s not American 90′s pop.

This past Friday was the most stressful day thus far. On Thursday we just finished our oral presentation and oral exam, and Friday we had our final. The final wasn’t too bad, but as always, I should have studied more. By the time we had returned home I needed to (1) pack (2) buy cow bottles (3) bank (4) get train tickets (6) clean the apartment so we don’t get charged (7) shower and dress for the goodbye dinner since there’s no way in hell I was going to miss that.

Somehow all of those things got done, though I left 6 hours after I intended to leave on Saturday. The dinner was very fun. Unlike the welcome dinner, we didn’t take a 2 hour bus ride to some place in the mountains, ride on a train-like tractor around a mediocre view,take a wine cellar tour where we were given some orange juice, and eat soggy pizza. The goodbye dinner was in Trestevere, close to where we live, at a charming outdoor restaurant. There was music and torches and the food was much better and I couldn’t ask for better company. After some wine, food, a ton of photos, and a toast to our most wonderful teacher Chiara, we went to the S. Maria piazza nearby and had a good old time. No details, but we really enjoyed the company of our teacher who was drunk off her ass and used fuck in italian or english ever other sentence. We met some adorable Austrailian boys who eventually ran away because Emily and I were a bit much for them. It would have been much more responsible to go home and pack, but this was much more fun.

I unfortunately never got a chance to say goodbye to Adam (my personal tour guide that one night) since he had already left when I stopped by friday afternoon. This past six weeks have been quite a rollercoaster. It was really strange to realize that the dinner was the last time all (or almost all) of us would be together. It was like graduating high school, but with the older perspective. I know who I will and will not keep in touch with, and was very careful not to make any false promises to visit or be visited by those I had no intention to see. That dinner was the chance for closure, and it felt so good. The most interesing aspect of the trip thus far was the behavior of people who are thrown into in unfamiliar enviornment with people they don’t know. I really enjoyed watching the interactions of people who know there is a 6 week deadline on most of the relationships they develop. Because of the program, though, I felt very incubated from Italy. We were 50 American students who lived togther, went to school together, spoke english together, and for the most part went out together. It will be much better when I start school in Milan.

There were so many things I didn’t get a chance to do during my stay. I did a lot of sight seeing, but there were still so many museums and churches I wanted to see. I’m glad I went into Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore because it was truely breath taking. I also the museum/monument/building dedicated to the Risorgimento, the big political movemnt for Italy in 1870. The tomb of the unknown soldier was guarded by 4 soldiers, two of them with large rifle. I think I want to visit Rome again before I leave. The weather will be better, there will be fewer tourists, and the residents won’t be on vacation. I was initially afraid that I would fall in love, but I have come to realize that Rome is not for me. (I’m currently working on a paper about my thoughts on Italian culture vs American, and I will post it when I’m done) Though the city is beautiful there are core aspects of it with which I cannot reconsile. I miss San Francisco.

I wrote a haiku for my Italian class last week:
Cosa fai oggi?
Faccio un pisolino
Tutti e chuiso
Trans: What are you doing today?/ I’m taking a nap/ Everything is closed
I know I’ll never be a poet, it everything is really closed in August. Well, all stores save the ones owned by asians. Rome was still pretty busy with tourists, but in Milan it is truly dead. Andrew (a fellow Milan student, though he’s going to the art school) and I were 2 of 6 people inside a metro stop yesterday evening. Everyone leaves for 1 week-1 month to relax at the beaches. Sardenia is the place to be, but right now it’s obscenely expensive. I will be flying out to Barcelona tomorrow to relax for 5 days. I am really excited, but it is too bad that Ava can no longer go with me. She may fly home to NY if her grandmother dies. Although, I will have some much needed alone time.

Posted by Karen at 8:26 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , ,
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