Midterms

Well, midterms are done. First one I had was for East Asian Studies, which I found intimidating because the professor told us that the class average was only a little above 70%. Since the bulk of my classmates are from East Asia and are therefor kind of versed with the course material, it kind of made me feel like, "Wait, if these guys are only a little bit above a passing grade, what chance do I have?"

My study habits haven't been the best. I mentioned in my previous post that I've been struggling with fatigue. But the old adrenaline kicked in at just the right moment and I read an entire textbook, cover-to-cover, in two days. We're only halfway through the semester, but the book covered course content all the way to where were in class.

The professor told us that we aren't a history class and wouldn't be tested like one, but the textbook is titled "A History of East Asia". Feel like I learned the entire history of China in two days. Do you know how old China is? It's really, really old.

Should have listened to the professor though. I think I did well on most of the historical questions, but there were more questions on current-day China and geography than I expect. What makes it worse is that I feel like those were kind of the gimme questions. I mean, you should have a grasp of the second largest and fastest growing economy in the world.

Multiple choice test, fifty questions in an hour. Professor said there was no way we could use the entire hour, "If you stay for the full hour it is because you enjoy the atmosphere of the exam".

Of course I'm thinking that gives me about a minute per question, which doesn't feel like much. But he was right. Finished the test in like twenty minutes. Reviewed my answers and handed it in at thirty minutes.

Didn't leave that exam with too much confidence, though.

Went to review for the Sociology exam and I was laughing. I've taken enough Sociology courses that there was basically no new content, I barely knew what to study. Two hours for seventy questions, took like, 45 minutes. Came out of it with a lot of confidence.

Had an art project due that week too. We were doing "disrupted landscapes", which are like regular landscapes, but then you do something to offset the feeling that the rest of the image creates. Examples that we looked at were that melting clock image, that image with the elephants with stilt-legs, some landscapes with words floating through them, some images with monsters in them.  I based mine on a photo of a mountain range that I took while I was in Mali. I really didn't want to disrupt it and was pretty uninspired on how to do it. Apparently that's a common feeling. Eventually I was like "Okay, what draws attention in this image" That rock formation "What do you notice about it?" That crevice looks kind of like a mouth and that grove of trees looks like a tongue.

So I drew some teeth and a tongue and eyes onto it. I'd forgotten I've got a thing for faces put on aspects of nature. Remember Tree Face? This was Rock Face. I so gloomily cartooned the face onto my painstakingly painted landscape, and then spent a solid half hour giggling at it.