And so far, passed all of my final exams. In dreaded linguistics, I got 12/20 and in one half of translation, I received 10.5/20. I consider that a win on all accounts. We also sat our final geography exam on Wednesday morning at 8:30am. Such a tough time to make after 10:30am starts all semester. The exam was alright, we were given a booklet during out last tutorial two weeks ago which could be used as source material to take into the exam. We were allowed to annotate it and write notes on it. I pretty much wrote anything and everything on it. The actual exam was to write dissertation plan. We didn't actually have to write the dissertation. Just the plan. I really struggled with this... I would have preferred to write the actual dissertation, or an essay. Writing a plan was hard because you didn't want to go into too much detail and make it sound like an essay. But you had to provide enough evidence that you knew what you were talking about. Usually, my essay plans take about half an hour. So, when given two hours to do one, it was more than challenging. My final hand-in ended up erring on the side of essay form, but I don't think the tutor will worry that much. She's nice to us international kids haha. Oh! And the actual question was on discussing the inequalities between different territories in France. Not too bad all over.
Our final class was a translation class in which our ridiculous teacher, despite telling us she'd have our marks, in fact, didn't even end up marking them at all. The class time was spent going through the end of final exam without anyone having any of their papers to go off.
During classes, we ventured to the end of the tram
line to Pessac
Pessac Hotel de Ville
Excited!
Andrew, Lucy and I inside the Acceuil building
Celebratory baguette on the way home
But now it's over! I can't believe it, the time went so quickly. I can still remember the first lesson of linguistics, looking at the others at the end of class and just thinking "What a terrible mistake I have made".
I spent last night, in celebration, knitting haha. But today, I endeavoured to make it as celebratory as possible! I had planned on taking myself to lunch for my fav thai beef salad, but I had multiple dilemmas. Firstly, it was raining. Secondly, I wanted to go to the pool. The pool sessions today were from 11:30am-2:30pm or 4:30pm-9:30pm. Lunch time at the restaurant was 12-2:30pm. I immediately discounted the morning pool session. But, what was I going to do between the end of the lunch session and the beginning of the afternoon/evening pool session? It was just an awkward time - too short to really go home, but I didn't have anything I needed to do on the side of town. Plus, it was raining so window shopping or strolling were almost out of the question. I ended up cancelling all prior arrangements and online shopping instead. I wanted a water proof watch, just to be able to time myself in the pool. I knew the decathlon store on rue Saint-Catherine sold them so I did some online research and found one for 10 euros. While browsing their website, I saw they sold horse riding boots - like gum boots (I LOVE GUMBOOTS).
I ended up leaving my house at about 11:15am this morning to buy the watch, check out the boots, and then pick up a baguette on the way home for lunch. I got to the store and picked out the watch, but then... no boots. None, in the entire store. In fact, they only had one line of gum boots. I was a little confused. So purchased the watch, and then remembered that maybe the boots were only available in bigger stores, which were at least half an hour away. On my walk home, I came across a second hand massive book store. I spent a good 40 minutes in there just perusing and ended up with 2 easy/junior novels to read and an embroidery book from 1961! It took me so long to pick the ones I wanted. I was looking for something challenging, but not so hard that it was off-putting to read. And, it had to have an entertaining story. Despite knowing it was well beyond my league, I almost ended up purchasing an Agatha Christie novel. But it was good knowing that the store sells C. S Lewis, J. R Tolkien and J. K Rowling novels too (wow, I should start calling myself A. K Smith).
The embroidery purchase
When I arrived home, I quickly looked up the nearby Decathlon stores that did sell the boots. The nearest one was Bouliac, across the river. Even though I live practically on the river, anything on the other side is just way to far away. But, my feet went walking, and before I knew it, I was sitting on the bus going on an adventure. It was actually nice seeing what was on the other side. It's a different kind of landscape, not at all mid city, but not suburban either. More french country style houses in a mountains setting... if you can picture that.
When I got there, low and behold, it was pouring. Zipping my snow jacket over my face, I splashed my way to the store and let out a sigh of relief when I saw the boots. And then others! And then some more! There were just heaps of boots in the horse riding section. So, after trying on multiple and liking them all, I made my selection based on what I could actually get home at the end of the year. I'll just have to wear the knee high rubber ones on the plane haha. They're incredibly comfortable too!
Arriving home at 4:30pm, I chucked some things in a bag, whipped on my new watch, and swung on the bus to the pool. It was a good session, spending about an hour and a half there. The watch was fine, so I've deemed it a sensible purchase. I'm aiming at the end of the year to purchase a garmin multisport watch, maybe as a gift to myself for making it through the year. Or maybe from my parents (I know that you read this blog guys) as a birthday/Christmas present.
All in all, a good first day to five months of holidays.
Boots!
And more boots - sorry it's upside down
My pool card
Dinner on Tuesday night/dessert
Church on Monday night
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