Happy November, everyone! I'm pretty sure I can say that, considering it should be November 1st just about everywhere now.
Yesterday was Halloween. If this comes as no surprise to you, you're probably American. Apparently, Halloween isn't a big thing over here in Australia. It's slowly been picking up as a holiday, but even so, Halloween decorations only come up in stores about 2 weeks before- that is, if they're even put up at all. In comparison, there have been Christmas decorations for over a month (I don't understand how this makes sense). I invited some Australians to come to a Halloween party, and someone actually asked me what day Halloween is. I guess it just takes a while for these things to catch on.
Only 1.5 more weeks until final exams start for me. I have never, ever, ever prepared for tests this far in advance. But when a test is basically worth your entire grade (60-70%!), then yeah, it's necessary. I'm a bit worried- finals definitely aren't like this at all back home. It's going to take some major study time for me to do decently, so hopefully I can pull through.
The weird thing about final exams here (besides the fact that they count for so much) is that they're all off campus-kind of like the old AP tests we took in high school. In its ultimate wisdom, Aussie/British higher educational culture has decided that it is most efficient for the argest universities in Adelaide (Adelaide Uni, Uni SA, and Flinders Uni) to ship all of their students to the same facility for testing during these two weeks. Never mind that there should theoretically be enough space at each uni's own campus, or that it will be a logistical nightmare for any student to catch a bus or a train to the Showgrounds on those days, or that it might be helpful to have the professor of the course actually monitor the final...no, this is obviously the best choice. I don't get it.
It all seems a bit illogical to me. Make the test so heavily weighted so that the courses are off-balance and every student resorts to cramming, and then literally cram hundreds of them into a room to take a test. There's no use fighting the system, but still. Kinda weird.
At least there's heaps of travelling to be done after finals! I'll be going up to Flinders Ranges immediately after, then stay in Adelaide, pack, and then go on a road trip from Cairns to Brisbane. There will be surfing and snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef. It's amazing to think that I'll be doing all of this, especially when I think that there are so many people who dream of having these experiences. I'm quite lucky. And after all of that, I get to go home. I didn't think I'd be too excited to go back to the states, but it'll be nice to return to some familiarity. That is, of course, assuming that I will still feel familiar with everything. There's apparently something called "reverse culture shock" that a lot of study-abroad students have once they go home. It sounds miserable, so I hope I can avoid it.
And, while we're talking about the States, a note for anyone back home- if you're ever keen on texting people around the world, it's really easy to do so with this thing called Whatsapp. It only uses a bit of data on your phone regardless of the country you are texting, and it's completely free. If you'd ever want to chat, just download it and I can give you my number. It sucks having to wait for good Skype times or Facebook chat times, and so this might be easier. I had no idea about this until I got here, so I figured I'd relay the message :)
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