First Exam

27.7.08 13:16 Chania, Greece

Hello again. I've had a busy couple days here with our first set of exams and our cultural presentations yesterday. All were thoroughly entertaining and thoroughly long! Today's day of relax is very welcome.

I have done a good job taking notes during class lectures and keeping up with my readings, so when it came time to begin serious studying for the exam on Thursday evening, I felt well prepared. Thursday, I studied for 4 or 5 hours over the Good Society materials, trying to engrain in my mind the idea of the marvelous and the murderous, and how their tension leads to the formation of a good society. Friday, starting around 3, I began studying conflict management, which I was not as comfortable with. I re-read each reading, taking careful notes and talking with people about how they interpreted texts. The studying ended around midnight, marking the most intense day of studying in my life up to this point. (Europeans definitely have better academic work ethics than your average American)

After studying was finished, Mohamed (I call him Ashiri) Iman and I found ourselves hanging out on the roof! It felt like a television show. But it was a lot of fun. Sarantis joined us the night before, and we went up again Saturday night, so it's becoming something of a tradition. Stars here are pretty nice, definitely better than in Kansas City (though probably not as clear as Bartle) So Ashiri, Iman and I talked the night away until around 2, when we decided we should probably get some sleep before the test the next day.

The test began at 11am, so I had time for a good breakfast and a quick final review. I'll admit, I was a bit nervous going into the test, until about 10 minutes before. I convinced myself that if I didn't know the information by now, I would not know it in 10 minutes. And if I did know the information now, 10 more minutes of studying would not keep me from forgetting anything. So I threw on the iPod, started dancing around like an idiot, and I think aced the test. We'll see what the grades say, but I was very confident walking out of the room. I was the second to finish, even though I re-read all of my answers 2-3 times and made some changes.

And then came cultural presentations. Hopefully, a video of the American performance is on the way. I'm told there were multiple people who got it on camera. The Americans decided the best way to show our very diverse culture was a presentation of the evolution of dance (a popular YouTube video) We danced our way from the 50's with Surfin' USA and The Twist to the 2000's with Crank dat Soldier Boy. I know I'm a bit biased, but it was freaking awesome!!! The Americans were one of the few countries that decided to go purely for entertainment. We did not give any information about our country, we did not try to explain our invasion of Iraq - we just danced. We had the entire group up, clapping and everything. Very fun. Then I got the honor of joining in the Greek presentation. They performed a traditional Greek wedding, so I was the chanter. After the wedding was complete, we began some traditional greek dances (which Katerina, the other Greek American and I taught to the actual Greeks...) The plates began to break, the music continued the play and we all had an incredible night of dancing. By 4am or so, I was dead tired and headed to bed.

I'm heading into town today to get some food and look for Addison's baptism dress. The concept of buying a dress for your goddaughter is harder to explain than I expected! I usually try for a couple of minutes, then end up just saying that I need to go shopping for a gift for the family.

IIPES is officially one week from being complete. I won't lie, I'm not looking forward to the end. I have met many incredible people, and I hope to continue the friendships once the program is done. But like all things, nothing usually quite lives up to the actual experience when everyone first met. I guess all good things must really come to and end....

Except family :-)

Much Love

Alec