Tuesday, August 23, 2005
I typed out the outline for my presentation last night while getting stuck into the new Harry Potter book. I made an illustration of Mao holding a magic wand and waving it over the peasants on an overhead transparency and I hope I get marks for it. Last time I drew a cartoon to show during a presentation I got a distinction for it so I'm hoping this strategy works again. I hope I'll be able to talk for five minutes on the subject though. Yikes man. Five whole minutes! You almost need a brain for that.
I had two tests yesterday, one for Third-Year Chinese and one for Classical. The classical one was really hard and when I added up how many answers I was actually sure about it looked like I might just pass. I dont' think studying for it would have helped, whenever I study for something I always study the wrong thing anyway. The Third-Year test was mainly a vocab quiz. It's strange actually memorising vocab again. In Taiwan I started off really hard-working but slowly dropped to the point where I just turned up for class and improved my speaking. It's really tough being back at uni and having to be able to write as if I have in fact been studying the language for nearly four years (on and off of course!). And then there's that 2000-character essay to write about my experiences in Taiwan. I just don't want to start it, probably because all it's going to do is remind me how much better I could be if I had just stayed serious when I was there. I remember thinking to myself "will I regret this when I'm back at uni?" and I replied to myself "nah you'll be fine."
There's no TV in my new house so I am being forced to amuse myself in my room with study and reading. Oh I've cut down on cigarrettes - I only had like four yesterday and today I still haven't had one. I'm also on what I call the strawberry diet. You have a healthy breakfast and lunch but for dinner all you eat is strawberrys and apple juice. My stomach has already started to deflate and one day I may even fit back into those expensive jeans I got before I left. Yay! ¶ 11:09
I had two tests yesterday, one for Third-Year Chinese and one for Classical. The classical one was really hard and when I added up how many answers I was actually sure about it looked like I might just pass. I dont' think studying for it would have helped, whenever I study for something I always study the wrong thing anyway. The Third-Year test was mainly a vocab quiz. It's strange actually memorising vocab again. In Taiwan I started off really hard-working but slowly dropped to the point where I just turned up for class and improved my speaking. It's really tough being back at uni and having to be able to write as if I have in fact been studying the language for nearly four years (on and off of course!). And then there's that 2000-character essay to write about my experiences in Taiwan. I just don't want to start it, probably because all it's going to do is remind me how much better I could be if I had just stayed serious when I was there. I remember thinking to myself "will I regret this when I'm back at uni?" and I replied to myself "nah you'll be fine."
There's no TV in my new house so I am being forced to amuse myself in my room with study and reading. Oh I've cut down on cigarrettes - I only had like four yesterday and today I still haven't had one. I'm also on what I call the strawberry diet. You have a healthy breakfast and lunch but for dinner all you eat is strawberrys and apple juice. My stomach has already started to deflate and one day I may even fit back into those expensive jeans I got before I left. Yay! ¶ 11:09
