Viaggio in Italia

On Friday I had my first oral exam in Italian, for my medieval history class. I've been pretty stressed out about it for the past three weeks, since as I mentioned here before, I had an obscene amount of material to learn and there was never any way I was going to be able to do it. Plus, all of it was so boring that every time I sat down to try to study, I managed to stay focused for about half an hour before I lost interest and got distracted by something else. I only got four hours of sleep the night before with all my stressing out about it, but in the end, it went okay.

It was one of the most nerve-wracking exam experiences I've ever had, though, which is saying a lot because I always stress about exams. And plus, the grades we get here only transfer as pass/fail, so there's no reason to get too concerned about them. Still, the way exams are structured is basically my worst nightmare. The whole class sits around in a big room and waits together for their turn to have the exam. Meanwhile, the professor is sitting at a table in front talking with one student at a time. So when it's your turn, you have to sit there and talk in front of a huge group of people. Everyone can hear what you're saying, so if you're unprepared and totally screw up, everyone in the class knows about it. They can also hear the grade the professor gives you, since the professors deliver you your grade right there on the spot. And if someone doesn't quite catch it, they'll all ask you as soon as it's over.. Italian students always share their grades with each other, something that makes us Americans pretty uncomfortable still.

Anyway, apparently the exams aren't always that way, with the whole class as an audience, and in any case I wasn't expecting it, so it was a bit of a shock when I got there and figured out what was going on. Especially since I entirely expected to fail and was hoping I wouldn't have to make a fool of myself in front of the entire class. I was one of the first people to go, but one of the girls who went before me failed and came back and sat down next to me and burst into tears. And then five or six more girls flocked over to say reassuring things. Everyone else kind of buzzed around anxiously. It was slightly chaotic, to say the least, and I was terribly freaked out.

When I got up there, the professor could tell instantly from my name that I was an exchange student, so she went really easy on me. Instead of asking me specific questions like she did to the Italian students, she just asked me to talk about a few topics that I knew well, and then asked me more probing questions about what I was saying. A lot of the things she asked I didn't know how to respond to, but she helped me out quite a bit. If I had known she was going to do that, I would have prepared just a few topics instead of doing a vague overview of all of the material but having no detailed knowledge of any specific thing, which is what I did do. But oh well, in the end, she gave me a 30 anyway, the highest possible score. I was totally shocked, but it's a big relief to have it over with. By that time, I would have been thrilled just to have passed.

Anyway, I've gotta go. I'm meeting my new friend Giovanni, who's going to make me dinner at his house. It should be good. I still have to update about all of my travels over spring break, and of course post photos. The exam so absorbed my attention over the past week that I've neglected everything else. But I'll update more soon.