Finished with Midterms...Finally
At most schools, midterm exams are confined to a one-, maybe two-week period in the middle of the term, as the name would imply. For some reason, UBC does not think that is something worth enforcing, so, despite starting my midterms over a month ago, I just finished my last exam on Tuesday. That leaves me with less than a month before my first final, so it really has felt as though the entire semester is exam season. This lent itself to a lot of stress, and while I'm finally getting the chance to breathe this long weekend, it's not long before I have to start preparing for my next round of even-more-important exams.
Once my last midterm was over Tuesday night, I was able to enjoy the rest of the week with no studying hanging over my head. I still had classes, but not feeling guilty for taking a break from work was a nice change of pace from the past few weeks. Having such constant, ambiguous to-do lists took quite the toll on me this semester, and it's definitely something I'm going to have to work on if I want to stay sane through the rest of these few years.
Thankfully, I was sort of forced to relax and get my mind off school this weekend, as my mom was here to visit. She flew in late Thursday and left this morning, so I got a few good days with her. On Friday I still had class, but it's a light day for me so we were able to get breakfast and explore campus and the regional park around it before it got dark (which is quite early nowadays). After class we went downtown to a huge craft fair and made it through about half the exhibitors before leaving to get dinner. We ended up doing dinner in the apartment she was staying in, and it was one of the only real home-cooked meals I've had since being here, which was quite nice. I stayed at the apartment that night, and found that I didn't really know what to do with so much bed and such a big shower. The next morning we spent some time over by the boathouse I row out of, walking around and seeing what we could through the clouds and rain. After, we headed back to see the rest of the craft fair before walking around Gastown. Around lunchtime we went back to the apartment, stopping to get some groceries on the way. After a nap and some general relaxing time, we met my friend Anna and her dad, who is also visiting, for dinner at a Lebanese restaurant. After dinner my mom dropped me back off at my dorm and we said goodbye until Christmas.
It was strange to come back here even after one night sleeping off campus, and I realized how easy it is to get used to living at school, but also how nice it was to physically remove myself from the place where all the studying and lectures and exams take place. I think it will be good for me to eventually move off campus, so I can keep some of the stress and pressure of school, at school.
Despite having a relatively eventful week and weekend, I was not good about taking pictures, so I'll insert the two I have (one of which was taken by my mom). Hopefully I'll be better about it next week!
Once my last midterm was over Tuesday night, I was able to enjoy the rest of the week with no studying hanging over my head. I still had classes, but not feeling guilty for taking a break from work was a nice change of pace from the past few weeks. Having such constant, ambiguous to-do lists took quite the toll on me this semester, and it's definitely something I'm going to have to work on if I want to stay sane through the rest of these few years.
Thankfully, I was sort of forced to relax and get my mind off school this weekend, as my mom was here to visit. She flew in late Thursday and left this morning, so I got a few good days with her. On Friday I still had class, but it's a light day for me so we were able to get breakfast and explore campus and the regional park around it before it got dark (which is quite early nowadays). After class we went downtown to a huge craft fair and made it through about half the exhibitors before leaving to get dinner. We ended up doing dinner in the apartment she was staying in, and it was one of the only real home-cooked meals I've had since being here, which was quite nice. I stayed at the apartment that night, and found that I didn't really know what to do with so much bed and such a big shower. The next morning we spent some time over by the boathouse I row out of, walking around and seeing what we could through the clouds and rain. After, we headed back to see the rest of the craft fair before walking around Gastown. Around lunchtime we went back to the apartment, stopping to get some groceries on the way. After a nap and some general relaxing time, we met my friend Anna and her dad, who is also visiting, for dinner at a Lebanese restaurant. After dinner my mom dropped me back off at my dorm and we said goodbye until Christmas.
It was strange to come back here even after one night sleeping off campus, and I realized how easy it is to get used to living at school, but also how nice it was to physically remove myself from the place where all the studying and lectures and exams take place. I think it will be good for me to eventually move off campus, so I can keep some of the stress and pressure of school, at school.
Despite having a relatively eventful week and weekend, I was not good about taking pictures, so I'll insert the two I have (one of which was taken by my mom). Hopefully I'll be better about it next week!
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| Some very creative cribbage boards at the craft fair (picture taken by my mom) |
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| This picture (yes, it's the moon) was taken at 5 pm. About 10 minutes later it's completely dark, and even around 4:30 you can tell it's getting dark. |
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