If I am not mistaken, I promised to update my blog every 2 weeks or so. Ha, that's why you can never trust what Isa says. Well, simply put, it is a mixture of "not too much to talk about in 2 weeks" and "too much to write about after 2 weeks." Well, you know what I mean.
My last examination was on January 29th, so I am finally having some quality time with myself, and writing here was on my vacation's to-do list.
Looking back from the time I first arrived until now, I feel like the first one or two months were great. I spent weeks going out and meeting people day after day, while also being amused (and let me add confused) with the new life. My classes were scheduled to end by December 20th and, as the date was approaching, I was suddenly given an astonishing amount of projects, papers, presentations and group assignments to work on, which quickly loaded up my already agitated schedule and, obviously, it all became quite stressful.
I have to say I was fairly happy with my performance on all the projects and assignments given. The fact that every group I was part of was composed of several students from different nationalities certainly added extra challenges, but the feedback was positive and grades were good. I cannot emphasize enough the importance I give to all these group works. If I had a choice, I would rather work by myself all the time. I don't like to think this way, but I am rarely satisfied with other people's job and usually think that I can do better, but analyzing everyone's behavior and trying to get the most out of each team member in a way that can bring the best quality of their work together in an effective/efficient manner is what truly satisfies me. The way I see it, working with people is a very complex trade-off between knowing how to express what you need from them, delegating the tasks so they can work on what they are best at, while making them feel empowered enough to be willing to contribute the most in trying to reach the best outcomes we can get as a team. I just love analyzing how a "simple group work" is anything but simple, and how that might resemble only a fraction of what I am yet to face in real life. These experiences truly help me evaluate what I have done right or where I could have improved on, and I just can't wait to put everything that I have been learning into practice.
Classes were over and I was a little exhausted. Three days later, however, I was heading to Croatia for Christmas and New Year. It took me a whole day trip by train and bus to finally arrive in Rovinj, where Una, my friend from RMU, lives in. I did enjoy the ride, though. I left Milano early morning to make my first stop in Venice, then to Trieste (which was great, because I had some time to walk around the city where my great-grandfather was born) and from Trieste, a bus took me to the final destination. It was a 2-hour bus drive, and that is where we cross the Italian/Croatian border. It was already dark out, and I fell asleep. I remember being woken up by a police officer. I had no idea of what was going on. He asked me for my passport, and still trying to fully open my eyes, it came to mind that we were at the border and that they were certainly asking for passports. I freaked out for 2 seconds. When I was packing earlier that day, I was like "I am not gonna bring my passport, since it is likely that I will lose it somewhere, but wait, I might need it for entering bars or clubs so, okay, let me bring it with me." How stupid of me to not even imagine I would have to use it for serious purposes. Anyway, I had it, somewhere in my backpack that, by the way, was inside the trunk underneath the bus, haha. It was a little embarrassing having all the passengers and Croatian cops staring at me putting my shoes on and getting off the bus to show them the passport until we could all finally proceed with the ride.
The time I spent in Croatia was just amazing. Andre, a big friend of mine, was also there, and it was great seeing him since last time, when we graduated. Una's family was very sweet and kind to us. Her city is one of the prettiest I have ever seen and her friends were all very cool and funny people. We went to Zagreb, the capital, for New Year's eve with her and a few of her friends. She had purchased our tickets for the club we were going on the 31st and it was a Brazilian themed party (what are the odds of that happening?!). My tolerance to attending clubs has been near to zero lately (yes, I already feel too old for that), but I did have a great, great time. I remember witnessing a number of fights, which according to everyone, it was just normal, and a lot of kids completely wasted. Well, happy new year!
On January 2nd I returned to Milan, ready to start preparing myself for final examinations. Boy, that was a pain. Little I knew that I had to adapt to how it all worked again. Different (completely different, if I am to detail how it all works) than RMU, here we have a whole semester of lectures and a few "unofficial" examinations. The official examinations period can last for up to 2 months, and we basically have 3 chances for passing a test or to retake it if we are not satisfied with the final grade. Besides that, what I really struggled with was on the way they test us. The exams are mostly open-ended questions (let me remember how many times I've ever had to write anything down on a test…) or simply oral exams. Yes, on the test day, the professor calls your name to have an individual assessment of what you have learned along the course. The open-ended-question exams sucked. The questions are generally very vague, meaning that you have to use the time given - never enough - to write as much as you can or until your hand hurts so much that you cannot write anymore. Seriously. I remember the very first one I took.. I was so proud I got to write around half a page for each question. When professor said "time is up," I looked around me, and saw the Italian students having pages and pages and pages written down. I was like "Fuck. Whatever. When is the second-chance exam date again?!" On the other hand, I did like the oral method of examination. Besides evaluating your learnings in a more direct and "proper" way, the secret is being confident that you know what you are talking about, and that's it. The amount of material each of the exams covered were massive, and that really weighted on my shoulders. Crazy to think how my production level of study has decreased over time. I am not sure, but sometimes I feel like I have spent too much time in school and I am now kind of sick of it. But there are 3 other semesters waiting for me, and I better find that extra energy to go through them.
As of now, I am on vacations until the 23th, when my second semester starts. And it has been great so far. I am using the time to go work out as much as possible, to read that list of books I wanted to read but did not have the time to, to focus a little bit more on the Italian, to explore a little more of the city, etc. Oh, and I bought myself a 2000-piece puzzle that has entertained me for hours as well.
Overall, it has already been a great beginning of a year, and a lot more is yet to come. This month will be awesome, April will be awesome, August will be awesome, and perhaps October is also promising. Too many great things to look forward to.
