Another one down! March 13, 2008

Well, I still haven’t decided about Cape Town, but it sure feels good to have another term behind me! I mean, it does and it doesn’t — this whole b-school thing is passing by way way way too quickly. I can’t believe this term is already over. Finals were… fair, for the most part. And I will even go so far as to admit that, though my tax law test was really really hard, it was also kind of (eek!) fun. It was like solving a puzzle, a little. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to get an awesome grade on it because I found the theory part hard (don’t know how you do it, Alex and Amelia!), but it was actually kind of an interesting exam. The only one I’m really really worried about is, predictably, Finance. I studied my FACE off for that exam, everything the prof said to review, and still walked into the exam, took a look at it, and almost started laughing. Our professor told us that if we did the review problems we’d be fine, and it would be “easy”. I did the review problems! Twice!! And then some other extra hard practice problems, and actually walked in feeling like I might do okay on the exam. But NO! I guess to my finance prof, “easy” is actually a euphemism for “really really ridiculously stupidly out-of-control ha!-in-yo-face! effing hard!” It was probably the hardest exam I’ve ever ever seen. It was painful. I’m hoping she takes mercy on me because I did my very very best with the formulas I had (net present value, annuity factor, blah blah blah), but yeah, I’m not feeling awesome about it. Anyway, the other exams were alright. I finished my HR exam in, like, 45 minutes. I was the second one to finish the test–I think that’s the first time that’s ever happened for me. It was cool. And actually, I was thinking about how awful and torturous finals are, but also, paradoxically, what a luxury they are. What I mean is, when else in my life am I going to sit down with friends for hours at a time and try to cram as much information into my brain as possible? When am I going to dedicate every single day to learning?? This is why I’m here, and, no matter the outcome of finals, I can say with absolute confidence that I am learning. A LOT. Painfully, at times, bordering on breaking me at others, but really, truly, I am LEARNING, and I’ve gotta pinch myself and think what an effing luxury this is. Living in Barcelona, loading up my brain with information, making incredible friends–it’s pretty freaking cool, man.

And now: I’m on break. Until the 25th!!!! Yippeeeeeee!!!! Aimee gets here Sunday night, and I can’t WAIT to show her this awesome incredible amazing beautiful city. We are going to have SO much fun, and it’ll be good practice for M&D’s visit in April! And also: the woman in charge of international programs told me that I can have until after Semana Santa to decide about Cape Town, so I think this means that Aim and I will be having some absolute marathon conversations about it (and a million other marathon chats about a million other things, too, obviously).

Re: Cape Town: thank you everyone for your insight and perspective! I’m still trying to work it out — the list of pros and cons is long, and I’m a little bit having a hard time coming up with anything but “Cape Town would be COOL!” as a reason to go. I dunno, I’d be sacrificing some pretty important stuff here for the sake of doing something “cool,” so I really have to think about it. But, as I said, I have another week to decide, so hopefully I’ll have a moment of clarity.

And right now? I’m headed out for a walk up the Paseo de Gracia to a book store that has books in English, and I’m gonna buy me some FUN reading! Woohoo!