It's.Over.Phew.

I'm at the week I've been waiting for.  The week that brings a relief from the stress of this degree program I started back last July.  The week that means no more tests and lab practicals and presentations to prepare for.  I don't have my grades yet (that will be Friday), but I hope all went well (or at least will give me passing grades) on the exams. 

A brief description for those of you who have never had the pleasure of taking a French style exam: we were given a date and time and location for the two exams.  It wasn't our school but another one about fifteen minutes away.  We took the exam in a big gym style room filled with individual desks that had our names on them.  The person next to me didn't have the same color draft paper as me so we couldn't drop our pages and switch.  The economics/French exam was about the following question: "L'argent est-il indispensable à la richesse?" (Is money essential for being rich/wealthy?).  More of a philosophical question than an economic one.  Four hours to write a news style article on that and a few other more specific questions on the main document they gave us.

The next day was  the scientific exam, based on lots of case studies all about analysing milk.  It was tough and most of the folks in my class don't know how they did.  It's the first year they've done an exam like this for our degree.

Then Monday was the oral presentation of my internship.  This took place an hour and a half from where I live.  Mr. GPS told us to go through small towns and we followed dutifully.  If it weren't for that detour, things would have gone smoothly.  But we got there on time and set ourselves up in the modern classroom building waiting for our turn.  There was an elementary school it seemed attached to this building and I saw the little kids filing back into their room and envied that cozy little world.  Did my presentation at 5 in front of a professor and a professional.  It seemed to go ok so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

The next day I had no classes and that worked out quite well 'cause I was able to accompany Juliette's class on a field trip to the museum.  Quite a different day than the one I'd just experienced.  Let me tell you, holding the hands of three little ones while crossing a busy street is pretty stressful, too.  Juliette got a bit wild in the museum (probably since her Mommy was there).  Despite the hecticness, I did enjoy spending time with my little girl and her class and I even got to take her home for lunch (as they have two hours for lunch) instead of having her eat at the cafeteria. 

Now I'm trying to get myself organized in terms of job search but will be going back to my teaching job in about two weeks.  And I'm getting used to the newfound freedom of not having homework to do at night.  What a feeling!  I can watch tv without feeling guilty!  More news later...