Go through the alphabet and name a movie that starts with each letter. Rinse and repeat until you run out of movies. Then switch to bands.
This is how Ev and I spent date night. It was awesome. And lasted 3 hours, but hey, stopping is for quitters.
And then finals commenced.
I like to think that I'm decent at school and studying. However, I've never tried to study for oral exams before. It's kind of hard. Written exams you can go through, skip the questions you're not sure about and come back to them. Not so with orals. If you don't know the answer, you bluster and mumble and try to logic yourself to the right answer, with varying levels of success. And the professors can (and will) ask you just about anything. So, in short, oral exams are quite difficult to study for.
But I (and my classmates) survived. The only nice thing about orals is you get your grade pretty much immediately, whereas we have to wait for the results of the written exams.
So, as of right now, with grades for 3 of my 4 classes in, I have officially completed 25% of the coursework for my masters degree (I ran the numbers... but remember, there's also an internship and thesis).
Whee.
Maybe I'll make a chocolate cake to celebrate. Cake is delicious. (Ev can confirm, cake is delicious)
Ev and I have been training endurance climbing to up our game for Mallorca this Christmas. A couple weeks ago we climbed all the 5a's (5.7/5.8) at our gym. Saturday, our friend Deva joined us as we climbed all the 5b's (5.8/5.9). All fifteen of them. It only took us 5 hours! (There was a bit of a food break in there, and we had 3 people switching off). Afterwards, we celebrated with pizza. Because pizza is delicious.
We. Are. Beat.
Oh, I should probably mention that all that climbing translates to about 375m. Better known as 1,230ft.
As part of our "let's climb pretty much everywhere in Europe we can get to" plan, we joined the American Alpine Club (a couple countries, like Belgium, require membership in a registered alpine group to climb). To celebrate, Ev got himself some sweet swag.
Other adventures (there sure seem to be a lot of climbing-related things in our lives right now) involved a Thursday post-finals excursion to Amsterdam for Reel Rock 9. For those not in the know, Reel Rock is an annual film festival that showcases climbing videos and goes on an international tour. Think Banff Mountain Film Festival, but all climbing. Oh, and it was hosted in a bouldering gym. Because awesome is, well, awesome.
Usually, there are a couple different videos over the course of the night. This year, they showed a full-length documentary called "Valley Uprising." It documents the evolution of climbing in Yosemite National Park. I highly recommend it.
To compliment our evening (film started at 10pm... nothing here seems to start at a reasonable time), we enjoyed delicious beer, grilled cheese (aka toasti), and apple tart at the gym.
I think I've mentioned that all the climbing gyms here sell beer... it's kind of awesome. Anyway, the film was excellent and we left the gym at a bit after midnight.
Whiiiiiich brings us to that little thing we forgot to take into account in our evening travel plans...
Lesson of the Netherlands #8:
After midnight, the night train only runs once an hour. Ok, great. Try not to miss the train by 2 minutes, because you'll be sitting around for another hour, and train stations late at night are kind of lame. By some miracle, we caught the ferry to Amsterdam Centraal and made it about 1 minute before the train to Rotterdam left. Unfortunately, we neglected to consider that the night train stops literally every possible stop and that the ride that normally takes 30-45minutes will take 1:45. Oh, and the metro stops running between 1am and 5:30am.
Needless to say, we didn't get home until 3:30am. I am an old, lame person, and that was waaaaaaay too late.
All in all, this long weekend in between quarters has been quite enjoyable. Friday I dragged Ev out shopping to get a much needed pair of pants, replacement boots, and a shiny new jacket for him. Then we found a cooking store (in Rotterdam! Have I mentioned I love cooking stores?) and found some rosemary and vanilla. Real vanilla.
This probably should not make me this happy.
Tomorrow the new quarter starts and it's back to the school thing for the next 8 weeks.
Yay?
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