Written by Francesca
26 May 2015
Gosh I hate exams; I hate them with the burning rage of a thousand suns. They make me feel physically nauseous. You’d think after 17 years of taking tests, I’d be used to it, but it only gets worse as I get older. For obvious reasons, the exams are harder but also the format in which Swedish assessment goes is not something I’m used to. I actually enjoy going to class to learn new things every day and when I look back, I’ve learned so much, but impending exams take the fun out of learning. Going to class ends up being a competition as to how much I can write down and memorise what the teacher is saying rather than trying to understand and enjoy. Since classes go right up until to the week before exams (which isn’t much time at all), there’s not enough time to digest the information.
I suck at exams, I mean seriously. You could give me a test based on my life and I’d still scrape a pass (if that). In my bachelor’s in England, we were lucky because each module was split into different components so that as long as you managed a pass mark ‘overall’ then you could afford to do better or worse in the essays or exam. I would personally strive to ace the essays and lab reports because I just knew my anxiety would get the better of me in the exam hall. I came out with a pretty good grade overall in my biomedicine degree (I was happy nonetheless!) but it could have been better if only my exam technique was up to scratch.
At the moment, I’m in between punishing myself with hours and hours of revision and considering throwing my laptop out the window in a state of ‘I don’t give a sh*t anymore’ kind of way. I am so, so desperate for the next 12 days to pass because then I am done with exams (hopefully for the rest of my life!) and I can actually appreciate what Sweden has to offer in my very last week of living here.
Oh what a boring life I lead! I study, I sleep, I made a pie the other day and that was the highlight of my week… the pressure to pass my oncoming exams means I can’t justify having fun ha. Man, I hate exams.
Nevertheless, it was also Eurovision a couple of days ago and for anyone that knows me, I LOVE Eurovision. I’m ridiculed at home for it because I know all the songs weeks before the shows, I also am aware that the UK do terribly year after year and then blame that the rest of Europe hates them… listen up BBC, STOP SENDING CRAP SONGS THAT WOULDN’T EVEN BE POPULAR AT A KIDS BIRTHDAY PARTY IN THE 90’S… ugh rant over. No, Europe doesn’t hate you, they just hate your songs, and so do I!
So anyway… Sweden won! Of course they did, they’re the third largest exporter of music worldwide (UK is 2 but their lack of respect for Eurovision shows) and they know how to write a catchy tune. Soooo, this means that Eurovision will be here in 2016, where will it be? It was Malmö a couple of years ago; could it be Stockholm this time? … How about Uppsala? Ha! Maybe it’s a little small but we do have Snoop Dogg and Elton John here in the summer!
I have always promised to myself to at least try to volunteer in a Eurovision event at some point in my life and since it’s in Sweden, it’s even more tempting! Guess it’s time to brush up on the Svenska.
In the midst of my boring life behind the books, I also had my family pop over for a visit so I took them around the obligatory tour of Stockholm and Uppsala and of course it rained SO, SO MUCH.
We started with a day in Uppsala in which I took them on a little tour of the city. We then popped to Café Linne for lunch which is situated opposite the old official residence of Linnaeus himself. Then we visited the gardens etc. etc. and Stockholm the day after.
The teacups are rather large!
🙂
… and then there’s this really big chair that makes everyone look super small…
Stockholm!
So much colour!
So cold!
In Stockholm, we wandered a little further south and ended up in Södermalm which was full of trendy cafés and shops a little bit more affordable than those in the city centre. I love Stockholm, I’ve been here for 10 months already and there’s still so much to discover.
Anyway… back to the books 🙁
