Week 15 - Finals and the Final Week

This week was rough... I averaged about 3-4 hours of sleep each night, finished three differential equations quizzes, wrote a design history file, took four exams, and didn't have a mental breakdown.  Overall, relatively successful.  The first exam was Tuesday - physiology.  This actually wasn't our final but our second exam, over renal and gastrointestinal.  It went pretty well.  Wednesday, we took our signals and systems final, and it was so difficult.  Thursday, we had our physiology and diffeq final exams.  Physiology was a real confidence booster - perfect to set us up for the self-esteem killer that is a diffeq exam.  It was impossible.  I don't say that lightly; it's actually true.  We were given an hour and a half to do eight, multi-part, extremely hard free response problems.  I left half of it blank... Differential equations is the first math class I have ever failed an exam in and will be the first math class I do poorly in.  Our exam ended at 10 p.m., and then we had to work on our take-home part of the final on Matlab.  It took me two days, but I finally figured it out.  Saturday night I submitted it online, and, excluding completing my blogs, I am done with school for this semester.  I still don't know how some of my grades are going to turn out, but I am thankful to be done.  Studying abroad means really intense bouts of schoolwork followed by traveling the world and then schoolwork again.

Friday, we had an excursion to Remagen, a small town south of Bonn known for its bridge and its history in World War II.  We toured the peace museum there and then had a nice lunch at an Italian restaurant.  After getting back to Bonn, a group of us did some souvenir shopping.  This was actually incredibly sad.  It really started to feel like the end of the trip because we were souvenir shopping in what feels like our home.  Later, I went to dinner with Kanci and Maggie, and we met up with almost everyone from the program to go out and celebrate.  It was a lot of fun!

Saturday, everyone had to go the theater students' play.  We were in adjacent rooms at the AIB and shared the kitchen and bathrooms with the Loyola Marymount University theater program.  All semester we got sneak peaks of the music and screaming and battle scenes from the play while studying, having lectures, and taking exams.  So it was interesting to see the final product.  Afterward, Maggie, Kanci, and I went shopping for gifts for Dr. Wasser, Madeleine, Nicole, and Nathan from everyone and cards for everyone to sign.  Then we went to the AIB farewell party, with all the programs from the old and new AIB.  It consisted of barbecue and a band, and we got to hang out with everyone.  After we ate, we all gave the professors and TAs their gifts.  It was so sweet and so sad.  Once again, it felt like the end... Some people got choked up, and we all ended up hugging.  Later, most of us met at Alexa's apartment and then all went out to celebrate again.

Sunday, I went to mass for the last time on this trip in Germany.  It was at our village church where I first went to mass.  I spent the day at home, blogging and getting things prepared to leave.  In the afternoon, Claire and I went on a walk through our village forest with our host mom.  Later, Claire and I went to Kanci's house to have dinner with her host parents.  We stayed for five hours, eating dinner (delicious homemade Chinese stir-fry), drinking wine, having dessert, drinking coffee, talking, and listening to music.  It was so serene.  Everything seems to be ending how it began.  I went to my first and last mass in the same church, Claire, Kanci, and I spent the first and last weekend with her wonderful host parents, our very first program activity was a wine-tasting in the Ahr valley and our last program activity will be a wine-tasting on a Rhine river cruise (tomorrow).  Feelings of sadness and sentimentality keep washing over me, and I have to remind myself that all good things must come to an end.  This trip is coming to an end, and it was so good...