On frustration and patience

This week was one of the worst I've had in this academic year. It was filled with all kinds of emotions, from extreme happiness and joy, to being super confident before a test, to breaking down in the middle of it, and even diagnosing myself with a psychological disorder (I'm actually scheduling an appointment with a psychologist, talk about safe measures.)

Over the weekend, as you may have read I was studying hard and steady. I was understanding everything. Hell, I was correcting others' mistakes. I was the math guru among my class, pointing out errors in their calculations and keeping my friends on the right track.

Monday was filled with joy, with lots of studying and a happy call. I think it was one of the days in which I've felt really commited to studying. And then tuesday came. The test. The test! I started out perfect, until I stumbled across a cero. A cero is highly unlikely in our type of calculations. I asked my professor if I should consider that cero and then he told me everything was wrong. Everything. Not one single thing. My world was crushed to pieces. I broke down. I was overwhelmed by nervosity and I couldn't do anything else. At the end he gave me one step of the answer so that I could go, but it was all lost. I panicked and I couldn't do anything else.

I got a three out of fifteen. Never in my life I've gotten a three, especially in a subject that I know I can ace. I was not sad, I was angry. I can do this, I know this by heart, I've even solved exercises in my dreams! I was so frustated because I ruined my perfect marks, which would allow me to relax about the finals. Depression kicked in for two days, until we discussed the test and solved it in class. I was right all along. All my answers were right and my professor crossed them as wrong. That step he gave me, it was wrong. So I had a "Folgefehler", a consequencial error because of that wrong answer.

I eventually sat down with my professor and showed him how he wronged my assignment. He recognized the mistake and allowed me to redo that part of the test. I might not forgive him for giving me two days of extreme depression, but at least I'll be able to really show I ace Analysis.

The moral of this story is, trust your gut. If you know you can do it, trust your answers and your intuition, they won't fail you. And most importantly, don't let your emotions overwhelm you like they did to me. Sometimes one has to have a bit of patience and everything will turn on its right track.

Have a wonderful weekend and happy memorial day!
xx
Andy

A happy call

Something very odd and very funny happened today while I was in the VW Bibliothek studying for my Analysis test. See, I've been taking this test more than serious and I've been breaking my neck in the most absurd ways trying to really understand this in order to get the best grade possible and relax in the upcoming finals (which are ten times worse than these).

So, the story! A guy from my current mobile company called in to offer me a contract because I've been such a good client over this year and a half (yay Andy!) I politely declined, stating that I do not want a 2-year contract because I don't want to have any debts in Germany if I decide to return to Colombia (this is me being super precaucious, I might take it later on) I told him exactly this and what happened next surprised me.

He asked me where I was from, since I told him my reasons not to make a contract, I told him my story of how I came to Germany, and he was all too fascinated by my german and he told me he was from Kenia and his country was very much different from Germany and we found some common grounds between both our homelands. And so on, we talked about the weather in Germany and in our countries, the cultural differences, the music, the people. All of this in the middle of a do-you-want-a-contract conversation. It was such a fun break from studying.

It made my day. It made me realize there's time for fun and games. So don't take everyday too seriously, just serious enough.

F.I.N.A.L.S.

Its's Friday and I actually survived this finals week! Of course I did break out in the middle of Analysis class while doing an assignment that the teacher classified as "too easy", but at least the first part is over.

For those of you who don't know what I'm doing in the TU Berlin, it's called the Studienkolleg, a preparatory course (1 year) for foreign students whose high school diploma doesn't exactly fulfill the german Abitur, and want to get into german Universities. We do some sort of mix between Abitur and 1. Semester of the course we're taking. In my case, I'm doing the Technical course in which I have to learn first semester of mechanics, but high school chemistry. So it's kind of in between. Additionally we have german classes to be able to have better writing skills and understand texts in high-german. 

This weekend it's all about studying and relaxing for my Analysis test, the one I'm dead nervous about. I had full marks on the last test (yay Andy!) and I don't want to lower my grade with this examn so that I can relax in my Feststellungsprüfung, the big big exam that will determine my future.

This is how my days look like

Now tips on Finals Week

Get enoughh sleep

If I sleep less than eight hours a night, I can't function properly in the day. I need my blinds completely shut, my sleep mask and enough sleep to be able to concentrate in class.

Focus

One day before my german test, I decided to edit my brother's 30 page travel log in terms of gramatic. I was done in four hours or so, but every minute I have is precious study time! Currently I'm not ready any book or doing any of my little projects because I want to concentrate in my tests. Although I haven't stopped watching Game of Thrones. GoT is out of the question.

Eat well

Your most important meal should be your breakfast. I usually eat cereal with jogurt and chopped fruits (strawberry is the fruit of the season), a cup of black coffee and a small glass of orange juice. Jogurt really fills with stomach so that I can make it until 11:00 and the coffee + OJ give me the energy I need. I usually take my time having breakfast, eating slow and chewing well, that's about 20 minutes. In the mean time I check e-mails and instagrams and chat with my roomie.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend! xx