Danish Exams.

Dearest friends & family,


  I apologize for my absence from blogging lately, the past few weeks have been a whirlwind of studying and being ill.  I made it through all but my last exam, when I came down with a very painful sinus infection.  The school was more than accommodating and is letting me take my last exam, an oral exam, at a later date.  Thursday I went to the doctor and got on 7 days of penicillin.. then spent the weekend in bed recovering.  I am finally feeling better, i'm so relieved!  
  I must tell you all about my final exam for my EU after the Lisbon Treaty course-- it was quite an experience.  To begin, the exam was 6 hours.  Repeat, 6 hours.  The professor wrote us students an email the day before an gave us a random address where the exam would take place, a mile from campus (at a questionable part of town, I might add.)  The exam was a  six hour written exam-- we had the choice of writing the essays by hand or using a computer.. but only if we brought our own printer.  Hearing this peculiar printer business, I called one of my Danish friends to make sure I wasn't making things up.. she acted as if it wasn't a big deal and was baffled why I thought it was so weird ha.  
  I obviously don't have a car here, so the morning of the exam I loaded my huge printer into the basket on the back of my bike, along with my backpack full of course materials and my laptop.  Picture this: my printer was overtaking my bike-basket, so much so that I could barely sit on my seat.  It snowed that morning so I was bundled up, directions in hand, praying that I didn't take a fall.  Finally I arrived at the exam location-- which had these large steel gates at the entrance which resembled a jail.  I went inside where I was asked to present my student ID and social security card.  Then, a teacher walked me to a desk and told me to sit down.  The exam room looked like a modern warehouse-- there was about 100 large desks... hanging above each one was an electric cord with three outlets.   The exam began promptly at 9 AM, we had two essays and six hours to write them.  Both questions were on EU foreign policy (I officially know more about the EU than I could have ever dreamt of knowing.)  
  During the exam, there was about 10 teachers walking around in all black.  At one point, I had to use the restroom and a teacher escorted me to it.  At the entrance of the bathroom, there was a security guard monitoring the bathrooms.. he looked at me and said "you may go now."  Apparently, there's extreme security everywhere at exams.. they didn't want any students sharing ANY information or speaking.  It was so odd.  
  So I wrapped up my exam with 30 minutes to spar.  One of the many rules, was no one can share their printer.  Before I was leaving the exam this French girl asked to use my printer-- she had just finished typing her exam.  Once one of the teachers saw us talking, she immediately came over.. and explained that it was forbidden to share printers (..what the big deal is, I don't know.)  The teacher then slammed down a package of paper and said you have 30 minutes to write your exam by hand.  I felt so terrible for her, but she shouldn't have overlooked the rules.. especially in Denmarkkkk!  They take rules extremely seriously.
  Anyways, the exam went well.  Did the best I could!  I left feeling like I had just spent time in the twilight zone.  I didn't think anything was odd about the experience (because I was in the zone) until I left and began processing it.  I told my brother about it and he said I should go check out the building the next day, it'd probably be a meat market or something ha.  It was such a crazy experience!


  This week I am going to a Christmas going away party for exchange student Tuesday evening, exploring the Aarhus Christmas market (I will post pictures,) spending time with my roommate before she goes home Saturday, and preparing for my sisters arrival on Sunday!
  Sending my love :)