(no subject)
Jan. 18th, 2006 02:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hathycolI am still lamentably absent from LJ land, although this time it is just me sitting here. Simon is off at some sort of maths thing (a test of Non-Importance, and it amuses me in a terrified way that he is still more prepared for it than I was for the exams I took that influence, you know, my degree) whilst I am sitting in his room on his laptop and generally surfing the internet. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to properly use his computer. Mostly I would like to go and put some music on, but it's on mute and frankly enough I'm still impressed I at least turned the bloody thing on.
Anyway.
Ah, no, wait, I think I have it now. Now I just have to trawl through his music player to find something Non-Epic. Ooh, The Killers. That'll do. I'm assured this is a product of him stealing playlists wholesale from other people and not sorting it, but there we are.
This post is moving on in speed and nothing yet has been said. Okay, I'm going back to good old St Andrews tomorrow because, well, I have an exam And All. Fortunately, I am entirely assured that I will fail it spectacularly and have reached the zen-like calm that only failure can bring. At least I am not irritating my housemates in doing this, because I would hate me too if I was living with someone who only had one exam left that they didn't care about.
(Heh, I'm getting e-mails for both SP1003 and RU1012. I have broken the language Secretariat! Yay!)
Cambridge is, as ever, beautiful from this room. Even the kitchen has improved, and it's not just a product of me improving the Boy Fridge. (They appear to have done that by themselves, although I am alarmed by the manner in which I am actually being asked how to, um, make stuff and organise fridges and stuff. I am the Cooking Goddess of Staircase Eight, although I rather hope news of this does not spread because I am totally no longer meant to be here for Health and Safety Reasons but we ignore that, yes. Gets me on the right side of his next door neighbour, though, which means I am likely to be allowed to stay here rather than being grassed up.) The courtyard is beautiful to look out on. You know, people never appreciate their own university. It took me until the end of last term to look around at the beach, at St Salvators and St Marys, that sort of thing, to appreciate how damned beautiful my surroundings are. Although the tree here has lost its leaves, so it has more of a desolate feel.
That has nothing to do with anything. Why am I even typing this? I have five more chapters of Spanish to learn (well, I've finally learnt the verb tables for ser and estar and I don't care if it's basic, I feel proud of myself) although every time I revise for Spanish it goes wrong so perhaps I should just do it blind?
No, I will stop irritating you all. I'll be away for the next few weeks, now I come to think of it. Going back to St A's tomorrow, have an exam on Friday, going on a road trip for a few days after that. Did I ever mention this? I live with three people who have been in the north of England except in passing or on the Wrong Side O'T'Pennines. As such, we are going to spend a few days in Ormskirk with a night out in Liverpool. w00t and so on and so forth. Wish more people were about, obviously, but there we are. Then go to Glasgow for a few days, a day out in Edinburgh, and back to St A's long enough to catch my breath before I nance off again to, um, Cambridge.
My excuse for this is that I will have a job next month so I will take the time while I can get it.
Right. I need to go and get food for tonight and the trip home, do some Spanish revision, and I'm sure there's something else but I forget what.
I am skimming LJs, so I hope everyone is well, etc.
Also I have been writing. Hopefully I can get it polished up in Gatty and typed it. When did I start writing on paper, anyway? *boggles*
Please keep nudging Simon. It's good fun to watch and I think may even work.
~Hathy_Col~
Anyway.
Ah, no, wait, I think I have it now. Now I just have to trawl through his music player to find something Non-Epic. Ooh, The Killers. That'll do. I'm assured this is a product of him stealing playlists wholesale from other people and not sorting it, but there we are.
This post is moving on in speed and nothing yet has been said. Okay, I'm going back to good old St Andrews tomorrow because, well, I have an exam And All. Fortunately, I am entirely assured that I will fail it spectacularly and have reached the zen-like calm that only failure can bring. At least I am not irritating my housemates in doing this, because I would hate me too if I was living with someone who only had one exam left that they didn't care about.
(Heh, I'm getting e-mails for both SP1003 and RU1012. I have broken the language Secretariat! Yay!)
Cambridge is, as ever, beautiful from this room. Even the kitchen has improved, and it's not just a product of me improving the Boy Fridge. (They appear to have done that by themselves, although I am alarmed by the manner in which I am actually being asked how to, um, make stuff and organise fridges and stuff. I am the Cooking Goddess of Staircase Eight, although I rather hope news of this does not spread because I am totally no longer meant to be here for Health and Safety Reasons but we ignore that, yes. Gets me on the right side of his next door neighbour, though, which means I am likely to be allowed to stay here rather than being grassed up.) The courtyard is beautiful to look out on. You know, people never appreciate their own university. It took me until the end of last term to look around at the beach, at St Salvators and St Marys, that sort of thing, to appreciate how damned beautiful my surroundings are. Although the tree here has lost its leaves, so it has more of a desolate feel.
That has nothing to do with anything. Why am I even typing this? I have five more chapters of Spanish to learn (well, I've finally learnt the verb tables for ser and estar and I don't care if it's basic, I feel proud of myself) although every time I revise for Spanish it goes wrong so perhaps I should just do it blind?
No, I will stop irritating you all. I'll be away for the next few weeks, now I come to think of it. Going back to St A's tomorrow, have an exam on Friday, going on a road trip for a few days after that. Did I ever mention this? I live with three people who have been in the north of England except in passing or on the Wrong Side O'T'Pennines. As such, we are going to spend a few days in Ormskirk with a night out in Liverpool. w00t and so on and so forth. Wish more people were about, obviously, but there we are. Then go to Glasgow for a few days, a day out in Edinburgh, and back to St A's long enough to catch my breath before I nance off again to, um, Cambridge.
My excuse for this is that I will have a job next month so I will take the time while I can get it.
Right. I need to go and get food for tonight and the trip home, do some Spanish revision, and I'm sure there's something else but I forget what.
I am skimming LJs, so I hope everyone is well, etc.
Also I have been writing. Hopefully I can get it polished up in Gatty and typed it. When did I start writing on paper, anyway? *boggles*
Please keep nudging Simon. It's good fun to watch and I think may even work.
~Hathy_Col~
no subject
Date: 2006-01-18 03:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-18 03:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-18 05:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-18 05:59 pm (UTC)He is now twitching at any new mail. He may not update but it appears that you have single-handedly driven him nuts.
I, on the other hand, am HOWLING WITH LAUGHTER.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-18 10:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-19 12:59 pm (UTC)Colleen: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE IT'S HYSTERICAL.
Simon: *whimper*
no subject
Date: 2006-01-19 03:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-18 09:19 pm (UTC)Remember, you only need to get 1/4 of it right, so don't worry about irregular stuff unless you use it ALL the time. Just learn how the regular verbs work, and ser, estar, tener, haber, hacer, ir. Just sit there and say them out loud, eg "voy, vas, va..." over and over again for five minutes each and you will NEVER forget them, trust me. Same goes for verb endings. Remeber you can always write them down in the margin at the start of the exam to help you.
I know ser/estar can be confusing. Basically, estar has 3 uses: to say where you are/something is, eg estoy en la casa, Madrid está en España; to say am/is/are .......ing, eg estoy trabajando; to describe a temporary condition, eg estoy cansado/a (I'm tired). Any other time, including describing permanent conditions like estoy pequeño/a (I'm small), you use ser.
When you're learning vocab, stick to what you generally use. you'll be surprised how much you already know. The gender of a word isn't too bad to remeber - o=masc, a=fem. Those that break the rules seem to do so with a bit of irony - dad and ión (think, hmm...Ian) are femanine endings, ista and ema (think sister, Emma) are masculine endings. That should cover nearly everything, don't worry about the rest, just guess.
If you can't remember a piece of vocab, say something else or make it up from an english or french word, even if it's not quite right, the most important thing is to be understood.
If you don't understand a question, don't panic, just translate it word by word, writing the english over the top, and it will suddenly make perfect sense.
Remeber, accuracy's worth a lot of marks, so check gender & number (as in singular/plural, not 1 2 3...) of adjectives, and verb endings really carefully, and don't try to say anything fancy. You'll get a lot more marks for a basic accurate sentence than for a complicated one full of mistakes.
I know that sounds quite a bit, but really, it's not all that much to revise. Just don't panic and remember to take some common sense with you into the exam and double check everything. If that doesn't get you hmm...12-15, they really are bastards.