Two finals down, two to go. Swimming was yesterday (definitely a 100) and TESL was this morning. I was kind of worried about it, but I think it went well. I actually knew all of the definitions and sounded fairly coherent, at least to my mind. I'm a little worried about the "what did you learn" question at the end - that's a little too open-ended for my taste - give me some guidelines, please - but I still think I got an A, and my grade for the class is definitely an A. I'm getting a B+ in Sounds of Human Language, which is okay - if I had completely knocked myself out for the final project, I might have been able to pull an A-, but that would have required tons of outside help and a lot of work during what was already a very busy time for me, so I elected to just BS it and pass and not worry about it too much. I'm not unhappy with my grade in the class - I don't feel like I 'deserve' an A in there anyway, because I don't understand half the material. My forte is syntax, not phonology. But it's over, and that's all that matters.

(But speaking of syntax, my teacher for that class swims with R's team too, and R was asking her last week, 'So, E, how many finals do you have to grade?' 'A lot,' she groaned. 'Are you gonna be nice to my roommate over here?' 'Oh, yeah, she got a 100!' I did a little celebratory dance in the water, haha!)

Tomorrow is the anthropology final, which I should be able to do pretty well on - it's not cumulative, so I only have to learn the last two months' worth of stuff we've done, and one of the major units of that was actually linguistics (hooray!), so that cuts down on the work. That is, however, a 'true' college class in the sense that we have three exams and those are our entire grade. I know my first exam was a 100 because he canceled it due to hurricanes and gave everyone 100s (yay for Frances and Jeanne!) but I can't remember my second grade, and he doesn't put them online. I think it was a middling B, though, so this final will 'make or break' my grade. But I should be fine; we've finally moved on to the more social aspect of anthropology (religion, language, familial ties) and I'm good at that stuff.

And then Friday is the astronomy final - no clue how that's going to be, nor what my grade for the class will be - and then I go pick up my check, drive to Jacksonville, leave my car at home, jump in the van with Mom, and drive to Orlando... to fly to NL! Yay! There's a part of me that wishes I were just staying home for Christmas, especially since it's now 'officially' over between me and M; this will be the first Christmas I've ever spent without my family. But my ticket is non-refundable so I'm trying to make myself see only the good sides - I'll be back in that country I love so much, I'll get to see L and the other L and C and P and M and the other M, I'll get to celebrate New Year's in Europe (where it is SO much better than here...), I'll get to speak Dutch all the time, I'll get to go to the Zwaluwhoeve (spa) and ride the trains and go shopping ... etc. etc. etc. It'll be fine.

Updates on my two new 'exciting' things - Semester at Sea and the Channel:

I turned in my College of Liberal Arts and Sciences scholarship application, so there's a thousand dollars right there (I hope). I won't hear back from them until February, though.

I also heard back from the news anchor I wrote to at the TV station asking them to fund my trip; she wrote a very nice, encouraging note back to me with the name of the appropriate person to talk to, so there's still hope. No word yet from the newspaper.

I ordered the book I'd been looking for on swimming the Channel, Dover Solo. It's written autobiograpical-style by a woman who has done it (several times, I believe). Hopefully that'll provide some inspiration as well as give me some practical info. The reviews are very high, so let's hope it lives up to its reputation.

May I add that it was FREEZING this morning?!?! This is FLORIDA, people - it is not supposed to be in the 20s! (But I did get to try out my new North Face jacket!) My exam was at 7:30, so I got up at 6 and walked to class around 6:45 (I always go early before exams; I do better if I can discuss things with classmates ahead of time) and there were, believe it or not, actual ICICLES on the fence of one of the fraternities! They had left their sprinklers on overnight, apparently, and there were all these long, skinny icicles hanging along the sidewalk. Very cool - I haven't seen that since it sort-of-snowed in Florida when I was five or six.

OK... moving on with the rest of my day now.