Le Papillon

Last week was very busy and very nerve racking. The entire week we studied old exams and reviewed what we had learned. I studied so much. Then came Saturday, the day of my written exam.

That mourning I ate a big omlete with avacados, tomatoes, broccoli, Emmental cheese, mushrooms and sausauge and had a nice café au lait of Starbucks Christmas blend. I took the metro to the southern part of Paris where the testing center stands. Now the word "center" really gives an accurate idea of this place. It is essentially a machine that facilitates testing en mass. There are four buildings with over seven stories. On each level there is one exam room. Each room holds 100 or more students and they were probably utilizing 4-5 stories in each building. My room was not entirely full, perhaps 70-80 students so I suspect that the others rooms were likely similar. Nevertheless, it was crazy!

Knowing that I do not do well under pressure and that grammaire is not a good subject for me really had me worried. To be honest, I should have begun praying for the exam further in advance. Thanks to all who had been and are praying for the exams! We had three hours, 9-11, to finish the exam. It consisted of a grammaire section, reading and comprehension, vocabulary, listening and comprehension and finally a written section. When I received the exam I almost went blank :S Thanks to God and your prayers I was able to compose myself and work through the excercises and get them all done with sufficient time to review my answers serveral times!

Yesterday I had my oral exam at the same building where I attended all semester so the familiar place was nice. This exam I did not study for as much. Grammaire is the most important. For the oral exam we had ten texts available that we had read and reviewed during the semester. We studied their vocabulary, disected the text and discovered the themes and major points. Of those ten we picked one randomly and had ten minutes to prepare it according to the question, "Explain the text," and a more personal question as to what we thought about the it. I received "Le Petit Jardin." After our preparation we went to the front of the class and spoke on the questions. That's it.

In all I would say that the exams were, "pas mal"- not bad. We will see how it turned out. I am neither confident nor diffident. So I am praying very very much that I will pass into the advanced level God willing and be prepared enough for that level.