Exams and Switzerland

Exams are done with for the most part, and I can resume contact with the world again. Of the four exams that I took before the holidays I passed two of them with 100%, one I’m sure I failed although I won’t know for another week, and the last one I failed and did the retake already. I managed a 100% on the retake. With all my exams at the beginning of last week I didn’t have time to study for all of them. The extra days for the one exam proved enough to pass the one exam. I don’t think there will be a chance to retake the other exam although you technically have three tries here. My leaving the country is a bit of a problem though. We’ll see. I have one more exam on the 3^rd of January, so study time isn’t over yet.

Christmas in Switzerland was wonderful. There was unfortunately no snow except for the very tops of some of the mountains. It was great getting away from Torino for a bit, much quieter and cleaner in Biel where my relatives live. It was great speaking pretty much only Italian all day for three days, huge improvement in my ability to speak in conversation along with an increase in vocabulary. It also forced some of the younger generations there to speak Italian for the first time in many years. Usually they only speak French amongst themselves, but my lack of French would have made that difficult. Although I didn’t notice that I understand much more French than before. During simple conversations combined with hand gestures I can understand 30-50% of what is being said. There are a lot of similarities to Italian and English. The goal is to be able to speak French with them next time I visit. (Gabe, Ashley, and Mariam I’m counting on you three to help me with that.)

Back in Turin I’ve packed up my room to see what I would need to send home. All of my books and a few pieces of clothing combined with leaving some old worn out stuff behind have done the trick. Unfortunately mailing the books was crazy expensive, but if I had to buy them again it would cost even more.

Other than the exam things are coming to an end here, and I’ll see all of you soon.