My French calendar phrase 'du jour':

Je n'ai pas de projets pour le week-end

My calendar knows me so well.

Disregarding pretension

No matter how pretentious it may sound to burst into a foreign language unannounced...

Mon examen oral de français est fini - comme c'est marveilleux!/Mi examen oral de español es terminado - ¡Qué maravilla!

Which translates as 'My French/Spanish oral exam is finished - how marvellous!' Of course, it's a big relief - I've been preparing for these exams for months and had to learn many pages of answers for both exams which were within a week of each other. This weekend I became quite ill with some kind of flu/cold/sore throat combination, thus making the Spanish oral of today even more difficult. But both are done now and I can resume revision for the written exams.

So, this is what my life has been reduced to

Today I had to refuse invitations both to the cinema with my mother and to town with two friends as I simply have too much work to do. Okay, I'm making progress (and so I should be considering that I've been working hard for at least 2 hours a day during this half term!) but I'm still not close to finishing. The consolation is that I've finished my Drama portfolio, but that took until Monday to do and the completed 'notes' as the examiners ridiculously call them span 15 pages in Microsoft Word (font - Arial, size 12) and total 5718 words. Now, still on my to-do list is:

• Finish the History coursework question. I've done every section except the last, so it'll just be that and the introduction which I can definitely finish this weekend. Although it's not a hugely difficult essay (and a mini-essay at that), I've tried to find as much relevant information as possible to put in so have been scouring the internet as well as my two text books and source sheet, so while writing it I've been very precise and have frequently tweaked it if when slightly unsatisfied.
• Get some more of the Statistics coursework done. Due to my preoccupation with the History coursework, I only really started typing this Statistics work up yesterday. I've basically finished all of the preliminary sections and can now start calculating (and then meticulously checking because one tiny mistake in Statistics can throw your whole investigation off balance) I think my Maths teacher is checking the work either at the end of the coming week or the beginning of the next, but the more I finish over half term, the smoother my return to school next week will be.
• Try to write more of my answers for the French and Spanish Oral booklets. My love of languages leads me to feel a little patronised by these resources, and I think my teachers see this. I understand that there are a wide range of topics that must be covered in modern languages, but I'm highly frustrated by the omnipresent 'Décrire ta maison' (describe your house) or 'Hablame de tus ratos libres' (talk to me about your free time) It's such a vacuous conversation that you end up having with the examiner and I don't think many people care about the fact that I've had the same purple curtains with stars and moons on since I was seven, or that usually I enjoy riding my bike because it's a healthy thing and I love being out in the open. I want to discuss issues that affect me, and the only current-affair topic is how to improve the environment which has very little weighting in the exam as it doesn't provide a huge opportunity to use the past, present, future or conditional tenses. However, fortunately A-level languages encourage and foster a far more mature speaking style which I've been yearning for ever since I first heard the 'What is your bedroom like?' question.
• Start revision properly for the final May/June exams. Argh, less than 3 months now until they begin!

So, as much as I wanted to partake in both of the aforementioned activities today, I simply couldn't. It's just been working and eating today. Oh, and a bath, of course.

I completely accept having to stay in all day working and revising because I constantly look ahead. I imagine myself on results day, crying with happiness for the first time in so long. For that moment, I won't care that I live where I do, or about cleanliness or the tangles in my hair, just the wonder of that moment. And then it's all worth it, for I have nothing to regret. When I work as hard as I possibly can on something, I know that I've done everything in my power to achieve the grades that I want.

Another reason that I was forced to resign myself to the house today is my plan for tomorrow. This was booked last year so of course I couldn't rearrange it, and thus had to compensate by working extra hard today. I'm going to see the Rocky Horror Show, so that should be interesting and camp enough for my liking. Of course, true to my nature, I'll be working in the morning and afternoon tomorrow because the show's in the evening.

In total, this half term has offered very little 'break' as it promised, but at least it signifies my nearing the end of secondary school life.

Alors, mon calendrier français dit 'C'est un bon week-end pour les amoureux!'

Cependant, n'oubliez pas les personnes qui aiment la Chine car, bien sûr, c'est le Nouvel An chinois!

This post was in French because, as you may be able to translate, my French calendar said today 'It's a good weekend for lovers!' (in French, naturally). However, it's also important to welcome in the Year Of The Tiger... Every Tiger except Tiger Woods, maybe (yes, I stole that joke).

Anyway, Happy Valentine's Day/Chinese New Year/whatever you may be celebrating.

It can't be that bad

Today was fun, as expected. I went to Sam's house where we watched loads of puerile/tacky/crappy TV (informercials, World's Worst Husband and Take Me Out, anyone?) before baking, icing and decorating mini chocolate sponge cakes. All in all, highly enjoyable.

It's the half term and I'm making a mental agenda for my work. So far, it is as follows:

• Finish Drama portfolio. There isn't too much of this, it's just important to go into plenty of detail wherever possible.
• Complete the first question/'mini essay' of my History coursework. As long as I do a paragraph each day it should go as planned.
• Summarise work on The Poor for History revision on one to two sides of A4. This will definitely be a useful exercise so that's not a problem.
• Have a good venture into the Statistics coursework. This is a little complicated and I think my maths teacher, great though he is, could have explained it to the class a little better. Nonetheless, he'll be checking it to make sure everything's alright, so as long as I write up my hypothesis and start some of the calculations hopefully everything will be alright.
• Sections One and Two of the Chemistry homework booklet. I really enjoy Chemistry (and everything scientific, really) so this is no problem.
• If possible, fill in as much as possible in my French and Spanish Oral Booklets. Though this can seem a little tedious, I just let it flow and write as I do in English, so it's really not as terrible as it seems and this isn't an urgent matter.
  
• If I have any spare time, maybe do a little revision. This isn't pressing at the moment, but I want to use every bit of my time wisely. A few Maths questions wouldn't go amiss, and I must admit they can be quite enjoyable, too. Perhaps some English Language and Literature practice as well.
  

It seems like a mighty pile of homework, but I think once I make a dent everything will hopefully just follow naturally.

Je le ferai

I think that I'll do it. I'll take at least one language (probably French) along with my sciences/maths. Then, part way through my A-levels, I can decide whether I'm going to pursue sciences or languages in life. I love both areas so at this stage I can't possibly dedicate my future to one of them.

For once, I'm actually going to write about my day...

Because it's gone surprisingly well. English was neutral, I suppose. I annotated the poem 'To A Mouse' (which is where the name of 'Of Mice And Men' came from) and then had a double lesson of Spanish, with a 20 minute break in the middle. In the break I rehearsed my Drama piece with my group which accounts for 30% of my final Drama GCSE grade.

After Spanish I had French, and for some this may seem like an overload of languages. But I love French and Spanish and want to learn many more languages. In fact, considering I have Drama last lesson, Thursday would be my perfect day if I had Biology instead of English.

Anyway, Drama, Drama, Drama, Drama. We were supposed to have had six hours of lesson time to devise the final piece and it had to be 10 minutes or less. There were some problems with attendance but fortunately we had times at lunch time and after school to practise, too. One girl didn't attend many extra sessions and was being really difficult but we just wrote her a small part and got on with it.

Having eaten nothing all day, I performed it at 2.20 pm (I was the main character, playing a woman with Munchausen by proxy who ended up causing her daughter's liver failure) and all in all it went well. I think one of the lines may have been missed out but no one noticed. I'm just happy that it's over now because it was quite stressful. At one point I actually had a nightmare that we were performing and everything went wrong so I ended up crying. I'm so glad that didn't actually happen.

Overall, it's been quite good. But this will by no means be a regular feature of my blog.

Mur à mur

I changed one of my most frewuently-used website's language setting to French. In a few days/weeks I'll change it to Spanish and then alternate. It's proving quite helpful. Yeah, I really love languages.