First Exam: Sociology of Social Services

You know when you have those days, when something really great happens and waves of happiness roll through your veins, elevating your body to a place where nothing can go wrong?

Today was one of those days.

Full of Happiness

I must have looked a bit like this guy..

I woke up, and raced against the cold to get a  hot shower going. Stepped out of the steaming shower only to find the cold and its icy jaws awaiting outside the curtain. Scrambled for a towel and began to dry my hair. Something is wrong with the circuit, because the hair dryer turns off about every 45 seconds and then I have to wait another minute to start the second wave.

Rustling through my closet, I tried to find a decent outfit to wear for my first exam at the University of Bologna. Here the expectations are a bit different than that of a UCSB test taking environment, where one often wheres the pajamas or a baggy sweatshirt that they had been studying in for the past 24 hours. Pajamas are not acceptable here, in fact, the Professor will tell you to go home.

Nonetheless I threw on some clothes, went downstairs and grabbed some espresso. Yes, you read correctly, Shantel now drinks espresso on the occasion. I went over my notes for about the millionth time and decided it was time to head to the political science faculty building.

This building is incredible. So incredible I get lost every time I try to find an Aula (classroom). I finally found the classroom I needed and sat down about three rows away from the professor who teaches sociologia dei servizi sociali (sociology of social services). He came up to me and asked me if I was nervous, to which I managed only to answer “Si.” And then he asked if it was my first test, to which I only said “Si”.

The Italian school system is quite a bit different in the sense that we have to do Oral Exams. So basically I sit with my Professor, in front of all the other students, and he asks me questions about the material we covered throughout the semester. The questions can be on anything discussed in lecture or that I read in the three required books for the course. Luckily, I met an amazing classmate named Valentina who helped me prepare a ton for the exam. We reviewed all the books and all the lectures (in Italian), and the next thing you know my Professor called my name and I went up to his desk and sat down. All of my other classmates knew I was the only foreign student in the class, and I could feel them watching to see if I would be able to respond to his questions…

This is my professor giving a presentation so you can get an idea of what he is like:

The system for grading runs on points… 30 is an A+ and it goes down from there. Basically you don’t want to get less than 25..
Our dialogue went really smooth and I was able to answer all the questions he had for me!! Next thing I knew he had written my grade down on a piece of paper… and when I saw 30/30 I had to fight to contain my excitement until I got outside! I had just got a 4.0 in a foreign language… I was like what!!!

When I went outside I was smiling so much that as I was walking down the street and a man walking his dog stopped me in the street to congratulate me even though he didn’t know what he was congratulating me for! One of the most amazing feelings I have had here in Italy.