Week 15 - Dead Week and 1 Mile Climb

This week was the last week with classes for this semester (it's called dead week here). That means I'm almost finished with my first semester and I've already had 2 of my final exams on Friday, but at Marshall (and I think generally in the USA) the grading system is a lot different than in Austria. The finals I wrote on Friday only counted 10 percent to my overall grade! The other part of the grade comes from midterm exams, projects, assignments and quizzes throughout the semester, so it's a lot less severe if you would perform badly on the final. The finals I took on Friday were Spanish and Software Engineering. I'll get an A in Spanish and I also have a good feeling for the SWE exam.

What I did besides studying: Last weekend we had the last party with the Mexicans in Margheritas - they left on Saturday. On Sunday I also went for a run outside - the weather here in Huntington is a little bit unpredictable - it had about 15°C (59°F) and it was sunny, so I had to take the chance, because right now it has always at most 7-10°C (45-50°F). On Tuesday night, we went to "Herd Holiday", a Christmas event on campus. We could make the typical S'mores (a melted marshmallow between chocolate and crackers), drank hot chocolate and we made a picture with Marco, the mascot of Marshall.

On Wednesday and on Friday I went climbing with Marjolein and on Friday I could complete "the mile". There is a contest: if you climb up the wall (which is about 9.5 meters (31 feet) high) 171 times then you climbed one mile (1.6 kilometers). I am the third one overall, who completed the mile and the first one who is not a staff member of the Rec Center. On the next day besides studying for the finals we also went to a local church where a mini golf course was built. It was pretty calm because there was a football game at the same time - and Marshall is now conference champion!

Next week I have 3 finals and one project presentation and on Friday I will start traveling around during the winter break. We will go to Houston, New Orleans, Tallahassee, Miami (where I will meet my parents for 3 days), San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas and Grand Canyon.