My first final was the day after my parents left Madrid, so this basically flows right with the end of the last one. After my last final on the 18th, I have 2 more days in Madrid, and then I am flying back to the US. Lets see how I spend my last two weeks in Madrid…
First Final
My parents left Madrid Tuesday early in the morning, and my first final was on Wednesday morning. I only had one day worth of studying, but I was ok with that. I only had the final on Wednesday and no class on Tuesday, plus my first final was Signals, which I knew would be an easy class. And as I expected, I felt fine with the test. I finish with a lot of time left and felt confident with all my answers. So no problems with that test. Final 1: Done.
However, what also happened that morning before the final was that David told us that it was his birthday that day!! No one bothered to tell me or Panth. Zaida knew as well, and she gossips about everything, so I’m surprised I didn’t find out until the day of. But we had a little party for David after the test. The dinner would have to wait until after we all finished with our finals, so he only got a cake lol.
The Weekend before Hell
Now that our first final is done, and the following day’s worth of classes are over, we now prepare for impending doom, and by impending doom, I mean Biomechanics. We only started reviewing for the final this past week, which only included the most recent material, and not any of the other units that would also be tested. So, since Thursday is always hell, we started studying on Friday. So Friday, Saturday, and Sunday was full of Biomechanics, and I’m pretty sure I dreamt of physics formulas during the nights too, which was odd. Thankfully, the weekend wasn’t only full of studying. Because Panth wanted to, we decided to host a little get-together with our international classmates and make them Nutella-stuffed french toast. I also made my classic New York style chocolate chip cheesecake, cause why not. I have time, right?
So we made the cheesecake the night before everyone came over cause it needed to chill overnight. So that day, I studied for about 5 hours and then went to 3 different stores to try and find everything I would need to make the cheesecake. It was super fun to make it, although a little difficult since we didn’t have an electric mixer and we had to whisk by hand. Not the most fun in the world, and my hands got tired really quick, but thankfully Panth was there to switch off with. Very good idea having him around.
So, funny story time!! Of course, I cannot eat Nutella since it has hazelnuts, so we went shopping for a cocoa cream that did not contain hazelnuts.We found one and both of us checked and didn’t see any hazelnuts in the ingredients, so we bought it. The next morning, we started cooking the french toast when everyone arrived, making sure to cook mine first to avoid any cross contamination. We even checked the ingredients before we placed the cream into the toast, just to be sure. So we cooked everything and then began to eat.
After I finished eating my toast, I started to feel tired. You would expect a little food coma after such a delicious meal, so I didn’t think anything of it. As the meal continues, I keep getting more and more tired, and by the end, I was kind of trying to get everyone to leave so that I could lay down. After everyone leaves (and some jokes from Zaida, David, and Gines as to why I didn’t try to date anyone of the eight girls we invited), I get into bed for a nice nap. When I wake up, I feel even worse. It feels like I have a fever, and I just feel weak. My first thought is crap, I have the flu and I have a test in 2 days, I need to be able to take it since this is literally the hardest one. So I ask Panth to go to the pharmacy and get me some Dayquil and Nyquil so that I can prepare myself for a week of hell. They don’t have Nyquil here though, so I start to freak out. I take the meds that he got me, and I just sleep the night out
I wake up the next morning feeling fine, so I’m relieved it wasn’t the flu, but I still have no idea what happened. A couple days later, I am talking to David and Zaida in the kitchen, and I have the cabinet open joking about all the chocolates we have that I can’t eat. I point to the chocolate cream that doesn’t have hazelnuts and say that I can eat that, and David was like no you can’t. I look at the ingredients one more time, and surprisingly enough, there in bold, is hazelnuts. I have no idea how it got past Panth and I twice, but it did, so that sickness I had was an allergic reaction. I didn’t find that out until after the final, but the damage had already been done, and was just relieved that I didn’t die or felt like I had to go to the hospital.
Biomechanics Final
Thank the Lord the final was in the morning, cause I would have died if it was in the afternoon from all the stress of waiting for death to arrive. So we wake up, get ready, and then go to the test, of course doing some cramming on the train there. We get there and get the test, and I immediately feel better cause we have 2 hours and 20 minutes to complete 3 exercises and 2 theory problems. The two theory problems were just derivations, which were super easy, and the other 3 were self explanatory, except the first problem. The first problem was purely theoretical, and was all about confusing math with a lot of terms, which was absolutely disgusting. I was able to finish the second question, the first part of the four-part first question, and all but the last part of the third question, but I was brain farting on the other parts. Using brute force, it would have taken me too long, and so I turn it in. I know I am not going to get an A, so I am at least hoping for a 70 to get a C, and from my performance on that test, I am scared I won’t even get that! The moment I leave the class and talk to the other students, I realize that I did stupid mistakes, but there was nothing I could do then, so I just internalized it and sulked for pretty much the rest of the day.
I later found out in our pre-departure meeting the next day that VCU will accept what the host university takes as passing to fully transfer the credits, which in the case of UC3M, is a 50%. And, as a final YAY, I got a final grade in that class of a 74%!! So, technically, I passed with a C, which was absolutely amazing!! But what was even more amazing is that I now can stop worrying about the class and continue on with my leisurely existence, never having to see that teacher or go through that truly chaotic-energy-filled class once more.
The Last 2 Finals: Transport and Instrumentation
Due to my undying stress for Biomechanics, I had no time to study for my last two finals before that final, but I wasn’t really worried about them. They were transparent with what they wanted to know and how the final was going to be formatted. So the day before, that Tuesday, I divided my time between studying for transport, which basically was memorizing all the derivations from class by rewriting them fro transport, and then refreshing myself on instrumentation stuff. I knew I needed to studying, but the amount of willpower it took me to sit down and actually do problems/reread my notes was enormous, and I couldn’t actually sit down for more than 30 minutes at a time. And the fact that I recently downloaded a new game on my phone certainly wasn’t helping. But I wasn’t worried. Knowing that I only needed a 50% to get all the credits did not give me much inspiration. Lets just get to the tests.
They were fine
Yea, there really wasn’t any problem with them, so that’s that.
and now, I AM DONE WITH MY SEMESTER IN SPAIN!!!!
Two Days Until I Go…
I go home after my last finals and I am ecstatic. I am finished, I don’t have to worry about Biomechanics anymore, and I get to see my family and my dog in 3 days!! But until then, we are going to soak up all the things we missed in Madrid. The big things on the list were the Prado Museum, Takos al Pastor, and a final meal with the entire fam before David leaves (by the time I am writing this, David left this morning, and only now is the sadness hitting me that I am leaving). I was most excited to see Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez in the Prado. I couldn’t take pictures in the entire museum, which was a real bummer.
Takos al Pastor was amazing!! So cheap yet so delicious, and I am surprised that I haven’t been there before. I love this place, and I am eating there for the first time on my last day in Madrid. Oof.
All in all…
I am going to miss everything about Madrid. My host family, the delicious food, the relaxed culture, my new friends, the cheap travel, everything. I am already starting to feel sad even though I haven’t even finished packing yet. But I am excited to go back. I get to see my friends again, my family again, I get to give them the gifts I have collected from all over Europe (and some parts of Africa), and to get some rest. The day after I get back I turn 21 and get to celebrate Christmas 3 days later with my family, as well as get some well deserved rest. I also have 7 videos I have to edit (5 excursion videos, a video about Madrid, then a compilation for the ISA video competition, and maybe redo my Toledo video, cause that one is pretty lengthy), so I have to put in work when I get back.
I am going to make another post a week after I get back which will be about my reverse culture shock and the flights home. And hopefully before that, I will have finished a decent amount of my videos, but we know my work ethic with this blog, so I wouldn’t except much. But in that next post, I will go more in-depth about my opinions of everything that happened. From school to traveling to living with a host family, everything. That will basically be a condensed version of all the past 17 weeks in a single post, so if you haven’t read anything before this, please read that one. And the next time you hear from me, I will be in the States!!
Brennan's Semester in Spain 