Monday 31 August 2009

Test, The Fountainhead

Today two things happened.

I passed a dustbin on my way to class, and it was yellow.

Oh no, they weren't the things that I'd like to say here. I thought that was a good build-up? Okay, sorry.

As you know, I had my first chinese test last Friday. Everyone's supposed to take the test when they have been in the school for a month, and I guess I fit in to that particular category. The day before, one of my classmate approached me during break.

“Look. Here's what you got to study,” she began, flipping my book. “Here, here. Here. Oh, and here too. You'll be given pictures and you should know the chinese words and the right quantifier for each object.”

I quickly took notes, a rise of panic started building up. I thought it's gonna be all written? All multiple choice questions? My voice was nothing more than a silent muffle in defeat.

“Of course not. There are listening and speaking test also,” she said. I thought I noticed a pleasure in her voice, but I must have been imagining it. When I looked at her again, she almost looked radiant. Gloating.

“Oh, don't forget to learn these and these too. Memorize all the words. You also should know how to ask for price and bargain in conversation.”

I jotted everything down helplessly, there was so much to learn in just a day. It's official, I suck at this. I should just stick to what I know best, like posing or something. Chinese? What was I thinking?

After class, I took my baby sister to Holland Village for dinner so it was safe to say that I didn't do any studying at all that day. The exam was less in 6 hours away when I woke up on Friday morning. Scrambling, I just tried to memorize everything I could, to not much avail. I guess I just had to bullshit my way to the test again, like any other tests I've ever done before. It gave me a little comfort.

Of course, I was in denial.

Anyway, to make long story short, the exam turned out to be all so very easy. Even at the rate that I studied (if you could call it studying at all), I felt like I've overstudied!

So today I got the result, and I got a perfect score. “Very good!” my teacher wrote it at the front page of my paper, she was grinning broadly, expecting me to scream, shriek, cry, laugh, and possibly faint. Well, of course I was delighted, but I almost felt as if I cheated. As if someone's gonna come out from under the desk and yell, “GOTCHA! That was a fake paper! Now HERE is your real exam! You don't think for a second that the exam's gonna be THAT easy, do you?! DO YOU!”

The other thing is this: this afternoon I finally finished The Fountainhead. I was on the bus, and I wish I were at home, because then I could probably let out a big, loud, happy sigh. The fact is, I'm utterly satisfied by this book. It's an experience in itself. The part when I simply couldn't stop reading it during the first chapter, how I was almost scared to continue because I knew something big was gonna happen in the story, how I consciously slowing the speed at which I was reading because I didn't want it to end, and that it was just like everything I wished it would be during the climax. Overall, it's been more than enjoyable, engrossing, and stimulating.

Was I just being a complete nerd for 3 seconds there? I'm serious, don't you just love it when a book can make you feel that much emotions?

The next book that I'm gonna read is so gonna fall short in comparison. I don't like it, but at the same time, I hope nothing else would come remotely close. I realize the irony in that. But we don't have to be logical all the time, do we?

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