So I haven’t posted in almost 20 days (gah!), but this time I have good reasons (or at least better reasons than usual). It’s exam and essay season right now for university students Victoria-wide, and as skilfull at procrastination as I am, looming assessment has meant that I’ve had to restrict myself to a measly 4 hours of manga consumption a day, which in turn has meant zilch blogging. You can taste my pain, can’t you? Add to that the fact that I spent the day before two language exams hastily constructing a Eurovision-themed zine, and you could colour me stressed. But it’s all over now. Or at least it would be if I didn’t have another essay due on Monday worth 50% of my mark for that subject, followed by another two Chinese exams, thoughtfully spread over two weeks so that by the time I finish them and officially go on holiday, it’ll be time for the next semester. *shakes fist at exam timetabling computer*

But anyway. Yesterday I woke up the morning of my Chinese oral exam — which I hadn’t studied properly for but managed to fluke because the content of my speech combined three of my favourite topics: Mandarin, shopping and Shanghai — and my Japanese FINAL EXAM (no exaggeration), thinking I’d be sitting said exams in some dingy lecture theatre on the other side of the campus from my tram stop. Well, I was wrong on both counts. I did my Chinese oral exam in the course coordinator’s office, and the Japanese exam in this building ↓

Look familiar? Well, it’s the Melbourne Exhibition Building, straddling the edge of the Cartlton Gardens and Melbourne Museum, and a venue I had always associated with exhibitions of middle aged women’s quilts, not university student exams. Not only that, it’s not even on Melbourne University’s campus. I can only imagine how much of our fees went into renting this thing for 2 and a half hours. Though I have to admit, I’ve never sat such a…picturesque (?) exam before.

I had to leave the exam early in order to take this photo, so I hope you appreciate it! (Actually, I was more motivated by a bladder dangerously close to bursting, but that shouldn’t lessen your appreciation). And I did finish the exam, technically, though I cringe to think how many silly errors will drag my final mark down, which will then be subject to another abominable round of scaling. I hate mark scaling. Unless it’s in my favour, in which case I only hate it on vague principle, har har.

But I was in a pretty good mood when I got home and I got to cut into an enormous pumpkin with a carving knife while making dinner, so all around it was a pretty successful day. And no, I don’t expect anyone to understand that logic. Put it down to a brain addled by taking exams in three different languages, which henceforth will by my official excuse for any mistakes I make, from forgetting to take in the laundry to inadvertently setting my exam venues on fire.