It's almost Christmas...

Oh, that wonderful feeling.

It started the moment I put the last punctuation mark on my exam this morning. No more international law... no more assignment deadlines... no more pre-exam sleeplessness nights... at least for the next couple of days.

Had to quickly go straight to work after the exam, but I was feeling somewhat lighter. As the day went by, filled with hours and hours of stuffing envelops and sticking stamps at work, I realised how tired I was. Three hours or so I slept last night...sometime between 3am and 6am. And despite feeling that adrenaline rush just before and after the exam the drowsy feeling and sore eyes started to show.

I really don't like talking about exams after it... and like it even less when people insist on discussing what you put for this and that question. But I guess on the whole I did well, or at least, well enough to pass . And just now I received an email from the lecturer of the other course I was doing this term (International Relations), and I managed to pass with a 9. The lecturer added he actually has "never given a higher mark" before! : ) He even said I met the test of an "advanced Master student with honour". I think it's the paper I did... a critical assessment of the EU's human rights dialogue with China, written in almost as many words as a full masters thesis. Maybe I'll post it up sometime, because even I'm very satisfied with it (and it isn't often).

So, three months, almost 500hrs of study, four subjects, thousands of pages of readings, two exams, two class presentations, five papers later, I can't believe I'm actually half way through my course already. Two weeks of holidays we have, but in the first week of January we have two exams and one more paper due. Not much of a break from studies I guess.

Next few days I'll just 'shut down' for a short while. I think I deserve, and need it. Two more days, and then I'm off to Strasbourg, to see my friend and her sweet little son. Ironic that I should leave home to be home for Christmas. But then again, family is not always the people you're related to.

Still need to do some first-minute Christmas shopping, send a few warm wishes to people near and far, think of all the people and places that made this year so worthwhile, and me smile. Because...

...it's almost Christmas.


PS:
The paper is uploaded on my other blog!!