Finals

For anyone that has kept up with the blog or has been in touch with me, you probably know that my time here has been very little studying and a lot of abroad. But, don't be fooled! I still did have to learn some things and take tests.

I had four final grades that I needed to earn before finishing the semester.

Introduction to Thai
This was my first final. It was the week before written final exams took place. I was most worried about it because my Thai skills are not that great. The first part was to give a speech in Thai which I did at the beginning of May. I gave my speech with the worst hangover of my life (a testament to the challenges of studying abroad!). The next week we had a listening comprehension test. Our teacher would say phrases and sentences in Thai and we had to translate them to English. I think I got about 80%, which is much better than I had expected. The third part was a group conversation with the profressor, Ajarn Areerat. My partners were my two best friends here, Leo and Marvin.

An aside about our Thai names...My Thai name is Chetah (brother). Leo is Leowood (wise, all knowing man). Marvin is Manop (young man). Chetah and Manop are taxi driver names and Leowood is the name of an old man.

I know we did fine on the group conversation. Ajarn Areerat loves us. Every day in class she would always yell "Chetah, isn't that how it's said in English?" because I was obviously the in-house expert as the only native English speaker in the class. Ajarn Areerat went to Temple in Philadelphia, so coming from Pennsylvania we had that in common.

I know I passed the class.

Comparative Politics
My first written final was Comparative Politics. We did not cover much from the midterm. The test was over Political Culture and Ideology. I was well prepared for the exam and I smashed it out of the park.

I think I will get an A in the course.

Public Policy Analysis
My second written final was Public Policy Analysis. This class was more challenging, but not in the academic sense. It was challenging because the professor often cancelled class or would end class early. The way he lectured wasn't easy to process. I basically had to reteach myself all of the lessons in the days leading to the exam. We had to answer 3 of 5 questions. When I sat down for the exam, 2 of the 5 questions were about things we definitely did NOT cover in the course. Luckily I knew the other 3 and knocked them out in well written essays.

Originally I had a B going into the exam because I got an 86 on my paper. I got a low grade because my works cited was no where to be found. I know for certain I turned it in with the paper, but it probably got lost in the 2.5 months we waited for the graded paper to come back. Luckily I got some points back after printing another copy of the works cited, bumping me up to a 90.

I think I will get an A in the course.

Theories of Democracy
"Don't Worry" was the class motto. Our professor for the class this class was an adjunct. He taught at one of the more prestigious public universities and is also the editor of a liberal newspaper known for being critical of the government and supportive of the people. Dr. C was my favorite professor. Although we only had 6 classes in 12 school weeks, it was a good experience.

I was the only person in the class from a real, healthy, functioning democracy so I was well versed in things like citizen rights. I finished the exam in 20 minutes.

I will get an A in this class.