Blocus is upon us!

"Blocus" is what they call finals in Belgium. Yes, I know it's been two years since I left Belgium and UCL; be quiet and let me relive my glory days!

Anyway, it's finals week and that means I look properly a mess.

This has pretty much been all I did today: woke up, got dressed, came downstairs, read my finance book, took notes. By "got dressed" I mean put on a pair of leggings and a t-shirt. I haven't taken my hair down. I'm not going to take my hair down. I should probably pick out some clothes for tomorrow at some point (it's finals, but dress code still applies) but eh. I'll probably just end up doing that in the morning. I should also do some form of self maintenance this week, but that's probably not going to happen at all.

At one point today, I tried to feed myself and only ended up taking food out of the refrigerator, forgetting that I was trying to eat, and going back to the table. I had read another whole chapter of finance before I realized that I was still hungry.

Yeah. It's that crucial.

I both love and hate finals week. I love finals week because it signals the end of the semester and the start of some kind of break. I hate finals week because, well, finals. Tests make me nervous, and goodness will I be glad when this week is over. My last exam is on Thursday, and Friday after my interview I'm going home, and my friend Widge is coming over so we can celebrate the end of the semester by watching Disney movies and pretending we're not 23. It's going to be awesome.

So good luck to all of you who have exams in the immediate/near future! I'm sure you'll do fine. To all my friends who are graduating, congratulations! And to all of my friends who are graduating and have jobs waiting for them.... Congratulations. I hate you.

I'm kidding, of course.

Only I'm not.

Finals are upon us!

Or, as my Belgian friends say, it's blocus!

I don't know why I'm using all these exclamation marks. I hate finals/blocus. There's this sense of satisfaction and anticipation because there's only one more week until Christmas Break starts, but at the same time you're filled with an impending sense of dread because, well, finals. I always panic around finals, because, well, finals, but this year I have the added stress of needing to maintain a 3.0 GPA or else get kicked out of school. This does not make me a happy camper.

Yesterday, I had a sorority function to sufficiently distract me from my graduate student responsibilities, but today I'm not so fortunate. So starting right now, I will be sitting around looking like this for the rest of the week:  

Nervous grimacing smile and a stats book. Well, the stats book will be gone after tomorrow. But you know what I mean.

Yes, I wear Santa hats when I'm at home. Where's your Christmas spirit?

So good luck to all you guys who have exams! I'm putting it in the universe that we will all make it out of this with 3.0 semester averages at the very least, because I don't know about y'all but I don't fancy getting booted out of grad school.

Studying should not be this difficult

If you’re at all like me, you are never in an environment that is conducive to studying.

This somehow always seems to happen to me. Sometimes it’s my own fault. Freshman year I spent too much time hanging out with my friends after class and tried to study from 11 PM to 1 in the morning. Sophomore year I had plenty of time but lived underneath 2 of the heaviest-footed people ever to walk Clemson’s campus. They also liked to play really loud music. And throw each other on the floor. Over and over again. Junior year was better, mostly because studying wasn’t all that necessary as I spent half of the school year bro’ing it up in Europe. Senior year, I had a roommate who thought that primetime to argue loudly with her boyfriend in the apartment was between the hours of 10 and 4 (AM). I also spent a lot of time chasing her cat out of my room and keeping the damn thing from breaking my dishes and climbing on the counter. Yeah. It wasn’t good. I spent a lot of nights in the library with a blanket, a pillow, and my laptop senior year. And Nick. Remember the Christmas Fort we set up in the corner on the 5th floor before finals first semester? Good times, good times.

But now there are no good (studying) times because I live at home. With 3 other people. None of whom know how to use their inside voices. This is a typical scenario on any given day when I really need to hit the books:

“Y’all, I’m trying to study.”

“Shh, she’s trying to study!”

And it works for two minutes. Then…

“AFPGIEPAJEPOJNVZ;MBS;ODHQE-[AIGFEQ-4298W=ASFGHEOHFSPOUENDFOJHDA[-QEZ.”

That’s what it sounds like. Brackets, semicolons, and all. It should probably be bolded, too. Usually I can fight the noise for an hour, and then I get frustrated and I just give up and stomp around the house hating everyone for the rest of the day. Their solution to my studying issues? Go to the library.

Oh that’s a brilliant idea, guys. It’s so easy for me to get to a library, seeing as I have my own transportation and don’t have to work myself into anyone’s schedules or anything. You are so smart. Why didn’t I think of that? You must be, like, Stephen Hawking.

So here’s a few things that might help your workload for those of you who, like me, live with people who have serious problems respecting the fact that sometimes you really need some quiet to hit the books:

1. Get as much done as you can while they’re gone. They have to leave the house sometime. Take advantage of the relative quiet and try to get as much done as you can, especially if it's hard stuff. Like accounting. Ugh, accounting.

2. Find somewhere quiet to go that’s nearby. I know I was horribly sarcastic to this suggestion earlier, but if you have the means, find yourself somewhere quiet to go. Is there a library near your house? A Starbucks? A Panera Bread? Get in the car and get to getting.

3. If someone asks you to go somewhere with them, don’t go. This one's hard. I know it's hard. But don't. Go. With. Them. If your friends/family are anything like mine, you will NEVER go to that one place they say you're going and come back home. You'll end up spending 4 hours in Lowes or being otherwise counterproductive. It's not worth it. Don't go.

4. Study in blocks. This doesn't work for everyone, but I've tried it and it's good for me. Study for a while, then take a break. Study some more, take another break. Has anyone ever heard of a site called Unfuck Your Habitat? They have a pretty good system for cleaning that also translates well into studying.

5. Reward yourself. Did you get 2 pages of that 8 page paper done? Awesome! Give yourself a cookie. Read a few pages of that book you've been trying to get through. Watch an episode of Awkward Black Girl. Sometimes when I'm just being insufferable about work I won't let myself eat dinner until I get done. That's a little extreme, though. Y'all should probably stick to the web shows.

6. Noise cancelling headphones. I can't use these because they make my head feel funny, but I'm about to give in and get a pair; consequences be damned. Noise cancelling headphones are awesome, and they're cheap, and they're so versatile. You can  use them at home. You can use them on planes. You can use them in cars. You can use them in the library. Just stick them on your head, and BAM! no more noise! And you can get them for like $25 from Amazon.com or Walmart! Trendy, more expensive headphone brands (Beatz, Bose, etc.) usually have noise cancelling models too if you want to shell out for something that'll work with your iPod. Best. Invention. Ever.

It's a short list, but hopefully that helps someone out there. What do you guys do when you need to study and your housemates won't chill out?

Now get off the internet and do some work. I'm going to price some headphones.