i hate pencil cases

so i had my two biggest exams today- yes, those four hour long ones. The first one, ninteenth century lit, was okay, but i was a commentary that was quite difficult because of the vocabulary and as well it helps if you know how to write a commentary. natalie does not. i tried to learn, but there's not much you can do in a day in a half, which is the time i had to work on this class since ive been working at dollys and my teaching job. poo.

second exam- i dont think ive ever managed to cry during a test. well, not literally crying, but i was definitely wiping away some brimming tears. i had to comment on this poem, the fair singer by andrew marvell. i had notes on it from a student that took the class last year, but as i, again, didnt have much time to revise for it, didnt know all the different points, and the points i knew i couldnt really explain because i didnt understand them. so im pretty sure that was a big fat zero.

the most obnoxious part about all of this, is that as i was sitting there staring at my paper for hours, the two girls in front of me, from the moment the received their test, i swear, didnt stop writing. i happened to glace at the bottom of her paper- oh yes, she was on page number 15. me- 3. generally the testing sheets have four sides. you can occassionally ask for more paper if you want but four is standard. FIFTEEN. i think its this girls fault i was crying. she kept reaching into her pencil case to change colors... those perfect french students with their perfectly neat and legible papers, dates in green, underline in red (no doubt underlined using a ruler), skip five lines to leave room for teacher comments, two lines between the title and the beginning of the paper- i wanted to scream. and they all have their little pencil cases sitting out on their desks with markers, highters, glue stick, ruler, scissors, pencils pens... i have often thought this might be a practical idea to get a pencil case (seeing as here no one will laugh at me) but i am in continuous rebellion because i am against everything that has to do with this robot way of teaching. honestly, french students are like machines. they are trained to do everything in a certain way, they dont have the free will to choose what color the title should be written in. i was talking with shannon my american roommate who teaches 8 year olds and she told me that when she asks her students to write something down, they always ask in what color and how many lines they should skip. She responds, as many as you want, i dont care. in america we have the right to choose our pen ink.