Did I just cheat on a test?

After two days of relaxation, I suppose I had a hectic day coming to me. My cold is wearing off, thankfully, so my usual busy Wednesday was a bit easier to bear than it might have been. Unfortunately, I realized at about midnight last night that I had a final today in that cinematography class that's kinda a joke. It might be a joke, but I do have to at least get a C on this test, since it will determine my entire grade.

So this morning I went to the usual Art & Architecture tour (our last one...Homerova, I already miss you), but left about 15 minutes early and went back to the study center to look over my notes. It was a bit difficult to decipher, considering I was reading notes I had written while paying half-attention to a half-drunk man who makes sense less than half the time.

Good thing, then, that my boring class, the one that I'm actually learning things in, covers a lot of the same material. So when I had some questions, I brought them up to my other professor, and he explained them to me like I was actually a smart person (imagine that).

But an hour later when the test was handed out, it dawned on me that I hadn't really studied as much as I probably could have. I knew some of it well, but some of it not at all, and I had no clue how this guy was going to grade us.

Then, something incredible happened. This professor, who had babbled for a minute at the beginning of the class, just left the room, leaving all of us Americans in the back row to conference with each other and look at each others papers. I would've felt guilty, were it not for the British girl in front of us who started by inconspicuously looking into her bag and then just gave in and took her notes out, copying the answers. And just about everyone in the room was doing the same thing.

He came back in the room, and we didn't really stop. And he just didn't care. So as it turns out, while FAMU classes might seem like big wastes of time, the teachers at least don't take themselves particularly seriously. They only want to make sure we know the material; they don't want us to just vomit up information onto a piece of paper. I think I did well on the test. And I suddenly liked the class at least a little more (though I didn't learn much).

Had some dinner with Evan W (who I haven't seen in a while, it was nice to catch up). As president of the USC Comic Book Club, he's taken it upon himself to organize a group trip to see Spider-Man 3 tomorrow night. We're all pretty damn excited.

After my last class of the day, I had one of those 'small world' moments. I walked up to the tram and was waiting for a moment looking up the river at the Castle when the guy next to me asked "did you go to high school in Illinois?" I turned around and said, "Did you do competitive speech?" He was an extemper from Buffalo Grove! He and his friends are here till Friday, and I'm going to try to see them some more.

Tomorrow should be fun. No early class anymore (WOOHOO!), but I'm making a presentation later in the day as my final for my producing class. I had to create a movie/TV show/something to produce, and I really like what I did - alas, here on the Internet where anyone could take my ideas, I'd rather not talk about it (though, if you hadn't noticed, this site is protected by a Creative Commons license. Email me if you're interested.

I'm also looking forward to the weekend. I had agreed last week to go with the family to a small town in the southern part of the country, but did not realize what I was getting myself into. We're leaving on Friday afternoon and won't be back till Sunday. My last full weekend in Prague will be a true weekend of adventures with the Jančařík family - could I ask for anything better?