Strawberries and Exams

In two weeks, the university seminars will be officially over, except insofar as there are two essays to write (Greek history, Greek/Russian literature) and one exam (Greek language) before I will receive credit for my courses.

Besides feeling apprehensive about a class presentation where I am supposed to compare a Spanish and a Portuguese Renaissance epic, I feel apprehensive about the spoken Spanish exam on Thursday. That said, I've learned a few tricks from past failures. Firstly, half the battle is won if I've gotten enough sleep the night before, because vocabulary magically comes to mind and I can present neatly structured material then. Secondly, re-reading the news articles and re-watching the videos that the professor shared with us a) refreshes the information, and b) ensures that I never run out of material to talk about. But as there's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip, as the saying goes, the most important trick is to remember to take my own advice.

It's been delightfully cold — and one might say autumnal — since our descent into the infernal a week or two ago (I am trying to repress the memory) by way of 38°C peak temperatures. That said, the windy weather has made me a little less enthusiastic about cycling.

'My' tree has still only had about 15% of the rain that it needs over the past 30 days. That said, the agricultural realm seems to be doing well, and the usual German strawberries, blueberries and red currants are thronging into the shelves of the grocery stores.