The Dead and the Final

Akhirnya sodara-sodaraaaa… Akhirnya! Setelah 16 minggu berjuang sampe hidup udah gak jelas bentuknya gimana, sampailah saya diiii… Dead Week and Final Week.

Hello, Dead Week.

Namanya aja udah bikin males ya? Well, Final Week, sudah bisa ditebak, adalah minggu untuk Final Exam. UAS kalo istilah kita mah yaaaa…. Nah, trus kalo di Indo ada yang namanya Minggu Tenang (yang sebenernya lebih merupakan Minggu Panik sih ya), disini gak ada tuh Minggu Tenang. But the week before the Final Week, is called as Dead Week. Dead Week itu nama populernya, nama resminya sih Preparation Week, that sounds more academic. But we prefer to call it as Dead Week, secara minggu ini terasa lebih mematikan. Usually Dead Week is the deadline of all the projects for the semester. You know, the project that you know you should have been doing earlier but you keep on procrastinating and end up being panic when the deadline is approaching. Haha. Happens to all normal students. 

Anyway, on Dead Week, perkuliahan tetep jalan, tapi para dosen dilarang untuk ngasih kuis atau PR tambahan lagi sepanjang dead week ini. Biasanya jadi perkuliahan dipake Cuma untuk review session. But oh, in my Environmental Soil Chemistry class, we even had a class picture at the last class. This, is definitely one of the most fun class I’ve ever had

AGRY3850 Class for Fall 2013. FUN!

Selama Dead Week dan Final Week, semua fasilitas kampus dibuka 24 jam. Bahkan di Hicks Library ( my second home :”) ), after midnight they provide free coffee for the students. Berasa banget lho Dead Week dan Final Week ini. Perpustakaan penuuuuuuhhhh…It’s just full with students desperately trying to finish projects and study. And you will see a long line at the café, when people trying to get their dose of caffeine. And yep, I was one of them.

Eh, tapi pernah nih, kan ada salah satu study room yang gede dan dilengkapi sama LCD projector gitu. Waktu itu kebetulan saya dan temen saya nongkrong belajar di salah satu private study room. But we could still see what’s happening in the common study room from the glass window. Jadi para anak undergrad itu, mereka dengan isengnya menghubungkan LCD Projector itu dengan salah satu komputer, dan lewat LCD Projector itu mereka beramai-ramai nonton… Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Sumpah saya ngakak liatnya.

beginilah wajah grad students on dead-week

Saya sih sebenernya suka dengan judesnya ngomong, “Dead week? What ‘dead’ week? I’ve been living like a zombie anyway for the past few weeks…”.

me being a zombie

So yeah. On dead week, pulang dari perpus udah jam 2 malem ajaaaaahhhh… Kalo sebelumnya hidup saya sudah gak jelas bentuknya apa, on dead week I don’t think I have a life. Mehehehehe… Anyway, I still try to keep my sanity. Pas Dead Week ini saya dapet tiket gratis untuk nonton Christmas Show-nya Purdue Musical Organization, jadi semacam kabaret gitu. Bagus deh. Trus bahkan di hari Minggu sebelum Dead Week, saya dan Sarah nonton Catching Fire. One of my friends actually got a little bit upset about this, secara kami dulu pernah semacam janjian mau nonton bareng. But then he preferred to try finishing his assignment, sementara saya dengan polosnya tetep pergi nonton.

And one of the most fun thing adalah the dinner that we had. Jadi in the middle of the dead week, kita para Fulbright grantee angkatan baru dapet undangan makan malam di Dean of Graduate Study. It’s a semi-formal dinner, so I think one of the nicest thing was, we dressed up nicely. Like, seriously, I rarely see my friends in formal clothes like that, where most of them wearing suit and tie. I usually see them wearing T-shirts and complaining about assignments or wearing sweaters and complaining about the horrible mid-west weather. So really, seeing them looking so good like that was very nice :).

Sometimes they can look good, wearing suit and tie ;)

Saya jadi yang paling cantiiikkk... :P

After the Dead Week, come the Final Week. And by the end of Dead Week, I have shifted from the state of “OMG-I-am-so-not-ready-for-final-exam” to the state of “whatever-I-just-want-all-this-to-end-soon”.

Saya cuma ujian untuk 3 mata kuliah, dan dua mata kuliah, Environmental Soil Chemistry dan General Statistics for Engineering ujian di hari yang sama. Udah bukan pasrah lagi deh kayaknya. Ujiannya jam 8, di Lilly Hall, yang sekitar 20 menit jalan kaki dari apartemen saya. I planned to wake up at 5.30, and I ended up waking up at 7.20. Yep. Tentu saja saya telat 3 menit ke ruang ujian. And I was the last one leaving the room. Dan mungkin saking muka saya udah gak ada bedanya sama zombie, dosennya yang kebetulan juga adalah academic advisor alias dosen wali saya sampe ngomong, “Oh, why you have to look so miserable, Ami? Don’t worry, you’re going to be fine!”.

Pulang ke apartemen sebentar, dengan wacana mau belajar barang sebentar. Wacana tinggallah wacana. I ended up falling asleep. Kebangun jam 11.45 siang, dengan satu pikiran, “Masih ada waktu kok. Ujiannya jam 2 ini.” So I spent some times Cuma untuk guling-guling gak jelas, sampe akhirnya bangkit dari tempat tidur jam 12.05 untuk siap-siap. Trus sambil make kerudung saya ngecek ruangan, dan baru sadar. Ujiannya bukan jam 2 siang. Ujiannya jam 1 siang. And it was already 12.38.

Cerdas ya saya ini?

Langsung lari, dan Alhamdulillah banget ada bus. Nyampe di ruangan jam 12.59. And guess what? Entah gimana caranya, untuk ujian dengan jumlah peserta sekitar 80 orang, ruangan yang ada kapasitasnya untuk 40 orang. Jadi selama hampir 45 menit kami terkatung-katung dulu sementara si dosen sibuk telfon sana-sini untuk nyari ruangan.

Don’t even dare to ask me how was the exam. It was worse than horrible.

Anyway, the last exam was Atmospheric Chemistry. Examnya jam 7 malem. And at that night was when the temperature in West Lafayette was -18°C, dan Real feel-nya adalah -23°C. Dalam ruangan ujiannya sih oke-oke saja. But the walk to and from the exam site was a challenge.

But then, it was just so relieving that it’s finally over :).

And guess what’ll happen after final week?

Yep: HOLIDAY!!!!