Lately.

So i realize i haven't posted any real content in the past couple of weeks or so. That's because i was either too busy metamorphosing into a slug in the library eight hours a day, or outside getting some social life taken care of on weekends, which is something that has quite surprisingly been going fine recently. Can't help wondering how long it lasts this time.
Anyway, exam tomorrow. Tomorrow? Yes, my dear reader. For last you had heard about exams was, last thursday, three o'clock, Contemporary History Oral. Things didn't quite turn out that way. Well, let's start from the beginning.

Some ten days ago i had to give my history teacher a paper on pre-fascist concentration camps in Ustica. Of course, i wrote it the day before. And the night before. Of course, i didn't sleep. Of course, on the way to Udine i started hallucinating.
I somehow managed to get the freshly printed 3000+word paper into the assistant's hands, even though giant carrots were bulging from the ground, the marble floors were making me pirouette and most traffic lights were morphing into chamaeleons or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle bad guys. On the way back, i almost got run over because i'd failed to see the green chamaeleon turn red.

Once i got back to Duino, having been awake for over thirty hours, the most logical thing to do was to go to sleep. But thirty was such a dull number. It was decided forty-two was far better. So i stayed awake until around five, topping around forty-four hours awake, for once reaching 42 conversation ensued. That explains this.

So on thursday i go to udine to give my exam. Contemporary history, 1914-today. The assistant comes. The teacher doesn't. The assistant informs us that the exam will be divided into two parts, the second being with the teacher on tuesday(tomorrow).

I was third on the list. Five minutes before the first examinee exits, i hear the guy on my left tell me:
"1914-today? No, it's 1814-today!"
and the the girl on my right:
"the second girl just left. You're next in the queue."

My reaction was immediate: i ran down the road to the closest bar, and had myself a shot of grappa.
Shortly thereafter, i entered the examination arena.
Before i even had time to sit down, the assistant asked me to digress a bit on the paper i had presented him the previous week. He said it was somewhat peculiar.
"students don't usually write so much about such specific facts".
Nice.
The first half of the exam was more of a friendly chat about italians deporting libians in the 1910s, the conquest wars, Omar-al-Mukhtar, the movie about him starring Anthony Quinn and its being censored on italian land, the fact that it is widely available on p2p, and why WinMX is better than Kazaa.

Then some questions about Hitler and Mussolini. Got over those without too many problems.

Then came the tough part.
Him: "let's go back a little. Choose an independence war and comment it to me."
me: "hmmm...how about the american independence war?"
Him: "That was 1776. A bit early for this exam."
Me: "Oh! Yes, silly of me. How about the italian independence war?"
Him: "Okay. The first, the second or the third?"

I eventually weaseled my way out of the question.

Final verdict: 27/30. To be confirmed on tuesday. That's tomorrow, for me.

Haven't seen a history book since.
I'm currently blogging, listening to the radio and chatting, all at the same time.

Exiting the exam, i went to buy a bottle of Baileys at the liquor store in the bus station. When the baileys-selling-person found out i was from Chile, he began an extremely friendly chat about neoliberism under Pinochet and the similarities between Aldo Moro and Allende's political coalition programs. Interestingly, he was just as prepared in the topic as the exam assistant. Nice.

On the way back to Duino, lifting my eyes from a comic book for the first time in half an hour, i noticed my bus was going through places i'd never seen before. I got up from my seat, went to the bus driver, and politely began the following exchange:
Me: "Excuse my irreverence, but where the fuck are we?"
Bus Driver: "Medea."
Me: "Oh."

Ten minutes later, we got back to the beaten path. And then got to Duino twenty minutes late.

Ok, that's the story of the first part of my exam. I shall now proceed to have a drink before going on with the story.