Exams, varsity and journeying home

Hello chaps,

Now I reckon I know what you lot are thinking at the moment. What’s he playing at talking to us like a blooming Brit. Well if with “he” you are referring to Sarajan he’s not playing at anything. Too busy studying for exams during the day and too “busy” getting what type of relaxation he can during his evenings (did he mention what type ?). So he “hired” me to write his fantastical story from where he left off. The lazy bugger! As if he can’t free up some time to write during the evening. Why, when I was young we went for days without sleep just to be able to afford the food on the table and the roof above our heads. Those were the days. But I’m not here to tell you my story. In fact I prefer to stay anonymous. Let’s get to the story you have supposedly been dying to hear. Now, where did I he tell me to start? Ah yes. Right after his trip to Dublin. The trip that exhausted him. Did I mention that in my day I would have had to walk the entire way to his Holyhead or whatever the name of the place was and swim across to Dublin or shovel coal for the entire crossing. You see there was this one time when I … All right all right guvnor. I’ll tell your story.

As you lot may have gleaned from “his lordships’” account of his daily life in Wales a hard time of study had started the moment he came back from his invasion of Dublin (if you ask me he got beat by a splash of water and some stony city streets) and stepped of that bus. He spent that entire week (really the entire week?) with catching up on that SAS & R thing. He had assignments to do blah, blah and there was so much course reading he had to do if he wanted to stay true to his intentions and keep his knowledge about the courses up to speed with his normal studying rate. And apparently his work did not let up during the week after as he would have two exams in the week after. One for Time Series (a written exam) and the other for SAS & R (a practical coding exam). During these boring days he had at least enough time to fence during the designated evenings (he tells me he would have gone mad otherwise). But time seems to speed up whenever you are working towards a big dreadful confrontation. And soon the week of the exams arrived. He assures me that the facts that he practiced his ass off writing code for problems in SAS & R and that he never feared Time Series to begin with made him a lot more confident. He felt ready for the exams.

Coincidentally that week containing two exams (one on Tuesday and another on Wednesday) was also the week that he would leave for home for a week. And it also contained the day of the Varsity competition: The greatest all-sport grudge match competition between Cardiff University and Swansea University, the largest universities of South Wales. So let’s shed some light on this fascinating week.

When it was Monday morning Sarajan rushed to the library to get some extra studying in for the coming tests. In the afternoon he rushed home to go fencing (or at least he planned to). When he got home he decided to take a day off instead. He enjoyed a nice meal and left around 20.00 to meet Katie at the pub (really you skipped fencing for a girl?). He’s telling me politely to not comment on his personal life (isn’t all this stuff personal *sarcastic*) and that Katie is his fencing friend with whom he planned to meet to finalize the bookings for the London trip. Ok fair enough. That night ended in Katie showing him a bought and paid for dvd of the movie Frozen and the next rendezvous was quickly planned. Tuesday night he would visit to see Frozen. For he could simply not return to the Netherlands without having seen that iconic new animated movie.

After a mostly relaxed night Tuesday came around the corner (he wants me to mention that the booking was arranged pretty late and he had had less than his ideal 8 hours rest). Time for Time Series and Forecasting. Can anyone predict his result based on his study ethics and past performances? He was optimistic at the end of his 1.5 hour ordeal even though he did not finish all the questions completely (just one entry missing). But he was happy. One hurdle crossed and he would see Katie and Frozen in the evening. He even bought and brought milk and cookies (really?) for the anticipated movie night. He tells me he had a great time that night. Company, movie, ice cream and cookie, things couldn’t be better.

After once again a slightly shorter night (he stayed for a bit longer after the end of the movie listening to Katie’s stories, did he mention she talks a lot about everything apparently. Quite endearing really, this lass. Kind, caring and very social and talkative. Makes you wonder why she hangs out with his shy figure eh?) Wednesday’s sunrise woke Sarajan. New challenges were waiting. SAS & R was ready to give him a thrashing (and got beat up in turn I heard, guess all that practice paid off). And afterwards Varsity awaited. I mentioned the sunrise, because that Wednesday would be one of the best days in Wales so far when it comes to the weather. Clear blue sky, Sun, hardly any wind and a nice temperature. It was perfect for a nice walk to the Welsh Sports Institute where victory in numerous ports were being contested. After being greeted by his fellow team members Ed, Chris, Jack, George and Tom and also a few of the ladies (Lauren, and Zoe if his memory serves him correctly) he quickly changed and got ready to stare down the opponent. The following team match was quite exciting and Cardiff (the right team) won both women’s and men’s competition. Each competition consisted of an equipe match up to 45 points. The format is as follows. There are nine meetings in each 45 point game. 3 on 3. Each match can bring in 5 points, but catching up is allowed. Although Sarajan fenced only one meeting he was able to redirect any of the frustration left from the exams to the poor guy facing him. Even though he felt sleep deprived his opponent didn’t stand a chance. As soon as he stepped on the piste adrenaline and battle reflexes kicked in. It’s as if he saw everything much clearer. And in a quick but decisive match he tore his opponent apart in a 5 to 0 match. His feints caught his opponent off guard. His fleche left his opponent astounded and even when the light refused to signal a correct hit his speedy reflexes saved him from counter hits. When the match was over his energy left him at an alarming rate. But he managed to stay awake to witness all the other matches and cheered on his mates the entire time. When the competition was over he walked most of the way home with Rosie and Tom who got some food underway to get some more fuel in order to keep the engine running long enough to witness his first rugby game.
What an experience. The stadium, the noise, the crowd going wild cheering, waving, drinking and doing all kinds of offensive chants (nothing too bad, mostly to offend the opposite party with witty insults). When the game was over (Cardiff lost, the pansies) Sarajan was completely burnt up even though he had a lecture in the morning of Thursday. So after going home on slightly dragging feet he collapsed on his bed and snoozed straight through the night.

Now Thursday did not have that much excitement so we’ll just skip that. The return journey also didn’t contain many interesting facts. He stepped on the bus, slept, wrote a bit, changed over in London where he killed the 4 hour stopover time by playing guitar, got on another bus, slept some more, got on a train (still on the bus) for the traject between England and France, stayed on the bus until Amsterdam and from there took a train to Almere where family was waiting to receive him with open arms.

Most of the time in the Netherlands was spent chilling, watching series, playing games and spending time with family and friends. When the day of departure had come he was a bit hesitant to leave as he had done nothing during this week to diminish the mountain of coursework and revision work that impatiently screamed for attention. And he would pay for it. But I’ll tell you a bit more about that in the next narrative. Yes you’re stuck with me for at least one more installment. Am I not a much better storyteller? Be careful with your answer though, I know where you live ;)