Days THIRTY EIGHT and THIRTY NINE. Exam Part One.

DAYS THIRTY EIGHT AND THIRTY NINE. Exam Part One. Sunday I started the day with church, a girl introduced herself to me afterwards and invited me over to her flat to have lunch and meet some other midsingles that we stopping by her place. She took a three month sebatical from her job, and is here through November. Very nice person. She then told me that she'd met some people through an institute class. (I havent been able to go to the class because of my classes). She said one of them is worried that she would take a sabatical from work, and has been introducing her to people to help "keep her busy." She told me she doesnt need the people, but its a nice way to get to know others. A few others came over to the flat, I stayed for half an hour, as I really felt the need to study for my exams coming up this week. I headed over to my favorite studying place, the V&A to the study room, and forced myself to study. The Wifi wasnt working so I had no disctractions. With about 10 minutes before the museum closed, I had all the recipes down. It was such a relief, and I was in denial to be so prepared. I knew all the practice test answers, I knew fruits, nuts, dairy, ice cream....I felt prepared. I went home, had cereal for dinner, looked at my notes again, and again realized I have short term memory loss, facetimed, reviewed until about 1am when my brain coculdnt handle anymore. I actually slept well. No nightmares, no waing up every 10 minutes, just a nice calm sleep. Monday, when I woke up I wanted to take the morning as calmly as possible. I didnt want to freak myself out or get anxious. I reviewed my flashcards, got ready, ironed my chef's coat, ate breakfast at the table (instead of whilst while walking to the tube), went to the tube like I was in no rush, and got to school with no angst or worry. I joined the others in the hall outside the classroom, we joked around saying either we know it or we dont, so here goes nothing. No one was quizzing each other, we were all ready to be done with it. 10 Multiple Choice, 10 Short Answer, and 10 True/False questions were to be completed within one hour. It doesnt sound that bad. I took 58 minutes to complete the exam. The multiple choice and T/F I am pretty sure I got at least 9/10 right on both of those. The short answers, well we shall see how generous they are with those questions. I thought it would be ____ g of flour in Pate a Choux, but instead, it was an empty box for us to fill out all the ingredients/weights and to list the method of how they are made. Ahh, yeh, good thing I studied. I drew a blank on one, but as I worked on the others, the blanks were filled in and all questions answered...now hopefully they are the right answers & the ones they are looking for. Essex and I laughed later in the day comparing the things that we each wrote down. Oh well, its over. No going back now. Seven of my group went to lunch together afterwards to celebrate being half done. It was good, just not my favorite meal since being here. I had ricotta knocci, that was on a cream bed sauce. The best part was Vermont sharing her brownie with us afterwards. I havent had a brownie in...over a month! :) After lunch we had a demonstration class where we watched a chef make 4 desserts that we dont have to make for a practical, as our hands on dish this week is our final exam dish to be made on Wednesday. Chef wasnt to specific in giving details on what he was doing during the demonstration, but I really appreciated tasting the Tarte Tatin, Vanilla Ice Cream, Cold Mousse, and Shortbreads...it was like a celebration dessert feast for completing Part One of the exam. After class, Malta & Dehli and I headed for the tube, I wanted to get somethings at the grocery store (to practice our dishes tomorrow) and so did Dehli, so Malta joined us. I think she bought more than us. I was just going to work on my piping/masking/decorating portion, as that hasnt been my strong suit. The girls talked me into buying flour/sugar/butter so I could practice some more of the dishes at home. After the tube I stopped at two more grocery stores to get chocolate for piping, and whipping cream for masking/piping. Seriously practicing is expensive. I was exhausted by the time I got home & was relieved to find a lunch I packed for myself on Friday still in the fridge so I didnt have to cook dinner. Essex told me that Quorn has veggie Scottish Eggs that she loves to eat, so I bought some of those and had some for dinner too. Now i can say I enjoy a british food of Scottish Eggs ("sausage" wrapped around a boiled egg, breaded & fried/baked). I watched the Amazing Race as my reward for a job well done. Talked to pops about what they want to do when they get here, and looked at my recipies for Wednesday's bake. Once I started to fall asleep, I knew it was time for bed. Tomorrow, practice practice practice, but Exam Part One is complete. Horray.