The Exam Chronicles:

Ok girls, just a 'little' post to tell you that I'm done with high school. Considering that you've been so patient to bear my Maturità talks during the last few weeks, here's a little report of how things went in the last two days. Enjoy!

1ST JULY 2011, AFTERNOON: Ok. Tomorrow's the day and I'm almost ready. I still have to review a big part of the Maths programme and other little things, but I'm relaxed. Or, better, I'm relaxed until 3 pm. At that point, I finally realise that tomorrow is really my last days of high school. And I also realise that, to get the maximum mark, I need to be flawless. Oh. My. God.

1ST JULY 2011, EVENING: My evening before the Maturità exam (the famous 'Notte prima degli Esami') is pretty chaotic. Familiars are calling me on the phone to wish me good luck, the neighbour's kids are playing (and screaming) in the garden, my bedroom is full of mosquitos. The 'sudate carte' ('sweated papers') are scattered all over my table, some copybooks are on my bed, other books are already in my rucksack. I repeat my 'tesina' (little thesis) while hoping I'll be able to say it all in 20 minutes. The chronometer says that it actually takes me 17 minutes to repeat it, let's hope that tomorrow it won't take me any longer.

It's 9 pm, I've just finished reviewing Dante and, to my surprise, I've just realised that I still remember Heidegger very well. I don't have the time to review everything, so I go for the most important things. At 10 pm I finally stop reviewing the Second World War. Stupid Italy, why do you always have to change allies in the middle of the World Wars? Really, that is annoying to study.

At 10.30 I finally put on my nail polish, watch the clothes I've chosen for tomorrow (a blue shirt with jeans) and go to bed. Now, all I hope is to be able to sleep.

2ND JULY 2011: After a good night sleep, I get up at 7 am. My parents look more nervous than me.

I get in the car and think about those Tour riders who say that pressure makes them feel better. Well, apparently it is the same for me. I feel ready to face the test and in my mind I keep on repeating: 'Let's go and kick some asses'. A part of my brain, however, keeps on thinking about the things I don't know: Calvino, the political situation in Italy after WW 2, the most difficult parts of Maths programme, half of the Latin programme. The other half of my brain, however, has the following thought: 'It's impossible to know everything, but it's also impossible not to know anything'. Btw, one thing is sure: I'll play my cards well.

7.50: my best friends are with me, ready to witness my examination. The Italian teacher stops to talk with us and asks us whether we're doing fine. 'Hell yeah!', I'd like to answer, but I can't.

8.04: I walk inside the classroom for the last time in my life. The exam starts. I introduce my tesina and I say 'justifiable' rather than 'right'. This means I'll be surely asked about Hegel, a thing that I wanted to avoid. In spite of that, I keep on talking about the editions of the Olympics that were characterised by boycotts. Most of the teachers remember the facts I'm talking about and this doesn't make things any easier. But still, when I finish to talk about my tesina I'm very satisfied with myself. Let the questions begin!

The first question comes from the philosophy teacher. Hegel, I would have bet on that. I defend myself in a decent way, then he shows me what I've written in the philosophy test. 2 questions out of 3 look perfect, but the third one is a mess. 'I was surprised when I read your answer, I didn't expect you not to understand the question. You always reflect a lot before answering!'. Actually, I'm much more surprised than him when I see that that answer isn't correct. Now I understand why I got a 41 out of 45: at least 1.5 points in my partial result were taken away because of that question. Anyway, enough philosophy for the moment: it's history time now!

'Tell me what happened in Russia during the 20th century', the teacher asks. I start talking about the 1905 Revolution and I try to gain time while talking about the terrible conditions of farmers in Russia at the beginning of the last century. The teacher then asks me two questions and seems satisfied with my answers. Then he looks at me and asks me: 'Listen, I know this isn't in the programme, but...Do you know when serfdom became illegal in Russia?' Dates are a weak point of mine, so I take a big breathe before saying: '1861'. 'Exactly!', the teacher says with a smile. I expect a standing ovation from my friends, but it doesn't happen.  I would have deserved it!

Then it's time to talk about Italian literature. First I talk about futurism, then about Pirandello and Leopardi. Another question has me talking about Verga and Svevo. The teacher looks satisfied and tells me I'm doing a great job. Too bad that there are still 4 teachers who have to ask me something.

The German teacher wants me to talk about Buechner, a writer that my classmates and I had to study on our own. In spite of that, I manage to answer his questions and to pretend I'm much more confident than I actually am. As someone once said: 'Everyone can act, except a few actors'.

Then it's Maths time. Oh man, I'm scared. Luckily I have the answers to my teacher's question, so I can pass to English. The teacher asks me about Miller's 'Death of a Salesman' and about my plans for the future.

The Spanish teacher is the last one to ask me something. She makes me talk about the Spanish futurism and about Lorca's 'Poet in New York'. Then she and her colleagues begin to explain me which results I got in the written part of the exam. I see that one of the two answers of Spanish is good, while the other one isn't. On the other hand, the English essay is nearly flawless, whereas the Italian essay is good. One of the Maths questions, instead, is a complete mess.

At 8.52 the teachers stop showing me the written tests. One of them asks me what I'm going to do next year. I say that I'd love to become a sportjournalist and that causes a lot of comments. 'So you'll be able to go to the Olympics!', a teacher says, smiling. 'Let's hope to see your name on a pink newspaper then', another one adds. Everyone wishes me good luck for my future. The atmosphere is now really relaxed, although someone hasn't run out of tricky questions yet. In fact, all of a sudden my philosophy teacher asks me why Zio Crocifisso ('Uncle Crucifix') is so unpolite with the Malavoglia family. 'After all, they're relatives!', he says. He says it with a very light-hearted tone, as if he was joking, and I reply by smiling and saying: 'Well, apparently there were familiar arguments already at the time!' 

Then, all of a sudden I realise that the other teachers are looking at me and at their colleague. The atmosphere has become slightly more serious, so I understand that my teacher is trying to make me slip on his tricky remark. I realise I must say something to get out of his trap. Before he can open his mouth again, I say: "And then, Crucifix is called 'uncle' just because that is his nickname; in reality, he's not a relative of the Malavoglia at all!". After my answer, everyone in the classroom smiles at me and laughs, my philosophy teacher included. However, I soon discovery that he's kept a special question for the end of my exam.

 'Listen', he asks me with another smile as I collect my things before leaving the classroom, 'who wins the Tour this time?'. 'Andy Schleck', I reply in a very confident way. My teacher pulls a strange face and says: 'But he isn't good in time trials'. 'Well, then I just hope Contador doesn't win', I say with a serious expression. My teacher looks at me, smiles and says: 'Contador will win'. All of his colleagues smile (although I don't think they understood what we were talking about) and shake hands with me.

At 8.56 I'm finally out of the classroom, out of the exam, out of everything. As I walk out of the school, I think about all the things that I didn't know and that the teachers didn't ask me. 'They didn't ask me anything about Latin!', I tell my friends. "Well, do you want to go back in that classroom and say: 'Sorry, but you forgot to ask me Latin?' ", my best friend replies me. We all start to laugh and we start talking about the holidays. My high school career is finally over and, for the first time in 5 years, I'll face a summer without homeworks and without worries. And then, it'll be time for new challenges. But before of that, let me relax a while ;)

Andy Schleck: is he bluffing or not?

Good evening, dear readers! For your joy, miss Fede has decided to allow herself an evening of blogging, so tonight she's going to delight you with some random thoughts of hers. 

First of all, an update on my exam preparations. I've studied the whole Italian programme, I'm halfway through the Latin programme and, most important, in the last two days I haven't studied anything because I didn't feel fine. However, not feeling fine didn't prevent me from finishing my 'tesina' ('little thesis'), which I had to give to my teacher this morning, after facing a lot of incredible adventures starring me, a printer and my computer.

Everything began exactly one week ago, when I sent an e-mail containing my 'tesina' ('little thesis') to my teacher. Two days ago he told me he would have taken a look at it in the afternoon, but in the evening I hadn't received the corrected copy yet. Yesterday morning therefore I was very nervous, both because I didn't feel fine and because I was worried by my teacher's delay. In fact I would have had to bring 3 copies of my tesina to school on the following morning (aka this morning) and I was worried by the fact that I had less than 24 hours of time to correct the eventual mistakes in it. My preoccupation became even stronger when, after talking to a friend of mine, she told me that that teacher had been terrible with her, since he corrected everything she had written.

As a consequence, yesterday I spent the whole day between the couch and the computer, with my eyes sore for watching the screen and a splitting headache tormenting me. Eventually, I received the long awaited e-mail at 8.30 pm.

After receiving the copy of my tesina and sending another urgent e-mail to my teacher in order to sort out the last details, I spent a hour (a hour!!) inserting the numbers at the end of each page of my research. It's sad to think that I threw away 60 minutes of my existence in that way, isn't it?

At about 10 o'clock, however, my tesina was ready to be printed. And, as predictable, that's where the drama began.

My work is 27 pages long and, after just 14 pages, my printer finished the ink. I immediately panicked, especially because I had to print 3 (3!) copies of my research and it was too late to find an open place where I could buy a new toner.

This morning therefore I woke up at 7.30, saved my tesina on a computer key and brought it to a place where they usually print documents and things like that. The owner was very kind, but he couldn't manage to print the damned thing. 'Problems with the format', he told me. Therefore I came back home and tried to write my tesina with a different format. Too bad that, after 30 minutes, I had managed to write in a decent way just 6 pages of it. I was a woman on the verge on a nervous breakdown when I eventually remembered that a shop in my town sells printer toners.

After other adventures and many nervous moments, at 10 o'clock I finally had three copies of my tesina in my hands. It was hard, but in the end I made it.

Anyway. Enough 'exam talks' for today, right? So, let's now talk serious things. Serious things like, for example, Tour de Suisse.

Sagan is incredible, isn't he? He won even today! And Kruijswijk got his first pro victory, isn't that sweet? What? Sorry, I didn't understand what you said. Could you repeat? Oh! You don't want to talk about Peter and Steven? Why? Oh, I see! Ok, then let's follow your advice and let's talk about the mistery of the month: Andy Schleck's behaviour in Tour de Suisse.

As you probably already know, OGL has been in the center of harsh critics in the last days, because many people rate his performances in the Swiss race as 'disappointing'. In fact our boy lost a lot of time already in the prologue (but on that occasion it wasn't entirely his fault), failed in his attempt to win yesterday's stage (he was second after an amazing De Gendt) and, most worrying, the other day he arrived 15 minutes after the stage winner, Kruijswijk. I know that he might have got dropped intentionally on that occasion, but this thing worries me a bit anyway. In fact, why should a rider like Andy decide to lose so much time in a race that, on paper, should suit him?

The lively debate that is going around the Luxembourger in these days has seen people adopting two main different attitudes. Here they are:

Attitude 1 (typical of the faithful, entusiasthic supporters of OGL): 'There's nothing to worry about, men! Andy didn't do that well in last year's TdS either, but in the end he was second in the Tour anyway, wasn't he? And yesterday he almost won a stage, didn't you see it on tv? He's still training, that's why he doesn't look very brilliant on the climbs. Moreover, he doesn't want to show his true shape to the adversaries, so he's bluffing in order to confuse them! That's why he got dropped the other day! And then, our boy needs the Tour de France pressure to give his best, so I bet that at the end of July he'll be on the first spot of that famous podium in Paris!'

Attitude 2 (typical of the skeptical supporters who don't like Andy): 'Schleck the Younger has made a big mistake with his Tour preparation this year, even a guy like De Gendt could drop him! Contador will ride much faster than him in July. I mean, Schleck lost 15 minutes from Kruijswijk the other day, if he goes on this way, he won't even be able to end up on the Tour podium in Paris! However, I must admit I'm glad to see that things are going this way. In fact, if he really fails to get on the Tour podium, next year Andy Schleck may decide to focus on more than just one race pro year and that would be great because, right now, he can't be considered a real champion. In fact, real champions are those who always race for winning, not those who bluff in races or race just to train'. 

 

As everyone can see, both the attitudes mentioned above have some weak points. For example, saying that a rider needs 'the Tour pressure' to do well, imo, is non-sense. Especially because, if you're talking about Andy, you must remember that he won Liége in 2009 - and in Liége there isn't the same pressure as in the Tour...

On the other hand, I think it's wrong to say that OGL focuses just on one race pro year. In fact, this year he tried his luck also in Liége and Amstel. Moreover, De Gendt is very talented and not being able to annihilate the gap from him on a climb it's not something to be ashamed of.

In spite of this, however, the thing that annoys me the most is that I think that both these attitudes could be correct. 'Is Andy Schleck bluffing / still training or not?' :That is the question that rings in the mind of every single cycling supporter of the world in these days. And, probably, the only one who owns the answer to this question is Andy Schleck himself.

Personally, I think OGL will be in a perfect shape in the Tour. Anyway, this doesn't prevent me from feeling confused when I look at his TdS's performances. 

The other day on Grosse Scheidegge, for example, Andy showed a really good form and it looked as if he was almost training. But then, as soon as the race for the stage victory began, he decided to disappear. Intentional decision ('I'm bluffing/ I don't want to lose too much energy/ I don't want to feel too strong already in this part of the year') or not? That is the question.

As far as yesterday is concerned, then, OGL entered a breakway, but failed to get the stage victory. 'Things that happen', you may think. Too bad that, imo, if someone wants to bluff, he doesn't enter a breakaway in order to win a stage...

Actually, I must admit that imo the whole 'Andy is bluffing/is just training' theory (which I support) has a worrying side and also a weak point.

First of all: we all know that Andy's been often criticised because he doesn't always race at a very high level during the year. In the past I've often defended this attitude of his ('He can't be in a super shape 12 months of the year! And then, in the last 3 seasons he always had problems that prevented him from keeping regular performances throughout the year') but, if he's really taking part in TdS just in order to bluff / train, well, that would be very disappointing for me. In fact TdS is the most important race in stages after the 3 GTs and, imo, it should be respected. In fact, Andy is just 26 and I don't want him to focus just on the Tour already at this age. Also because, if he starts using races in order to bluff / train at this age, I think many supporters could turn their backs at him very soon.

Back to the 'bluff' theory, then, there's a little doubt that is worrying me in these days. Here it is: if Andy's already in a good shape, why hiding it? I mean: if Andy is in a good condition, wouldn't it be better if he showed it? In that way he'd silence all the critics, he'd respect a race like TdS (making all the supporters happier) and, by getting a good placement in the final GC, he'd probably make his adversaries feel less confident at the start of the Tour. That's the weak point of the 'bluff / training theory' and that is a thing that worries me a lot.

As you can see, the debate around Andy's behaviour in the Swiss race is not just lively - it is also very complex. I think Andy's bluffing / still training, but I don't like this fact. And, at the same time, I have some doubts about why Andy should bluff in such an important race, with 2 weeks to the start of the Tour.

So, here you could read my random, chaotic, confused ideas. And you, what do you think of Andy's behaviour? Is he bluffing / training or is he really having preparation problems?

While waiting to know the answer to all our doubts, I wish you once again a good night.

Little random post about Suisse, France and exams:

Temporarily back from the land of the Hard Studying, miss Fede has finally found the time to leave her 'studi leggiadri' and her 'sudate carte' apart in order to update her blog.

'What? Update your blog? Are you crazy? You have an exam coming up, you should be studying like hell, girl!!'. That's what I hear you, dear readers, scream as you read the first lines of this post. But still, you shouldn't get so nervous about my exam. In fact, today I've done a really good job, since I woke up pretty early (well, early for my standards) and I've spent the last 12 hours of my life studying.

Although it actually took me a lifetime to review Leopardi and Manzoni (damned Promessi Sposi, how can those critics have so many things to say about it?), I'm pretty happy with what I've done so far. And what I've done so far is: the whole Romantic period in Italy, life/death/miracles of the depressing duo Leo & Manzo (those guys couldn't stand each other, isn't that hilarious?) and life/death (especially death) and miracles of Petronius, Seneca and Lucanus. Considering that I wrote a super-detailled scheme of every author I've mentioned above (scheme including all the possible matchings between the different subjects), I think I can be satisfied with what I've done so far.

Talking about the matchings between the different subject: I've recently discovered that I have an amazing ability to match Martin Heidegger to everyone/everything I've studied this year. Isn't that amazing?

Anyway. Let's finally talk cycling. Here you have a little dialogue between me and my sister, which took place at half past six as we watched the final sprint of today's stage of TdS.
Sister: 'The rider who won has lots of muscles'.
Me: 'Yes, I know'.
Sister: 'I don't like men with too many muscles'.
Me: 'Well, sprinters have muscles...'
Sister: 'Yeah, but I prefer climbers. Also Sagan has too many muscles for me. Uhm...Do you know one thing?'
Me: 'What?'
Sister: 'The rider who's won... I've seen his face before. He reminds me a lot of Thor Hushovd. They look a lot to each other, don't they?'
Me: 'Really?'
Sister: 'Yeah, he really looks like Hushovd imo'.
Me: 'Well, perhaps he looks like Hushovd because he actually is Thor Hushovd...'

From this special dialogue you can understand that, even after 8 hours of studying, my brain can still manage to work better than my sister's one. Amazing, isn't it?

Anyway. Tour de Suisse. Andy Schleck lost a big amount of time in the prologue, but he had problems with his bike, so he's justified for that (poor boy, he has a mechanical every time he hops on a bike!). Yesterday however Our Glorious Leader entered a breakaway and worked hard on the final climb, which was very steep (and long). He eventually got dropped, but he did a good training while pulling at the head of the race.

On to another LT rider, Jakob Fuglsang seems in a great shape right now. Yesterday in fact  he was in the breakaway together with Andy and today he's showed us his pretty face at the front of the race once again. Not that I complain, of course.

Jens Voigt looked very good too this afternoon, as he attacked with 4 kms to go. Also O'Grady showed his form in the finale and this is simply great.

Talking about Frank Schleck, instead, he did a great job on the second day of race, but yesterday he didn't attack. Btw, I'm positively impressed by the fact that he hasn't crashed yet in the race.

On to the other riders who are taking part in Tour de Suisse, some of them are already in a super condition. Cunego simply flew over the mountains yesterday, whereas Soler is finally back in shape. Hopefully he won't crash in the next stages.

Young guns like Van Garderen and Mollema are doing well too, whereas Di Luca seems to have gone back to the good old times when he was known as 'the killer'.

De Greef yesterday impressed everyone with his riding style ('He looks like a camel', the Italian chronist kindly said), whereas Leipheimer is always a dangerous threat for the GC. Bakelandts keeps on attacking every day (I wonder, has anyone ever told him that he's not forced to enter a breakaway once every 24 hour?), whereas Sagan has been showing his amazing talent once again.

On to the fast wheels, Zdenek Stybar (if he can be considered a fast wheel...) had a good 8th placement this afternoon, whereas Cavendish got dropped on the last little climb. He doesn't look very thin or is it just my imagination?

Talking about another sprinter, Matti Breschel has finally made it back to the peloton. Welcome back, Matti! We missed you terribly in the last few months!

Talking about another race, you all probably know that a race called Dauphine Libére took place somewhere in France last week. It is always a very good race, always very exciting and full of surprises. This time Contador didn't take part in it, but the Spaniard is going to take part in the Tour anyway. Oh happiness.

The winner of the 2011 edition of Dauphine Libére was Wiggins who, imo, can make it to the Tour's Top 5. I like Bradley, since he's always very ironical and since he's never afraid to speak his mind.

Second in the race was Cadel Evans. Will he finally make it back to his usual GC levels this year?

Third was Vinokourov (*cheerful screams from the members of AAVL*), who would like to win the Tour next month. Imo he can't make it unless Contador, Andy Schleck and other 10 guys all crash out of the race, but I think Vino has great chances of winning at least a stage. Apropos, did you know that he won the Champs Elysées stage a few years ago?

On to another rider, Van Den Broeck showed he's in a great shape and that he can make it to the Tour Top 5. A great surprise in the French race has been Cristophe Kern, winner of a stage and 6th in the final GC. Europcar will have a strong team at the Grande Boucle, since Kern is a teammate of Voeckler.

Talking about other French teams, next month you'd better look out for Coppel and Moncoutie. Moreover, pay attention to AG2R. This team is really growing on me and it has some very interesting young riders. Poor Nicholas Roche, however, was forced to leave Dauphine after a bad crash. Cyclingnews said he might have broken his elbow, but that his Tour partecipation wasn't at risk. Let's hope so!

Another interesting French rider who showed himself to the world last week is Thibaut Pinot. This boy (born in 1990, just like Sagan) won't take part in the Tour, but showed great things in the French race.

Also Bruno Pires from Leopard Trek was very good in Dauphine Libére (19th in the GC), since he rode better than guys like Gesink and Basso. Right now everyone in Italy is very worried for Basso, but you mustn't forget that the poor boy had a bad crash on Etna at the end of May. Also Samu Sanchez and Brajkovic were a bit disappointing, whereas Rodriguez won two great stages.

Talking about Saxo Bank, Chris Anker Sorensen was 11th in the final GC and 2nd on a stage. I'm very proud of him and I'm actually a bit sorry because, now that Contador is taking part in the Tour, Chris will have to work as a helper. 'It's logical!', Logic says, but the heart of a Fangirl is often immune to tactics and team gerarchies.

So, this is all from miss Fede for the moment. Have a good evening, as I go back to my 'mad and desperate studies' (ok, I'm joking: it's bed time also for me). Good night!

Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you...

...happy birthday to Andy, happy birthday to you!!! Let's all raise a (virtual) glass of champagne for Our Glorious Leader and let's hope we'll be able to see him smiling and wearing a yellow jersey (just like in this picture) at the end of July, in Paris!!!

PS: I know I haven't written anything for quite a lot of time, but my 'Maturità' exam starts on the 21st of June and school isn't over yet, so I have a lot of things to do in these days. Moreover, I have to deal with the strange feelings connected to the fact that I finally have to say goodbye to the people I've lived with in the last 5 years.

On the one hand, I'm happy everything is (almost) over, because some of my teachers have the rare quality of upsetting me every time I see them. For example, this morning my classmates and I had prepared a little party for celebrating the last hour of philosophy of our lives: we had brought something to drink, we had prepared cakes and biscuits, we had downloaded lots of songs and we had even downloaded a 'tango' (our teacher loves it and we absolutely wanted to see him dancing). In that hour we should have also talked about the exams and taken pictures with our German mother tongue teacher (which we adore). Unfortunately everything was ruined by our PE teacher, who destroyed all our plans by making us taking part in a stupid theatre play created by ourselves not in the 5th hour (as we had originally planned), but in the 6th one.

Eventually, we finished our show (which was the worst thing we've ever done in all our lives) just 5 minutes before the end of the school day, so that in the following minutes we were too busy tidying the gym and changing our clothes to start eating the cakes and putting on some music. Someone proposed to stay and have the party after the last hour of school, but the janitors didn't agree and the teachers (just like my classmates who had to take the bus) were in a hurry. Therefore our party was actually transformed in a meeting of a few depressed students, terribly angry at their PE teacher and terribly sorry for not having the chance to say 'adieu' properly to their teachers (they all had to abandon the school as soon as the last hour of lesson ended because they had an important meeting right after the last hour of lesson).

On the other hand, however, I feel a bit sorry about the end of high school. Some of my teachers have always been nice to my class and watching our German teacher bursting into tears at the end of her last lesson with us was very moving. Moreover, having to say goodbye to my friends (who are not going to study the same thing as me at university) will be pretty hard too. In addition, I have the feeling that some of my teachers would have liked to teach us more things than they actually did. For example, we started Kafka yesterday and our last German lesson was today, so our teacher was obviously sad about that.

Oh, and talking about my mixed feelings about the end of high school, how can I avoid to mention the fear of the exam? Our Maths teacher abandoned us 3 weeks ago and Maths is featured in the exam; our philosophy teacher will ask us history questions and our Italian teacher will ask us Latin questions. Too bad that our situation in History and Latin is dramatic (for my classmates and I, the cold war never started and Apuleio didn't write anything about Love) :P In addition, the fact of having to talk in Spanish in front of someone that doesn't know me (and whose name is not Denis Menchov :P) really makes me feel uncomfortable. Especially because, knowing myself, I'll end up mixing German and Spanish as I usually do during texts.
But hey, everyone has got over this exam without big shocks and, after it, I'll finally have some time to relax (and to watch the Tour ;) In the meantime, I wish a happy birthday to Andy Schleck once again and I cheer for Sorensen's second place in Dauphine Libére ;)