And breathe...

[wildeabandon]

Oh look, once again it's been forever since I posted. Since my last update I got hit by another rather tough challenge, albeit this time largely self-inflicted, when my application for Belgian residency got turned down because I was a bit late with some of the paperwork. This led to a certain amount of panic, but fortunately I had just enough visa free days left in the EU after my provisional residency card expired that by returning to London and missing the last week of lectures (most of which were fortunately recorded and made available online), and shifting some of my exams around so they were all the same week, I was able to take them all.

I got my results on Wednesday. No perfect 20s this time, but two 19s, two 18s, and four 17s, which gives me almost exactly the same 89% average as the first semester's rather wider spread. The highest accolade available at KU Leuven (summa cum laude, with the congratulations of the examination committee) kicks in at 90%, so I need to slightly up my game next year, but now that I've got a much clearer idea of what's expected of me I think that it should be achievable, especially if I don't have quite so many curveballs to deal with as I did this semester.

One of favourite modules this semester was Syriac II, where instead of an exam we had to produce a portfolio, the largest part of which was a translation of a portion of a text chosen in consultation with the professor. I did a part of the "Syriac History of Joseph", which retells the story of Genesis 37-39 with various additions. I enjoyed doing this sufficiently that, having done the first three pages for my portfolio, I am going to try and do the remaining 16 over the summer. The same professor is teaching Coptic next year, which is not a language I realised I was interested in learning (nor, for that matter, was Syriac), but he's such a great teacher that I'm really looking forward to it.

I'm now back in London for the whole summer, which hadn't been the original plan, but I am enjoying seeing more of obandsoller and looking forward to doing so even more when he emerges from the pile of marking and admin that accompanies the end of term for the teachers, when we students have finished our exams and are enjoying sitting on our laurels...

Comments

[angelofthenorth]

Good to have you back over here! and well done.

[wildeabandon]

Thank you :)

[barakta]

Lovely to hear how you got on. 89% in a new country, with curveballs AND with autism/ADHD is REALLY impressive even for a clever sod like you who has Adult Working Hard/Enjoying it strategies.

I hope you have a lovely summer and you can wrangle visas safely (Fuck Brexit and all that).

[wildeabandon]

Thank you. It feels like a fair reflection of the combination of a level of natural aptitude which is basically pure luck, and the bloody hard work I put in over the year. And it's nice to have the confidence to be able to look back and say that - neither feeling hard done by, nor beating myself up for not having worked just that little bit harder or smarter.

I'm reasonably confident that getting a new visa for next year will be fairly straightforward - and this time I already have all the documents I need for the residence permit, so that bit will be smoother.

[judiff]

Those are really good marks - you are Awesome.
Hope you have a really good and like hopefully relaxing summer.

Do you write in Syriac Script or “just” read it (which is still like super impressive and not a just at all). All of the three main variations look like calligraphicaly interesting (just from like a quick googling I think I like the Serto variant best) Is it weird adapting to writing that goes from right to left?

[wildeabandon]

I can /type/ in Syriac script ܐܰܝܟ ܗܳܕܶܐ (that says 'like this' - pronounced ak hāḏē), and in fact one part of the portfolio was to typeset a page of a manuscript. But I avoid handwriting more than the odd word or two, because I am terrible at it. We learned in Serto script originally, so it's the one I find easiest to read in many ways, but East Syriac has an extra vowel (distinguishing between short and long e), which is helpful.

I think when I first started learning Hebrew the right to left took a little bit of getting used to, but less than I would have expected, and now it feels pretty much second nature.

[the_elyan]

Glad to hear you got your visa sorted, and the first year has gone well. I hope to be in and out of London a few times over the next few weeks, usually on Mondays, so let me know if you would fancy meeting up for lunch.
No idea if of interest, or if can be done closer to hone, but if you want to see some ancient biblical fragments in Coptic, the Chester Beatty in Dublin is well stocked with them.