The World Game vs Exams - 1-2 exams' way

Dear god (I really should say Buddha, or Unknown Cosmic Force, depending on what phase I happen to be in), like most other students, I hate exams. Thank heavens that I've done two out of three of them!
I know I shouldn't whine, because my comrades have an exam every day starting Tuesday, their last one for the week being earlier today. I feel glad that I actually managed to pass Microbiology last year - I avoided a second 8am lesson and a Tuesday exam.

Wednesday - the day of my first exam and a whole field of laughs pre-exam. I wake up late, realising I had forgotten to properly set my alarm, bound out and am ready to go by 0830 hours - teeth brushed, showered, shaved, clean clothes, liquid breakfast. I arm the alarm and rush out of the house. I quickly start up the car, reverse it out onto the driveway, only to find that I hadn't realised that my mum was still in the house when I armed the alarm system. I drive out behind her car, toot the horn, and then she has to come out to the front to clear the driveway. She comes out, and feeling lazy, simply gives me the keys while she finishes her beauty treatment, demonstrating herself as one of those types of women who take forever to get ready. So, not much time left, I squeeze into her car, drive it out across the (busy) street, taking care not to cause accidents with (parents of) late Wilderness students, before quickly getting in and zooming off in my car after clearing the driveway. Great - I lose ten minutes. I am told later that my mum didn't realise that I had armed the alarm system, and it went off about ten minutes or so after I left, and she was left to explain to the security man that it was a misunderstanding.
Feeling that I could try to take a shortcut and avoid the traffic, I decide to try driving all the way up and around the Adelaide CBD, driving onto Greenhill Road to the Showgrounds for my exam. Unfortunately, many others had the same idea, resulting in twenty minutes of stop-and-go. Lots of fun.
I end up arriving ten minutes late and five minutes into reading time.

I feel that I studied better this time around (plus a better grasp of the course material and the SRB teacher's tendency to recycle half of last year's exam), because this time, I actually did the questions and knew how to do most of them, unlike last year. Looking back, I feel that somehow I've grown. Maybe, at least, I've developed better study skills.

The World Cup is on, and like many others in this great country we call Australia, I've gone World Cup mad. Granted, I probably went a bit mad about the world game a few days prior to the Australia vs Japan game. I wonder if it was the fact that I played soccer in high school (albeit with a less-than-sterling performance). In any case, I've been one of those nutters who have been getting up at ungodly times of the night to watch the live telecasts of the Australian match - much to my brother's annoyance.

The game Australia vs Japan I was going for both sides, so when Japan scored that first goal, I shouted out "Nihon banzai!" This woke my dad, who didn't know what the hell was going on, and annoyed my brother. I similarly cheered when Australia scored their goals, screaming "YEAH!" at the top of my lungs and punching the air.

The game vs Brazil was obviously more tame, but I was still going "go go go!" whenever the Aussies were scoring and looked like they were going to shoot, or whining at the ref. Honestly, the ref was showing such obvious bias in that game.

The Australia vs Croatia match this morning ... it was just a glorious game. Hard fought on both sides, shots here and there (mostly down the Croatian end of the field), and the fact that it was at 4:30am just annoyed my brother - he told me later that he got woken up by me shout of triumph when Craig Moore scored the first goal, and then just as he was getting back to sleep, I noisily come up and brush my teeth at half-time. Then my cheers at Australia's scores later on annoyed him further on, to the point where he just gave up trying to sleep. The ref was just so stupid though - as many have complained, just missing things like a very obvious penalty, awarding three yellow cards before red-carding, although I have to admit, his bad reffing meant that Harry Kewell's equalising goal wasn't disallowed, so I suppose it's not all bad.

GO AUSSIE GO!!