3rd Week of Classes- Tests and Shopping for BBQ

I had assumed Monday would be a terrible day from the get go. I had two tests for which I'd barely had time to study, and I was in a lot of physical pain. Don't ask what it was, because anyone who knows me, knows. In an attempt to counter this sure to be horrible day, I got up early to continue studying and finish the homework we had over the weekend. However, in the middle of studying I had to curl into a ball from the agony my body was causing me. I was more than thrilled when Jess came in to make breakfast, as that meant I could take my Motrin. I didn't even care that breakfast was scrambled eggs, which I don't like at all. Anything to fill my stomach. I stuffed my face and popped some pain killers to prepare for the day.

We arrived at school somewhat earlier than necessary, and I used the time to try to study more. I was nervous about the tests, but I felt I could pass. Good thing, too, because I couldn't concentrate on studying in Kato-sensei's English support class that day. I instead drew pictures of girls with pigtails in my notebook in an effort to make Duke also unable to study, heh. I'm a terrible person. Apparently pigtails aren't fair, especially low ones that drape over the shoulders. I was highly entertained. Dana not so much; she kept telling me I should be studying. I hope she wasn't offended by my lack of concentration. -_-;;;

The kanji quiz wasn't that bad, really. I knew right away that I only got two wrong. The annoying part is that they were only half wrong. I knew one kanji out of the two in each word, but if you don't get the whole word correct, then it's wrong. Oh well. That test turned out to be a 90 though. We also got back the grammar test from the previous week. 92, which would've been better if I'd paid attention to the two sentences using past tense, not present. I've made a note to always double check such things from now on. Class wasn't too agonizing, and I got all A's on my speaking quiz at the end. I made one mistake, and Kataoka-sensei complimented my accent. ^^ Turns out the day wasn't as bad as I'd thought it would be. Thank goodness!

Tuesday we had Konno-sensei again. And thankfully this week we didn't have to do compositions. We did, however, receive the ones from the previous week. I was terrified by all the red marks on my paper, but when I saw the grade on the attached sheet, I was able to relax. It was a B-. We were told to correct the mistakes in a rewrite on new composition paper, and turn it in on Thursday.

Instead of writing at the end of class, we had to watch a muted scene on a DVD from the textbook, and make conversations out of it. It was pretty terrible. In the scene, clearly two businessmen who were friends met up and then went out to a bar. They chatted and then prepared to leave. Konno-sensei had three pairs try to do their conversations in time with the DVD. It was so bad, but oh so funny. After the 2nd pair had gone, the teacher asked who wanted to go next, to which Teiyan-san (one of the Korean students, whose name I'm spelling the way it's pronounced in Japanese) responded by pointing at me. He and Junso-san make a habit out of teasing me in class. Duke says they are flirting with me. I say they are evil. Regardless, my partner and I had to do the dialogue. It was pretty bad, but at least he threw in some entertaining lines. The two men pictured in the film were balding, so he commenting on my character not having any hair. Then when they were at the bar, he ranted about fighting with his wife and having to sleep on the sofa. I did not speak nearly as much as he did, though. Everyone had a good laugh, at least.

Wednesday we had another test, this time grammar. I'm not sure how I did, and I won't know until Monday, so here's hoping I get a good grade. Other than that, school wasn't too interesting that day. However, after class we all went to Shaky's again for all you can eat pizza. It was, of course, a blast. This time I got the large soda with no ice. Best idea ever. The guys, on the other hand, were having an eating contest. The winners, whom I think were Matt and Jay, ate over 20 slices. It was gross, but at least they sat at the other end of the row. I, conversely, enjoyed geeking out about Pokemon games with Duke, Jil, and Jess. We chatted about move limitations and what types sucked and why. Ah, I love it when others get what I'm talking about.

We went to an arcade after dinner. I'm not sure if anyone actually played any games, as I was too busy staring in either horror or amazement at prizes in the unending lines of crane machines. Some prizes were adorable, whereas others should not have been displayed in public places easily accessed by children. We didn't stay too long, and we got ice cream from a convenience store on the way home. Also, we passed through a park, and I decided that I had to play a little. I walked up and down wooden ladders suspended by chains, and then I climbed across a rope bridge. It was fun. I shall have to return during the day sometime to see if there exist monkey bars at that park.

Thursday was a fairly uneventful day in class, but there were adventures afterward! Duke and I raced to the vending machine to get cocoa. I won, but fell over in the process, reaching up triumphantly (although it may have looked pitiful) to hit the button for cocoa. He did, however, succeed in buying one for Jil. I wasn't sure what exactly we needed cocoa for that day, but whatever. Jess left ahead of us to get home and prepare for shopping with her classmates for the BBQ, while we waited for one more and spoke with a few other classmates about who would get what. We decided that Jil and I would accompany Duke to the supermarket for ground beef and burger buns.

Dropping our things off at the dorm, we were joined by Matt to head out shopping. We bought the beef  at the usual market, but wanted to look for real hamburger buns, so we had more stops to make. We put the beef away first and decided to walk to another super market. There we found plenty of good things, strawberry pocky in my case, but no buns. There was another super market somewhat nearby, but someone decided that it would be a good idea to go to Book Off, a great place to get manga and the like for cheap. As soon as we walked in, we found my favorite series, Ookiku Furikabutte (Big Windup! is the English title). It was a collection of the 16 volumes out thus far for a total of 4000yen. That's about $50 for 16 volumes, or approx. $3 a book. Heck yeah, I bought that! Sure, it's in Japanese, but these aren't available in the US because no company has decided to translate it (at least not yet). Also, it should be good for reading practice. I found what I wanted, but we browsed for quite some time before taking our spoils back to the dorm.

We did finally find burger buns at the third super market, but there were only eight. Thus, we decided to make some normal burgers and some small ones to be eaten on the dinner rolls. We returned to the dorm once more and formed the patties, placing them in plastic containers. Duke returned to his host family, while Jil helped me straighten my hair for the barbecue. She, Dana, and I had decided to make it a pigtails day as a bit of a social experiment. We wanted to see just how unfair they were to the guys. Heh.

Perhaps at a more decent hour I will continue with Friday's event: the BBQ. For now, though, I need sleep. Night, everyone!