Compositions... Fail.

Tuesday's class started out just fine, with the hilarity of Konno-sensei. Several times throughout class, she felt the need to feel my nails, as the confetti nail polish gave them a funny texture. That made me giggle like crazy. Another time Konno-sensei walked by my desk, she pointed at my clock with the skull cover and started humming the Pirates of the Caribbean theme, which amused everyone.

Also on this day, we decided what our class would make for the school BBQ, to be held on Oct 28th in a park. Each class has a different time slot, so we only have to make enough for our class, but we of course have to buy the food ourselves. We split into groups of nationality, with my group being the North Americans (Duke is Canadian, so he does not wish to be grouped as an American). We decided that the simplest thing for us to do would be to make burgers, because that's what Americans eat at a BBQ. Perhaps we'll bring some kind of chips too? Anyway, the Korean kid who sat next to me that day, Junso, demanded burgers. He also said he wants to eat them all. Funny guy. XD

That was all fun, but the assignment for the last portion of class almost killed me. Composition. Composition paper here is a large sheet of paper with several rows of equally sized squares. One character takes up one square. Other rules apply as well, which I knew already. The first line is the title of the composition, and the first three squares are left blank. On the second line, the author's name is written such that the last character of the name is one square away from the end of the row. The actual writing starts on the third line, and one space is left blank as an indentation for a new paragraph. The problem with this style of writing is, if you notice a mistake later on, you have to either start over or erase everything from the mistake onward. This wouldn't be a huge problem if you knew exactly what you were writing ahead of time or if we were permitted to finish as homework, but it needed to be handed in before leaving class.

Our topic for this composition was something that holds memories for us. Rather broad, don't you think? I had no clue what to write about. I sat there rattling my brain for something, anything I could write a full page about. Junso-san kept telling me to just lie about anything. That was pretty funny, but even if I made something up, I still had no clue what to write. Eventually, Konno-sensei came over and tried to give me some ideas. I just picked Halloween and wrote some nonsense about how every year it reminds me of how I used to celebrate it as a kid and all that jazz. As a grammar-fixing, paper-editing freak, I wanted to bash my head into a wall at the terrible paragraphs I wrote. But there was just no way I was going to start over and try again. I was running out of time, and when I thought I was finished, I was told I needed to write enough to fill the whole page. Thus, I erased my makeshift ending sentence and continued to ramble nonsense until I finally wrote enough to turn in the horrid assignment.

I was already at least 20minutes late in leaving the class, and the teacher stopped me to ask if I'd received the kanji textbook. She wanted me to sign a sheet to show that I did receive one, but I was so flustered at the time, my brain was not processing the simple Japanese she used. It took a few minutes for me to pull out the text and sign the paper. Then I all but fled down the stairs, bright red from embarrassment. I met up with Jill and Jess, and I think my upset look startled Jess. I explained that my head felt like it was about to explode, and she offered some Tylenol, which I gratefully accepted. I explained to her and Jill what happened, and thankfully Jill had the same problem. Clearly her brain was fried too. I practically chucked my books into my backpack in anger at my stupidity. Konno-sensei most likely thinks I'm a moron. Oh well, maybe I can redeem myself on Friday when I have class with her again.

We talked a bit more, until Jill reminded Duke that he said he'd take her to a place where she could get a photo made for her school ID, because the ones she initially brought were too big. We all headed out together, and Duke told us the entertaining story of how he offered to show Jill the place. Apparently, Michiko-san overheard their conversation, and Duke's Japanese speaking sounded to her like he was proposing. She told him he should get down on one knee for that, and Duke was insanely confused. So the next time he "proposes", he will do it right. He told us what he said, and it didn't sound to weird to us, but what do we know? -_-;;;

In any case, Jill got her pictures, and we returned to the dorm, only to go out searching for hamburger buns. On Sunday, we'd purchased ground beef with the intent of making burgers for ourselves, as Jess and I miss them terribly. However, on the way, Jess saw a sign at the McDonald's saying that the Big Mac was on sale, so we caved and decided to eat there. We each got the medium sized set, which came with plenty of fries, but the soda was tiny. Weirdos. I've never enjoyed fries from McDonald's so much in my life. The sandwich, though, was odd. One, it was smaller than a Big Mac in America. Two, there was no ketchup on it, so I had to go back to the desk to ask for it. There were pickles, onions, and some honey mustard type sauce on the sandwich. I didn't care. I ate it all like the fat kid that I am at heart, despite not liking any of those things on a burger (or at all, if we're talking pickles). The taste didn't really bother me, surprisingly enough. It was a good experience, though, as the atmosphere is totally different from home. Classical music played in the background, and the customers quietly ate while working on laptops or texting on their phones. Nothing like at home, where there are screaming children. Interesting.

Our bellies filled, we left for the super market to continue our search for hamburger buns! I think the Japanese hate burgers, by the way. We could find hot dog rolls. We found a pack of rolls that included 2 hamburger buns and 3 hot dog rolls. What the heck. We don't want hot dogs, darn it! What is wrong with burgers??? Do we have to ask McDonald's to sell them to us? Whoa, getting carried away here. We decided to buy a bag of butter rolls that would only be big enough for sliders. Tiny burgers we shall have! And I hope these rolls are okay for them. I suppose I'll eat it either way, though. And that's the story of Tuesday. Ttfn!