End of Semester: Final, Fun, and Farewells

Now where did I leave off… Ah, right, the weekend before the final. I know there was meant to be studying, but I’m not sure how much of that I actually did. I feel like a lot of nothing happened that weekend. Monday and Tuesday we had regular class, finishing up what we were meant to learn for the semester and doing some review as well. Our sakubun from the previous week was returned, and any tests we had taken the previous week were also given back to us. I did well on everything, even the strange sakubun story, hooray! Other than that, all I really remember about the few nights before the final was that I was a total wreck, with no idea how I would be able to remember all the kanji or study the readings for the final. It didn’t help that it was a bad time to be a girl those days, either. I can probably blame my worrying so much on that, in all honesty.

The day of the final came at last, and I was still terribly worried that I would not do well. I was unable to study at all the previous night, I was so stressed out. Despite having not studied very much, that whole morning I wished it would be time for the test already. The waiting was driving me insane.

Just like with the midterm, the final began with sakubun. This time we had to write about something or someone for which/whom we were thankful. I chose to write about my Pop Pop, because he really is wonderful, and I am so grateful to have his support while I am here in Japan. He is always there with a helping hand; I don’t know what I would do without him. Normally the sakubun section would really drain me of my energy, but that particular one actually made me feel much better to write. Maybe it was because it reminded me that I need to put more effort into my work here, if only because my family does so much for me to stay. ^^

The sakubun was followed by the listening section, which I thought was okay at the time. I have since learned that my grade was not as good as I thought it would be, but it wasn’t terrible either. I managed to mostly breeze through the reading section, leaving nothing blank, which was a great improvement from the midterm. Next up was grammar, bunpou, and that was the easiest part of all. When I finished, I must have gone over the double-sided sheet four more times to make sure there were no obvious errors. It confused me that I still had time left, but I tried to wait patiently for the last portion of the final to begin. I was pumped and ready for the kanji section, so much that leaving a few blanks did not even faze me. I knew that once I turned in that sheet of paper, I would be free from tests for three weeks! I all but bolted out of the room when I finished and skipped down the stairs to join the other students there and wait for everyone else. When joined by the others from my class, we all agreed that the final was not as difficult as we thought it would be.

We hung around for awhile to chat and confirm our plans for the night before heading to the 8th floor to attend the end of the semester ceremony for those US students who were leaving KCP. Duke, Jil, and I went to show our support for our friends, specifically Zach, Jason, and Ashley. There were several other students, too, and each of them had to give a speech. Many of them had a difficult time with it, but they did their best, and I hope they are able to continue their studies back home. ^^ My favorite speech was definitely Zach’s. XD In his speech, he declared that our class had four teachers, not three. The forth one was Duke, haha! Or “Mashuu-sensei,” as all the other students, and even some of the teachers, call him (Mashuu being the Japanese pronunciation of the name Mathieu). Teachers and staff gave speeches as well during the little ceremony. Those were rather entertaining, especially Michiko-san’s introductory word, “hi”. She’s so great. XD One of the students used the term “level up” in her speech, and so some of the teachers took to using that to describe the students’ progress in Japanese. Hilarious. XD

When everyone finished, there were snacks, and students and teachers conversed for awhile. I was finally able to talk somewhat normally with Anraku-sensei! ^-^ I still felt rather nervous around her, but I was able to communicate everything I wanted to say. On a random, silly note, at some point I heard my name in another conversation, one between Michiko-san and Duke. I asked what was being said about me, and the dummy had the nerve to say “nothing”. I called him out on the lie, and he admitted to it but still wouldn’t tell me what they were saying. I have since found out that Anraku-sensei asked Michiko-san to ask Duke if he and I were dating. I found it highly amusing that she was curious enough to have someone else ask for her. To answer any potential questions about this, his answer was no. XP In any case, we had some snacks (Jil and I had cake with strawberries on top :D), and after a short while we were on our way to celebrate the end of the semester in our own way! ^^

First, as per popular vote by the guys, we went to Shakey’s for all you can eat pizza. That was such a bad idea. There were too many of us, so we were split into two groups. And by two groups I mean Duke and I sat downstairs, and everyone else fit together upstairs. -_-; When we discovered that two people would be separate from the group, it was clear I would be one of them. The question was whether Jil or Duke would be sitting with me. We stood around asking each other who was sitting where for a few minutes before deciding that we were being a nuisance and should just sit down already. Thus, we took our seats and ate some pizza. Much to my dismay, I was not able to eat more than a few slices. I did finish my soda, though. XD

After Shakey’s, a few people left the group, and those of us who were left went to an Izakaya (Caitlin, Jay, Jason, Matt, Duke, Jil, and myself). We spent a lot of time there, having a few drinks and appetizers. Some of the group had eaten too much at Shakey’s and felt a little ill after drinking, and we decided never to combine the two in the same night again. I hadn’t eaten too much, so I stuffed my face with fries and tried a couple of different drinks. While we hung out and talked, a really terrible drama (read: soap opera) played on the television near our table. The acting was so bad that we couldn’t help but make fun of it, and Duke informed us that his host family watched the show. Haha! Perhaps more interesting than that, though, was the rowdy group of Japanese people sitting a few tables over from us. They drank quite a bit, it seemed, as they stumbled and dropped things, laughing loudly throughout all of it. We got a good laugh out of that, ourselves.

The Izakaya was far from being the end of the night! After that, Jay returned to the dorm, but the rest of us went out for all night karaoke! XD Best all night karaoke ever. And it was the last one we got to have with Jason. We sang soooooooo many great songs; I only wish we had these kinds of karaoke places back home the way Japan does. We sang more songs in English than usual this time around: Caitlin picked a few Lady Gaga songs, I think. I did a Bowling for Soup song, myself. XD Caitlin’s only Japanese song was “If You’re Happy and You Know It” in Japanese. (Random funny note: Microsoft Word wanted me to change “you’re” to “you is”. I am appalled. XD) It was great. Of course, we were all ridiculously exhausted by 5am, and we slowly trudged back toward the dorm.

I crawled into my bed at about 6am, still in my coat, and slept until somewhere between 10 and 11am. I immediately jumped up to get ready to see off Jil and Duke, who were headed home that day. By the time I was up and out the door, Duke had already arrived at the dorm from his host family’s house. It wasn’t long before Jil came down with her suitcase, and it was time to go. We were joined by two other students who were leaving that day as well. I walked along with them, helping carry a suitcase. I ended up travelling all the way to the airport with them, despite it being about a 1.5 hour trip. I wanted to go, because I knew it would be awhile before I could see Jil and Duke again. Also, it allowed me to see how I would get to where I needed to go for my trip with Jess to South Korea. The goodbyes were sad, as they tend to be, and I sulked back to the train to return to my dorm room.

I sat on the train, bored out of my mind for the whole ride. I had brought along my DS to play a game, but even that wasn’t entertaining me. When I did get back to the dorm, I was fairly tired. I waved to Jess, and the “new” guys in the dorm. They were already students at KCP, but they switched living arrangements to the Ikebukuro dorm, and that turned out to be their move-in day. I chatted for a little bit with them before retiring to my room. I ate for the first time all day (it was about 6pm, I think), and my stomach was certainly grateful for the food. I don’t really remember doing much else that night, but I went to bed early for some much needed rest.

That’ll be all for this post. I’ll add more later!