Last Week of Classes, Fall '11

Ah, the last full week of classes. It was, of course, full of tests. Thank you, KCP. Monday I first had a kanji quiz, another one that I aced. My speech was to be first on Monday, but Kataoka-sensei allowed us to do something else first, kanji, I believe. Once that was over, though, I had no choice but to get up and do my speech. I put on my cat-eared hat, grabbed my sketchbook, and dragged my feet to the front of the room. Once up there, though, it wasn’t so bad. I was able to remember my speech (we had to completely memorize it), and my voice was loud enough to be heard. According to some student reviews, there was a point where I spoke a little quickly, but it went really well overall. My speech was about my adventure in Japan and how I plan to draw a manga illustrating all the insane and interesting happenings in my time here. I explained a few of the potential things I would include, such as karaoke madness, silly conversations with classmates, and my invention of Nyanko no Hikouki. I plan to eventually color the pictures I drew to go along with said speech, and I will make sure I draw more for the manga!

Jil, Junso-san, and Outou-san also had their speeches on Monday. They all seemed a bit nervous, but it went pretty well. ^^ Junso-san didn’t quite remember all of his, poor guy. We practiced our speeches together, so I already knew what his would be about. He spoke of the importance of having all kinds of different experiences (he warned against bad/illegal experiences, which was fairly amusing). Jil’s speech was about the violin, which may be her favorite thing ever. ^^ She loves playing the violin; I hope she gets to bring it back with her, so we can all hear her play! As for Outou-san… ah, right. His speech was about the “mou ichido” tests. Meaning “one more time”, these are retake tests offered to students who fail a test the first time. So, speech out of the way, I was finally able to relax (rirakkusu being the word transcribed to Japanese) as Kataoka-sensei had been telling me to all day. She’s sweet, but she didn’t realize how difficult that was.

Tuesday… a week and a day before finals, and Konno-sensei had us do another sakubun! So mean. This time we had to write (read: attempt) a short story on one page of composition paper with the same opening line. That first sentence basically translated to “Today it is raining.” Great opener, guys. In any case, I wrote down the worst nonsense I’ve ever written. Here’s a terrible synopsis: It was raining. I had plans with a friend after school, but I decided to skip out and go home because of the rain. On the way, though, a body fell from the sky and hit the concrete in front of me. I screamed and ran as fast as I could toward my house but stopped short when I saw the very person who fell, and supposedly died, standing in front of me. Then I woke up, and it was all a dream. I have no idea what spawned such a terrible story, but we only had one page to write, and I wanted to freak out the teacher. Apparently, it worked. XD When we got them back again, there was a note saying she was glad it was a dream because it was scary. So funny.

Wednesday, another test. Grammar this time. I know I got a good grade on it, but can’t remember exactly what it was. It was our last class with Okada-sensei, as he only taught us on Wednesdays, and the following one was the final. I don’t remember too much about class that day, but afterward, Jil and Duke had their oral exams for the semester. This is only for US program students. Each student is assigned a time slot to have a conversation with a teacher who isn’t one of their regulars. Jil was scheduled for 5pm and Duke for 5:15. I waited in the lounge with a coffee and attempted to do homework. Failed. There were some students from a higher level in the lounge, and I ended up talking with them. It was fun. ^^ Jil returned, and she thought she did okay on her exam. Jess was there for a bit too, and I believe she said she had Saitou-sensei, and that it went well. Duke returned to say that he had fun speaking with the teacher.

Thursday was my turn for the oral exam. I was a bit of a nervous wreck during class, I have to admit. I was convinced I would be paired with a certain teacher who didn’t think I belonged in level 3 at the beginning of the semester. Luckily, that was not the case. I spoke with a teacher I did not know, Takahashi-sensei. She was very kind, and I hope I did well. I felt like certain questions were rather difficult to answer in either Japanese or English. Then there came a point where she told me to ask her questions. I had no idea what to ask. I went with something simple like what her favorite part about teaching is. I asked some other questions, but I don’t really remember what they were. I was too frazzled for that. When it was finally over, I excused myself and ran downstairs to the lobby. Duke and Jil waited for me, even though I told them they didn’t have to do that. XP I thanked them, though, and I think I ended up with another soda. -_-;;;

Friday was the last test of the week, wooooo. Being as I’ve slacked off on this blog of mine over break, I seem to have forgotten what happened in class that day… x.x If I find any info in my notebook later, I’ll add it. After class… well, we returned to the dorm to drop things off, etc. Then Duke and I went out to eat at Saizeriya’s. We chatted about random things, whatever came to mind, really. Dinner was great, but I was unable to finish my pasta. I was so sad about that. XD We finished dinner with far too much time before the movie we planned to go see, so the two of us walked around Sunshine City for a little while. I do believe we stopped in the Book Off there to look around for CDs and the like. I bought a couple souvenirs for friends back home (not telling what or for whom XP).

Book Off was followed by the movie theater. ^^ We saw Real Steel with Hugh Jackman; it was a cute movie. Pretty silly for the most part. We had fun reading the Japanese subtitles to see how the lines were translated to Japanese. XD Some of the translation was a bit amusing. It was also pretty great that the kid in the movie used a few Japanese words at one point. Took everything I had not to burst into laughter. It was accurate Japanese, but too funny that the movie used it. XD We had a good time, even without getting giant sodas and popcorn. Well, reason for that was they weren’t available: popcorn was prepackaged, and sodas were bottled, I think. So we decided against that. Once the movie was finished, we headed back to the dorm. I grabbed Duke’s book bag from the common room, as it was after 10, meaning he wasn’t allowed inside. He had to go home to his host family then, so I went upstairs to see Jil and then head to my own room.

All who want to hit me for my terrible storytelling here, I laugh at you because you cannot. XD And for anyone who wants to complain about it, send me an email, and I will read it and likely laugh still. But I will respond. XD

That’s all for now. I’ll try to catch up to this semester soon.