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!
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
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.
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.
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