The Glare

Nothing much happened today, so this will probably be another boring post of my daily routine. My life can't be exciting everyday, Jim >_>

I didn't get out of bed till 11, which turned out to be a bad idea cause I had class at 12:15. I was most definitely not ready on time and biked really fast to get there on time. Which I almost did, it was like 12:18 when I walked in. Good enough. I had Japanese speaking and grammar today. Which went fairly well. For some reason every time the teacher calls on me, even if I know exactly where we are and what we're doing, I seem to freak out and babble like a moron. Well it wasn't that bad, I just stumbled a few times and would forget where we were on the worksheet as soon as I was called on. They must think I can't speak well at all. Oh well, my teachers today are nice so I didn't mind. They didn't give me The Glare or anything. I have to work on not stumbling when I'm called on.

I was able to understand most of what both teachers said today, and I was doing pretty well in reading and vocab too. I just realized how much I've learned in just the last two weeks or so (mostly from studying on my own), so that definitely makes me feel good. It makes me realize how much better I'll be in a year. Of course, every time I feel like I'm finally starting to get it, I somehow manage to get myself in a situation where I try to listen and understand, and can't make out anything. There's still a long way to go.

I came straight home after class, cause I had to write my Japanese essay for tomorrow. It was on the good and bad points of internet shopping. It took me a few hours, but it wasn't too bad. The thing I like about these writing assignments, is that they're open ended which gives me the freedom to experiment with whatever grammatical patterns I want. I like to stay away from very simple grammar in writings like this, and instead try to experiment with new vocab, verbs, and grammar patterns I don't know as well in order to see if I'm using it all correctly. It's one of the best ways I learn new vocab. Even if it's wrong, at least I learned. Better to get a lower grade and have learned something than an A for easy grammar. I wish they didn't grade on our every mistake because of that. It encourages people to stick only with what they're comfortable with. Our writing teacher is really the only access we have to a Japanese native speaker who can correct our work. I wish we had access to other Japanese students for such help. Yes, I know I have my tutor and I could very well ask her, but she always extremely busy and I'm sure I wouldn't be penciled in till next week or something.

One of the students from California, Amanda, came over to eat dinner with Tori and me today. She's the one that likes The Office, so we watched that. We (well mostly them, cause my cooking skills are rather limited) cooked some noodles with carrots and onions and tofu. It was good. Tofu no longer grosses me out for some reason. I find it quite tolerable. Perhaps it's because as far as weird food here goes, it's quite low on the list. I've become quite adjusted to things here that I'm sure if anyone from America visited me, they would find utterly repulsive. For one, I no longer have any inhibitions about getting naked in front of other girls anymore. I'm quite relaxed on the foul toilet now. I've gotten used to going to the bathroom in a hole in the ground. And even though it's really gross, I don't seem to care. It only gets cleaned maybe once every 2 weeks, and by the end of that period it is quite coated in grime and other... nasty things. Although don't get me wrong, if I see a western toilet or a nice bathroom, I'm using it for sure. I still haven't gotten over the spiders though. I try not to think about it really. Just pretend they don't exist. Tons of spiders like to sit right on the ceiling of the little overhang in front of the doors of my building, since they're covered from rain, so I have to walk under like 10 spiders every time I go in my building. It's so gross. Thankfully the cleaning lady came today and knocked them all down. I hope it gets cold soon... then the evil creatures will die. Die.