Anyway, going to gradually push more and more previous entries out, I have recently started the next semester and I've been the busiest I have ever been in my entirely here (possibly my whole life) with things. I finally decided to settle on the matter of my love life, but I haven't gotten a chance to confess to the person yet. I've always said in the past my Japanese wasn't good enough for confessing, nor was perfect enough to not make a mistake during confession, but I decided (with also my finishing reading Who Moved My Cheese? that Professor Glen gave me) that I should push for change that I wanted for a while now; to experience a relationship here. Now, I have had TONS of people give me various advice, some from the very supportive, to the "you're should only focus here on your studies". But, what makes this experience better is with friends and possibly a girlfriend. I'll also try to avoid what a previous student did and not use my girlfriend as a crutch for Japanese, but support in getting to learn and getter better at Japanese (that and teach her English, because most girls I know want to learn that or American culture). I currently have two girls on my mind (similar to a situation that happened before I left), but the only thing really stopping me is I have to ask one of my guy friends how I go about asking a girl if she has a boyfriend already or not. Many girls at Hakuoh seem to have boyfriends, but I think the idea of saying you have a boyfriend already to politely turn down a guy seems to be lost here, but I think it's possible it is used as an excuse somewhere. But, I am almost certain the two girls I like are currently not taken. That's not to say they aren't attractive by any means. Mitsue was voted "most moe" (moe meaning kawaii or "cute" used usually by otaku) by fellow kyudo club members.
But, yeah, things haven't been better. My work has gotten more hectic as I agreed to improve a student's current lesson by now constructing dialog for the book-supplemented class. It's not THAT hard, but it's just something that adds to the pot. I have it about 50% done, not considering that I've constructed a grammar or vocab list for the vocab. School is crazy, but not that crazy. Learning about World history in two different classes in Japanese. Which day is the hardest? Monday of course. The business seminar class I am taking is pretty tough and is class that I don't understand the most in (about 30% to 40% understanding on average versus 70% or more in other classes' averages). But, all my classes are fun or interesting for me to continue to take them.
I wonder everyday how I am going to get stuff home, because it seems I always purchase another thing that just takes up room. Recently I decided to purchase a EEEPC, a product from ASUS computer corporation. It's ultra-light and will do good when I want to use a computer on a long train ride (which is never, my DS and MP3 work just fine), but it can be used when I want a computer at school, but my main computer is too big to lug around all day (being at 17", it's insane compared to normal Japanese laptops). I basically have procured in my half-year so far: a compact notebook computer, another external harddrive, a Japanese keitai (cellphone), mp3 player, about 60 volumes of manga, about 50 or so anime figurines, more clothes (including a junbei, traditional clothes for kyudo practice, and soon to be kimonos), a Japanese PS2 (with about 10 games). That's a list of all I want to take back however. Probably should get looking into it. I get called here by people whom seen my room "okanemochi" (rich) because I have all of this stuff and I feel kind of bad about it, especially considering the situation the taiwanese are in with finances. I wasn't always "well off" (probably one of the worse off initionally going into Hakuoh in the spring) but found out about a scholarship I received before I came to Hakuoh. I would get into personal details about how I feel personally about the program, but I'll save that for another entry of importance.
Anyway, next week has many things going on. Wednesday at work, I impliment the kaiwa (dialogs) with Mrs. Miyoko with hopefully good response while I also have to give an introduction in English/Japanese for a video and have a lesson (Hamaguchi's) slightly filmed for a promotion for the language school. On Saturday, Kou-san and I are going to the Tokyo Game Show in Chiba Tokyo. This will be hopefully incredibily exciting and is something I am looking forward to this week. Doubtful much interesting things will be annouced here (maybe more information about the DSi that was just announced last week; I also want to know what the hell is up with a Monster Hunter game for the Wii that will never probably make it to America) however. Sunday, Tomo, the taiwanese, and I will go up to Nasu (i.e. Kuroiso, a place I haven't been to since Golden Week in May), and I am also looking forward to that.
See you all later!
Edit: I promise to add photos to this entry tomorrow! Just too busy right now....
~Samuraikurisu
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5 comments:
Start shipping stuff home now, seriously. You'll probably get a lot of going-away gifts from club members and such, and it'll take up more space than you might expect.
Also... I gotta ask. How did you end up finding out about the Free-Ride scholarship? Because Keleih and I were never informed of it at all, and in fact when we tried to ask about scholarships, we were kind of brushed aside. And... well, if we're being totally honest, we were kind of wondering how you managed to score that instead of anyone else. I mean, it's a lot of money a month, and it's not like you had the most fantastic academic record going in, either. O_o So what's up?
Yeah, I am also looking into if having another bag would be a bit cheaper then sending other stuff home. Maybe not.
I found out from a random email from Yonogi within (I'm not kidding) less than a week before I was going to go to Japan. I wonder how you asked about scholarships for this particular program because it's a totally different process over here for them rather than the states anyway. The recommendation system (selecting a student) is different. As why they chose me over keleih (because the scholarship was for people staying one year), I still don't know. On paper, Keleih had a better track record than I did, but even when I APPLIED for scholarships, I would get trumped by someone with a lower GPA but a better appearance. Maybe this better appearance was what got me the scholarship. I don't know. Usui-san once told me it was because of my "reason of interest" for going to Hakuoh, but I felt it wasn't THAT special to gain merit. Yonogi also guessed it was because of my letter to Hakuoh. I always tend to think my shittiest writing tends to end up being praised by everyone.
Keep in mind that the baggage fee that the airlines have implemented is only for flights within the US and Canada. However, you can still only check two bags for free, at 23kg/50lbs each. It really is probably cheaper to mail things bit by bit than try to take it all home at once.
That is... interesting, about the scholarship. That Yonogi told you, but didn't tell Keleih (?) or me. If it was for a year-long stay then that makes sense I didn't hear about it, but surprising for Keleih. Perhaps it was because Yonogi knew you were having financial issues... although I still don't understand why you didn't get a job to save some funds, if you only had the one class that semester. *shrug* Ah well. I would encourage Hakuoh to tell people about this scholarship, though, because it really is a very good thing; you're not going to get any kind of help like that from IUPUI.
Speaking of Keleih, how is she? She hasn't posted anything in her blog since the post about her cat in August. Are things going better in classes? I... almost wondered if she would feel a bit less pressured about the language issue once Brian and I were not around. Though, from your class list, it sounds like you're not taking as many classes purely on language? Is this semester better than the last one?
I don't think anything had to do with Yonogi anyway. It seemed she didn't have any idea what the scholarship was about until Usui gave her a link to the website that shows the details of the scholarship. I also only knew of the "one year staying person" from Usui himself, and I doubt Yonogi knew why I was getting it nor what period of time you would have to be staying to get it. Generally they have given them only to people staying a year. I am not sure why Keleih didn't get it over me, but it was Hakuoh's decision in the end to give me it, not mine.
Yes, I have explained many times I should have gotten a job in that time period, but didn't, but that's in the past. Also, I have been pretty vocal in the Hakuoh group I made and the IUPUI Japanese club online. There's also this blog. Maybe, people might email me about questions, but I dunno, because I think you and Brian might have been able to handle pretty much any question asked. How is Brian? Have you seen him since you left Japan?
Keleih is doing okay, but she works two part-time jobs now 5 (maybe 4, I forgot if she works Fridays or not) days a week. She won her appeal, so technically she's not as financially dependent on her jobs as before I think, but money is money (that's why I continue arubaito) and having any extra isn't going to hurt. But, she doesn't get to spend much time on campus outside of class, and I think that's bad.
This semester has been interesting. The new taiwanese are fun to hang around, I bet this is what Brian must have felt like when he got to know Yuka, Akira, and Kyuu. I am learning a little Chinese at the same time, and focused on teaching English that you can't learn in class this semester. Primarily, this semester is focused on listening/speaking for me. My listening continues to improve, but my speaking is no where near I want it to be (Brian's ability to explain things in Japanese is what I want to approach, though might not reach in my time here because of my sluggish mind sometimes), but Japanese friends and teachers continue to compliment my Japanese. I might work out a deal to return here as a student perhaps, but I need to do something about my other major and incurred loans first.
Lastly, we're taking the same classes as last year. I am retaking the culture class we dropped because my listening is better than it was at the beginning of the year and I have tons of friends to help me in the class if I should need it. Also, Keleih and I have to take a Intercultural Understanding class taught by Kamioka, the vice-president of Hakuoh as ALL exchange students in the class have to take it. It seems a lot like geography because all we've been doing in that class is filling out maps as "quizes", though it's amazing that not many people in the class know where countries are located at. The other two classes are taught by Takahashi, and Keleih dropped his thursday class so she could have a break day and he seems upset he hasn't seen her all semester. Lol, it's kind of sad.
Im here for you!
http://plusone-patent.com/bushi
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