First day of class. Yay!
Breakfast was really good – little salads and yogurt drink thingies and miso and rice and SABA(!!)...I’m going to gain like 10 lbs eating three square meals a day like this...Especially with limited exercise opportunities that don’t involve stepping out into the sauna that is all non-air-conditioned space. *sigh*
Anyway, back to classes – I’m in 4th level, which is good, because I’d feel like kind of an idiot if I had to repeat the equivalent of third year again. My listening is absolute crap right now – I can’t hardly understand anything that’s being spoken to me, which is scary, and I’m also not much for speaking in coherent sentences either. I can still write and read, thankfully.
The teacher is really nice – a bit like Nishikawa-sensei but without the peculiar lack of emotional warmth and friendliness...so maybe, she just looks kind of like Nishikawa-sensei...kind of.
Nothing too difficult for me material-wise, but my roommate from the hotel-stay is way out of her league. I gotta feel bad for her though – she’s also making it public knowledge that she’s a major anime/manga/J-rock fan, and that’s just going to draw a lot of negative attention - I sympathize, being the cowardly closet-nerd that I am, but its just such a cliché among Japanese learners, and sadly, the characteristic trait of those who probably will not go far in their studies…
The workshop class was, unfortunately for me, debate. And I hate any and all forms of public speaking, in any language, but especially in Japanese. I just suck. SUCK…
Right after class a group of people followed the R.As out on a 20 minute walk to the beach. The path was pretty treacherous, and it was no wonder they discouraged the people who wanted to go out last night. A trail through the woods with lots of slanting, uneven stairs, and no guard-rail what-so-ever. Pretty damn steep, too – thank gawd for all those aerobics classes I took. The trail also snaked through a little suburban area with cute little Japanese houses and gardens - felt like we were walking through people's backyards. The beach itself was a little disappointing, given that I’d heard from a several people it was supposed to be “white-sand” – it was pretty much like home, but much, much warmer. But we had a nice time.
I talked with a guy from Georgia (who shall henceforth be referred to as Mr. Awkward) who I met earlier at the hotel during the orientation dinner, while we were at the beach. I can’t quite figure out if he's for real or not, but he is a bit less restrained by social niceties, so there’s less of this tedious back-and-forth about “Oh, what level are you in?” or “Is this your first time to Japan?”, which, while pleasant and appropriate given our situation, is also wearing out its welcome. We seem to start talking to each other in a sort of tongue-in-cheek, “So how are you today?” fashion, and then banter about a variety of different things, which is refreshing. He also told me about how disgusted he was by the attitude of people in thinking they can just willy-nilly demand to change classes or levels. Some guy literally went up to the teacher, all of whom seem to be bending over backward to be accommodating us as it is, and told her he either needed to change classes or she needed to pick-up the pace. What an ass.
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