Hisashiburi (It's been a while)

It's been about 1 week and a half since I've last written... I apologize. There hasn't been anything new really, just the same old routine of studying and working out and trying to squeeze everything else in between. But, a few highlights since I've last written:

1) We've been working on some graphs in class. We each chose a theme (I chose nutrition labels, whether people look at them or not and why), made up some questions, interviewed students and then created graphs from the results. The first time, we interviewed other international students in our class. But, this time, we're doing graphs about Japanese students, to be able to compare the results with those of the international students, whether there are differences or not. We were sent to the cafeteria to interview Japanese who were eating or studying there. It was a bit scary at first, having to approach Japanese we didn't know, introduce ourselves and then explain our project. But as it went on, my confidence grew, and I no longer felt shy at all. In the beginning, I only asked people who were sitting alone (less intimidating) but towards the end, I approached tables with 4 or 5 people sitting together. It was actually fun, asking them questions and noting down their answers. They could understand me and I could understand them! It's great to see how much I've improved and learned in the time that I've been here.

2) My roommate and I rearranged our room completely. We got bored of the layout of our room so we decided to turn our bed sideways, move them closer to the window, then rearranged the desks and shelves accordingly. Sometimes, a little change gives quite a new perspective.

3) Tokai participated in a team competition on Sunday. The girls placed second, qualifying them to participate in the next team competition at the end of June, which will be even bigger and tougher. Team competitions here are almost more important that individual competitions. In Canada, we never have team competitions. But team competitions are fun to watch because sometimes a fighter's goal is not to win, but not to lose. And there's strategy involved because depending on the opposing team's fighters, the coaches select which athletes they think will have better chances.

Now, to warn you, the next time I'll write will probably be next week. We have our midterm test next Monday, which comprises all we've learned so far. Then, the next day, we finally get to relax because we have a field trip. We're going to see Kabuki, a Japanese-style drama, and then we're going to visit the studios of NHK in Shibuya. So I'll have lots to write about after that. But until then, my nose will be buried in books and papers, and my head filled with Kanji characters and grammar rules. Ah, the beauty of the Japanese language. ; P