Despite yesterday's weep-inducing homework load, today was pretty awesome.* I had class in the morning,** and then my first kanji test (which didn't go too badly) and my first meeting with my conversation partner this afternoon. My conversation partner's a student at Kyoto University (although she also takes classes at Doshisha), and we wound up talking about a whole bunch of different things, from manga to Sweden (she's going to be studying there later this summer) to American literature to martial arts. It was a lot of fun, and good practice for me.
I'm finally getting to the point that I'm relatively comfortable speaking in Japanese, even if I'm speaking ridiculously slowly.*** It's made holding conversations a lot easier. Also, my host brothers have realized that I'm not going to eat them, and have actually started talking to me a little bit. Yay! (And somehow I wound up doing math puzzles over dinner. I guess math really is the universal language.)
Total random closing fact! We had Japanese strawberries for dessert today, and they are softer and sweeter (and smaller) than American ones.
Oh, and another random fact. For some reason, my (Japanese) conditioner smells vaguely of permanent markers. I'm not entirely sure why.
Okay, well, I need to sleep now so I can review my kanji in the morning, so おやすみなさい！
*Although waking up at 6:40 a.m. to finish homework and study for my kanji quiz was not so awesome. It wound up taking me 6 1/2 hours to complete the homework which was supposed to take me 2 hours. This either means that my teachers don't understand how much homework they're giving us, they're expecting us to do a shoddy job, or I'm just extremely slow. I have a feeling that it's a combination of those choices, because it seems to have taken everyone else about 4 hours to finish the same homework.
**Today's weird class moment:
We were doing a roleplay in which the seven students in the class were taking turns playing the part of someone who had bought a ticket to Hokkaido only to find out right before the trip that he/she can't go, and so he/she wants a refund. We had a native speaker playing the part of the travel agent.
Native speaker: Hello, how can I help you?
Me: Ah, I booked a flight to Hokkaido but I've suddenly become unable to go. Would it be possible to get my money back?
NS: Oh, I'm sorry, but we have a policy that states that we can't offer any refunds for trips that are supposed to take place in less than a week.
Guy who was in my Japanese class last semester: When I made the reservation, I wasn't told anything about that, so I thought that I would be able to cancel my trip and receive a refund at any time...
At this point, the native speaker had no idea what to do, because we hadn't talked about this situation before, but our sensei told her to go on.
NS: Ah, I'm sorry. Let me go talk to my manager.
And then she "came back."
Awesome Russian-American guy (who has a wicked sense of humor): So who is exactly is going to take responsibility for this?
The entire class started laughing at this point.
Sensei: Where did you learn that phrase?
Guy: A movie...I think?
Sensei: A yakuza movie?
Guy: Yeah...probably...
***However this means that my English skills are rapidly deteriorating. If I write sentences that make absolutely no sense, that's why.
So those yakuza movies with Tajima-sensei may come in handy after all. =D
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