River stomping is probably the best thing ever

Okay, so the river. Yesterday when it was 90+ degrees and 4000% humidity I went back to my host family's house after school only to discover that everyone was out and the door was locked. So I went to the river and did homework instead. Or really, I took off my sandals, stuck my feet in the river, and then did grammar homework. I feel that it significantly improved my grammar experience. And then, when I was done with grammar, I went and waded in the river, which was awesome, 'cause the water was cold and there were a bunch of other people wading, so I didn't feel like a completely crazy person. WHOO.

Also, I just finished reading the first part of a "novel" (only about 24 pages) we're supposed to be reading for class tomorrow. (Or reading the first part tomorrow and then finishing up on Friday.) Our teacher told us not to worry about trying to understand everything, because "even Japanese people would find it difficult to read." I think I understood about 60% of what was going on. From what I can make out, it's about a young mother from a rich family who has given birth to a baby girl and is now being semi-stalked by the woman who helped to take care of the baby while she was sick in the hospital (because apparently after giving birth she was ill for a while and unable to take care of her own child). I am pretty sure that the story is going to end with the nurse kidnapping/attempting to kidnap the baby. If that doesn't happen, I will be sad, because so far the story is pretty much mind-numbingly boring. It's a lot of, "And then the mother thought, '[kanji kanji kanji] that woman has such dirty hands [kanji kanji kanji] lower class [kanji kanji] disrespectful attitude teaching my child [kanji].'"

In other news, my conversation partner saw our midterm exam and said that it looked like the kind of exams she had to take in high school.

Does this mean I'm approximately as literate as a high schooler? It would be awesome if that were true, but somehow I think it isn't.

Lessee, anything else exciting? Oh yeah, I'm teaching my class next Wednesday. My reading got approved. Yay! (If you have a copy of the book, we're reading from the beginning of the prologue to Seiji going 「いいんだよ」over and over. So lots of Mika stalking and Seiji obsessing and being freaky and five or six mentions of HER, but no body bags or cleaning blood off the wall or brother complexes or tasteless ramen. BUMMER.) So now I have to create a vocabulary list (already did that) and a lesson plan (never done one of these before) and a review sheet to test reading comprehension and homework. HMM. Still not sure what I'll assign for homework. I don't think the usual "write what you think about this piece" assignment will work, but I don't want to assign something that will make everyone else hate me.

Other news...? I don't think there really is any. I'm really tired. And it's raining, which is nice. I think I'm gonna go to bed early, 'cause I haven't been getting enough sleep (it's hard to sleep when it's this hot).

Oh, totally random fact, but I've found myself rolling my R's a lot with katakana words recently. I DON'T EVEN KNOW. Been listening to too much anime with angry men set in Tokyo, I guess.

Alright, sleeping now! G'night!