I was actually going to upload a picture I took of all these documents, and although I'm virtually certain that that would be fine, I thought better of the idea anyhow. You can see them later.
In lieu of that, I thought I would talk about the weather instead. The weather here is surprisingly close to Wisconsin's weather thus far. I think it's slightly warmer here though, maybe. One endearing similarity is that Tsuru's weather seems to be just as temperamental as Wisconsin's. This morning when we went to class at 9 a.m. it was warm and very nice out. In fact I think it was the nicest day we've had all week. Now it looks like this:
My timing on this picture is a bit of a shame, because if I had waited about 15 minutes you would have been able to see more of that large hill in the background. It's actually quite beautiful.
This weather makes me really happy. I thought I would miss snow while I was away.
Random: I'm pretty sure the kid who lives next to us is on his way to becoming a soccer superstar. He's probably about seven years old and he's always kicking a soccer ball around. It's still snowing, and I just saw him come out of his house and start kicking it against the wall. Incidentally, since my father was wondering about the view outside of my apartment, I have taken a picture of it. The wall in question would be the one on the right.
So yeah, that's it for today, though I look forward to posting a couple more entries this weekend. I have drafted an "Interesting Things about Japan" entry, and I'd also like to talk about food.
I suppose on more thing I'd like to mention is how great the support here is. I will eventually, probably near the end of my trip, give a full assessment on Tsuru's program as a representative of the pilot group from St. Norbert (an entire half of the pilot group, in fact), but this deserves immediate attention.
Not that any of these people will likely read this, but I would like to thank our tutors Nanami, Machiko, Youta and Sakura, our friends from Tsuru that came to St. Norbert last year, Keiko, Erina and Aya (though we haven't actually managed to meet up with Erina yet), the program coordinators for JAST, Takiguchi-sensei and Fumi-san, our teachers, Takami-sensei, Shima-sensei, Miyata-sensei, and Inoue-sensei, and Oore-san, the Swedish guy who plays Smash Bros. and Mario Kart with us, for their excellent support and friendship, and I would specifically like to thank both of the program coordinators for showing us that things aren't as hard as they sometimes seem. I'm sure I'll have many more people to thank as time goes on, but for now these are the people that have me brimming over with gratitude.
Actually I think I'll write a bit more. I don't get to write much during the week, you see.
Classes are going much better than when they first started. The pace has been slowed a little bit, and after the first quiz the teachers started giving partial credit on the kanji quizzes. I often find that the day we learn a new grammar rule I can find useful ways to implement and practice it, which feels wonderful. A lot of the rest of the time the things we learn in class are ones that I've already started to hear and have been wondering about for a while. I think I'm truly a philosopher at heart, and all this learning stuff has me very happy most of the time.
On that note, Tina has perked up these past few days. She decorated Valentine's Day chocolates for our tutors. I wish I had her skill.
Well, until next time!
Maybe its warmer. Though it has been in the 40's the past few days and is expected to continue that. So perhaps it really is about the same
ReplyDeleteDaaang, Tina has mad skillz! Rock on, Tina! By the way, is Tina keeping a blog at all? Give her a hug from me, eh? And have her give you one from me as well.
ReplyDeleteLove to you both!
Yes, try lorinoinjapan.blogspot.com. If that doesn't work look on her facebook profile. I will hug. Love you too.
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