Square paper, a planner, and fishing, among other things

The weather today was absolutely gorgeous. I keep saying that, I think, in my recent entries, but really, it's completely beautiful outside. Nice and crisp and clear and breezy. The leaves are continuing to turn colors, although they're definitely mostly still green. The marigolds are blooming beautifully, and I can't wait for the mums to start going. I do love fall.

I've been meaning to mention this for a while, but I keep forgetting: I haven't seen Diet Coke here. There's Coke Zero sometimes, but I have not found a single diet soft drink, not even at McDonalds's, not even in grocery stores. Good thing I drink regular. And there's not much Pepsi, but you do see it every once in a while in a grocery or vending machine. Heckyes for Coca-Cola Classic!

Also, bread is sold a bit differently here. First, it comes in smaller quantities; you buy it in increments of four or six or ten slices, somthing like that. Each slice is very thick compared to what I'm used to, though. An eight-slice bag of bread is about the size of half of an American loaf. I like that very much, because I'm a carbohydrate fiend. And come to think of it, I haven't seen sliced wheat bread, that I've noticed. But I don't like wheat bread much, so it doesn't surprise me that a lack of it hasn't struck me until now.

This morning in my reading/writing class we got the instructions for our first essay test, which will be on Monday. I'm actually very excited about it. For one thing, we get to prepare for it completely: Sensei already gave us the topic (our daily lives in either Japan or our home country), and we're allowed to bring a list of vocab words and a dictionary to use during the test! Really, that sounds suspiciously like cheating, but who am I to complain? It's all in accordance with university policy, too. Sweet! What I think is really cool, though, is the format. We'll be using 原稿用紙, or genkyōyōshi, a special kind of paper where each character goes into one single box. It makes your writing look really nice, although there are a lot of nitpicky rules about formatting. I really like both crossword puzzles and ridiculously detailed formatting, so I'm pretty pumped about it! Basically I have 400 boxes to fill with punctuation, phonetic characters, and Chinese-based characters to write an essay about myself. It should be cool, actually.

In speaking class today we had a test over the last two chapters; the main points were transitive/intransitive verbs and honorific language. I think I did really, really well, except for the first listening section, which was so-so. Overall, a very good test.

During my lunch break I got to chat online with Stephanie, David's sister, for a while, which was really nice. She's so much fun. I also requested my absentee ballot from the county clerk's office. I hope it arrives in time; the last day they accept the ballots is at the end of October, and I'm still not sure exactly how long mail takes to get back and forth from home.

Also, I went to the campus bookstore and finally bought myself a planner. They didn't have any 2008 ones, so I bought a really cute 2009 one and went through and changed the dates. I had thought I was just buying a small scheduler, but when I opened it up, there was so much great stuff in there! Stickers, monthly calendars, note pages, an address book--even maps of the subway and train lines in Tokyo and Osaka! Best planner ever, and completely adorable. It has these characters named Kiki and Lala, who I had never seen before, but they were created by Sanrio (the Hello Kitty people) in the 70s, so they're probably pretty famous over here. Some of you will probably be getting planners like this one as souvenirs!

Asian Psychologies made a lot of sense today, which was good. I now feel much more confident about the short paper I have to write for that class in a few weeks.

On the way home from school, I stopped to have a snack at the little park and shrine near my dorm. I just sat on the bench, had a drink, and ate some Choco-chippu. Rude, probably, snacking in public like that, but I enjoyed it. This pigeon came right up to me and looked at me. I think he wanted a Choco-chippu, but I wasn't sharing. It was nice to sit there and chill and get my brand new super-cute planner in order.

I also took a nice nap this afternoon, and for supper I made one of Dad's egg sandwiches. It was delicious! That's one meal that I can definitely rely on, an egg sandwich. Even I can make toast and fry an egg. Yum.

David, you know how 2nd floor of Polis hated you last year because you walk so loudly? Haha, I thought of you this evening. I hadn't noticed it, but this guy who was cooking while I was eating my supper was apparently stomping about the kitchen, because our house mother came upstairs and asked him to walk more quietly! ^_^

Oh, and during supper I watched this TV show where these guys went deep sea fishing. They just showed them trying to get the fish, and it was really entertaining. American fishing shows are cool, I think, but this was cool in a different way. The fishing guys were these young guys who were very energetic and funny, and there were subtitles in Japanese, which helped me understand what was going on. I think the show might be kind of akin to our Dirty Jobs, because after the deep sea fishing segment, a different guy went diving for sazae (a kind of shellfish), and later a guy was walking a miniature horse. Not quite sure what that was about, but oh well.

And tonight I had the most fabulous shower. I really, really like this new soap, actually. It's a funny thing to enjoy so much, but it smells really good and the bubbles are fantastic. Definitely worth the hunt to find it, and I'll probably bring a bar or two back home with me if I can find it again. Geez, I'm so weird....