Three Weird Classes and Some Complaints

I leave to come home one month from today.

Classes today were kind of unusal. In Reading/Writing we did a practice version of the Level 3 Japanese test that they use in things like grad school placement and job interviews and stuff. It wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it to be. I wonder how I'd do on the Level 2, which is the next level up.

In Speaking we got our tests back. Turns out I didn't bomb! In fact, I pulled off a low A. >.< Often, when I say that I think I did poorly on a test, it's a lot out of modesty, but I really and truly thought that I failed this one. It was a nice surprise to get the friendly bunny stamp and some swirls of approval/votices of manly accomplishment on my test. That class was fun today, too, because since we've finished our textbook we'll be doing new and interesting things. Today we had a bunch of Japanese students come in, we broke up into pairs, and just chatted with them for the whole class. It was a lot of fun, and I exchanged email addresses with Chiaki, the girl I talked to the most.

In Psych today we learned about Jung and his fascination with mandalas. We even got to draw our own mandalas, which was great! I love coloring, and getting to sit for half an hour in a usually frustrating class and color was awesome. My mandala doesn't look like the example ones, but I guess that's okay. We're going to discuss them next week, so maybe I'll figure out all its deep meanings then.

Tomorrow is Friday, which means that I'll have lunch with Jacinthe and the girls from Witt, and I'm going back to the izakaya with William in the evening. But this time we're going earlier, so I'll be able to take the proper bus back home.

Tomorrow is also supposed to be a bit warmer, which is good because it's really, really cold even inside the buildings here. Remember how I said that they don't have air conditioning in the hallways of buildings? Apparently they don't have heat either. Every time I go down the hall to the bathroom I have to put a cardigan on and run down the hallway before I get frostbite or something. Okay, it's not frostbite bad, but it is lousy when you have to put on a jacket to go pee. Oh well. I'll pretend I'm Laura Ingalls Wilder or something and it's a grand outhouse adventure.

So Japan, here is what I say to you: Either freaking use technology or don't. You're giving me Oto-Himes and Warmlets (heated toilet seats) in the toilet and eraser vacuums in classrooms, but there's no wireless Internet or heated hallways. WTF? Are we super high-tech or really archaic? Pick one.