Also, IUC is over!
waaahhhh.....
But, here are some pictures from the end, courtesy of Matsumoto-sensei, IUC's resident photographer. At every IUC event, he's forever popping out of corners and snapping so many photos that when you flip through them, they play almost like a movie. >_<
Anyway, here's me giving my final presentation:
The group of us (most of us anyway) who took shodo
And receiving my graduation certificate.
Which, this time, they didn't forget! Lol (unlike a certain HIF graduation ceremony I attended)...
Oh yeah, and I did really well on my final test!!! ☆★☆
Oh, and speaking of endings/beginnings, in a few short hours, my parents will be arriving in Tokyo! Whee!! Along with my 幼なじみ Rebecca and her mom. \(^_^)/
So, just to let you know, I probably won't be making many posts on here for the next couple of weeks, as we'll be travelling around Japan. Needless to say, I'm sooooo excited!
Oh, and I suppose I should change up the PV, hmm? Let's see, I've got to pick a good one, since it might very well be up for a good long while.
OK, I can't resist. What else, but the new PV by DoReMii's favorite twins, ON/OFF.
<3
The adventures of a former North Carolinian and recovering Yalie, loose in Japan for the first time.
So, I'm not dead. Not in the literal sense, anyway. I've just been super busy, and before I knew it it had been over two weeks since my last blog post. Ouch.
But, things have been a mix of fun and stress lately. IUC is over--well, almost entirely. Classes have ended, and we took the test last Monday. I actually really appreciate the way IUC handles the exit test: for the written part in the morning, they give the exact same placement test that kicked our asses at the beginning of the program. Which makes it really easy to gauge how far you've come. Don't know how I did for sure yet--we find out at the final evaluation session on Friday--but it was SOOOOOOOOOOO much easier this time around! Especially the kanji section, because this time, I actually *knew* most of them! (^_^)d
So, all that's left now is the Final Presentations, which take place Tuesday and Wednesday, and then we'll be done for real!
I promise to post another, more detailed IUC wrap-up post later.
In other news....
On the Job Front:
I've been applying for jobs!!!! And starting to get some results. A lot of my resumes haven't been making it past the initial screening by the recruiting companies, but I actually had a real live interview last week (which sadly, also ended in a rejection, but!). It was an editorial position with a company that publishes textbooks to teach English. There was an interview, and a test, all in Japanese. See, it's standard practice for Japanese companies to administer a test as part of the interview/hiring process--and since they're designed to test the Japanese abilities of Japanese people, they're....um.... "hard" is something of an understatement.
But, it was a good experience, to sort of get the first Japanese-interview nerves out of the way a bit.
And even MORE importantly, I have another interview on Thursday! And this time, it's in English (i.e. I actually stand a fighting chance). This next interview is for an Editorial Assistant position with Metropolis, an English-language weekly magazine in Tokyo. It's an Arts & Entertainment, resaurant reviews type of thing, sort of Time-Out style. Crossing my fingers extra hard, cause this seems like it could be a really good thing.
Anyway, I'll keep you posted. And I promise to write more later, with some pictures and potentially some updates on the "fun" part of my last few weeks. But now for sleep, cause I have to get up in the morning to practice my presentation.
Lastly, finally getting around to changing the PV.
For the first time, I will be featuring the wonders of Japanese girl-idol groups. This one, Perfume, has recently taken IUC by storm, with their peppy blend of electronic-synthesized-pop.
The song is "Polyrhythm," which shot the group to fame after it was chosen to feature in...I kid you not... a recycling commercial.
See how long it takes before the synth makes your head explode. (^_~)
apologies for the lack of posts recently, but I've been busy as all hell. while in terms of classwork, IUC has slacked off a lot in recent months, in terms of everything else I've become too busy to even think. actually that's a lie, the thinking part I've got down pat--haven't been sleeping well lately cause my head's so busy that I have trouble falling asleep at night. I just keep thinking about the fact that I don't have a job, or that I haven't done my project work for the week, or that it's been 3 days since I last took a SKIP quiz....the list goes on.
Slightly better news tho, I've put in applications for a whole mess of different jobs this week, and I'm not even done with all of them yet. remains to be seen whether i hear back from anyone or not, tho. but i tell you, after this, I'll never complain about having to write a cover letter or do a job interview again--as long as it's in English!!
so anyway, おわびを兼ねて and to let you know i'm not dead, just wanted to put in a quick post. also to change the PV.
Did you think the 70s were dead? Well, you were wrong!
this week is Superfly's song "Hi-Five." (sounds like a band, but it's actually just the girl, as a solo artist).
She also does covers of Eagles and Stones songs, among others.
wow.
(WARNING: this is going to be another of those posts in which i am too lazy to capitalize things)
4th term has begun! it's only been a week, so why does spring break seem so long ago? i guess school has that effect on you...? still, there's no afternoons, and only 2 out of my 3 classes are going to involve actual work. well, that last is an assumption--i mean, i still have IJ--we spent T/Th this week doing the last 2 chapters of the keigo book 待遇表現, which was really no work at all, tho it's not really clear what we're going to be doing next in that class. we're having a mini-発表会 next week though, so i have to write some kind of a speech between now and then. (pick a topic... pick a topic....)
Now, onto the hard stuff:
we've moved on to Meiji literature in bungaku, as of this term. (for those of you shaky on your japanese history, that's post-1860, after the collapse of the shogunate). on balance, not that long ago i suppose, but it's long ago enough that everything's written all weird! (T_T);; sort of along the lines of the way Shakespearean-era things use different spelling and stuff like that... it's not all that bad actually, just takes some getting used to. and this was my first time reading anything in that kind of Japanese--but once i got myself broken in, it felt pretty much the same as regular japanese. right now we're working on Natsume Soseki's 夢十夜 "Ten Nights of Dream," which i was actually super happy to get to read. i've read them in english in a j-lit class i took sophomore year at yale, tho that was long enough ago that i didn't remember much other than the fact that i liked them. but, for anyone who's read anything else by Soseki, they're (to my mind at least) very unlike any of his other works.
less fortunately, next up, according to Otake-sensei, is Higuchi Ichiyo and possibly Izumi Kyoka--both of whom are authors that, again, i've read in translation for j-lit classes at Yale, and really enjoyed--but who are apparently a bitch to tackle in the original japanese. Ichiyo especially, according to Otake, has a habit of using a variety of different spellings for her characters' names, within the same story. as well as another equally charming habit of writing single sentences that take up an entire page. i exaggerate not in the least. (ack!) before we even get to start reading her, we have to spend a whole class learning various techniques for "how" to read her works! お楽しみ。。。(please note the sarcasm)
on Friday i have my first 現代小説 "Modern novel" class, so i'll report on that later. the first reading was a Murakami Haruki short story (that i *swear* i've read before....) which was interesting and not too difficult. so hopefully that class stays fun.
this week was actually really fun, because on Thursday we went on a field trip! well, sort of anyway. at any rate, it meant no class. of course--as is invariably the case--"no class" does not equal "sleep in," as we had to meet at the Motomachi/Chukagai station at 9:15 (normally the time I leave to go to school).
first we went to the 文学館 (Literature...Museum? yet another addition to the list of words I understand the meaning of, but only in Japanese). Which was...meh. They had exhibits about different authors, showing their drafts, or early editions of their work, stuff like that. It was ok.
we stopped in Chinatown for lunch, and that was REALLY yum. also, i discovered both a niku-man place that sells veggie-man too, AND a street of restaurants with meals actually under $10. whee! now i just have to remember how to get there.... which is more of a problem than it sounds, because Chinatown is crazy confusing. it's stuck right in the middle of Yokohama, but once you enter the gate, the streets get all windy, and all go off in different directions from the streets outside. so i invariably get lost, and wind up in the complete opposite direction from where i thought i was heading.
After lunch, we went to...the LIBRARY! hehe. which is a lot more fun than it sounds. the Yokohama central library is enormous. we went to get us all library cards made, and for sort of a research orientation for our project work. i found a lot of good books--and i discovered the library's amazing magazine selection. they have several different Japanese trade magazines about publishing and editorial, which was sooooo cool to find. i'm definitely going to start checking those out. but best of all, they also get Publisher's Weekly! so now i can start reading it again! (i had been debating buying myself an online subscripton, despite the expense, but now i don't have to!)
so, all in all it was a really fun day. although, as field trips always do, it turned out to be actually longer than a regular school day.
Re: the fact that that whole "3rd term is easier" thing turned out to be a big fat lie. The other day after morning class (cutting into my lunchtime--how dare they?!) we had an orientation for 4th term. I kind of thought that it was supposed to be the same as 3rd, but apparently not.
First: the Good News!
Up until now, we've gotten to experience the pleasure of no-afternoon-class Wednesdays. Once a week, every week. And I thought that was pretty good. But it turns out, in 4th term, we have NO afternoon class! XD
My current M-Th morning class (literature) will continue into next semester, as does the Tues/Wed IJ grammar class. That one becomes 上級日本語 High-Level Japanese. My current Fri morning class, Business Japanese, ends after this term, and gets replaced by a new class. The choices are Speaking, Listening, Writing, 日本文化論 Japanese Cultural Theory (something like that, anyway), or 現代小説 Modern Fiction.
I haven't decided what I'm going to pick yet. I mean, the obvious choice would be the Modern Fiction class, as it's about "the short stories of current, widely-read authors." But, on the other hand, the Culture class sounds pretty interesting, too (Ari-sensei's heading it up). Also, taking two lit classes at the same time is definitely nothing to sneeze at. Or I could pick the listening class, for a bit of a break. Since my listening skills are definitely the best of the bunch (and by bunch, I mean the bunch of my other skills, or lack thereof), it would make for a bit of a slack class.
I dunno, I'll talk to Ari-sensei about it, but I'll probably end up going with the other lit class. From a future-use point of view, it's definitely the best choice. I'm just a little nervous about the workload, hence putting off the inevitable.
Next: the Bad News
Well, not exactly bad news, but... The reason we have no afternoon classes is because, during 4th term, we're supposed to be spending the afternoons doing dun dun dun...Project Work! Theoretically, at least. (Flashbacks to HIF, anyone?)
I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm sure the project will be rewarding, and interesting, full of fun facts to know and tell. It's just...I have no idea what to do my project on! Nothing. Complete blank. Worse, a void. I mean, I know there are lots of things I'm interested in--Japanese culture, fiction, publishing, dramas... I'm just not sure how to get a research topic out of that. You know?
Aaannndd...we're supposed to turn in a little sheet thingy outlining our project proposal "as detailed as possible." By noon Monday, according to the paper. (A fact which I just now realized. Eek) I guess I'll have to shoot an email to Ari-sensei over the weekend, see if she can meet me before class Monday--or before lunch, assuming I can get an extension past the noon deadline. lol.
So, anyway, that's the skinny on 4th term. As far as we know, at least. ^.^
As we've seen, the good folks here at IUC sure do like to shake things up.
the what: 4th term, class, getting ready, IUC