One semester down...

So I've made it through 1st semester, and it's finally 秋休み Fall Break!
We covered all of ASJ (Advanced Situational Japanese) and all but the last two chapters of 待遇表現 "Formal Expressions for Japanese Interaction" so I think you could say it's been a pretty busy semester (and that was just in the 午前 morning class!).
The 午後 afternoon class this semester was mostly news articles on various political/social topics, which were combined with various listening and writing exercises in and out of class. I don't know whether it was just the fact that everyone was tired and in a post-lunch coma, but it always seemed much more of a struggle than the 午前 class. I wasn't terribly interested in the subject matter, and I didn't find the class really to have as good an atmosphere as my 午前 class. In addition to the post-lunch thing, there just never seemed to be a good flow to the conversation. Sort of self-important sounding personality types (in class at least) plus some *really* sloooow talkers, and the class just dragged.
Thurs afternoon and Friday morning we had the 午後 and 午前 class exams, respectively. The Thurs exam was a bit rough--extreme tiredness + lack of studying--but the Friday one seemed to go OK.
Once the break ends, we start new classes, with (theoretically at least) new classmates and teachers too. I'm pretty excited about my new sensei--some that I know from 1st semester, some that I've just heard good things about. As for the classmates, my new afternoon class is mostly names I don't recognize (in katakana at least) or just haven't had class with, so we'll see how that goes. But the morning class for 2nd semester is, with one new addition, exactly the same as my 1st semester afternoon class--which makes me a little apprehensive, but I'll keep an open mind and we'll see how things go.