2 posts tagged “myself”

Probably because right now I've got nothing to do: it's not even 7 in the evening, too early to cook dinner, nothing good on tv (which is unexpected, I thought that on Japanese tv there'd be only dramas, and instead it's full of broadcasts with comedians and food...) and the newest Jun's drama won't start until 10...

Today it was quite funny, this morning I didn't take my bicycle to school because it looked like it would rain, got to class barely on time, and the second class we met the only teacher we hadn't met until now, the 口頭表現Ｂ (oral expression), who's kind of and interesting character...

About university: it's Doshisha University of Kyoto, probably the second university of Kyoto (after KyouDai) and a real great place to study: the campus is western style, with two chapels, because the founder emigrated to America and became christian; I'm in Level 5 out of 8, which basically means I'm just above average... which is kind of disappointing, since in my class there are people who have been studying Japanese only for 6 months and are at the same level as me... but they're Chinese, so they're good only because they know the kanji, in grammar and pronunciation they kind of suck.
In my class I have 4 Chinese, 3 Americans, 1 Isreali, 1 Russian, 1 Korean and me; my classmates seem really funny and easygoing people, I really hope to get to know them better!!

Most of the teachers are quite good too, especially Matsumoto-sensei!! Also Satou-sensei and Manita-sensei are pretty good and Ohara-sensei is funny; the only one I don't like is Wakita-sensei because she's making us do very simple readings, while I'd like to do more exercise and read newspapers and such... and also Sao-sensei, who teaches at the upper levels and the 演習Ｄ, the preparatory course for the Noryoku shiken 1kyuu keeps laughing at her own jokes, and that sounds like being a little too full of yourself to me...

In the mornings, first period is always 総合, general grammar and kanji, then 2nd period we have different classes, oral expression, written expression 文章表現, and reading 読解; in the afternoon we can choose our classes among various courses, like anthropology, economics, business, culture etc; and I chose the 2 preparatory courses for the 1kyuu and 2kyuu of Noryouku Shiken, a linguistic class on Japanese Dialects (Kansai-ben rulez!!!!), Japanese Business and Enterprises and International Business...

These last 2 classes deserve to be told aboud because the teachers are unique: the Enterprises one the first lesson made us introduce ourselves, and when I said "I like Japanese music" he asked me "what kind?", "Kanjani 8" "those with the infinite symbol? is it said 'Eight'? because I thought it was read 'mugendai'" (the right Japanese pronunciation for the symbol) and I was like "no, it's because they were 8 people at the beginning" .... What the hell is that about??? This has nothing to do with Japanese Management!!!!

And the other teacher was even better: dressed like a hospital patient with slippers, pullover, hair askew, he tells us: "I'm teaching this class in English because our principal wants the students to know English so no Japanese students want to take this class. I don't have the faintest idea about what are going to do, so don't worry about marks or credits cause you'll get them anyway"......
.....SHOCK!! But turns out this teacher knows what he's talking about and he's actually good, so I kind of like his class.

I hope to get really better at Japanese and learn something useful for the future, and also find material for my paper!!
Just being in Japan of course is perfect exercise, like when I signed the contract for the apartment I could understand everything the guy was saying so it's really good, I just hope I can speak better, faster and without errors but for that I need to learn a looooooooooot of words...

I also like very much my home, I'm living with 3 other girls, one form Japan, the other from Taiwan and the last one is Japanese, all here to study so we have to speak Japanese, which is probably better exercise than school. The girls are really nice, I don't see Yumi (the Japanese one) very much because she's working, but the Korean, Min is really funny and loves Johnny's too; Go, the Taiwanese and my roommate is also nice, and we just went out for lunch today.
I'm just sad that she's going home next month and she'll start working in Tokyo form September, so she'll not be staying here anymore...

The apartment is pretty good too, 35000 yen per month (260 euro), gas, water, electricity and internet included, I'm just worried about the exchange rate that lately has been slowly going down...

Today I also bought the newst Kanjani 8's album!!! ^___^ I already had dl it, and I was thinking of not buying it because it's really expensive (3700 yen) but I saw it at the records' shop right in front of the restaurant so I couldn't resist!! ^^

Well, I've written quite a lot today, so see you!!

EDIT: I was checking the last time I posted before yesterday's entry, turns out it was on March 27th 2008.
Exactly one year later, March 27th 2009 I'm leaving for Japan!! How much things change in a year....

Wow, it's been a lot of time since I last wrote here.... well so many things also have changed!!

I'm now in my last year of grad school, and I'll (hopefully) graduate in December 2010 after I come back home from Japan... yes because I'm here again!! ^^

It's probably the biggest news to tell right now: I've been chosen as the exchange student for the university of Milan to spend a year in Kyoto studying Japanese at our partner university, Doshisha Daigaku of Kyoto: I've been here actually for 3 weeks, barely started classes and still not entirely used to living in Japan on my own.. the first few days were especially tough, I kept thinking "what the hell am I doing here, what have I come here for??", I didn't even had a place to stay because there were problems with the dormitory the uni provided for me, so I was really depressed; but then classes started, also two of my friends are here at the same university (as private students) and they're a great help, I found a very nice apartment with 3 other girls (and we only speak Japanese XD) so I'm starting to get used... now I just need to buy a cell phone!!

Also, Monica, Gaia and Valeria are here in Japan, in Osaka, so we see each other every week so it's getting better and better!! Last Saturday I went to Osaka and we went to Johnny's shop (and the other "illegal" shops XDD) and I bought loads of pictures of Kanjani 8 (yes, I'm currently in love with them, especially Maru^^), so I'm quite happy!!! XDD

Of course, I'm still missing my family and my home, because I'd have never tought I'd miss them so much, and therefore living here all by myself was kind of a shock at first, but it's getting better and better, so I'm really hopeful that this wonderful opportunity will become a great experience, not only academically but also as a part of growing up and becoming a better person...

I don't really know what I'll be doing when I go back home and after graduating, and right now I don't really want to think about it: I'm learning to think about the present and live it to the fullest, enjoy life and frienship and study and get better at Japanese XDDD

And I want to go to a Kanjani's concert!!!!!!!!!!!