AHAHAHAHA
marriedtothesea.com
What's worse, the fact that I can't stop laughing at this, or the fact that it's the third time I've seen it and still can't stop laughing? XD
Good times.
So, apparently I've been stressing out about the JLPT WAAAY more than I thought that I was. I had been half-heartedly studying off and on all of last week and on Saturday night I ended up being like, 'screw this'. Shinkawa High school randomly had a fireworks show, so I got to watch fireworks! <3 Japanese fireworks are a lot prettier than American ones, and I think this is because American fireworks are made in Mexico and Japanese fireworks are made in China. I mean, come on, who's going to try to beat China at fireworks? They have smiley faces and hearts and fans....super pretty!
Sunday morning I wasn't freaking out about the test since I sort of gave up with it. I went to the store with Narumi to buy some ingredients to make an American-ish meal for the 4th. Grilled cheese, macaroni salad, corn on the cob and "s'mores". I use quotations because I couldn't find graham crackers so I had to use tea biscuits. Well, they turned out okay, so that's what matters, I guess.
I rode my bike to Hokudai....it only took me like half an hour. It was so nice. <3 Hokudai is so pretty in the summer. I had really forgotten. I also envied the closeness and wished that I could have studied there instead of Hokkyodai, but whatever. I had studied a bit in the morning, asked what 'panashi' meant and then just kind of chilled out.
I took the test and it was okay. During the break I rode my bike to 7-11 and got some mugi-cha and a strawberry roll thingy. I raced back on my bike, and the shade of the trees and the weather...and pretty Hokudai. It was nice. The listening section was SUPER EASY. I know I aced the pants off of that section. I actually noticed how slow the speakers were talking in the recording. Or maybe I'm just more sensitive to recorded voices as I've done voice recording and I'm used to hearing recorded voices in classes all the time. Anyway, with the new JLPT if you fail one section then you fail the whole thing. I had a lot of questions that I had no idea what the answer was, but I guessed. When I looked up the three that I remembered, I got them all right. I dunno, if I passed, great, if not, I don't care. I felt a lot better afterwards, probably because I did so well on the listening part. I'll know in September.
Anyway, I biked home and was mentally exhausted and then started to make dinner. I was kind of cranky because I was tired and it was hard to speak Japanese. Anyway, Narumi baked bread, but there wasn't enough so she went out to buy more and bought me some peach tea. It took a long time to make dinner, but Narumi and I worked together. Narumi thought I was angry that I had to make dinner, but I assured her I was just exhausted. Baa-chan was over and we all ate. Narumi reeeeallly liked grilled cheese and was all like, "I didn't know you could do this with bread! :D" It was cute.
At school Monday I managed to work up the courage to ask Oga-sensei if she could ask the Chinese kids to not speak in Chinese in class. I also talked to her about the JLPT. I also told her that the listening section was really easy for me, and that the strategies that we were learning in both her and Abe-sensei's class actually came in really handy. I told her that I actually noticed how slowly they were speaking in the listening section. She asked me what level I took and I told her two. She kind of frowned and said, "But Melissa, the level that we're doing now in class is Level One." She also told me to have more confidence in my Japanese. She told me that with a little more practice with Transitive and intransitive verbs that I could "lead the class" in that respect, so that was kind of an ego-boost. She asked me to show her the results, she understood that I've been having a hard time studying and such and offered to lend me books and study with me if I were to take the exam again in December. That made me feel a lot better. I know that it will take a long time to see improvement, like Abe-sensei said, but if I keep pushing myself to continue to study my JLPT books even now when I don't know the results it will come in handy. I mean, for every new grammar pattern I learn, I'm able to find it around me. For example, the morning of the test I asked Narumi what 'panashi' meant and then it showed up twice on the test!
So, surprisingly, this has actually motivated me to try harder in school now. I'm still feeling good...so part of me is wondering when the feeling's going to wear off. I actually started next Monday's homework assignment last night and worked for about three hours on it. I realized yesterday that Betsy's visit coincides with the end of school, so if I want to have time to play with her then I'll have to make sure I get all my school work finished up before then. So the next few weeks I'm going to push myself and try to get as much done as I possibly can so it makes it easier for me.
Lately I've found that I want to cut my hair. I want to cut it short. Sadly, I don't have the money for a hair cut, so I'll see if I can manage it. I really want some sort of change like that, I think. Maybe I'll actually get the courage to do it! I am also yearning for some new music. Does anyone have a recommendations for bands? I'm a lyrics girl, so even if the beat is good, if the lyrics suck I don't like it.
Speaking of music, Midori-san is going to dance at the Sapporo SMAP concert! Hahha, Baa-chan and Narumi are all fangirly about it. Midori-san is going to be on the same stage! They're all giddy about it and wish that they could shell out the money to go. Midori-san is all like, "SMAP is popular?" Hahahaha. She's so cute.