01/29/10 room, night- I got up this morning, had breakfast, and left for the bus stop at the usual time. I met Kai san at the train station and we traveled the rest of the way together. I was looking over kanji the whole time because we had a kanji quiz today. We got to Nanzan Daigaku early enough that I could stop by Koibito and put my lunch and other unneeded accoutrements in there before class.
The quiz went alright. I missed two. For one I just forgot one line in a kanji. Instead of writing the radical for sun, I wrote the radical for mouth. I know that won’t mean anything to most of you reading this but trust me one line makes a big difference.
In a later section we were writing stuff on the white board and I was writing something up high and LeBlanc san was crouching down writing something down on the lower part of the board right next to me. I didn’t realize how close he was to me until I had finished writing. I lowered my arm and banged my elbow onto the top of his head. Elfalary san was laughing so hard as I apologized profusely. Elfalary san (I am not actually sure how to spell her name) and LeBlanc san know each other from last semester and they have a love/hate relationship. She told me I could hit him as much as I want. Elfalary san is from Morocco and can speak French and of course LeBlanc san can speak French. I want to talk to them in French so bad!! I can feel my French slipping away. :( I should just plunge right in and start talking to one of them in French but I’m not confident enough. And now that I have assaulted LeBlanc san I will feel even more awkward. :/
The last section was interesting. Volunteer Japanese students came and we were supposed to have conversations with them. I would have preferred to talk to one person the whole time but it was more like speed dating where every few minutes we changed people. The first three were really cool and easy to talk to b/c they kept asking questions and seemed really outgoing. The last one however was really shy and I had to do most of the talking. I kept asking her questions trying to get a topic going but she wasn’t too chatty. She was very sweet don’t get me wrong, but the silences were a little too long for comfort. All in all I managed to communicate w/o making TOO big a fool out of myself.
I ate lunch, which was scrumptious as always. :d Then I went to Japanese Religions class and that class is always cool. I went to check my mail slot after class and that’s when I got my kanji quiz back. I visited Koibito one more time to collect everything and then was off on my commute. (Speaking of my commute, there is good news! Satoshi Sensei emailed me back after I emailed asking about a reimbursement the other day. I will be coming into some money soon!!)
Since it was Friday and I haven’t purchased any food since the curry house I decided to be naughty and stop by one of the many bakeries on the way home that are inside the train stations. I couldn’t help myself and got bread and a glass of milk. When I first walked up to the counter the cashier started to try to talk to me in English. However, I kept answering her in Japanese. She looked surprised and switched back to Japanese again. This happened constantly in Paris. Everyone in Paris REFUSED to speak to you in French even if you clearly were talking to them in French. If they heard an accent they started talking in English. It was annoying at best and infuriating at its worst. When I got to Rennes though it stopped happening so I was happy. I am also happy the Japanese here are willing to speak to me in Japanese. They put ice in milk though… that is so wrong. You do not dilute milk. At least I don’t. I’ll remember to say no ice next time.
My host mom gave me a lot of little wrapped snack foods and tea when I got home and she said we were having oyster for dinner. She looked a little worried and she asked if I would eat oyster. I said I would. I had oyster in France. It was quite good. I also had oyster at Niagara Falls, New York this past August when my parents and I visited there for the first time. We went just before the semester started so they could just leave me in Rochester when they left. So, yeah, oysters, I like them, no problem. And I ate a lot of them for dinner. My host mom continues to be surprised at what I’ll eat. My French host mom and dad were the same way. They expected me to not like anything and had been worried about keeping me fed. Well, I guess I’m an easy student to host in that regard. I don’t even have to know what it is and I’ll eat it. I will probably like it too. I think so far my host mom has been most surprised when I ate squid tentacles, whole baby fish, and raw egg mixed with rice. She always gets so delighted when I happily scarf it down. I do so hope I am endearing myself to her. :3
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