The good and the bad

Time for another update from Japan!

I'm kinda bleh with school these last few days. There's always so much to do; we have tests and homework every day; plus we have like a gazillion kanji and vocabulary to memorize to prepare for tests the next day. I'm getting really sick of it sometimes, since I feel like there's not much time to go out and see Japan, and in the weekends I still have homework and preparations to do, or just go over what we've had already. And try to sneak in some time for fun and relaxation somewhere in there. I'm sort of tired of feeling like a moron most of the time as well. It's frustrating to know what you want to say; but not have the vocabulary to say it. And school is moving so quickly it feels like I'm barely keeping up sometimes. Sometimes the teachers speak so quickly I don't even know what they're saying half the time. Guess I'll write it up as a lesson in humility.

I'm also really nerveous about the kaiwa-partner thing (conversation partner); we're having this big meeting on thursday (dunno what happened to it being scheduled for wednesday) at lunch, to meet our partners and get to know eachother. It's basically a positive thing, but I'm dreading it anyway; I hope it won't be as uncomfortable as last week. And I hope someone picked me. Or maybe I don't :S scares me to bits in any case.

Speaking of Thursday; there's a typhoon on the way to Japan, and it's supposed to arrive on Thursday. It's sort of fun, and sort of terrifying at the same time; I feel anxious because of the recent typhoon in the Filipines, and I sort of look forward to it too, since we rarely see weather of this magnitude in Norway. And it's probably not going to be as bad a the one on the Filipines, and anyway I don't think there's a safer spot to experience something like this than here in Japan. It's also landing at the very south of Japan, so it probably won't hit as severely up here, if it even gets that far. Though I'm sure we're in for some rough weather. One of our teachers said that we shouldn't be riding bikes on Thursday if there's a storm, and that school will be cancelled if it's too bad. Here's to hoping! That would mean we'd get to postpone the conversationpartner thing ;)

Speaking of which; Karianne and Lotte and me met with a girl Karianne has got to know here today at lunch. She's originally Korean, but she speaks Japanese fluently (perapera!) as far as I can tell. She's such a nice and sweet girl; and she promised she'd cook dinner on Karianne's birthday this month. The four of us actually managed to keep a relatively nice conversation going, though there were more than a bit of "uhm"'s and "err"'s sometimes ;)

To keep the whining going; I miss Eirik and you guys at home so much it hurts sometimes, and talking to the whole gang on skype on dad's birthday was so much fun and so awesome, though the tears came bubbling up afterwards. And I never got to hear Sanna on the phone. She must be getting so big now.

On to more postive things: Interneeeeeeet! It finally arrived! Man, I was walking on clouds! Finally being able to go to itunes, write blog and e-mail for easily, read newspapers and follow forums and chatting to people on msn; it's so great, and it really helps when I feel alone. And I'm already up to date on my favorite shows :D

I also really like my classmates. I think we're a nice group, and it's alot of fun hanging out with you guys. Karianne and I spend alot of time together, in particular, and I really enjoy that. Very convenient that she lives around the corner. And today she finally got her own hairspray, so she won't be leeching off mine anymore. Sneaky little thief!

I'm also starting to cook my own food a little bit more, so I'm getting some meat and vegetables now; not just noodles. I'm so sick of noodles you have no idea. And it's just October! I was jumping with joy when I found strawberry jam to put on my bread (or the endearing mix of sugar, air and preservatives they call bread here). I also experimented with making pancakes, though since I was using a very small bowl, and I was using a fork to mix it, I ended up making a huge mess. I soaked the pancakes in sauce, so they tasted pretty good :)

Off to bed now, Oyasumi everyone :)