The Good, the Not So Good and the Ehh...

Today I spent eight and a half hours in Azabu today, except for the two times I left the building to get food. -_-'

The reason I went early is because the first meeting for the Culture Exchange program was today, and we were supposed to get together with our partners (or groups, in some cases). Luckily I was only paired with one person, named Yumika. She's pretty shy, and only 18 (I think it's her first year at TUJ?), and her English isn't very good. But she's really nice, and I told her I was trying very hard to learn Japanese, and I found it very easy to speak with her in Japanese. We understood each other better that way, lol. Ohh, and the best part? She likes L'Arc-en-Ciel, too! *dances around* She got so excited when I told her my favorite band was "Laruku," haha. Unfortunately she won't be someone I can go to the concert with, since she said that although she went to one of their concerts when she was in high school, they are just way too expensive. Oh, well. I think I'll just find another band to go with some people to see...a band that isn't so expensive. At first I was really disappointed, but I think I don't mind as much now. I've had so many close calls to being able to see them, but it never works out, so I might as well expect as much now.

Anyway, back to the culture exchange. I think it's going to work out all right, as long as I keep making sure that I don't seem too overbearing; I don't consider myself to be overbearing by American standards, but I have a tendency to fill in awkward silences with talking, which will make it seem like I'm taking over the conversation. But honestly, I think it'll be fine once we're more comfortable around each other. For now, we set up so that we meet on Tuesday at 5pm once she gets out of her classes for the day. I get out at 3:30, but I don't mind waiting an hour and a half, since that's my short day.

Oh, I rode my bike to school again today, and it took only forty minutes, instead of an hour like Monday. I think my endurance is already getting better, and I'm starting to get better at navigating between the people. The bell is practically useless, though, because when you ring it, the people just keep walking as they were before. I think the only difference is that they walk in a straight line versus the wavering back and forth I usually see. But it's still frustrating. The ride home still took an hour, since I was really tired already...and I started off by knocking my bike over and tripping over it. I felt like an idiot, but I don't think anyone saw. It was dark, and no one was around. I'm really, really tired now, though.

I seem to be jumping around a lot, but bear with me. I mentioned yesterday that I had a quiz in Japanese today...and it was ridiculously easy. I'm not just bragging, either. I felt insulted taking the quiz. I almost wanted to say, "Are we middle school students or something?" All we had to do was listen to Koyama-sensei say the times of several countries around the world and write it down in English...then she read three people's phone numbers that we had to write in Arabic numerals, and then the last part of listening comprehension was her saying the age, year, college and major of four different people...which we wrote down in English. And finally, on the back of the paper, we had to translate four expressions into English. That was it. I studied so hard for the quiz, and that's all we were given? It's not like I'm in the wrong level class, either, since I've already learned several very useful things that I never learned in my immersion course.

I have a new favorite ice cream flavor, by the way. Matcha ice cream!!!! It's soo, soo good! I bought a package for a pretty good price, and they're in little individual packages inside thin waffer cubes. They're not really sweet, but they're also not too bitter, either.