Day 53 - 22nd of October

8:33pm　セミナーハウス
天気：晴れ
やった！！！Feeling much better now... that's 3 out of 5 of my exams out of the way; in one day! I think today went pretty well. I got up at 9, and rushed around to ready myself for my Japanese oral exam at 11:08. I got to uni with time to spare, and made my way up to the classroom on the forth floor. There was no one in there; that was strange. I quickly realised that the interview might be held in Sensei's office. Luckily it's on the floor below, and I soon found it. Jo emerged, looking a bit shaken, and then I went straight into it. I think it turned out pretty good, considering the fact that basically the entire conversation was in 敬語 (keigo - honorific speech). Unfortunately I didn't understand two of the questions he asked; I felt bad about that. Overall though, I was mostly fluent, and kept the conversation going.

I was soon out of there, and decided to go have lunch before my Reading and Writing class started, even though I'd only had breakfast a few hours earlier; egg on toast. Nevertheless, I went to the cafeteria and ordered kastudon (again). Charlie (from koto), came to sit with me shortly after I'd finished eating, and we chatted for a little while. He's in level 4 Japanese, and is not looking forward to his 作文 (sakubun - writing composition). After eating, we went back to CIE and I went to my class. We ended up revising for the exam next week. I was, at the same time, trying to review for my CEL exam. I really didn't study for it; I was too worried about history.

So I was freaking out a little going into the exam. In fact, it turned out to be really easy. I knew almost everything, and felt confident about my answers; it was a fill in the blank/true or false/multiple choice exam mind you. There were a few short answer questions. Lol, one of the questions was so inane. I think the professor put it there as a joke:

Who does the term "Otaku" refer to:
(a) You
(b) Me
(c) Who knows?
(d) Some third party that shall remain nameless

Or something of the like. If you don't know what お宅 (otaku) is, it's basically a Japanese term used to refer to people with (sometimes obsessive) interests, particularly in anime, manga, and video games. The term is actually derived from the honorific word for someone else's household or family; I used it in my oral exam today. Anyway, that was a bit silly; I answered (c). I finished the exam in about 35 minutes. Then I sat with Jo and Kelly and reviewed for the history exam; this was the one I was really freaking out about.

It turned out to be okay. Basically we had to answer two out of four essay questions, about a page each, and 5 out of 6 short answer questions, which were only two sentences long. The biggest problem for me, was expressing myself in a coherent and logical way; I don't think I'm very good at essay style questions. Anyway, I got it done; wrote plenty. I think I'll be fine. As long as I pass, I'll be happy. After the exam I walked home, before going for groceries at Sanko. I found out that Sanko actually closes all day Wednesday (go figure), so you get the best bargains there Tuesday night. The other night the guy that lives next door to us (Wali's his name) was about to throw away a whole contain of rice he had just cooked; it turned out really mushy cause he used too much water. I quickly stopped him and said I would eat it. He let me take it; waste not, want not. He said it looked like rice pudding, so I decided that I would indeed make rice pudding out of it.

I found an easy recipe on the Internet, and proceeded to buy the needed ingredients at Sanko; I got cinnamon, vanilla, and sugar. I also had to buy a tin. The only one I could find had a removable base, but I got it; 105円. I got home all excited, and started making it at about 6. I mixed the rice with two eggs, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and banana; the banana was my idea. I put the mixture in the tin and what happened, it leaked out the bottom. So, I decided to put some aluminium foil around it. I was cooking it in the "oven" i.e. the microwave, and although it has a specific oven setting, the girls there didn't think it was a good idea to use aluminium foil. So I put it on a plate instead. Then Diego came in and started to freak out that I had put tin into the microwave; I was fine though. While it was baking, I prepared and cooked my stir fry. 25 minutes later, the pudding was done and I'd just dished out my dinner; good timing. I got the tin, and the plate out of the microwave.

The pudding looked, and smelt great; I was surprised it turned out so well. So after my dinner I tucked in; it was so yummy! I was too full to eat it all, so I've saved the rest for later. The biggest downer was the washing up afterwards. The pudding had left a sticky mess all over the tin, not to mention the burns on the plate. With a lot of scrubbing, the majority of it came off; I guess I shouldn't expect much from such a cheap tin. Actually, the fact that you could push the bottom out really helped get the pudding out; too bad it leaked. Anyway, I think today was very successful; I feel so much lighter. And best of all, I've got a day off tomorrow since oral exams continue. I'm going to get a bit done, but mostly relax; might find a sentou somewhere...

Day 40 - 9th of October

セミナーハウス
天気：寒い
My lazy day led to an active night. I went to uni at 12 for my Japanese class. I love our teacher so much; he's so funny. He's always bringing props in. Today we were practicing 敬語 (keigo - honorific speech), and he played the role of the "arrogant" manager. He put on a fake moustache, and brought along a heap of other props. He would request things, and we'd have to humbly oblige. It was fun. We got our lesson tests back at the end of the class. I think I did pretty well; just a lot of little mistakes. After class, I went straight home, had lunch, completed my PC@LL stuff, and then had a nap. Later, I decided to create a spread sheet for my monthly expenses. In September, I ended up spending a grand total of 85,206円, which is about $1000, and that's including my holiday expenses. The biggest ongoing cost was food ($355), followed by transport ($128), which I expected. I really happy about that; now I just need to keep it up!

So after finishing that I had dinner. People were talking about going to karaoke, and since I had never been, I thought I'd take the opportunity. So it ended up being Diego, Jo, Katie, Carly, Ash, Eve and her friend from seminar house 4, and myself. We left for Makino at 8, and didn't return until 2 in the morning!!! Gosh, it was soooooo much fun! Basically, $10 gets you in for an unlimited time; well at least until 6am the next morning. I was a bit nervous at first, but it was great once I got into it; no one cares how you sing. Every one had their turns at songs, and we had a lot of group songs too. I was happy that I actually new most of the words, and could sing along, expect for the Japanese ones. Lol, after you complete the song it tells you how many calories you've burned. We believed it was calculated by how loud you sang into the mic. This was confirmed when it was Jo's turn; gosh she's got one healthy set of lungs on her. She belted the songs out, it was so funny. We had to keep telling her to hold the mic a little further back. All in all, it was a great experience and I can't wait to go again...