A couple of months ago I mentioned that we were doing a video project for one of our classes. The deadline was in April. Well, now they're all up on YouTube and so here are the two my group made:
This first one is a slightly weird presentation of our university building:
This second one was "free" and so we chose to do a weird little mini-drama:
Because they're all a lot of fun to watch I'll add three more videos from my class. 見てくださいね！
When the alarm went off at 6am this morning I didn't want to get up. Bed so comfy. So cold outside. And it had been snowing all night apparantly. But I did get myself out of bed in the end and although my brain hasn't been completely functional for the entire day, I did have one of the most memorable school days yet. Our first lesson on Tuesdays is pretty much reading comprehension. Immediately in the beginning of the lesson one of the administrative people of the Japanese department came in and reminded us of the Japanese professor that was going to visit today; Usuba-sensei. Our teacher also told us that he'd be in the cafeteria during our 3-hours long lunch break and that we should all try and talk to him.
So during our lunch break while we (the girls) were sitting together at a table and talking, our teacher comes along with the professor and the administrative person. The teacher leaves us with them and we start to talk in Japanese. He's a professor researching how manga and anime are used outside of Japan, so he asked us some questions about our manga and anime preferences and basically we just talked about random things until some other second years from our class and some first years showed up. They moved to talk to the others and we continued where we left off.
Then we had our last class and that class is always great fun. Especially cause the teacher is always so energetic and happy ^^ Since Valentine's Day is coming up she had a large box of chocolate that she passed around the classroom while we were working on our video projects for this semester :3 We were let go early from the last class so that we would have time to get to the official meeting with the Japanese professor. Basically we filled out his questionnaires and a bag of Japanese hard candies was passed around. After everyone had completed the questionnaire he showed us some forms of iai-kenjutsu, which was really cool! He even passed around the katana for us to hold and feel (the blade wasn't sharpened). After that we asked some questions and the bag of candies was passed around one more time.
All these questions gave me the itch to start reading manga again. Lots and lots of manga, and maybe start watching anime again... I kind of miss that. I don't miss having 12 tabs in my browser (excluding the ones I always have) of different mangas I'm reading. But maybe I should just go to mangareader and press 'random'...
Today's random singing moments:
"Japaner i pyjamas..." ♪
"Matcha matcha man..." ♪
So basically lots of conversation in Japanese, Japanese sweets, martial arts and a katana :3
Last Wednesday I had a slight mental breakdown over the amount of schoolwork I had to do. How did I manage this so much better in sixth form (pretty much straight A's and B's)? Now an upcoming exam is all it takes for me to get stressed out and wish I had stopped studying and gone straight to working life. How did I go from staright A's and B's to balancing on the border of failing? What the hell happened along the road?
Anyway because of my small mental breakdown I made up a plan of what I had to study to get everything done in time. So get ready.
Study for my resit in Japanese grammar that I had on my birthday last Friday 16th
Write the script for a presentation in Japanese about some part of Japanese culture. If we wanted it corrected before the presentation itself it had to be handed in before Thursday 22nd
Study for my resit in French composition that I had today
Write down all my sources for the essay I'll write this course and comment them in a way so that an outsider can understand it. To be handed in before Monday 26th
Write an opposition in French on a French essay so that I can finally get a grade on my dissertation. To be finished before the end of November.
Actually do the presentation on November 26th or December 3rd
Write an essay on the same subject on which I do my Japanese presentation. Essay is to be in Japanese. To be handed in not later than December 6th.
Those are the most pressing things right now. Then there'll ofc be studying for the exam on December 15th and I'll have to actually write my course essay and hand it in before December 20th. Other than that I have nothing to do. This semester is intense.
So to relax I got this crazy idea - I was going to start watching PewdiePie's videos from the beginning, going through his playlists. The first playlist mostly contained private videos but there was two early videos. One of him playing Crysis 2 and the other one playing Black Ops. I'm not much for shooters so the fun part really started when I got started on the next playlist: Amnesia The Dark Descent Playthrough. Now I really wanna try out Amnesia again after watching the entire game. I love the steampunk theme of it :) Next playlist was Dead Space 2. Seemingly a horror shooter. I tired of watching it somewhere halfway through and went on to the next: Penumbra Overture, which was kind of fun, but not as fun as the one I'm currently working on: Penumbra Black Plague. Letting the playlists keep rolling while I study makes the studying so much more fun. If it's a very intense period in the game and I need to concentrate I pause the vid, otherwise I just pause the studying :P Thus far it has worked really well :)
My life has suddenly turned into a studying marathon and unable to play myself I watch others play xD If I manage to do all that and pass all of it, then I'll have a free Christmas and be completely free to do whatever until next semester starts on January 21st :) Fingers crossed!
I keep having urges to just quit and go do something else. But Japanese still is really fun :) I love the classes and the teachers. It's just the workload that's killing me. Japanese and I are the best of friends, French and I never really agree on anything...
I don't know why my whole world came crashing down. I just woke up in lonely town. I opened up my eyes and much to my surprise looked at this heaven that I've found. Don't need to care about tomorrow. I got no pain, I got no sorrow. I'm the last man on earth so tell me what it's worth. Am I a beggar or a king? Got no trouble, got no time. Eternity is mine. I got a whole lot of everything. I can take this town and just burn it to the ground. Smash every window that I see. I can smoke, I can drink, I can swear and I can stink. There ain't no one to bother me, no no. Don't need to care about tomorrow. I got to pain, I got no sorrow. I'm the last man on earth so tell me what it's worth. Am I a beggar or a king? Got no trouble, got no time. Eternity is mine. I got a whole lot of everything. It's all mine... There's not a single soul to talk to me, but that's ok I never liked them. I'm the last man on earth and I know what it's worth. I'm not a beggar, I'm a king! Got no troubles, got no time, and everything is fine! Cause I'm the king of everything. It's all mine... Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine...
I've had a busy few days since Halloween. Thursday afternoon I spent in the library searching for books and articles that could possibly be used as sources for my upcoming essay, as well as trying to finish off as much homework as possible before the weekend. I got home around 7pm and all I did was heat up leftover soup and hang around the Internet for some hours before I fell into bed.
Friday was a busy day for me. I had a laundry day that I combined with scrubbing the flat 'til it gleamed and getting the rest of my schoolwork out of the way. I was done about 9pm and that's when I started playing The Sims 2 instead. Although I still love Skyrim I feel like taking a break and I feel quite wound up in the world of Sims again :)
Today I went to the new mall here in Malmö called Emporia. It's supposed to be the largest one in Scandinavia, and it was HUGE. And really cool. A bit too many people (or Swedes just don't know how to be around that many people), the music was a bit too loud, and there were way too many baby carriages, crying babies and missing children. I don't understand why any parent or grandparent would go through the trouble it must be to bring a child or a baby to a location like that. I go crazy just seeing them. Wonder how crazy they go being them. I ended up at New Yorker first. As far as I know this is only the second location of that store in Malmö. It's not always that I find something at New Yorker, but when I do it's usually really cool stuff and today I got out of there with one knitted shirt, one t-shirt, underwear and socks. Then I went to Game. Just had to, since it was right there. I looked around at the Xbox games, the DS games and then at the PC games. There I found Dragon Age: Origins, which I had planned to play for a really long time and might start playing some time soon. I also found Empire: Total War. I love Medieval II: Total War, but I was really disappointed by Shogun 2: Total War. It just had a feeling that they had tried too hard making it. Empire seems more similar to Medieval II. I also found a compilation package of the first three Harry Potter computer games. I considered buying it since my edition of the first game doesn't work properly anymore, but then I decided against it. Partly because the first game really isn't that funny when you can play through it in a few hours without difficulty xD I also considered buying Bioshock 2, but I really want to play the first one before I play the second one so I decided not to buy it. In the end I bought three games: two computer games for me and one xbox game for Toni ^^ Some pictures from the day:
So since last time I've ofc done a heap of schoolwork and there's more to come since next week is midterm! GAAAH! O_O But I'm feeling quite confident about half of them (two parts out of four): grammar and kanji. I'm less confident about speaking (since, you know, it involves talking in front of people) and reading comprehension. If there's just one kanji I don't understand it could ruin the entire thing. Thus, kanji practice is of highest priority!
Also, I've soon managed a passing grade on my French dissertation and all that's left now is a presentation and a resistant. And if I pass the resit in a month I'll be officially rid of French \^o^/
When it comes to Skyrim I've been way too busy gaming. I've been spending way too much time on that game. As of right now I'm level 31 and I'm planning on playing it tonight. Some things are still way too hard. I wish all the frost mages would use fire instead. I'm dunmer! I have a resistance to fire! Please, use fire on me!
But the big event of today was the signing I went to. Joe Abercrombie visited Sweden for the release of his new book, Red Country, and I took the opportunity to meet&greet and get his autograph in my brand new edition of Red Country. I had promised myself on beforehand that I wouldn't get flustered, but ofc I did. He asked me what I wanted him to write and my mind went totally blank. So I just told him that my favourite character was Glokta and he wrote the line that perfectly personifies him along with his own name.
Along with the new Abercrombie book I also bought the new book in a Swedish urban fantasy series that takes place in my hometown of Malmö. The author actually works at that very same store and she was there today so I got that book signed as well. Success! \^o^/ Felt kind of weird getting her to sign it. She's been working there ever since the store opened there and I've been visiting that store ever since then. We are on greeting terms and small talk terms, I'd call it well-aqcuainted. Because of that it felt kind of weird to me, but she was totally cool about it.
Now I'll go back to my dissertation for a bit and then I'll probably start gaming. I'll leave you all with this song that's been in my head for a few days now:
The English is somewhat faulty in places (not my translation), but at least it's understandable.
So what's happened since Tuesday? Well, a few things. Except for studying and staying on track with my Japanese studies (I've been doing kanji like crazy) I've also recently finished my French dissertation for the second time. Fingers crossed it'll pass this time so I get it off my mind.
On Thursday I started playing Skyrim again. I'm still not sure whether that was a wise move or not, cause now I can't seem to stop playing... xD When I started again I was at level 9. Now I'm at level 16 and I'm hoping I'll gain level 20 before the weekend's over :P Although I still have troubles with some stuff, like a frost dragon kills me almost instantly and fullfledged mages are way too hard to kill, I've managed to kill my first troll and sabre cat :) Giants still kill me with one hit xD Lately I've focused more on sidequests as to improve my level before I try my luck at the main quests again. So I'm thinking I'll go back to Whiterun and improve my skills somewhat. Maybe imbue my armour with something and make a shitload of health and magicka potions! If I talk to everyone I meet in that town I'll soon have a huge heap of sidequests to do too... Too bad most sidequests end up being main quests after a while xD
On Friday we decided to have a boardgame night and started playing Smallworld. It was my first time playing that game but it was a lot of fun and I almost won! :D Beginner's luck? It wouldn't surprise me. I NEVER win at boardgames. That's just the way it is. If my mum was here she'd say: "Unlucky in games. Lucky in love." One can only hope that's true ;) Right now it feels that way anyway ^^ During the game I got to play Hill Amazons, Diplomatic Tritons and Heroic Trolls. I managed to get quite the empires both with my Amazons and my Tritons. Although the latter empire was compromised by Sorcerers and Flying Giants :P
During these few days I've also been drinking way too much tea. I'm almost starting to fear that my beloved strawberry flavoured tea will run out. I know the honey is...
What's to do the rest of this afternoon and evening? Well, I'm considering reading some in Best Served Cold or maybe writing a chapter... Before I have my laundry time and then it's back to Skyrim :)
There's been a lot about Japan going on lately. In school, at home, in the news... News wise it isn't that great, but otherwise it's fantastic.
In school we're working on speeches in conversation class and I'm going to do mine about the side-trip we made to Kyoto while I was in Tokyo. This has me completely nostalgic at times. I have to look up the Japanese names for the shrines and temples we went to and I'll make a power point slide with pictures from the trip. I've also kept all the tickets and brochures so if I want to I can pass them around. I could make this really really great and impressive if I put my back into it. At the same time I just feel kind of... homesick :P In other classes too we often talk about experiences we had while in Japan and it doesn't help with the nostalgic dreamy feeling. This demands a picture bomb with fun pictures from Japan:
At home I've started watching doramas again. On Sunday I watched Daarin wa gaikokujin (My Darling is a Foreigner) which I really liked although the story wasn't that special. But I really did recognise many situations in the film. Like how the foreign guy reacted to Japanese words, expressions, kanji writings and customs. It was so much fun watching the movie and I'll probably watch it again :D
Then today I watched Aru Ai no Uta (Song of Love), which was a really cute romantic drama. Cute cause it was so innocent and sweet. But mostly I watched it just cause Matsuda Shota was in it and I've loved his work since I saw him in Hana Yori Dango and Liar Game.
Today was an awful day. Really really hateful to begin with it, then it got better. First of all I cried myself to sleep (as per usual the first nights after getting separated from Toni), but that wasn't until about 2.30am. At 8am my alarm went off and I forced myself out of bed. Spent the day feeling incredibly unattractive and still didn't feel like going to the gym to do something about it. Actually waking up today I considered skipping for the first time this semester, and it's just the third week!
Couldn't really concentrate on anything once I got to school. Did what I had to, but not much more than that. I had no energy. I had that pressure over the heart that comes every time after one of us has to leave. It's just there at the back of your head, doing nothing but bothering you, unless you think about it and the pain becomes almost physical. Anyway. Halfway through kanji class I got a text saying that I had a package to pick up at the post office. From Amazon. My Wizard's Collection. And that was that. After that text that was everything that was on my mind. So I went to pick it up immediately after school. The package was ridiculously heavy. After finally getting home with it my arms were shaking from the effort of carrying it all the way. But it was so worth it. Opening it was like Christmas. Couldn't stop smiling. So here's a picture bomb (some of the pictures aren't that great, I did tell you my arms were shaking):
I love the fact that all the discs are in books. It's so beautiful. And all those pictures and skecthes will definately end up on my walls after I move! There was a small book with labels from the movies, which I probably would have found a lot more entertaining some years ago. But I love the books, the pictures, the sketches, the box, the Slytherin locket (!), everything! It's awesome and I can't wait until I have time and means to watch through all of the new material.
I keep looking at it where it sits on the floor, and I keep smiling at it. I'm just that dorky.
So school started this Monday. For the first time since spring 2010 I'm studying Japanese again and it feels great. Before starting I was really worried that I maybe would have forgotten too much, but it's going well. There are a lot of kanji that I've forgotten. They just tend to be annoyingly familiar but I still can't figure out what they are.
Since it isn't a beginner's course we had no introductory meeting on Monday except for all the teachers being there for about 15 minutes saying hello and introducing our new teacher: Inaba Miho. Then the lesson started. Everything was in Japanese. We were going to do a listening comprehension exercise and at first I was terrified. But then something just clicked and suddenly it felt like I was back in the classroom in Tokyo. I could understand the exercise. I filled it in correctly. Then we were going to write our jikoshoukai (self-introductory speeches) and I felt kind of proud for still being able to ask questions and receive advice in Japanese. I understood all the corrections Inaba-sensei said to me and I didn't have to turn to English to help me understand. I felt so proud of myself :)
Something that made me less proud of myself was that I didn't talk to anybody that day. I went to class, did what I was supposed to and then I left without saying a word to anyone of my classmates. I'm new in a class where everyone have known each other for the past year. It's hard. I never have any idea where to start or even how to start a conversation with a complete stranger.
Also I couldn't go to the afternoon class cause they moved it. When we received our original schedules online I made an opitician's appointment according to that one. But when they moved the class it clashed with my appointment and ofc I had to go to that one... That was a positive thing anyway! Got the news that my eyesight has gotten slightly better :)
On Tuesdays I only have one class at 3pm xD When I got there Kayo-sensei handed me the papers that were handed out on the afternoon class on Monday (I e-mailed Murao-sensei and told her that I had an appointment). Anyway the first thing that happened at that class was that she handed out a newspaper article and gave us ten minutes to read it. Although she had given us a glossary of a few kanjiwords in the end I was still completely dumbfounded. Kanji. Everywhere. Could hardly read a thing. Made me realise I have to work hard on my kanji this semester. I have hardly any problems understanding spoken Japanese (thanks to Tokyo I imagine), but if it's written and contains loads of kanji and no furigana, then I'm in trouble. Getting to know the history of Japanese poetry was interesting. As long as she's not going to ask us to write our own haikus then I'm fine.
After class I gathered up my courage and asked a classmate about the homework Murao gave us. And that was all that was needed. Something to start talking about. Spent about 45 minutes after class standing around in the hallway talking to four people from my class. Success! :D
Today was the first class we had with the head of our course. So he gave us all the information about the coursework today. Seems manageable. Finding out that we don't have to write our mini-essays in Japanese, but in Swedish or English was quite the relief. Wonder what language we'll write our dissertation in...
Also I'm really excited about our course literature!
The kanjibook and the green one in the bottom seem to be very similar to the ones I had in Tokyo, which is great cause I learned a lot from them, although they did not seem much at first glance.
Being back to studying Japanese is great. I've only been to back for three days and I can already feel the difference. I feel like I'm learning something all the time instead of just banging my head against a wall. Here's what French felt like:
I did lie on the floor singing my heart out at one point, and there were way too many nights where I cried myself to sleep cause I was never good enough. I felt constantly like a failure cause I never succeeded, and none of the teachers seemed to be able to help me. All they did was ask me if I had been to France and then they just brushed me off like I was stupid. If I asked for help they just repeated the same instructions they gave the first time, but slightly louder. There was never any encouragement to get better. No incentive. No help. On the other hand this is what Japanese feels like:
