Day 10

yay! I'm moving to Beginner 1. hey that's a lot for me don't laugh. I started in Foundation Japanese which helps with basic grammar and a small vocabulary base. But beginner now gets into more vocab, conjugation and more grammar. And the great thing is...no more wacko. hahaha. He'll stay in foundation while i move up.

I have to mention this before I forget. this past week with him, he likes to jump the gun alot. Meaning, when the teacher asks you a question in Japanese, you are to answer in Japanese. No problem. So the teacher asks me a basic question like, "What did you do this weekend?" Before I could answer, he cuts me off and says, "She said weekend. What did you o this weekend?" And points at me. WTF? Did I look like I wasn't paying attention? Ha ha. My friend Helmut, would say, " He knows. Let him answer." Ha. then he would do th same to Helmut. Helmut would give him this look like, 'don't'. Later, helmut asked me how come he does that. I told him, I don't know, that's how he is, I guess.

Too bad Friday was the last day with Helmut. He was a cool guy. He had a good open mind even though he had difficulty in the language. He did better than he gave himself credit for because he had to interpret from Japanese to English to German. He told me how he improved his English while learning Japanese. See. now thats an open and positive person. He's gone home to celebrate xmas with the family then take more japanese classes in Germany.

Since this was his last day, we had a dinner party at a chinese restaurant. it was really nice with as much as you can eat and drink. Besides Helmut, Lisbeth from Holland, and Mitsuko (who I didn't get to really meet) left. They made really good speeches in japanese. And from the looks of it, I have to do the same when I leave.

But I'll worry about the weekend since I have two chapters to read with more grammar and a good 100 words for vocab to learn. yay!

I may try to go to Daizafu Shrine wih someone from school. She wants to go on the 2nd of january but I have to check my school schedule. Otherwise, I'll have to go alone. I've been bad in trying to take more pictures and travelling. Maybe it's a money thing but my 5000yen card is almost done with so I have to buy a new one next week. I pulled some money already for groceries so we'll see. I've been budgeting, but I feel i've been penny pinching. So maybe next weekend, i'll go somewhere.

Like Lisbeth, she was here for three months and travelled to a few places in Japan. She went to Kyoto, Osaka, and Tokyo. I want to at least try to make it to Tokyo. Hello, I'm in Japan. haha.

We have school Tuesday, xmas day. Well it is a Catholic Holiday. but I hear xmas cakes are given to people besides presents sometimes. I may buy a cake for my roommates and for the school. maybe I'll take pictures then. I promise. More pics soon.

It's been at a steady drizzle since Friday. (I'm writing this on Saturday.