Tuesday, February 28, 2006

やった!!!

Huzzah! and Yatta! I have been nominated by Mcmaster University to go on an exchange. Now I just need to wait to find out:
1) which university I've been nominated to go to
2) whether I've been nominated for one or two terms
3) acceptance by a Japanese university

I am supposed to get the first two withing a week. The third could take much longer. Either way, screw you guys, I'm probably, maybe, perhaps going to Japan.

5/8 term exam


Ok, so I just completed my Japanese mid-term exam this morning. It was my last exam, and about 2 weeks after all my others. It was really easy, and I had plenty of time to go over it twice to find 2 or 3 mistakes I had made. At the end, I asked our T.A., Mai if I had a kanji right. It was not for any marks, but I was trying to put as much kanji throughout the exam as possible. So I asked her if the kanji I had drawn for to swim (泳)was right. I had written 洗、which is the kanji for to wash. Heh heh, close enough right? They are both water related. Anyway, she tells me that I was wrong, and I was happy to just leave it at that, but then she starts reading all my answers. I let her and after about 10 seconds she says "that one is wrong, try to fix it". Now remember, that this is an official university exam, and the T.A. is telling me that my answers are wrong so that I can fix it. I yelled at her and sent her to the front of the room. I ended up keeping my original answer because I have rather strict principles when it comes to cheating. But man, that's crazy huh. I still did really well. I am really lucky to be taking Japanese, because as it stands, it is bringing my average up quite a bit. I just got back my historical linguistics exam back. I only got 64% which is not good, since I need 70% in the class. I'm still waiting to hear how I did during my exchange interview.

Monday, February 27, 2006

I'm a big boy

I finally made some money today. I milked the nepotic teat and worked for 5 hours at my dad's work. I was head of putting stuff in boxes. I put stuff... in boxes. Now my wrist really hurts due to the repetetive nature of the work. I think it may be carpal tunnel... but I may be wrong. I am not a doctor afterall. So, I am $50 closer to Japan. Just $4950 until I reach my monetary goal. By the by, I am accepting donations. But please, only in gold bars and semi-precious gems.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Days past

This morning, I was having a Kung-fu-esque flashback to the beginning of the school year. A classmate of my sister was writing in his blog about being lost in his Japanese classes in Japan. He came over during the second semester, therefore putting him a semester behind everyone else who had already spent 5 months immersed in Japan. It made me think of my first few weeks of 2nd year Japanese. A time when I realized that I knew significantly less than my Mcmaster breathren when it came to Japanese. It caused me great dispair for many weeks. The funniest thing about it was that at the time, I was worried I would not be able to catch up to my classmates. I really could not have been more wrong. I now sit comfortably at the top of the class, towering above those who used to wield a sharper, more buxom linguistic blade. They now cower in fear at my mastery over kanji and my near perfect gaijin accented Japanese. Yes, I have become a king amongst whiney, dissentful peasants. My secret. I really love Japanese. If it were a person, and not a language... I would make sweet, passionate love to it and spawn some really ugly babies. I can't wait to go to Japan.

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Exchange interview

Ok, so I was thinking to myself about my exchange interview yesterday when I though, Hey, I should write about it in my new blog, since my new blog is supposed to be about Japan, and this interview is very related to Japan. So here I go.

I went for my exchange interview on Thursday. This is an interview is done by my univesity to see if I am capable of going to Japan next year. If I make it past this stage all I have to do is wait to be accepted by a Japanese host university. During the interview I was asked 3 types of questions by 3 types of ladies. There was a woman who was responsible for questions about Japan, a woman responsible for financial queries, and a woman responsible for the acedemic aspects.

The Japan-related lady asked me questions first. Her first question, which I'm sure everyone was asked, was "why do you want to go on this exchange?" Now in this instance a unintelligent person would say "I dunno, seems like a cool thing to do." I however responded in a more positive way. I basically said how important learning Japanese was to me and how it is crucial that I learn it thouroughly so that I can graduate and excel afterwards in the field of translation. I told them that for my skills to progress far enough to become fluent, I would need to spend a significant amount of time there, as soon as possible. I think it worked out well. I considered what I said to be to the point and quite well put. The same lady asked me if I felt comfortable enough with my Japanese to survive alone, and I answered this by telling them about my 2 weeks in Japan, and how I didn't find it overwhelming.

Most of the following questions were money related. Things like how I am paying for the trip, and if I get into trouble, is there any chance of my parents helping me with money. I answered all their questions pretty confidently overall, so I am sure its gonna all work out. I should find out if I passed within two weeks, so I sit here with fingers crossed. As soon as I find out whether I passed this preliminary stage, I just have to wait until May or June to find out if Japan has accepted me. Huzzah.

On a more immune system-related note, I hate being sick. I had made it almost an entire year without being sick. I blame all the dirty, disease-filled vagrants of the greater Hamilton are and their insistence on riding the bus with me and spreading all their disease. Oh and all those people who come to lecture and tutorial while sick, as though missing 1 university class could seriously affect their grades. I am now talking several octaves lower because my throat is messed up. Its not really sore unless I talk, laugh or breathe. On the upside, I can sing Crash Test Dummies songs with ease for at least another day.

Monday, February 13, 2006

All talk

So I went to Bill's house for another rousing endeavor into the world of Halo. This time however, I brought Joel. It was going pretty well, mostly because having 3 people on the same team who are also on the same television has its advantages. It was also good because Joel was pretty good. We usually play with Bill's brother as a third but he hates Halo and is really quite bad. Today went well, but Bill and I did really poorly on most of the maps. This made us look really bad, because I had explained to Joel that we play a lot and that we were a pretty good team. We had at least 4 games where we didn't even get double digit kills. Anyway, it was still a lot of fun. I have never played a game which had so much replay appeal for me. If only they had spent more time working on the online features, instead of touching themselves dreaming of what they were going to spend their money on. This is my first real post...not very exciting, and I am guaranteeing you that you are wasting your time reading it. My life is not exciting at this point in time. I apologize.

Friday, February 10, 2006

It's BANNER time

New blog is ready to go. now I just need to find something to write about. Nah, I'll just wait till I'm in Japan.