"Make sense simasu ka?"

(Short update because I'm procrastinating, but just a little bit)

Because I'm kind of oblivious to these things until wiser, more observant people (i.e., Ashok) point them out to me, apparently Asaoka-sensee uses the phrase, "Make sense しますか?" all the time. And, just like how when Ashok pointed out that Dr. Kundell always said "hwat" and "hwy" all the time in Human Biology last fall, I couldn't ever not laugh when I heard it thereafter, I now crack up in Japanese class whenever I hear "Make sense しますか," that is, when I'm not spazzing out in my seat because I'm being poked by a certain annoying Morse freshman who sits next to me. He and Brian also have come to the conclusion that I look like an otter, so I have to deal with calls of "Kawausoooo (sp?)!" throughout class and the occasionally pat on the head if I'm not careful.

So good news bad news time. Bad news is class is as difficult as ever, and getting grades back is uber depressing and I find myself lowering my already significantly low standards. Good news is, it seems most of my class seems to be in the same boat, so we're suffering together. Group solidarity, woo! Whenever I've encountered any of the students in Intermediate 1B, without fail, somebody's upset and grumbling about something, and for all of my constant whining, it's not even necessarily usually me. Poor Victor has to redo his Independent Study proposal a third time because Asaoka-sensee deemed it "not fun" enough, because Victor wants to read books and what not in Japanese (which can help him out with his graduate studies too). Poor Victor =(. I miss sitting next to him in class, although I feel less bad about not ever knowing what's going on when I sit and pair up with Brian or Ashok, because they seem equally confused at least some of time. Plus, I don't feel as guilty about breaking the Nihongo Dake Rule (Japanese only rule) when I'm paired up with the latter two who are probably equally guilty.

At the very least, even if my Japanese isn't improving significantly, my Japanese food vocabulary is improving, thanks to my wonderful okaasan! She really needs to stop feeding me though, I'm quite literally eating at least twice as much as I normally do. I'm picking up assorted vocabulary from her and Yoshihisa though, from the names of different fruits and vegetables to words like "gun" and "kill." Win? Also, my okaasan is a FORTUNE TELLER in her spare time. Soooooooo cool. I was wondering why there was a plaque reading "Soul Space" by the other door at the front of the house which isn't actually the front door---her office, と思います. She also has noticed that I've been sneezing a lot (darn you, Japan) and asked if it was alright if she cleaned my room on Saturday while I'm at Onuma Park partying up with the other HIFers, because she thinks that tatami mats carry a lot of dust and she's worried about my health. Seriously. I think I love my okaasan. I feel really bad and tried to politely refuse, but with the way she worded it (something like, "won't you please let me clean the dust up in your room, or if that isn't alright, I won't do it for you, but what do you think?"), it seemed a refusal would have been rude. o_O

Anyway, it's 11 pm and that means back to studying. I'll be taking pictures soon and uploading them, I promise. I have to interview one of the rickshaw drivers and get pictures for my Independent Study project (DO NOT WANT). While we're on the topic, won't you all be dears and comment and think of questions to ask them? Seriously, I'm failing at that. And I have to interview one in Japanese by Tuesday, AHHH.

So far, I have the basic how long have you been doing this job, what kinds of places do you visit, what kinds of people do you usually cater to, etc. Yeah, 助けて下さい！"

Over and out.