12/1

It's DECEMBER!! I can't believe how fast time seems to have flown since I arrived in Japan.  As odd as it seems, with the turning of the season and the decent into December it's like waking up from a dream. It is as if from September to now has all been a long dream and it has finally sunk into my head that I'M ACTUALLY IN JAPAN! And I only have one semester left but at the same time that's seven months away. I'm not sure why it's so hard to explain...

Anyway, today was completely caffeine filled fun. First I was actually on time leaving my apartment which means I could leisurely bike ride to school. Instead of my usual three-minute I-think-I'm-having-a-stroke-or-at-least-heart-failure mad ride to school and then sprint up six flights of stairs and then drag myself, panting, into class with seconds to spare. Thursday classes are with my favorite teacher Murukami-sensei, and she is always so cool and a bit scary. Actually we were going over the last of the material before our exam next week. She was showing us a common mistake for something and all of a sudden she goes "...so don't do that on the test or I will kill you." The room went quiet for a minute and then we all sort of laughed. I swear she became a Yakuza for a second. I know that it wasn't a real threat and that she was completely kidding but my heart shuddered for a second. So later we were debating if she had been a Yankee girl in her youth and rode the streets in a gang or something. (at this point I think I'd already had a coke and a carton of coffee)  We had lunch and we finally braved the Juu place for lunch (the only place we had never eaten at before because it is always crowded and a bit intimidating). I had my second coke. After my last class we had our weekly club meeting for SIA (an interpreters club) and I was HYPER so we convinced the leader to let us play Pictionary instead of whatever he had planned. Most of the Japanese students had never played so it was a mad hysterical race to the end. Then we started drawing on the board and just writing random things. I did a decent sketch of our club leader on the white board. We did eventually do a little translation practice. But it was a great time to bond with the Japanese students and just relax. Afterwards we walked the Hamazushi for sushi.