In the absence of event...

Bonjour, dear Blogger dot com.

It has been.... how long?

Fine, thank you; and how are you?

No, seriously. How are you.

For the remainder of the summer, things have been upsettingly uneventful and drab, but school has been anything besides that. 

School! 

School is probably the best place to socialize and meet friends (Yes, that's right-- it's NOT eHarmony), but probably not the best place to learn. Wow, how has our society evolved? School is not the best place to learn anymore!

I enjoy and miss teaching myself Japanese, and now that I have FINISHED KATAKANA *all clap* and probably need more time and concentration to learn Kanji, I highly doubt that any more will be learned during the functional school year. My goal is to learn one Kanji a day, which is pretty exciting and fun. I also need to work on my speech and comprehension of grammar. My homework as of present is to listen and memorize Japanese songs. Though it may all seem fun and games, learning Japanese songs is probably the best way for a teenager to really learn and get familiarized with the sounds and manners of speech in the Japanese language while appreciating the modern music of Japanese society.

With school, curriculum is completely out of my control. You see, I believe that all school assignments are supposed to be fairly simple to a studious and knowledgeable child, but I highly doubt that any work can me custom made to conform to a child's learning speeds. IF it takes me an extra day to learn one set of Katakana, I rest myself and take that extra day. However in school, matters are as rigid as a new Nike sneaker.

For now, school is fun... at most times. But the worst part for me is coming home physically and mentally exhausted. I suppose all I can do is try to put myself in the teacher's shoes-- as I can do well, because at most points it was difficult to both learn AND teach Japanese... and I realize that they have more work than I. Not only do they have to make sure we are learning and are NOT miserable, but it is their job to do so, as well as other nooks and crannies. So I'll enjoy this time while I have it.

Yes, this is the serious side of JP Otaku.

SIDE NOTE: One thing you might not know-- (No, I hate that. you DON'T know, because I have never TOLD you.) One thing you don't know about me is that I am terribly and somewhat ridiculously afraid of insects and arachnids of any kinds (for some reason, I'm more sympathetic with rodents). This morning, in the middle or taking a shower, I saw a ladybug in the bathtub beside the drain. I got out, and looked carefully at it. I don't know, but it's something about how creepy all of their dots look from a distance, or how quickly they take flight when their outer shell splits in half and their wings emerge... I turned off the water and tried to drown it in a small amount of dishwashing soap. When it was on its back and I could see its legs struggling to put itself upright, I washed it down the drain with a bit of water. I am a horrible, horrible person.