contacts to eyes contact on thighs
Jun. 4th, 2015 05:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mugen_edamameIt's already June, and if time insists on getting faster and faster and faster death is probably going to come real quick (hello everybody, long time no see).
Late July will bring to it the end of my Spring semester of being a 2nd year student, and can you believe this time next year I'll hit a new high in my academic career (finally becoming a third year university student whoaaaa). This semester I did a really great job picking out classes, if I do say so myself; nothing starts before 11, and since most days I finish quite late walking back I even get to avoid the vicious summer sun (that contribute to many stressful sweat-damp situations, including that one time I was running late for a midterm exam and after sprinting and arriving, then proceeded to sweat LITERAL PUDDLES over the paper and on my table for the next 15 minutes). Classes are majority Japanese-language this sem, as they've been since the start, but it's an even bigger majority than usual. More biology, though Japan's unflinching love of microbiology and shortage of affection for zoology leaves me high and lonely. And LOTS MORE part-time work, sort of. Last semester I worked as a student assistant (SA) for a lecturer in a academic presentation class (held in English), but I use the word 'work' v v v lightly indeed. Yeah it's minimum wage, but I didn't need to do much to earn it, and since it's during class hours, it's so ridiculously convenient.
This sem, I've been working 6 hours weekly with more SA-ing for the English department, the Japanese department, and the same presentation lecturer. While I fundamentally get that I am older than p much any other undergraduate student crawling on this campus (trust me sometimes I count my age and then get a bit dazed) it still boggles the mind when a girl in the presentation class came up to me and said, what lectures do you teach here?
??? Man this might not be the face of a fresh, vigorous teen, but I am AMAZED, genuinely astonished that someone looked at me and thought I was old enough and responsible enough to be an adult working full-time. It's hard to be offended. What she saw is pretty aspirational, sortof? I try not to be too down on me and my age or it'll never end and I'll be dying at 80 still disparaging me (not cool).
I'm on my second semester of Spanish, and the workload for it is mental. Quizzes every week, online exams every other week, endless essays in Spanish and Japanese, and a crappy Friday with a teacher I have trouble understanding on like, a fundamental and not liguistical problem. Like he's a very high-pitched sound and I am not a dog. But this semester did bring with it its perks: a new teacher, who's Japanese-Argentinian and has the world's cutest Japanese and Spanish accent. She says por ejemplo and I melt into myself a little bit with a quiet happy sigh. I also have a chance to take a short intensive Spanish course in Spain over summer, which I am super geared up to go to. If times can work out, I also fully intend to drop by and visit![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ann_fish, so let's hope the stars align and the airline companies smile sweetly on me. I'm a little hyped; Spanish is cool and odd and always sounds whole-hearted even when I'm just there unnecessarily rollings my Rs while not actually knowing what the words leaving my mouth mean. For someone who's pppppretty sure she isn't good with languages, I'm glad I still get so many chances.
Also started Kendo for compulsory PE classes, and it was really fun and the teacher is super cool and when he goes in to attack in demonstration literally the entire hall vibrates with how much force he slams down a bamboo sword with. But it is getting hotter and hotter, and Kendo is in between a class on sports science (where we often have to do actual sports hgnggnghgh) and a lecture on sustainable development and policies, so I took this week off. It's too hot, and after that heavy policy class there's an even heavier compulsory statistics class (whose teacher is unbearably hilarious but also speaks so fast I'm usually so late to the joke party people are living before I get in a giggle). Also, 2 weeks ago I got to put on the helmet for practice swings, yeah, and those things are heavy and they block your peripheral vision and the weight distribution on the head goes weird and it's so hot and stifling and
I'm not prone to getting panicky or anxious in small, tight spaces, but man I had to take a few breaths to calm down. It made me feel like a frightened horse with blinders on that make a bad situation so much worse.
So we'll see how that goes on.
Doing Fundamentals of IT part 2 this semester, because it's compulsory and I couldn't fit it into my schedule last time. The teacher moves at the speed of a man who assumes that people can miraculously start programming as soon as he's done explaining it, but
1) He IS SHOCKINGLY BAD AT EXPLAINING THINGS. I'm long-winded trust me I know me but at least I don't tend to accidentally send impressionable confused people barelling down the wrong path, and then getting angry at them for not understanding me right.
2) He makes us do all of the stuff prescribed in the school text, which, okay, cool. I would prefer if he'd cut back on that, given that at this point people are either straight up not coming to class, copy-pasting from friends, or getting a little bit too creative with how they find solutions to exercise. But no, not only is there an absence of cutting back, midway through class when I've been lowkey swearing for an hour and a friend next to me has said This computer bears a grudge against me three times, he'll go O-oo-oh let's do some extra work.
No, sir. I'm overheated and confused, and you gotta troubleshoot the flow of this class before you slap on extra work.
He seems like a genuinely decent guy, yeah!! Like he doesn't seem cruel or purposely unkind, but the only pace he comprehends is his, and he can get kinda snippy if you complain. So mostly I sit with a bunch of friends who took Fundamentals 1 with me last year, and try desperately to slam out functional javascript. Whoever succeeds gets the dubious honour of the rest of us swarming them and taking pictures of the screen displaying the program. This dysfunctional Spartan style of teaching, along with equally lost and desperate classmates and the re-realisation that google will always be my best friend has meant that I've learnt a lot.
Just a pity that most of what I've learned has been, right click + view source, and then working backwards from there orz
Meeting a lot of nice people through the on-campus work stuff, most of what I do is run casual meet-ups for English practice, and tutoring in Japanese. People are cool, and the more they're willing to share, yeah, usually the more fun it is. I think I've become a little bit more social than I used to be, just a little. I'm still awkward as alllll hellllll when I'm concentrating on something or not thinking at all and then someone suddenly says hello. The brain closes shop, and I will gape have gaped will continue gaping at people for looooong awkward pauses.
But we gotta make little steps to improve, yeah. Got a couple other things I wanna get off my chest, but for now this has been your short guide to how the school year has been going. Hope everyone's doing okay!
Late July will bring to it the end of my Spring semester of being a 2nd year student, and can you believe this time next year I'll hit a new high in my academic career (finally becoming a third year university student whoaaaa). This semester I did a really great job picking out classes, if I do say so myself; nothing starts before 11, and since most days I finish quite late walking back I even get to avoid the vicious summer sun (that contribute to many stressful sweat-damp situations, including that one time I was running late for a midterm exam and after sprinting and arriving, then proceeded to sweat LITERAL PUDDLES over the paper and on my table for the next 15 minutes). Classes are majority Japanese-language this sem, as they've been since the start, but it's an even bigger majority than usual. More biology, though Japan's unflinching love of microbiology and shortage of affection for zoology leaves me high and lonely. And LOTS MORE part-time work, sort of. Last semester I worked as a student assistant (SA) for a lecturer in a academic presentation class (held in English), but I use the word 'work' v v v lightly indeed. Yeah it's minimum wage, but I didn't need to do much to earn it, and since it's during class hours, it's so ridiculously convenient.
This sem, I've been working 6 hours weekly with more SA-ing for the English department, the Japanese department, and the same presentation lecturer. While I fundamentally get that I am older than p much any other undergraduate student crawling on this campus (trust me sometimes I count my age and then get a bit dazed) it still boggles the mind when a girl in the presentation class came up to me and said, what lectures do you teach here?
??? Man this might not be the face of a fresh, vigorous teen, but I am AMAZED, genuinely astonished that someone looked at me and thought I was old enough and responsible enough to be an adult working full-time. It's hard to be offended. What she saw is pretty aspirational, sortof? I try not to be too down on me and my age or it'll never end and I'll be dying at 80 still disparaging me (not cool).
I'm on my second semester of Spanish, and the workload for it is mental. Quizzes every week, online exams every other week, endless essays in Spanish and Japanese, and a crappy Friday with a teacher I have trouble understanding on like, a fundamental and not liguistical problem. Like he's a very high-pitched sound and I am not a dog. But this semester did bring with it its perks: a new teacher, who's Japanese-Argentinian and has the world's cutest Japanese and Spanish accent. She says por ejemplo and I melt into myself a little bit with a quiet happy sigh. I also have a chance to take a short intensive Spanish course in Spain over summer, which I am super geared up to go to. If times can work out, I also fully intend to drop by and visit
ann_fish, so let's hope the stars align and the airline companies smile sweetly on me. I'm a little hyped; Spanish is cool and odd and always sounds whole-hearted even when I'm just there unnecessarily rollings my Rs while not actually knowing what the words leaving my mouth mean. For someone who's pppppretty sure she isn't good with languages, I'm glad I still get so many chances.Also started Kendo for compulsory PE classes, and it was really fun and the teacher is super cool and when he goes in to attack in demonstration literally the entire hall vibrates with how much force he slams down a bamboo sword with. But it is getting hotter and hotter, and Kendo is in between a class on sports science (where we often have to do actual sports hgnggnghgh) and a lecture on sustainable development and policies, so I took this week off. It's too hot, and after that heavy policy class there's an even heavier compulsory statistics class (whose teacher is unbearably hilarious but also speaks so fast I'm usually so late to the joke party people are living before I get in a giggle). Also, 2 weeks ago I got to put on the helmet for practice swings, yeah, and those things are heavy and they block your peripheral vision and the weight distribution on the head goes weird and it's so hot and stifling and
I'm not prone to getting panicky or anxious in small, tight spaces, but man I had to take a few breaths to calm down. It made me feel like a frightened horse with blinders on that make a bad situation so much worse.
So we'll see how that goes on.
Doing Fundamentals of IT part 2 this semester, because it's compulsory and I couldn't fit it into my schedule last time. The teacher moves at the speed of a man who assumes that people can miraculously start programming as soon as he's done explaining it, but
1) He IS SHOCKINGLY BAD AT EXPLAINING THINGS. I'm long-winded trust me I know me but at least I don't tend to accidentally send impressionable confused people barelling down the wrong path, and then getting angry at them for not understanding me right.
2) He makes us do all of the stuff prescribed in the school text, which, okay, cool. I would prefer if he'd cut back on that, given that at this point people are either straight up not coming to class, copy-pasting from friends, or getting a little bit too creative with how they find solutions to exercise. But no, not only is there an absence of cutting back, midway through class when I've been lowkey swearing for an hour and a friend next to me has said This computer bears a grudge against me three times, he'll go O-oo-oh let's do some extra work.
No, sir. I'm overheated and confused, and you gotta troubleshoot the flow of this class before you slap on extra work.
He seems like a genuinely decent guy, yeah!! Like he doesn't seem cruel or purposely unkind, but the only pace he comprehends is his, and he can get kinda snippy if you complain. So mostly I sit with a bunch of friends who took Fundamentals 1 with me last year, and try desperately to slam out functional javascript. Whoever succeeds gets the dubious honour of the rest of us swarming them and taking pictures of the screen displaying the program. This dysfunctional Spartan style of teaching, along with equally lost and desperate classmates and the re-realisation that google will always be my best friend has meant that I've learnt a lot.
Just a pity that most of what I've learned has been, right click + view source, and then working backwards from there orz
Meeting a lot of nice people through the on-campus work stuff, most of what I do is run casual meet-ups for English practice, and tutoring in Japanese. People are cool, and the more they're willing to share, yeah, usually the more fun it is. I think I've become a little bit more social than I used to be, just a little. I'm still awkward as alllll hellllll when I'm concentrating on something or not thinking at all and then someone suddenly says hello. The brain closes shop, and I will gape have gaped will continue gaping at people for looooong awkward pauses.
But we gotta make little steps to improve, yeah. Got a couple other things I wanna get off my chest, but for now this has been your short guide to how the school year has been going. Hope everyone's doing okay!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2015-06-04 09:05 am (UTC)I keep wanting to make a post for life updates on lj but fail because lol SO LAZYbut HIII! glad to read that you've doing pretty all right with real-life and meeting new people/friends, even if school is hectic. also, I'm veeeery envious that you get to do cool kendo classes !
(no subject)
Date: 2015-06-06 06:34 am (UTC)I KNOW MAN i only got around to this one is because mum uses 'em to find out the stuff i find too boring to talk about for skype orzHAPPY GETTING MARRIED CHARLIE!!!!! i think i saw pics on fb maybe. Sorry I totally said I'd send you something, everything is just running wild rn orz Hope it was a super, super fun day <3
Kendo sensei is cool as ballssssss. When he was showing how to put on the hakama and he was just in shorts, his calves looked like they were made of actual stone. And all things considered, life's been going ok for me >A< Almost can't believe it tbh. Hope you're doing great tooooooooo
(no subject)
Date: 2015-06-07 02:36 pm (UTC)yeah I did post some blurry mobile photos on fb lol. that was only the civil rom ceremony though, the actual church wedding and dinner reception is in July. and nahh, it.s okay, don't worry about the gift! uni and real-life is already hectic as it is with exams, assignments and whatnots.
your kendo sensei sounds pretty darn badass already just from that description. I hope you learnt some killer shounen power-up moves lol.