"Facebook yatteru?"

Today, I had my placement test and it was a little different than I expected.
First of all, there was no speaking portion. Apparently even when they teach English in schools in Japan, there is no mandatory speaking portion of the class so Japanese students often have trouble speaking English since they don't have the practice in class. Oh, well...The test consisted of 3 sections: expressions, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension. Each section started out easy and then got harder the further you proceded into the packet. So for each packet, I was gradually like, "Oh, this is easy lalala...umm...k I have no idea what this structure is" lol. The expressions section was easy until we had to make up things using a specific sentence structure. I knew some of them, but there were 5 I left blank because I had heard of them before, but I didn't really know how they worked. Teaching yourself a language has its downfalls too--I'm really weak in grammar. As I thought, listening comprehension was my strongest and thus easiest part. The reading comprehension was more or less ok until the last page which was a lot of kanji (chinese characters) without the furigana (how to read the kanji). I've read pieces like this before in my lit class last semester, but I really can't read them without a dictionary next to me... Anyways, I find out the results on Thursday.

After the test, I worked on my social skills. I went with Stephanie to a sushi welcome party (plus one of the Japanese students made okonamiyaki). It was so great to talk in Japanese! Stephanie is super talkative and sociable so I pretty much tagged along with her as she moved around from person to person. It was a helpful way to meet people for someone shy like me...

First, we talked to Ise, an RA of Plum IS dorm (and Stephanie's secret crush haha). He's really sweet and an amazing person. Apparently, he helped out a lot with the tsunami relief and suggested that we help too because this is a once in a lifetime thing. Next year, he's going to take a break from school to help out in the slums of Vietnam. He really likes doing volunteer work. His belief is that we only have one life so might as well use it right. Really admirable.

Then, we talked to this guy (I forget his name) that recently got a girlfriend. He was so excited and happy about it that he just told us all about his new girlfriend without us asking anything haha.

Then, when we went inside to eat okonamiyaki, we met these two guys that went to Cambridge last year! So I had some things to talk about with them. They asked me which college I went to in Cambridge but...I totally forgot. (Do you remember, Jonathan? lol)

Then last was Nao-chan. Whenever people meet you, one of the big questions they ask you is "Facebook yatteru?" literally "Do you do Facebook?" or more appropriately translated: "Are you on Facebook?" Then, with their iphones or droids, they can instantly type you in and add you as a friend. Iphones are also great Japanese dictionaries. It makes me want an iphone, too! Maybe I'll join the bandwagon when I get back to the U.S.

On the way home, Stephanie and I went back together and she talks so much! I wonder how her mouth keeps going on and on like that haha. But it's great. Her liveliness and eagerness is so captivating and she just has the sweetest voice and demeaner. We talked about love and things haha. She's really cute and childish sometimes, but sometimes I think she's more mature than I am even though I'm a year older haha...Overall, though, I think we get along really well. We have lots in common--except she's super outgoing and I'm a bit more reserved. I've also been learning a lot about Australia. For example, a rubber is an eraser (like England), thongs are flipflops, a D grade at school is not a fail but more like a B equivilant and HD (aka High Distinction) is an A, the capital of Australia is not Sydney but Cambara, etc. I also love her accent and I think it rubs off on me a bit as well...

Anyways, I only have one picture today. This is the main entrance to Keio's Mita campus (the only campus I've been to and I think it's the main campus). The structure is very European I think.