Sunday, October 21, 2012

A weekend update

We headed to Obihiro this weekend for the Fall Meet, here is some fun from Instagram!

The photos are not in this order:

Some fall colors near my bagel shop.

Pumpkin soup from the bagel shop

Two crazy friends

Cake!

The ally we walked down before finding dinner.

Pickles that came with dinner.

Today's green curry lunch.








Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Floor curling

Tonight I was invited out with the BOE to try floor curling. Not sure if it exists anywhere else, but I tried it.

The most difficult thing about floor curling is getting the "stone" to go straight. Mostly mine rolled out.

But I got two that stayed in and the second win the round, it was only 5cm away from the target!

Here are some fun photos of the evening:

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Japanese study update

After all the tough-ness of speaking so little Japanese when I came, lots of good, encouraging Japanese moments have happened recently.

A few weeks ago, I realized the manga a friend recommended was getting pretty easy, it was still a bit tough, but I could understand most of it. So I decided to start working on reading my first Japanese novel. A friend was with me who had seen the movie Brave and thought the novel version might be good. I’m currently 4 pages into it!

With lots of friends having just left and making new ALT-friends, I’ve found myself in a couple of moments when I had the highest level of Japanese. Before, that was very rare. Now it’s because a lot of those friends have left or I’ve been in groups with mostly newbies, but I’ve never been in that situation before.

I signed up for the JLPT (the Japanese Language test of DOOM! aka the Japanese Language Proficiency Test). Which I’ll take the first Sunday in December. I’m taking N3, which is the middle level they offer. It’s going to be a challenge to get ready, but I think I can do it.

And last, this weekend we were sitting around chatting at a hostel in Sapporo when a guy from Tokyo asked if either of us (Liz and I) could speak much Japanese. The hostel owner, pointed at me and said “She can.” It took me a moment to realize he must be talking about me!

Now it’s time to study some more so I’m ready for this crazy test!