A Quickie...I hope...

So, second day of classes, and we were late. But it wasn't our fault. There was an accident (I think someone in class said it was a human accident (which can often be read as a suicide on the track line)) and many lines were held up. The line at our station made it almost to where the escalator from outside leading in was. So we waited and waited. Finally they let us through the ticket gates (and it was craaaazy) and I think we made it on the 2nd or 3rd train thereafter. Obviously it was supremely crowded. We had met up with a fellow DK-er, Jonas from Germany, and he suggested we just stay on the Keihin-Tohoku line and make just one transfer at Akihabara. That route is supposedly quicker (though just by a few minutes per my research) but it felt sooo much longer today. There are actually more stops this route, and it felt longer because a) we had to wait a long time at each station as after-effects from the delays and b) it's all in one-go as opposed to us going a few stops and making a transfer and repeat. I'm rather partial to our Akabane-Shinjuku route.

At the Yotsuya station, we grabbed a little ticket to act as our late pass, and we rushed to class about 30 minutes or so late. So Natalie and I had missed the vocab quiz already, but we gave our passes to the teacher (Noguchi), apologized, he understood, and gave us the quiz to take during the break. Class was fine, and the quiz was fine. Then 2nd period, we had Kobayashi and we went over some homework stuff, and talked a lot about personality traits.

Went straight to lunch because I was trying to catch a class during 3rd period, which starts at 1:30 pm, and lunch is 12:30 until then. After lines and such, I got my udon around 1 and scarfed it down quickly, which probably isn't good, but I was hungry, and antsy. I left with a classmate James to this Ethnography of Japan class. I had heard the professor, David Slater, was a bit of a jerk who assigned a lot of work, but on the other hand, this made him a good teacher and his classes are challenging and worthwhile to take. Luckily James and I got seats since we got there a bit early; others weren't so lucky. Slater weeded out the 'tourists' as he called them by emphasizing reasons NOT to take his class, and it worked. He got rid of many many students. It's a small group discussion-based class, with a lot of theoretical reading and whatnot, and paper-writing. I don't think I'll be taking it though.

Next I met Greg and Natalie for Slater's other class, Japanese Symbolic Practice, and it sounds really interesting, but I'm not quite sure it's for me. It's heavy on anthropology and sociology, which I am interested in, but the focus is field research. The topic centers on digital communication and how it has changed and affected our interactions with one another, with an emphasis on the cell phone, or keitai. The class requires weekly participant observation, and then you choose a topic to conduct your field research on, and that all culminates into a 15-25 page paper. Greg and Natalie are taking it for sure, but I am still debating (though I should probably decide soon...because I would need to prepare for Thursday's class...) It's definitely an interesting topic and he presented it in a very thought-provoking manner, but as I said, I'm not sure if it's really for me.

Then I headed to check out another class, History of Japanese Language. This class also seems interesting, topic-wise. We will basically be tracing the evolution of the Japanese language itself, in regards to phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. Linguistics is another field I've been wanting to delve into, so that's what attracted me to this class. And from what the teacher described, I feel like I'll really learn a lot about the language that I've been studying for years now, not just the history, but a lot of new vocabulary and Kanji as well. Another plus: no textbook, just handouts that the teacher creates himself. I think it will be neat to, at the end of the semester, as per his example, be able to explain the major differences between the modern Japanese phonological system and that of the Nara period and also support that with examples using the language of both times. Just to think about what causes a language to change, how, and why, is pretty interesting, because the process of evolution is something you hardly linger on on a daily basis - we just accept things as they are in the present - but it's really quite a complex thing.

I am leaning towards the last class (I don't think I'll be taking more than one on top of the Intensive Japanese class due to the workload in Intensive alone, and I'll be doing a club that so far is 2 hours a day) because I really do think I'll learn a lot (and the teacher was rather endearing) and it relates much more directly to my Japanese studies.

Overall though, it was neat to sit in on these classes. Slater's felt like I was back at UVA, and the linguistics one made me relish the fact that I can take a class like it here, because I don't think UVA offers anything quite like it.

We got out of that class early, so I rushed over to G-Splash practice, where Natalie, Jeannette, Hunter, and Teresa already were, which started at 5:30pm (the linguistics class is set to end at 6:30, so there is some overlap unfortunately). But I will write about G-Splash some other time, as I have it every day this week, and next, at the very least.

The DK-ers headed back after printing out our homework, and we picked up carry-out at Yoshinoya for ourselves and Greg, and stopped by Shop 99 as well for snacks. We ate dinner in the DK kitchen, and it was quite satisfying as most of us hadn't eaten since lunch around 1pm (and it was around 930 by this time). Then some of us indulged in these ice cream puffs, and choco snacks, introduced to me by Natalie, and they are both so delicious! I rather despise Natalie for introducing me to them...

Then I took a much-needed shower, albeit with gnats (these darned things are all over the shower room, I don't understand where they come from...). But at least when I take off my glasses, I can't see them...

I've been doing homework for some time; there wasn't actually too much, just a worksheet, but I wanted to do some extra preparation, and then blog, so there.

Goodnight. Here's to hoping I can get used to this sleeping schedule...