Fruit and Class

Anyone who knows me well knows that I adore fruit. Sadly, though, I haven't tried very many Japanese fruits at all! After looking at the prices of fruits at any market and being advised against the grapes, I've pretty much stuck to my (relatively inexpensive) apples and bananas. But after Sean Greenwell (thanks!) commented on my blog in response to my strange green fruits (which are apparently unripe rambutans), I couldn't help but do some research. Here is a website with a list of fruits I will now make it my mission to try while in Asia:
Crazy Asian Fruits (that is is no way, shape, or form a pun :P)

On a different note, I had my first day of school today. I've never felt more like a freshman in my life! After going to my first class, though, it seemed like I wouldn't be too in over my head. The teacher spoke a little quickly, but I understood most of what was said, and I seemed more confident when I spoke than some of the other students in the class. I'm also very lucky in that this is potentially my only 5 unit class and my 2 closest friends here are in it with me (Ashleigh and Clare). It's a class with the really tacky title: All About Me, All About You. It's thematic interaction; we'll come up with a theme to discuss in class and write up in a report. It seems pretty informative!

My second class was Communication at the Workplace; seemed pretty straight forward. We memorize dialogues in order to cope in a business environment. I also have the pleasure of sharing this class with Ashleigh.

My third class was going to be pronunciation, but fortunately, O-Week (Orientation Week) gave me a chance to decide between that and another class. Each of the elective classes is half as long as it would normally be during O-Week to give students the chance to attend another class orientation about which they are curious. So, after 45 minutes of "shadowing" a recording by awkwardly repeating everything he said and working out the small differences between sake (salmon) and sake (alcohol), Ashleigh and I left for Reading J-Society and J-Culture for Vocabulary Acquisition. We were the only two students in the second half of that class; it was actually pretty fun! It may be an easy review class, but I really think that it will help build my vocabulary (something I definitely need). I will definitely switch to that class.

Not only is that 3/3 classes so far with a friend, it's 3/3 classes so far with no exams whatsoever. I may have a lot of projects, but it'll be nice to not have to worry about lessons culminating into exams! Also, aside from my aforementioned 5 unit class, all of my classes are worth 1 unit (stressful until my advisor said he'd count anything toward what I needed). So, it seems like I'll be getting a little information in a lot of much-needed areas. I hope I don't regret saying it, but I'm starting to look forward to the semester!

More pictures will come in the next blog :)

<3!