Which means that I only have 8 months left in Japan. Have I gotten better in Japanese? Most Japanese friends said I did. As for my opinion, I think I became better, being able to talk in Japanese straight (though still not spontaneously), than the me who had forgotten all her Japanese and could not talk at all four months ago. とにかく、日本語がペラペラになるように、頑張ります！

Last week's schedule had been very hectic. I had to write report papers for the Relay Lectures and History of Science and Technology classes, do presentations in Japanese Literature and Nihongo, and write the proposal for the Directed Independent Study course for Summer Semester. I was supposed to give a presentation in the Lit class earlier, but I couldn't finish the book I chose, so I just asked Ellis-sensei for a shorter and much easier story. That was okay, since she warned me about the complexity of the book I chose anyway. For the presentation in Nihongo, I did my best. I even think I overdid it a little. I think my presentation was 20 minutes long, but I realized that only after watching the video of the presentations. The proposal for the Independent Study was easy for me, since I'll try working on the same topic as my thesis. Having a Todai professor whose specialty is language change will be a big help for my thesis come November when I have to continue writing it.

So yeah, I was so busy I didn't even had the chance to blog about my first snow in Tokyo so I'll just put up the links to the pictures and video here.

Sorry for being such a dork. It was my first time to see snow after all.:P Anyway, Miggy and I will be going to Yuki Matsuri on the 5th so we'll be seeing large snow sculptures there.(*o*)/ Nagi will be going with her friends, but we're going to meet in Sapporo.:D I'm getting excited, after seeing the snow sculptures they're going to have (and a biiiiiig snow slide and snow maze, too!!!) I'll try my best to record videos of the festival, using my DVD camcorder. But I still have to buy blank DVD-RWs for it, and one blank 8cm DVD-RW costs 1000yen.

We still have to pass two term papers, one for the Japan's External Relations class and the other for the Lit class. But I think those'll be easy since for the JER class, we only need to pass a 500-800-word essay and in Lit class, a 2000-word essay, which is what I consider a normal term paper in UP. But for the time being, since I have a loooooong break (Spring-Summer semester will start on April) I plan to travel a lot.:D After Yuki Matsuri, we have the overnight trip to an onsen in Hakone, then two days after, Viet Thi and I are off to Nagano Prefecture to ski~!(^.^)/ There is also the plan to go to Kansai region with Karen and the others, since we were invited by Micchan, who's studying in Osaka GaiDai.:3

Of course, I'm still doing part-time jobs. I've been able to save quite a lot, but I had to spend 10,000 for the Ski Tour.>_<;; I'll definitely return that to my savings when I get my allowance on the 15th. My student who lives near my dorm also contacted me again, after having a hectic week at work. I have online conversations with the Algerian guy almost every night, and meet once a week for the payment. The third one is an employee in an insurance company, a Todai alumnus, who wants to improve his conversation skills. We also talk online, and he'll be depositing his payment to my bank account every month.

I don't know what else to write here. I just want everyone to know that I'm going fine and still alive! But I lost weight, actually. In three months, I lost 3 pounds.D: I guess not eating fastfood for a change helps.^^;;

I don't make New Year's resolutions. I know that I won't be able to follow them anyway.

We were made to think of one word which will be our shinnen no ketsui or New Year's Resolutions, and write them down (using Japanese calligraphy, of course). One word to guide me during 2008:

Chinese people wrote their names in Kanji so I can't read them.>_<;; I was fascinated when I saw these in the AIKOM office that I had to take a picture and make a special entry for it. It was the first time all AIKOM students who are taking Japanese classes were in one special class so it's really memorable for me.