Writer's Block - Cleared!

I'm happy to say - actually more like relieved - that I was able to come up with something for my essay.  All I needed was a good night's sleep.  Though, the good night's sleep wasn't intentional, I literally fell asleep while "relaxing" trying to come up with something, so I woke up before the roosters this morning and there you go.

I went to last night's Conversation Club armed with 4 questions.  I decided to just go with the flow, and of course, my questions were gone the first five minutes.  However, the conversation was going really well, before we knew it, a whole hour has gone by.  Looking forward to the next Conversation Club.

Writer's Block?

I am absolutely stuck!  I had a break for two weeks being the Victoria Day long weekend.  It is now Friday - two weeks after - back to school tomorrow and I still cannot come up with anything to write on my essay.  The topic is not so easy, something along the lines of "。。。。なければなりません".  If I were to write in English, my pen would be flying by now.....how do I say it in Japanese?  I don't have the energy to rack my brain - battery drained.

As well, tonight, I am going to the Conversation Club, which means that I have to come up with questions to make the "conversation going smoothly", however, it never really goes according to the script.  Maybe I should just write down my standard questions and use it everytime, though, I think that would really defeat the purpose of the whole thing as we are expected to have more "sophisticated" sentences as we progress.  Honestly, I am far from there.

I think I need a coffee right about now.

２０１０年０５月２３日

Lately, I find myself watching a lot of Korean shows.  I think I hear some words in Korean that are similar to Japanese and they sort of mean the same thing - maybe the origin of the word is the same?  Anyway, in most of these shows they have this sort of rice dish wherein they mix rice and all sorts of things in one big bowl and eat.  It looked really good, however, I have noticed that in most every show, the character would usually be depressed or have some sort of problem when they are eating this....is this the Korean version of a comfort food?  In any case, after watching all that, I suddenly had a craving for bibimbap - yum!

2010年05月05日

It's been awhile....what have I been up to.....well, I've been to one Conversation Club and two meet-ups since last post.  I'm trying to practice as much as I can.  Writing is hard enough but it gives me time to check and double check my sentences plus look up words in the dictionary, while speaking is so much harder cause you have to have the words right off your head.  Anyway, がんばります！

I have also started Kanji class last Friday - it goes for an hour and a half.  Though it's a good class, I think I still have to do some studying on my own to learn as much Kanji as I can.  I do not aim to master Kanji - though that would really be nice (^_^) but I'd like to learn enough to be able to enjoy the magazines while waiting at my hairdressers - yes, it's in Japanese.

I downloaded an App for iPhone called iKanji.  I really like this App, it teaches you the Kanji meanings, compounds and stroke order and you get to test yourself.  It is also classified by JLPT Level and by Grade.  Since I have it on my iPhone, it's very handy.  I play with it while killing time.  I used to play Chuzzles while waiting in line - now iKanji is my game.

２０１０年０４月１７日

It's another Saturday.  It felt like this week went by pretty fast.  It couldn't have been the weather as it was crappy most of the time.  You get weather forecasts telling you that it's going to be a nice 18 degree weather outside, so you dress up for it, only to find out that they might have made a typo on the 8 there. 

Today, I hand in my essay.  I had been mulling it over since last Saturday - what to write, what to write?  Days are ticking away.  I had finally decided to write about my trip to New York.  So with my currently ;-) limited Japanese, I wrote my essay.  I wanted to write so much more, however, at this point I still do not how to write more complex sentences, so I had to settle on writing about things that I knew how to write.    Anyway, I do notice some improvement now from Level 1 and I'm happy with it.

I was going to go for a morning run - but brrrr cold - so here I am sipping my morning coffee - warm and cozy, waiting to get ready for class.

Hi-ho Hi-ho! It's Off to School I Go!

First day back to class Level 3 yay!  This is exciting!  If I were this enthusiastic in those days of school, my Dad and Mom would probably have pinned more medals on me (^-^).

Actually what I said above isn't true - I was enthusiastic too, I wasn't a slacker,  I just thought differently.  What made me realize that?  It wasn't any sudden revelation, rather, when I realize that some of my reactions and decisions now to certain situations, wouldn't necessarily be the same as my reactions and decisions back then, I think to myself - oh I've grown up!

Though my Dad and Mom did not get to pin numerous medals on me - I think I turned out with a good head on my shoulders and I'd like to think that they are proud of me (^-^).

Home Sweet Home

Finally back in Toronto last night.  The trip back wasn't as long as the trip going to New York - it was two hours shorter, so it still took about 13 hours.  Though the train ride was long, it was a relief not to have to look for parking and move the car every night.  Looking for parking in Manhattan is a nightmare!

It was a good short vacation - did not do much shopping this time but rather went around the city a lot.  Went uptown and walked not-quite-in-Central Park. Went to the Apple store which is always crazy full of people - they were going to launch the new iPad the next day - gotta check that out - when all the hoopla dies down.  This was the first time that I actually walked across the Brooklyn Bridge.  It was a good 20 minute walk, lots of people on the bridge.  On that one day been to the three boroughs - Manhattan - homebase, Brooklyn - walked Brooklyn Heights for the first time too - and incidentaly saw someone with an iPad - he must been one of the first to own one as it was only launched the day before; and Queens - had a late lunch at a Thai place.  Took the subway majority of the time - the New York subway makes me claustrophobic everytime, especially when I look down and realize its multi-levels and think how far below I am.  And oh yeah, when in New York I never miss to have dimsum at Golden Unicorn in Chinatown.

After my New York "getaway" which I was spoiled with, with great weather.....here I am back in Toronto with not so great weather - it is 10 degrees colder! reminding me I'm back in Canada.  As I was on the train ride back - I can feel bad colds starting to creep into my system and - voila! - I wake up this morning with a major headache that Tylenol couldn't get rid off and yes - bad colds finally made its way into my system.

Home Sweet Home.