I think left off about a week before
reading period, but I would rather not say much about that. I ended up doing just find in Japanese 2 and
First-year Seminar, but Neuroscience was another story. Perhaps I learned the hard way that I am no
longer a hard science geek!
---
Since I did not go on Glee Club Tour to San
Diego, my spring break consisted of moving between Bed and Breakfasts in
Freeport and Waterville and studying very hard… until Pranam came to
visit. Thursday, March 22 was one of the
most special days not only did we have this freakish, yet gorgeous, 80-degree
weather, but we picked up Pranam from the airport, and he even said that it
hadn’t even been that warm in Georgia. I
was very anxious when I was waiting at the gate, probably because Air Tran was expected
to arrive earlier than scheduled. Apparently Pranam was one of the first
passengers off, but he was the last to walk out the door since he got lost and
thought baggage claim was in the opposite direction. What a ばか。
I do not remember what we did the first
night, something along the lines of settling in, having dinner, and going to
bed. I’m pretty sure that was the night
he suggested that we watch The King’s
Speech, which won an Oscar for Best Picture. The cinematography was so artistically
executed, from angle to lighting, and it made me think harder about all the
creativity, intelligence, and planning used make a quality movie. The next day, we tried to go to the golf
course, but rental golf clubs were not available, so we ended up having an
awkward 3-mile walk during which my mom interrogated Pranam. That alone was exhausting. Pranam golfed on Saturday instead, and it was
very interesting to watch. As tense as
their interactions were on Friday, Pranam and my mom made an excellent
team. We didn’t do any other major
activities, besides wandering around Downtown Freeport in search of Ralph
Lauren cologne and omiyage. Cologne testing was very entertaining, and
even some of the employees at the counter played around with us too. We finally decided on #3, the one with a
slight mint aroma. On Sunday, we
embarked for Hanover, New Hampshire.
However, our eagerness to return was thwarted for a few hours when we
learned that the first Greyhound bus was full, and the department had forgotten
to send a second one – a bad ending to a nice vacation.
---
The green was breathtaking when we stepped
off the bus. After spending two terms
watching the grass decompose and get covered in snow, I had forgotten how
vibrant it could become. Seeing that
made me certain that 12S would be spectacular, and so far I am right.
New term, new classes once again – this
time I love all three, and I cannot say that I look forward to one more than
another. The topics provide enough
variety (language, literature, and deductive science) but are still specific
enough to the field I am passionate about.
Japanese 3 (9S plus 8 drill) is pretty regular, since I am accustomed to
Ishida-sensei’s teaching style, but the grammar and kanji are a bit more
complicated. Right now, we are studying
the expressions “to give” and “to receive.”
I think it’s still too early in the term to say that Japanese Culture
(11 plus 12-X) might quite possibly be a joke is easy, but the course is
taught in English, our homework consists of reading and watching films, and there
are no written assignments. Some of the
literature is… disturbingly creative. I
just read a folktale about a man who had an affair with a fox-woman who died
soon after as a result of karmic retribution.
Last but not least, Intro Linguistics (12) is a blast. I really enjoy making funny noises in class
and in the library while doing homework.
This week we are covering phonetics, and we have been memorizing the
International Phonetic Alphabet and the classification of sounds (stop vs.
fricative or tense vs. lax vowel). Did
you know, a snort would be described as a nasal-ingressive voiceless velar
trill. The data sets will surely be
something to get used to, though; in this QDS distributive, we analyze letter
patterns rather than number patterns!
Will continue later...
Will continue later...
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