01/12/2007: "First impressions"

So, I've officially survived my first week of classes (which was only 3 days and only introduction sections, but an achievement none-the-less). I dropped one class, replaced it with another, then replaced that with a third I hadn't even planned on taking. I also added 2 more credits this morning, knocking me up to 18 units (which is also, incidentally, the highest amount you can take without special administrative paperwork). I'm either insane, trying to work myself to death, or going to graduate as early as possible and be able to relax for my senior year. If everything's on track (it should be), my last year of school will be low-stress 12-credit semesters taking filler credits of stuff that's ideally easy and that I don't really need. Ha!

A secondary reason for all this work is so that in case something unexpected comes up (I didn't count my credits properly, some classes don't count, I need something else, etc), I can easily slip more classes in later without overburdening myself. There's nothing quite like getting forced to take an 18 credit final semester with statistics, advanced Japanese, and a literature class that you didn't expect.

Otherwise, things are going alright. Trying to do the right things, trying to be a decent person, and of course, keep up with the studying. Don't worry: the dedication to the studying will die out in about two weeks or so, once I can figure out how little work I actually need to do to make it through my classes.

Need to make plans for what we're doing in London. As of right now, I have absolutely no idea what people actually do in London, as natives or visitors. You see, when you spend years of your life studying Japanese/Chinese history, culture, and language, you actually spend little time learning about the whole "Europe" thing. This is also partly my fault, due to a sincere lack of interest in Europe as a whole. Yes, I know, I'm uncultured, have a lack of respect for history, etc, etc. For some reason, I just have absolutely no interest in European/Western history. This generally works out all right for me, except for times like right now. I guess I'll look up some info or a travel guide for London online and see what it is that people go do. Regardless, I'll have a helpful guide (whom I'll be staying with), so I imagine I'll at least have a decent chance.

On a positive note, I don't need to rely on foreign language skills to save me while traveling, or bring maps and dictionaries with me everywhere I go! Though at this point, nearly 2 years of constant study since I'd last gone to Japan, I'm quite sure I could get by on my own now, it's at least nice to know that I'll be able to rely on English for travel.

Anyway, I think I'll be off for now. Gotta get starting on transcribing the English and Japanese copy of "Gone with the Wind". Why? I have no idea, but that's my job.

But first, my classes!

Modern Japanese literature (After 1945)
Modern Japanese history (1800-present)
Chinese history (1600-1800)
Psychology of language development
Advanced Japanese language (finishing up my third year)
Independent Japanese study


Jason

On Tuesday, January 16th, Kat said:

Wow..looks heavy, but yeah that's smart to be prepared for senior year.