It's been over a week since I had the placement test. The result? After taking a second test, and a surprise second interview (that only I had to to do for some reason), I got in to the class I needed.
Perhaps I should explain. In order to receive credits from my home university, my main requirement is that I need to be placed in a certain level in order to be eligible. If I didn't get in to the corresponding class, then I would have been in trouble, as there's no way to switch up to a more advanced level once placements have been made. Fortunately, after two weeks of stressing and some last minute studying after two and a bit months of study before leaving for Japan, it all paid off.
However, while the semester has started, this week has been more about sitting in on classes and figuring out which subjects I want to take this semester(aside from my compulsory Japanese language units). Yesterday, I attended a class about Igo. The lecturer is apparently pretty good at the game. However, there was only 6 of us in the class - and it looks like it might be a lot less from next week onwards, as some of the people don't seem to be interested. As I've never heard of the game before, I was intrigued and have been going through the handout he had given us. However, despite my best attempts so far, I still cannot figure out how he calculated scoring for both players.
I also attended a lecture on Japanese Society - probably one of the only lectures that is taught in English. Aside from that reason, the syllabus covers a number of topics that I am actually interested in, including issues on foreign labor force, and consumption in Japan. Not surprisingly, a number of international students also attended this lecture, including one of my friends. Furthermore, one of the tutors from my dorm also attended the class.
In terms of assignment and workloads, I'm not sure what to expect. Speaking with friends yesterday who had been speaking with other people, the workload is supposedly a lot easier compared to our uni back home. Apparently, some students think that a 800 word essay is hard. Really? For us back home, 1500 words is normally the minimum for essay writing - for a standard essay, it's about 2000-2500 words that we have to do. So it looks like this could possibly be a lot easier than what I am used to.
I've been trying to relax in between studying, with limited results. On the up side, I bought some cool figures and models, and just today I bought a Lily Nendoroid figure. At some point, I'll be sending a box full of my goodies back to my parents, to hold on to until I return from Japan. I promised a friend to get a Revoltech Woody figure for him, which I managed to do on my second day here (albeit it is a sepia colours version), so I hope he'll be happy with it.
That is all for the moment. Hopefully I'll have something a little more exciting to write about. Ja ne.
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