Day 10

Exams, already.  They weren't kidding, SILAC is an intensive program.  However, after being so well prepared at Chicago to be quick and accurate on tests like this, I was finished in no more than 20 minutes.  And that's even after reading over to check my answers.  I even felt myself just sitting there for a few, feeling sort of woozy, before being asked over to take the speaking portion of the exam, which consisted of literally nothing less than the last part of the writing portion with only a few minor modifications.  Needless to say, the rest of the classes went all too well, with just another bit of review of stuff I'd already done.

Lunch: Shin san of ZigZag makes one of the best beef stew (with rice) dishes I've ever had, so if you're ever for some reason over here and see that he's serving this up, get some.  It's only 400 yen, and one of the tastiest things you'll probably have all week.  Most of all, though, was my failed attempt to make plans to get out of Okazaki for the weekend.  My lack of money exchanged into yen made this sort of difficult, as did a sneaky friend who didn't follow through with his promise of actually contacting me about when he was going.  Oh well, next week I'm definitely getting out of here, or I'll give each and every one of you the right to call me a lying sack of potatoes.

So, now that I had nothing to do in the afternoon, how do you think I spent my time?  If you answered drinking, you're absolutely incorrect.  If you answered homework, you're sort of correct, because it really didn't take all that long.  The correct answer would be relaxation, and the realization that I still have nine more weeks of that.  I just hope that classes soon become as intensive as they're advertised to be, or else I'll think that I wasted my money.

Needless to say, I did spend a large portion of my time at ZigZag, having dinner (beef stew rice again, still tasty as anything), just hanging out with people.  It was fun, we watched Jackass on TV for a bit, and just talked about whatever came to mind.  I got home late, and went to sleep not much after that, and didn't get up until the next morning, where I'll start my next blog post.

Pic and text:

Three white guys from Europe and three Japanese girls, all headed off for a mountain climbing expedition.  These guys met the girls last week and have been traveling around with them ever since.  The only funny thing is that they often make little to no attempt to speak Japanese to the girls, and instead take advantage of the limited English that the girls have.  Don't take me for jealous - I'm still a bit unsure about the entire thing.