Yus, I'm alive! It's been 9 months since I've updated this journal...hope the suspense didn't kill anyone XD. I went through the summer of Kmart not giving me any hours, and yet another semester of schooling at the fine establishment of Mount Union. I'm still a Japanese major, Music / Multi-age education double minor. Education is rough D:. I went and talked to my adviser, Furuhata-sensei, about the classes I need to be taking -- I'm going to be super busy for the rest of my college career. I need to take some classes this summer to get caught up on my Gen Eds...which will be nice finally getting them done I suppose.

Studying abroad in Japan is only a year away...my new year's resolution was to lose a significant amount of weight. I'd be happy losing half the amount I set out to lose though . To realize this goal, and I have been working out together! And I've been eating salad every meal XD. I decided I need to stop eating french fries though....

I just finished my first week of classes at MUC. Here they are:

Concepts of Physics - It's as close to mathless physics as one can get. I haven't taken math since senior year, so I hardly remember any of the harder concepts. The class is really interesting for a few reasons. 1.) The book used a Through the Looking Glass reference, 2.) the book encourages me to push , and 3.) the stuff it points out about motion blows my mind .

Educational Psychology - Learning how kids think. The teacher is this really cute lady and she makes me happy. I like the way her voice sounds too. The class content itself is kind of dull, but I don't really hate the class or anything. The book is kind of cool because it has you do all these psychology experiments to yourself to demonstrate concepts -- it's fun!

Conceptual Issues in the Teaching of Adolescents - This class is supposed to be learning about teaching adolescents, but all it really seems to be is teaching you to be a reflective educator, i.e., journaling, talking to someone about what happened in the day, and actively thinking about how to make your teaching experience better after reflecting on what you did during the day. We hardly get any homework, so I guess it's cool with me!

Intermediate Japanese 2 - It's Japanese class, and it's just awesome because of that XD. Plus, we have Furuhata-sensei! Even though she's not the greatest teacher, she's the funniest lady ever, especially when it comes to figuring out how to get the volume to work on the computer. I've been doing pretty good in Japanese this semester in the respect that I've been able to give answers more immediately when I am asked for them. Let's hope the progress continues!

Wind Ensemble - I'm the only bassoon player who auditioned for Wind Ensemble, so I'm automatically first chair...hurray xD! Wind Ensemble has more exposure, so it'll be way better than the Christmas concert band. The music is more challenging too, so it's kind of nice. Let's hope the bari saxes and bass clarinets don't suck this year -_-;

Specifics of Translation - We learn how to translate stuff...it's actually a fun class. the first 20 minutes to half hour is spent analyzing Engrishy type signs and stuff, deciding why exactly they don't make sense. It's pretty fun, but the three Japanese students who are in it are higher level than me, so I feel like I'm lagging behind a lot....but I'll make myself better! The final project ends up being translating 20 pages of something D:...i'm scared.

Japanese Through Film - We watch Japanese movies (5 of 6 of which are Miyazaki films....lol) and fill out a vocab list based from the movie, and write journal entries in Japanese about what happened each day in the film. Really easy and entertaining! I wish we were watching more live action films...we're watching the Japanese original version of Shall We Dance (Shall We ダンス?) and it's hilarious! I might end up buying it...

Kanji Practicum - I haven't had it yet, but it's an independent study of Kanji. We meet once a week to get on the same page and ask questions. This one girl is being SUPER annoying...-sigh-.

Bassoon lesson - very meh. If I wasn't a music minor, or under a music scholarship, I'd stop taking it. It's just stressful. The teacher treats me like a music major T-T. I don't have to practice as hard this week because we're working on making bassoon reeds for my next lesson!

Woodwind Quintet - Another class that I'm forced to take because I'm the only competent bassoonist. Without me, It'd just be a Miscellaneous woodwind ensemble.... The music is usually pretty hard, and so I have to practice it a lot. -sigh-

Repertory Strings - I'm not taking strings, but I have to play the bassoon for a Mendelssohn concerto that one of the piano students is using...I didn't want to be in this class, but I was kind of forced to -_-. I negotiated with the teacher that I would only be doing half the semester, so I'm not officially registered for the course.

Virtual Reality - As if I didn't have enough classes, I just decided to sit in with on this class. You pretty much just go around on Second Life and act like a griefer! It's fun, and an awesome way to de-stress.

Alright on to my progress artwise -- I've really only had time for a few desktops whenever complains that mine's old XD. I got some inspiration after looking at Imai Kira's artwork, and I was able to draw a really cute doll...unfortunately, I think I broke my printer cable, so I can't scan it -_-. I've realized that if I have a reference for something (and that really only applies to the face position and hands), I can draw amazingly well. Whenever I try to draw something purely by myself, it comes out looking like crap T-T. I miss the days when I was able to just spit a decent drawing out. I'll keep trying.

Any suggestions for my next desktop? This one's been up for about a month or so, and I feel I need a new one. Doesn't have to be a Japanese music related thing either. Let me know!

<3 Merochan