絶望した！三番達成度は絶望した！

An easy sort of day, I daresay. I'm proud of myself for two reasons.

1.) For the first time since I've landed, I haven't spent a single yen this entire day.

2.) I dodged the bullet and made it into level 3 of the JLP.

The first is pretty self-explanatory - I've been able to live comfortably using the groceries in my fridge and my Suica train pass. I haven't had to buy anything extra. I am going to have to have many days like this, and now I know that I am capable of managing that.

As far as the placement results go, level 3 was in a sense the level I was shooting for. I wanted to be sure that I wasn't in level 2 because that level requires 4 extra classes per week and is very intensive, leaving almost no time for other studies or activities. Level 3 has 7 required 1-hour classes spread out over 3 days - Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. No, having school on Saturday is not something I'm upset about. My classes (required and otherwise) are distributed in such a way that, with the exception of Tuesday, I am never in school both before and after lunch - I either finish in the morning or don't come in until the afternoon. Not a bad setup. My elective classes are really cool, too. Here's what I'm planning on taking:

Japanese Literature

Introduction to Japanese Law

Japanese Diplomacy in the Meiji Era

Popular Music in Postwar Japan

Seminar in Intellectual History

In all, it's going to be a 16-hour semester for me. Compared to what I've been doing at Rice, this is just about the same, maybe a little bit lighter. Last semester for me at Rice was 18 hours. The class formatting here is very cool too - each class only meets once a week for 90 minutes. Plenty of time to keep homework and assignments organized and to make sure they are done well. I think I'm really going to enjoy school this year.

Tomorrow is another day off from school, and I'm going to be meeting up with the BTS team here in Japan, whom I hope to be working with this year and possibly beyond. So, until next time...

絶望した！