Today was Choir Sunday at church, where we did John Rutter's "Gloria" for both services - a 20 minute piece that was a big challenge for us, but very rewarding. I think I've increased my singing range since I've arrived here - some of the last notes are SO high!
Afterwards, a bunch of us went out together to a restaurant called Barbacoa, which is a Brazilian Tabehodai (all you can eat in two hours) place. There is only one word that can truly describe the grandeur and majesty that was this meal:
MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAT!
I don't think I'll need to eat for the next three days. Every time the waiters came around with some type of meat on a long skewer, offering it to the table, I took them up on single, double, sometimes triple-sized portions. There was every conceivable type of preparation for beef, along with some lamb and other fine meats. Every morsel was delicious, but I have to say the pepper steak might just be the best thing I ever eat in this country. The amazing thing is that I don't feel overstuffed or ashamed for how much I ate (approximately two whole animals and an entire baked pineapple, as well as one trip to the salad bar - eat your veggies!). I just feel so immensely satisfied and full that I think eating will be a much lower priority in the days to come.
Not long after I got home, I got a call from my housemate Clio, who was going over to Gokokuji Temple, which is literally fifty feet from our front door (although you have to go a bit further to get to the gate) in order to do some reading during the last hour or so of this lovely sunny day. She invited me to tag along, so I did. I cannot believe we've had such a spectacular place so close by and I've never been there once in the three months that I've been here. Mark my words, though, I plan to go there a lot more now that I know how beautiful it is.
I'm in the midst of, well, not a rush - per se, more like a push to the finish of the semester. I've got two papers coming due in the next couple weeks, each of which I'm working on piecemeal, a little bit every day. It keeps me committed to them without feeling overwhelmed. After the insanity of NaNoWriMo, things just feel very open and workable now. We've got a good end to the semester, so it seems.
Friday night was particularly enjoyable. Because some of my professors have to return to their home institutions in time for the Spring semester to start, they are concluding their classes several weeks early, before winter break (hence the push to the finish described above). In some cases, this means that we have extra classes during the week in order to qualify the course as a full semester-long class. On Friday, I had my pop music class, then Japanese law, then pop music again. It was a long go, but the prof took the faithful students, whom he termed 'the elite' out to a little pub round the side streets and we had an after-hours little shindig of sorts. I'm afraid I don't have any pictures, but suffice to say it was a great time and it was very fun to connect with our professor outside of class time. There are some days when I am really glad to be here - this was one of those days, and today was another.
Looking ahead, I'm thinking about switching programs in this next semester. I'll still be at Keio and still studying Japanese, but there are a few things about the operation of the JLP that I'm not particularly happy with. The biggest two are scheduling - I just don't think that having three solid hours of intensive work three days a week is the best way for language study to work. By the third hour, I am usually mentally and sometimes physically exhausted - partially from having to wake up so early in order to be there on time, partially from the (I believe) ridiculous pace that the class takes - there's hardly any time for the things we are taught to really sink in before we are off on some other subject. I am thinking that the alternative, the KIP (Keio International Program) will be a better fit for me in this second semester because it still allows me to work on Japanese language skills, but in specialized and focused classes rather than the trying core classes of the JLP. I've done it for a semester, and I don't really think it's the best fit, at least not for me. With KIP, I'll be able to dial back a bit on my courseload and focus more priority on the areas I truly need to work on. I'll start putting my application together tomorrow and we'll see what we can make work. Whatever happens, we're going to be all right.
絶望した！
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