Welp, two more Murakami's have been devoured in the course of the past five days. I started Norwegian Wood in the middle of Thanksgiving break, finished it off on Sunday, and then continued by having the dessert of Sputnik Sweetheart on Monday and finishing tonight. People, this is what happens when you work in a bookstore and can get books at discount prices. As always, you can read my various comments.
The past few days were tough ones on me. Today, however, I decided that I would have a good day. And I did.
Recently, I've been in a Japanese slump, being unable to remember or comprehend vocabulary and grammar. My relationship with the language has always been a turbulent one with its ups and downs. During the ups, I feel totally confident and am able to absorb new vocabulary and grammar swiftly and easily. During the downs, however, I can't remember a thing, and my proficiency seems to deteriorate and perhaps even gets worse.
Well, today, after deciding that I was going to have a good day, I simultaneously pulled myself up from my Japanese slump. I could feel my enthusiasm and confidence in the language redeveloping itself.
So, when I had my weekly meeting with my conversation partner, I felt pretty good (as opposed to last week's meet in which I was really out of it). Hey, and in the middle of that, these folks walked up to us and asked the two of us if we'd like to be casted for some sort of advertisement. That came as a bit of a surprise, but they took our pictures and information and will call us sometime.
After my hour of jabbering imperfect Japanese, I decided I'd enjoy the nice weather and read Sputnik Sweetheart outside and watch people wander by on their ways to classes. In the middle of this, one of the Japanese graduate students said hi to me, and she ended up sitting down and we had a nice conversation in Japanese; I was quite impressed with myself for being able to do so (well, more or less).
So now, I'm rolling back up. Just in time for finals.
And now, I have another weird link [2.26.2004, ed: this is a now defunct link to what used to be a picture of Michael Jackson making ears with his index fingers and smiling... it was weird].
