More thoughts

I wrote this last week, but forgot to post it. (oops) At least it will keep you guys busy while I try to finish up another post. These are getting harder to write, now that I have class and homework.

I had my first day of classes, but it wouldn’t call it the real thing quite yet. Today is one of my “off” days, meaning I don’t have any core classes. I have core classes 4 days a week, TUES, WED, THURS, and SATURDAY. Yes. . . Saturday. The core classes start at 9am which means with my commute, I’ll be leaving my dorm just before 7:30 on each of those mornings. So I technically I have Monday and Friday off, but because I have to schedule 5 elective classes and because most of the one’s I want to take fall on either Monday or Friday, it’s looking increasingly likely that I’ll have class 6 days a week. Electives aren’t until the afternoon, so at least on Monday and Friday I wont start before 1pm. This week all the elective classes are just orientation-style while we choose which ones we want.

I went to a newspaper reading class today and immediately liked the teacher, but once he passed out the newspaper articles, they were kinda easy to read. Then he explained that these are the newspapers for elementary school children—meaning very basic grammar, style, and all the kanji have the pronunciations written above. I liked everything about the class, especially since he said that we’re allowed to miss 4 classes our of 12 total classes; there’s no homework; and if we miss class, all we need to do is find the paper and read the article and it would be just like we went to class. I was a little concerned about not reading a real paper, but all my friends though that this class was appropriate because while the articles weren't terribly difficult, I still didn’t know a lot of the Kanji and vocab. I figure this class is on the easier side of the scale, but I haven’t ruled it out because I like everything else about it.

I went to an advanced level composition class next. This class I could just tell was different, and while I probably could do the work, it would really be difficult because it is an advanced class and I’m only in the intermediate level. After that class, I tried the same type of composition class, just that it was intended for my level, and it happened to be taught by the newspaper guy. I think I’m going to stick with those classes, and try to take more challenging classes in other subjects (like Kanji, Grammar, and Listening Comprehension).

It’s really tough because there is a more difficult level newspaper reading class, but it’s only offered Saturday afternoon. I’m extremely reluctant to take a third class on Saturday (in addition to my two core classes on Saturday mornings) because that’ll just ruin my life. I’m going to try it this Saturday (note: I didn't, I went home and took a nap), but I’m really trying to find the balance of learning as much as I can, and still being able to maintain my sanity.