Whew, it's 5:41am here... classes are all done, all that's left are finals. I just finished writing one final paper--have one more paper (take home essay final actually) due on Friday, an Oral Japanese class final on Thursday, a Psychology final on Friday, and my Intermediate I Japanese final next Monday, and then I'm DONE with Temple University.

For those of you interested in my non-school-related plans (of which there have been a lot lately..) this last weekend.. Thanksgiving weekend actually, although it didn't feel like it.. I've been to the Keio University Culture Festival, Yokohama and its Chinatown, the Ueno Zoo, a really tall tower in Shinjuku, Kichijoji, and Nishi-Ojima.

Probably one of the coolest parts for me was walking onto a bridge in Nishi-Ojima (where Dave used to live but I've never been) and thinking "this place looks kind of familiar..." and finding out later that it was actually where a scene from my favorite Japanese drama was filmed, probably about 2 years ago around this time. I was really excited when I found out, hahahaha, I'm a geek or something, huh.

Still trying to figure out exactly where I'll be when this Christmas break. I think I'm going to have lots of free time, and I think I'm going to need it, both to get over jet lag and to try to get used to living in the States again. I should try to make up a list of things I'll miss and things I'll look forward to. Everybody loves lists!

Hope everybody is doing really well~ I'll see you all sooner than you think.

Probably the most important thing for learning a language is immersion, and since I'm in Japan and learning Japanese, that's obviously not much of a problem. Still, there are various things you can still make sure to do to help yourself along, such as watching TV in the language you're trying to learn. I usually don't watch TV either in America or in Japan, but I have been known to download and watch Japanese TV dramas in my spare time...

There's a drama I'm watching now that just finished airing in Japan around two months ago, called 花ざかりの君たちへ　（Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, meaning "in full blossom for you all" or something) is a story about a girl who pretends to be a guy so she can go to an all-boys high school to try to meet one of the guys there. Here's a shot of all the students at the school (click on it for a bigger image):


One of them is a girl. Which one?