Lessons in...Life!

In no particular order:

1. High School Musical music makes a lot of things better.

2. Great friends + your own will to act/fix things (that part's important, you need to pick yourself up, too) = amazing

3. I will never look like anything but a Gaijin (foreigner) here.

4. Number 3 loses its cuteness factor really quickly.

5. I can speak a little, but can't be spoken to--1st graders have a much more advanced vocabulary than I do and in general I can't understand what people say to me (which is why the Ming-Allie team is great).

6. Japanese children are THEE MOST ADORABLE THINGS EVER. I spent all day squealing "KAWAIIIII" because my heart just melted everytime I saw one. I want one now.

7. Being able to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince before most of the world is AWESOME. Midnight screening starts in 3 and a half hours!

8. I was crazy to start this trek known as Learning Japanese. I was not mentally prepared for it. Japanese is not like any other language I've dealt with--you learn so much material, grammar and vocabulary and kanji and readings, and yet there's still SO MUCH you don't know. Two years' worth of study in another language is enough to allow you to traverse its country and its lingual subtleties with ease. In Japanese, when you hear from all sides that even at the fourth year level they haven't reached the other side of the mountain of fluency (or even proficiency), you know things are different. It makes me think that I can never stop learning Japanese. At any point I might want to stop, or decide I want to do something else, but I will not know enough, and more importantly, I will not have finished. None of us can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and we're just struggling through this blindly, reaching out and hoping for the best, celebrating the mini triumphs and coping with the various frustrations inherent in Japanese. But guess what, guys. There are plenty of people who didn't even make it this far.

9. Instant Karma ("just add water!") comes in both Bad AND Good flavors.

10. Spending 8 hours at Starbucks studying for the midterm is a great way to completely flabbergast your senseis to the point where they actually ask you what you did to do so well on the kanji and vocab sections (for once).

11. Spending all your time with other people can be taxing, but being on your own makes your thoughts too loud.

12. Laundry machines in the monthly mansions spend 3249057 hours to wash one load. Plan accordingly.

13. Shopping (preferably at Shibuya 109) is a great de-stresser. Best part is trying on clothes; it's like a box of chocolates--it either doesn't fit you at all because Japan doesn't normally even carry your size, in which case depression will ensue, OR it'll fit and you'll look and feel great because that's positive body image confirmation and everything looks better when you wear the fashionable high heels they provide for you in the fitting rooms.

14. Japan is wonderful in so many ways.