A Little Update

My weekend finished up pretty well. Sunday I went to church and investigated a community service opportunity at a local nursing home. They didn’t have anything for me right away, but I took home an application. At least they’ll have my name on file. Monday I went to the Media Arts Festival at Tsukuba University. It was not what I expected but that’s just fine. It was way less crowded than I anticipated. I got to watch a cool Japanese anime movie. I really like watching Japanese movies but theaters here are so expensive. This was free and I really enjoyed it. I’ll definitely go back to Tsukuba University. Colleges have so many things going on. It makes me jealous because I could be in college right now. But when I get there I’ll know how to take advantage of all the opportunities and make the best of my time. I also found the International Students Center. Bingo! If anyone can help me find stuff to do and people to meet, it has to be there. They were closed but now I know where the office is so I’ll go back. I peered inside and saw a book lying in the corner titled, How to See the Best of Tokyo for Free. That sounds like my kind of book.

Tuesday was a normal day in school. Except for gym. I could not have asked for a better period. This is my month to shine in gym class. We’re running all month. To most people this would sound awful. I’m ecstatic. We run 4 kilometers every class period. But we only have gym twice a week. We do this 8 times, so 32 kilometers in all. I wasn’t first the first two times but I’m determined to win the whole thing. It makes me more tired for track though.

I think it is fascinating the way language shapes the way we think. I’ve always considered language to be a way to express ideas but it goes both ways. Language often defines the way that we can think. For example, the words for “watch out” and “dangerous” are the same in Japanese. In my mind these are related but distinct concepts. For my host brother they’re the same thing. While studying English he asked me why “abunai” has two translations. I found it interesting to explain to him when to use watch out and when to use dangerous. Japanese differentiates between words that are the same in English as well. “Take” has so many meanings in English, and there is basically a different word for every one in Japanese. Take a bath, take a picture, take a test, take your wallet, all different words. I’m learning to associate things I’ve never thought related and differentiate between things I always thought were the same. This is really tweak stuff.