First Day #2

     Only two classes on the beautiful Wednesday...Religion and Japanese (both classes taught by representatives of the Asian continent). In Religion (Prophets), I found to my dismay that I had to manually copy perhaps 100+ pages (after the tenth copy, they all blur together) of articles that would be supplementary reading in addition to the text. A bit of my heart died with each fallen tree...and I now have a deeper understanding of "The Giving Tree." Despite this paper-wasting, the professor seems demanding (in a good way), funny (in a healthily irreverent way), and easy to understand (wonderful images and metaphors). Hopefully the rest of the semester will represent what the first day showed.
     I am in fourth year college Japanese (at Calvin, it is JAPN-311). In comparison to last year, there is more of an emphasis on individual learning. While we learn grammar and vocab as a class, we also have individual "themes" on which we will work through during the semester: reporting, reading, and writing about a specific theme in English and Japanese. I think I will do Japanese Foreign Policy Decisions as my main theme...but I am not sure yet.
     I have experienced almost all of my classes. If I can just survive the next two days, I have a weekend in which to (maybe) experience dorm rivalry in the form of chaos day, watch The Great Gatsby ($2 movies are great!), catch up on sleep, and (of course) do homework.
     I will probably not write again until Saturday evening...so until then, have a great rest of the week! Hump day is over and it is almost the weekend!
Location: Grand Rapids, MI, USA

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