Lazy Sunday

I woke up this morning and eagerly checked my mailbox for news of my new toy, not really expecting anything since we're not supposed to have a manager in on Sundays. But, the manager was here, as was a note saying that I had a package waiting for me in the office.

My first internet order in Japan! Somehow that makes it seem more exciting.

There it is, the ultimate quick reference for learning a foreign language. A writing pad for characters, variable speed text-to-speech, and tons of other useful things will make it a worthy replacement for the two dictionaries I've been toting around.

The only snag is that the interface is entirely in Japanese. This is Japan, after all; these toys are made for the Japanese to more easily learn and understand English, Chinese, Korean, etc. Still, it contains all the information I need to know, it's just slightly more difficult to learn how to use it.

With that in hand, I finally felt some motivation to do some homework. Even with the help of my new gadget, it's slow-going and difficult. There are a couple of new grammar items in there, and trying to figure them out with the usual English narration I'm used to was difficult. The guided compositions are also significantly harder than what I've been doing in Albuquerque, requiring a lot more creativity to do without sounding completely amateur. I have been surprised and pleased to run into and be able to use a lot of the new kanji I learned last weekend. Being able to remember them was also surprising, since I haven't been reviewing like I should since last Monday. I think that says a lot about the spaced approach Anki uses.

I took a break from my homework due to hunger, and fixed up some curry and rice. As an experiment, I sautéed an onion and added it to the beef curry sauce, then decided to throw in a healthy portion of crushed red pepper to give it some kick. The idea was sound, but the execution was flawed... I cooked way too much rice, and added way too much pepper. I really need to get these basic cooking things down so I can move on to learning how to make awesome Japanese things.

In other news, Typhoon Jangmi's position as of about 2 hours and 20 minutes before this post was about 100 miles southeast of Taipei, moving NNW at just shy of 14 mph--the eye is going to hit within a few hours of now, and the storm is already over the island. It's been 17 days since Typhoon Sinlaku hit Taiwan as a much weaker category 2, and caused massive flooding, moodslides, and agricultural damage from over 5 feet of rain. I doubt they've recovered from that one yet. This one is expected to hit as a category 4 and currently has waves around 30 feet. This is not going to be good.

Bike hunting

Today I went out for a bit to see if I could find a bike that's the right size for me. While I appreciate my freebie bike, it is about six sizes too small for me. As comical as it looks, it's not too much fun to use, and it's unbalanced enough that quick manoeuvres are pretty difficult to pull off. Plus it's got some mechanical issues. I didn't have any intention of buying today. I just wanted to see what my options are.

So far, I have yet to find any options. I asked to see the biggest bikes in two stores, and while they were better than the one I've got, they were still very small for me. After paying attention to what brands the stores had, I came home and checked on their websites to see what the biggest sizes I can order are. The longest top tube I could find on a bike is between the lengths of an XS and a Small of the mountain bike I've got; I ride a large.

The bikes I've found that I can get in the right size are all being imported from the US (despite being made in Taiwan for the most part), and are priced around $200 higher than what they're worth. Generally speaking, they're at minimum almost the same cost as it would be to ship my bike over and mostly a lot higher, and I already know that one fits me.

It might take a while to figure this one out.

Potluck party and first day of class

Last night after the whole orientation and registration stuff, we residents of the I-House II had a potluck dinner party. I was looking forward to it as soon as I heard about it; we have students from something like 14 different countries here, and it seems like all but a few of us US students know how to cook pretty well. It took quite a while for everyone to get ready, as there are quite a few more of us than there are stove surfaces, and some people's dishes needed two or more burners at a time. We wound up started an hour and a half later than the proposed time, so by the time we could start digging in, I was starving. Generally speaking the food was amazing. I didn't get seconds on anything or even try everything... there were just too many choices, and I got full before I could try it all. The green chile stew I made turned out to be quite a hit.

A lot of us wound up staying up pretty late playing cards and chatting, which of course was completely stupid since today was the first day of class. I managed to drag myself out of bed in time, but not in time for such niceties as breakfast. Opening my curtains revealed it was pooring rain. I grabbed my rain jacket and headed off for class in style. I wasn't the only one to ride in the rain, but I was the only one (that I saw) doing it at normal speed instead of slowly with an umbrella. I got to the right building, changed, and then made it into class about one minute late because I was looking for the classroom on the wrong floor. Room 730 is on the 3rd floor, apparently indicated by the three. I have no idea what the seven signifies.

I attended the Japanese Economy and North-South relations classes. I'll keep the Japanese Economy class, but the other didn't spark my interest. After North-South relations, it was lunch time. I had already eaten, but Ritsumeikan uses a block schedule, and there simply are no classes from 12:10 to 13:00. After so many times running through UNM's student union trying to grab a meal in the 15 minutes I had between classes, or having to change what classes I was going to take for a semester because their times overlapped by 15 minutes, I have to say that this school got it right. Also during this time, the campus PA system got switched over to the college radio station. Relaxation time with music provided is cool.

After that, it was the class I came here for: Japanese language. As I entered the room I thought I was in the wrong place. The classroom was three rows of chairs deep and about 20 or so chairs wide, but at first I saw only empty desks, as my five classmates were sitting in the center of the room. A class of six! That's wonderful for a language class.

During class, not a single word of English was spoken. The only English words in or on our textbook are part of the publisher's mark.

We had to take another placement test just to make sure they got the first placement right. Between the test and the entirely Japanese dialog, I walked out feeling wiped out and pretty intimidated. I had been wondering before whether or not this program would be intensive enough for my liking. With a name like "Intensive Language Track" it seemed like it should be, but the general description of Japanese college difficulty tends toward "really easy," so I wasn't sure. Based on the program information during the application process, I certainly wasn't expecting that the classes would have a non-English basis, so I wondered how intensive it could actually be. Now I can worry about keeping my head above the water instead.

One thing our teacher said (and put on the syllabus) was that since there are no definitions in the book, just vocab lists, we should always have a dictionary with us. I was the only one in there who did not have an electronic dictionary. After seeing enough models of them, particularly the new ones the other I-House students have been getting, I decided I needed to get one. The feature that sold me, which I hadn't seen previously, is a writing pad and stylus so you can just write a kanji or word and get the meaning and pronunciation. If I'm going to have to look things up even to understand the class itself, I certainly need something faster than a standard paper kanji dictionary.

So tonight I went onto Amazon and started shopping for one. I had a baseline: most of the students were paying between $300 and $400. I ordered a Sharp Papyrus PW-AT770, which has all the features that I wanted or even thought were minorly nifty, with expedited shipping so it'll get here Sunday, for $167.43. The shipping was $3.23. The best part is that I was able to just use my Visa, which I can pay off directly from my bank account online, instead of dealing with cash or any complicated stuff. I'm excited... it should help with my homework that's due Monday. :)