So, it's Tuesday and I've literally JUST got back from 御茶ノ水 . Such a long day; I woke up at 6 o'clock in the morning so that I could make it to the International Office at the 駿河台 Campus (and to get my mits on the rice cooker before anyone else. The early bird, people!).
Having been crammed on the busiest train I've ever been on - actually unable to move an inch - I arrived on time at the office only to find that it was closed (yet again!). Yesterday's endeavours proved unsuccessful too. A misprint on my instruction sheet told me come to the office to collect my placement test result on Monday, a public holiday, so today I had to find my lecture by means of trial and error.
Cutting the lecture short by half an hour, I attended an interview with my academic advisor, 杉田先生、to discuss which lectures I was to register for this semester. There were a few complications (nothing so far has been without any so I was prepared) in that I was unable to take the German classes as I am not in that particular 専攻 (even though it's listed in my syllabus), and that the seminar lead by my academic advisor is incredibly advanced even for Japanese people. He had an alternative, less advanced seminar but it clashed with my other modules so I had to join the advanced one.
A trip to the Department of Arts and Letters Office found me an alternative German class that doesn't clash with any of my other lectures and starts half-way through the course (so I won't be learning the German alphabet or basic greetings etc. Don't know how I'll cope!).
So, the following is what I've managed to enrol myself in.....
- 日本語 (Japanese language classes - mandatory)
- 国語学各説 (Study of the Japanese language, all theories. This includes classical Japanese)
- 応用言語学 (Applied linguistics, linked with the psychology of language learning)
- 中級ドイツ語 (Intermediate-level German language)
- 日本文学演習 (Japanese literature seminar - the CRAZY HARD one)
Another problem I've encountered is that I need to buy a couple of textbooks for Thursday morning but will not receive my student ID card until Thursday afternoon. Fun times. I guess I'm going without a textbook in the meantime. I hope I don't get yelled at...
After the meeting, and when everyone I know had gone home, I had to hang around for four hours in the cafeteria, amusing myself with soba and kanji test preparation, waiting for my seminar to begin. A very long four hours it was.
The seminar was kinder than I expected. I perhaps understood about half of what was going on and understood the classical song that was given to us. The other seminar attendees seemed super friendly too (even though none of them speak English in the slightest).
Seminar over, I worked my way down from the 14th floor and stepped out the front of Liberty Tower only to find that it was freezing cold and GAHOOSHING it down with rain. So, I jogged down the street, difficult in heels, purchased myself a ５００円 umbrella (cursing when I stumbled across cheaper ones 3 yards ahead), hopped on the train (for more extortionate amounts of money) and fell through the front door of my flat. Seriously, the sooner I get that student ID card, the sooner I can buy a commuter pass and cut my travel expenses in half! GAH!
Dinner and study until bed, I think. The fun never stops!
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