Sooooooo tired today...

This is another picture free post. My life can't be all glamour!

Last week wasn't very exciting. The one momentous thing that happened was we found out about which practicum we're doing during spring break. Unlike American spring breaks, ours falls between the semesters so it's actually about 2 months long. During a month of that time, the Japan Study program sends us off to various parts of rural Japan to do some kind of internship. There's a daycare, an herbal medicine company, a Buddhist temple, a ski resort, and more. I'm going to a place called Minakami where I'll be staying in what we might call in English a lodge (the word doesn't translate well...) and helping the family that runs it. So I'll be helping do cleaning and cooking (*cue my mother jumping for joy*) and other odd jobs like that. So far, sounds kind of meh I know. The exciting part is the area I'll be in. Minakami is mountainous and has a lot of natural hot springs so there are a lot of onsen around. There's also a craft village where I'll be able to learn how to do some traditional Japanese crafts like making noodles. I'm very excited about this even though during that time I'll be cut off from my friends. Only two other Japan Study people are going to Minakami and we'll all be busy so I doubt we'll see much of each other. I see this as an opportunity to greatly improve my Japanese.

Anyway, I thought you all might be interested in that development. I'm pretty excited though it's still a month and a half away.

Really, my life other than that has been studying (with the exception of last night). I had a debate in my Japanese politics class today (against my professor--and I won--not that anyone's really that surprised). Thursday, I have both a presentation and an exam (Social and International Relations of Japan and Asian Religions respectively) while I have a huge verb test and a Japanese politics exam on next Monday. You'd think it was finals, but it's not. Those don't start until the end of January.

Anyway, it's kind of late (not really) and I was up doing karaoke last night and had class all today so I'm going to bed. Good night!