I’m attempting to work in a coffee shop.  It would be really comfortable if not for the horrendous background music.  It also explains why everyone else who is working by themselves is wearing headphones.  My poor mind is spinning trying to cope with the awful jazz muzak, the announcements from outside the store, and the Herculean task of trying to memorize 100 new Japanese words.  I don’t know much about the etiquette of sitting in the one spot for hours.  I have been watching other people and there are some who have been sitting with one drink for over two hours.  My plan is to buy two drinks over a four hour period and hopefully that will be considered polite.

My hand is sore from trying to write as I am out of practice. When I write in English I have the handwriting of an aspiring doctor.   My Japanese handwriting is actually easier to read but it’s still not as good as it should be.  I have to hand write my Japanese homework, which is a pity as my I type Japanese so much faster than I write it

(I’ve just looked round to see who was wailing but it’s part of the music.  I wish I had developed the skill that allows me to ignore background music but that usually only happens when I’m reading something really interesting.)

So far this week we have been taught more than 100 new words and I worry that I won’t be able to retain those even with the repetition during class.  I’m incredibly impressed by the amount of grammar we have been taught without anyone mentioning the dreaded word.  I thought that not knowing the exact meaning of things would bother me but with so much to learn I don’t have to time to worry about that.  I was reciting a conversation dialogue to Marty today and he asked me how on earth we had been taught a particular complex form of the verb.  I just laughed.  We weren’t taught anything about verb forms, just how to say a particular thing in conversation.

There is going to be a test on Friday of everything we have been taught to date.  I’m not sure how that will go, but it will be interesting to see how much I am retaining.