Tired of being sick

Today I came home early from class as I just couldn't stop coughing my guts out. It was pretty embarrassing as I had to leave the classroom because no-one could hear over me. Then, when I went to ask of it was o.k. to leave my teacher told me to anyway.

So here I am now, sat in bed with a spare hour to write my blog.

I've just had an excellent weekend but feel now that I have somewhat overdone it and am suffering the consequences through my poor health. I've been ill for quite a while now but I'm just not getting any better. Time for sleep and good food.

Anyway, this weekend....
It started on Friday with my dormitory's winter party (it was actually a Christmas party but with there being lots of people who aren't Christian living here it was named winter party for PCness). It was such a brilliant night; almost everyone that lives here came so I managed to finally meet everyone, as well as all the boys off my course even though they weren't actually invited.
The amount of preparation and effort put in to the party was impressive. The dorm had been decorated, gifts for bingo (including a DS) had been bought and beer and food was free and more important, plentiful! The party ended with a 'disco' which was so much fun as I finally got to dance my heart out. You've probably seen the photos on facebook anyway!
I spent Saturday nursing a hangover avec Jay who had come all the way from Kanazawa and then headed to Tokyo early evening to go out with some of my Hosei and Sheffield friends.
Again, it was really good to catch up with everyone. It makes me wish that I had more time to meet up with all my friends from last year and less time learning things such as how to say 'Dutch studies' and 'Autopsy'. You never know, I may meet a Japanese Doctor with an interest in Holland so I can wow him with my specialist vocab about how the dutch introduced the study of anatomy to Japan. Or not.
And then there was Sunday. Another mega fun day! I went to see Daft Punk in Tokyo with more Sheffield people and it was truly immense. The gig was excellent and I spent another day/evening dancing away.
That was the first gig I've seen in Japan so it was really interesting to see any differences... to be honest there weren't that many. I always thought that Japanese people would be relatively reserved at concerts but quite the opposite was true. Everyone was really getting in to it and having a great time. The only noticeable difference I suppose was that I could actually see the artist on stage because I wasn't the shortest person there like I usually am in England.

So that leads me to now... ill again so ready to have a long nap and hopefully feel better soon.

Sayonara!

At long last...

That's right, after a month of complete neglect I'm back at long last to write another entry. I don't think there is ever going to be a time when I don't start with an apology for not writing.

But, what have I been up to?

Well, November has been a crazy busy month and when I look in my diary I am astounded with how much stuff I have managed to cram in in so little time.
Last month I embarked in two part time jobs, resulting in some nice translation work (which I have yet had time to do!) and meeting a really nice girl who I teach English to. I also took Chris to Kyoto for his 21st birthday, an awesome weekend, spent another weekend in Tokyo with my friend Jay, went camping on another weekend, and attended an international high school festival. All the while doing numerous essays, quizzes, presentations and mid-semester exams. I'm tired just thinking about it all.

I'll start with the boring stuff- the school work.
The classes that I take that are in English are very simple but take up time with the amount of reading I have to keep up with. I never did anywhere near as much reading at Shef. Especially since reading only ever takes place the night before an essay is due.
The Japanese classes range from being difficult to nice and manageable. I did pretty well in all my exams for the Japanese classes so I'm pretty chuffed. I even managed to come top of the class in one, beating the Chinese and Koreans. (Just to explain, we have a general hate for them because they have a much easier time learning Japanese than us, what with having the same writing system and grammar. Jammy b*****ds.!)

The camp that I went on really wasn't a camp in the traditional sense of the word. Rather than sleeping in tents we had lush dorm rooms and instead of cooking over a good old camp fire we had use of a huge kitchen. Japanese just don't know the meaning of the word camp.
Anyway, the camp was run by one of Yokohama university's international societies which is aimed at the students who can speak Japanese. Because of this almost everyone was Korean or Chinese, with me and a 5 others standing out as the only western faces there!
During the camp we were put in to teams and spent a day preparing a presentation to give to the whole group the next day. I spent a lot of it pretty baffled but managed to do my (albeit very simple) bit.
It was a really good experience as I met loads of fun people and was a great opportunity to speak lots of Japanese.

I have got so much on in December too- most of it fun stuff to be honest! Lots of Christmas parties (hopefully I'll be able to get my first taste of clubbing in Tokyo), going to see Daft Punk on Sunday, and heading to Australia for Christmas with Chris and his family.
I'm looking forward to spending Christmas in Australia a huge amount. Not only will it be massively awesome to have a hot Xmas (it's freeeeeeezing here!) but it'll be nice spending it with Chris's family, being able to eat Christmassy food, but It'll be nice to have a break from the constant barrage of Homework and tests that I get.
Last time I was in Japan for Christmas, even though I spent it in Disneyland, it was a tad lame not being at home. Made me really homesick. Hopefully that wont be the case this year.

Well, it's one in the morning now and I have to be up at 7 so I really should go to bed even though I'm not in the slightest bit tired. I'll do some Kanji, that always swiftly sends me to sleep!


p.s. Some good news, I managed to make up with the pigeons in Kyoto. The ones here still hate me though