Curry Class!

Hey everyone,

I think it's pretty obvious by this point that I'm not very good at this blogging thing.  I hope you'll forgive my serious lack of updates...  I'm going to try something new: writing.  I don't really like it, mainly because I can't convince myself that people might actually want to read what I have to say, but I haven't taken any interesting pictures in a long time, so this will have to do.

I woke up this morning to the sound of anime music, as is my custom of late.  My current alarm clock - an app on my phone - requires me to solve some basic arithmetic before I can hit the snooze button.  While this worked very well at first, I have developed a surprising ability for solving 69 + 52 = ? through the haze of my half-awakedness.  I fear that the only solution to waking up on time now may be to go to bed early, and we all know how impossible that is.

When I finally did wake up, an hour or so after I intended, I quickly turned on the hockey game.  Since the host family was out, I had my computer follow me throughout the morning so I could keep watching - yes, I'm that Canadian.  Eating breakfast, doing laundry, showe...  I mean, there's no way I'd bring my laptop into the shower, right?  Right. Unfortunately I had to catch a walk/bus/train to get to school for noon, so I didn't get to watch the end of the Habs/Bruins game.  Just as well, since Les Glorieux lost 1-0...

Class today was entertaining as usual.  I don't feel like I've really expressed how amusing class is - one day I will take notes about the funny stuff and post it here.  It really is fantastic.  We ended today's class with a composition (作文、さくぶん).  This particular composition will be used as the basis for a speech we will present to the class as our final oral examination.

Aside: every time I say/write/think "oral examination", I feel as though I'm referring to dentistry.  But that's neither here nor there.

There was no assigned topic, so I decided I should inform my class about what Canada is like.  After a long-winded introduction - as is my custom - I proceeded to explain that Canada is a very large country, so people have different customs depending on where they live.  For example, all the people in the west of Canada are cowboys, and all those in the east are fishermen.  Canada is a very cold country, so everyone lives in houses made of ice, called "igloos".  Furthermore, in the winter, all the roads ice over, and people skate to and from work.  Sometimes, though, the sun shines very strongly, melting the ice, which makes skating difficult.  In that situation, people use dogsleds.

I kid you not, I wrote this.  Curious to see what my teachers think about it.

After class, we had a cooking class!  It was really great: a bunch of students from 法政大学 (Hosei University), some whom I had met before, joined us to cook curry!  I had never cooked Japanese curry before, but I had a good idea of how it should be done...  And of course, the Japanese students that we were paired with proceeded to do approximately the opposite of what I expected.

Clockwise from top: Yuto-san, myself, Abigail and Jil

Despite my worries, we were able to make a fairly serviceable curry - it wasn't nearly as spicy as I might have liked, but it wasn't soupy like some of the other groups'...  I considered it a success.

Somehow, I got roped into doing all the cooking...

 We talked with the various Japanese students at our table about everything from portion sizes at McDonalds in Japan vs. USA/Canada, how one says "I'm full" and whether or not it is appropriate to call one's self a "baby" when referring to spicy-tolerance levels.  All in all, a really great day.

Cooking - and eating - is fun!

After a fantastic meal - of which we all ate too much - I accompanied a few friends of mine back to the dorm, and then made my way back to the host family.  Now, I'm completely exhausted and wanting sleep, so I think I'll go do that.

Hope anyone reading this enjoyed it!