Two Weeks Left!

It's pretty hard to believe, but HIF is two weeks from being over! お婆ちゃん commented how little time I have left a few days ago, and I was really shocked. It's hard to believe that went by so quickly - in two weeks, I'll probably be sleeping in this hotel while rocking it out in Tokyo in the day. After my terribly planned trip to Honshu, it's a week at home and then BOOM! - I'm back at Yale again and the clock starts to tick on my junior year.


I'm really starting to get used to life in Hakodate, the great weather, fun classes, and especially my host family, who is starting to feel like my real 親類 (folks). They are just always way too nice, and especially お爺ちゃん way too awesome (he single-handedly made barbecue happen today, in addition to being able to fix bikes (and ride them), drive like a boss, manages a huge, thriving garden with strawberry patches, a grape vine and even watermelon, and did I mention he used to drive trains for a living? - he's an 82 year old man!) that I feel like I wouldn't mind having an extra grandfather and and extra grandmother. Of course my real folks are important, and not that I'd ever give them up, but I wouldn't mind having two more. Regardless of what happens, I'll be writing back (with my still very, very problematic Japanese) and sending back photos after I get back to China. It's the very least I can do.


What else happened this that's worth mentioning? Ah yes the barbecue that I mentioned! Without further ado, here's a picture of our glorious outdoor barbecue, Japanese style:

気持ちがいいでしょう！

One thing that I've been feeling pretty strongly this late into the program is that, my interest in studying Japanese has really flagged. Not only that, but motivation is becoming a huge issue for me. I'm becoming content to just pass by in class, not taking the time to make sure I memorize the vocab, and understand all of our readings and grammar points. I also find myself do less work outside of class. I keep a small pocket notebook for taking down new vocab I learn outside of class, and whereas I was furiously scribbling something down in the notebook constantly when I first got here, when everything seemed so new and exciting and I wanted to use my electronic dictionary everywhere, in the past week I've hardly even touched the notebook at all. I'm been even reluctant to actively search out opportunities to speak Japanese (I've still not had a meaningful, thoughtful conversation about a serious topic with my host family yet), and I realize how much of a problem that is - that's why I came to Japan in the first place, goddamnit!


The good thing is that I'm still really enjoying every moment of my stay here, and unlike my previous summer in Cambridge, I really don't have any complaints about anything. Even my douchebag housemate doesn't bother me much. (A brief note about this guy - I never talk to him if I have the option not to. Most days we don't exchange a single word to each other, which is pretty rare for two people who live in adjacent rooms and who study in the same class in the same school. I treat him as if I'm seeing thin air - it's pretty hard to ignore a 6'5" guy, but I've trained myself to do just that. Not going to rant about this guy here, but to put it briefly, he always has a sour, pissed-off face on, is constantly disrespectful, and has zero social skills whatsoever (and also has negative interest in interacting with me, which I realized after two weeks of trying to communicate with him). Weird, sometimes I feel like he's speaking Marsian or something, certainly not English. Needless to say, we do not get along.)


However, if my lack of motivation goes on, it's seriously going to affect how much I'm able to get out of these two months. I might end up regretting that I didn't get enough out of this program for a long, long time. The laziness and sense of complacency is exactly what I've been battling before at Cambridge and at Yale, and something I've vowed to overcome. Now, yet again, it just seems that I cannot work efficiently in my own room, and it's becoming increasingly hard to get away from my own bed.


I'll be updating next week on my efforts to combat this issue - I went out for a run yesterday when I felt like doing absolutely nothing, and it made me feeling great. These have also been cheering me up:

The first watercolor I painted! This is one of Hakodate's famous slopes, from which you can see the harbor!

Goryokaku park from Goryokaku Tower

A view from where I was painting from!

I've been drawing a lot for my Independent Study project, and I have five paintings in total, all of famous sights in Hakodate. Being able to use watercolor (borderline competently) and actually drawing on the spot has been super fun, and I look forward to presenting my work this coming Tuesday (発表, Japanese for "presentation," is usually a dreaded word for me, but not this time! :)) So here's to that I actually get my shit done and complete my goals for the program. Now I need to go back to all the work that I've been procrastinating for! 来週も頑張らなくちゃいけないよ！

BONUS picture: we made (probably the worst tasting) Japanese food in a Japanese cooking school with the other HIFers!