September 30. 2004 20:23

Lessons in Japanese...

Ah, these American dogs are so good! That's what they're called, those sausages on sticks, covered in dough. Yum. I couldn't resist taking a pack when I went to stock food from the convenience store today. I bought as many meals' worth as I could for 1000 yen. Eggs are good, a set of twelve costs only 78 yen. I know it's silly to buy stuff so that I won't use my money up, but I'm afraid that I'll buy something useless out of some temporary sanity loss and won't have money for the food until I get that transfer from Finland. So, I'm trying to use my remaining money as effectively as I can. Thank goodness this will be over soon, I can't stand how my thoughts revolve around money every hour of the day.

I effectively stared my Japanese language lessons today. The teacher I talked to before, Takada-sensei, seems to concentrate on translating, so working with him sounded a bit difficult. Inui-sensei on the other hand, the teacher I met today, seems relly good. She gave me some copies and a short story about my family to work on right away and already got me writing down a word list. Then Janeva came, the American girl I've called Geneve until I learned to write her name today, and we had a little conversation together with the teacher. She's gonna come there on Thursday and Friday mornings as well, so we can probably learn together. Great ^_^ I got so enthusiastic about learning from Inui-sensei that I went to the library and got myself a couple of textbooks to work on at home.

After Japanese it was the Comparative Comics lecture by Matt Thorn. It seemed interesting, even though it was hard to follow because it was in Japanese. They went through what they had learned in class during the previous semester and then Thorn is going to continue about the new rise of American comics in the 1970s. Yeah, the lecture series is about American comics. I hope I'll get something out of it, anyway, even if it's in Japanese.

Then came the Computer Graphics class. I had thought it to be, you know, working with Photoshop, because that's what CG is to me. But actually they're doing 3D with 3D Studio Max (version 3.1). That's ok by me, but I would've rather had Photoshop because that I know by heart. I've used 3DS Max in school for two years, but there are so many switchs and buttons that I don't always find the right ones even in English. We did a model of a CD, with the covers as textures, and I had an idea of what I was supposed to do but couldn't find out how to do it. I tried searching some tutorials on the Net that'd show the menus in English but couldn't find any yet. Well, then the teacher showed the whole class how to do it and I took extensive notes... It might be a good idea anyway to take notes on everything. I'll have to look for more screenshots, though, or I will be so lost in class. Or find a book about it.

I also got a list of all the courses the school is having this semester so that I can look for something nice to add to my schedule. The list is in Japanese, of course, but I think I can work it out. With Takada-sensei, if nothing else. I heard that there are no English classes in the morning, so I might not be able to have one of those, but there might be some interesting art classes.

Ah, my elbow is aching but I think I can live with it now... It closed itself, more or less, during the night. I kinda think it'll be there for a while, though, and leave another scar in the end, but oh well. I just have to find something distracting to do tonight so I won't feel the pain :P (My entries are becoming shorter and shorter as there isn't anything much going on... School's about the same as always and no money means no trips downtown... Sigh.)