お久しぶり！

No, I haven't forgotten about this blog. And no I don't have any excuse as to why I have neglected it till now. Laziness perhaps?

To sum up what has happened since I came back from Okinawa:

- something significant happened the day after I came back. Sometimes all we need is courage.

- parents and brother came to visit! We had a wonderful week road-tripping around the Kii peninsula, and it was the first time neither of my parents had to sit in the front seats (my brother drove for the first time since passing the test). I was a good navigator, thanks to the car-navi (aka the GPS).

- for the first time, baked cupcakes and banana cake with the dormitory's crappy microwave (it has an "oven" function). Results were satisfactory.

- hanami (cherry blossom viewing) at the Expo '70 Commemoration Park in Suita. The park was packed with people on Saturday and a drunken old man stumbled across us and made some friendly conversations. Quite amusing actually.

- have been scanning films and editing photos from last month's travels, and uploading them onto facebook and flickr. Some of the seagull shots from Matsushima bay have received good reviews from friends and fellow flickr members, which made me very happy. One of my personal favourite is, however, not from the seagull photos:


I just love the saturation on my favourite colour!

- met the Mamiya family for the first time since 2007. They were my first Japanese host family with whom I stayed with on my first visit to Kansai in the summer of 2006.

- played badminton for the first time in months! I realised my fitness level has once again plunged to the very bottom, and the effect of bronchitis and asthma have had on my breathing...not good.

- today we got our course descriptions for the spring semester and I'm very very excited about the new classes I can take, including one on the Japanese legal system at the Faculty of Law, and one on modern literature and literary criticism, both involving studying alongside Japanese students!

- and oooh, we got our grades for last semester. I did pretty well, 6 Ss and 2 As (S is the highest grade for scores between 90 and 100, A is for 80-90), but then I did take some easier classes last semester.

- I'm now considering withdrawing from the School of Foreign Studies orchestra, due to the foreseeable amount of work I'll have this semester, and I don't think I'll have time for a third extra-curricular activity (I'm already in photography club and badminton).