Months gone by

It's been a while since I last updated. Nothing exciting happened, that's all. I've spent a couple of weekends staying in and working on JLPT Level 1 Kanji and grammar, even though I'm not taking the test this Sunday.

Anyway, here's a list of the boring (and not-so-boring) things I've been through this month:

1. 2-day trip to 長谷寺 (Hase-dera, in Nara prefecture) and 伊勢神宮 (Ise Grand Shrine, Mie prefecture)

2. the temperatures have been reaching the low-30s lately, making my room a sauna. apparently we get some sort of air-conditioning on Thursday

3. been following/"watching" Wimbledon via BBC live text. I hate not having access to BBC and being in an entirely different time zone.

4. to my own surprise I watched the entire England vs Germany match

5. things have changed in my personal life, still trying to adjust to the changes. somehow, I don't know why or since when, the group of us don't hang out together as one big group as often anymore... I kinda wish things could go back to November/December. I think some of us have changed a little...

6. This is the end of June. The calendar year has reached the mid-point. Scary!

7. Just worked out my timetable for the new academic year. Turns out I only get about 7 contact hours per week, one-third of what I'm having at Osaka right now. No wonder why Manchester scores so low on student satisfaction (hence low national ranking), all the money has gone into research (which leads to high international ranking).