In terms of written exams, there's the EALC32000 on the 24th, where we'll have to translate a passage from Japanese to English, and then answer an essay question in Japanese. On the 31st there is the EALC30012 exam ("Japanese Theatre in a Historical Perspective"). For this class I've missed one or two lectures and seminars, and those that I did attend I really didn't pay much attention. I managed to do pretty well in the presentation and essay, but will have to put in a lot of work studying kabuki, noh, bunraku, shingeki, Takarazuka etc. for the exam.
I, along with 24 million other Britons (plus many more worldwide), watched the Royal wedding on Friday morning. The entire event was beautiful, and I may have shed a little wedding tear (I know! That is so not me. I haven't even cried at the weddings I've actually attended). It may have been caused by the sight of the bride's dress. Sarah Burton is a genius. The dress reminded me greatly of the one Grace Kelly wore at her wedding. The Duchess-to-be looked gorgeous in the Alexander McQueen (although it was noted by many that Sarah Burton has made Lee's bold and daring style much more feminine), as everyone had expected. Personally, I thought she looked a little too thin. HRH has always been slim, but perhaps the stress of planning the wedding of the decade and being the centre of all the attention contributed to the weight loss. Her exposed neck made her look older than 29. Plus I'm not much of fan of her (and her sister's) tan, obviously not natural (despite the fact that we've been blessed with days of sunshine). Don't get me wrong, I think she's the most beautiful bride this country has seen (her physical beauty surpasses that of the late Diana, in my opinion) and I love her style, very classy and full of grace and elegance, I just think she would have looked even more stunning and healthy had she not lost weight. The dress though, it's absolutely amazing.
Also came under the spotlight was the Prince's bald (bigger than a mere) spot. We all knew that he's balding, but the severity was just shockingly bad. Maybe it's another by-product of the wedding stress.
For me, the climax of the wedding was when the congregation sang Parry's "Jerusalem". Jerusalem has always been my favourite hymn, we used to sing it almost every other week at school because everyone loved it so much. But I never imagined it would be used in a wedding, and never thought 1,900 snobbish aristocrats, diplomats and politicians could sing it so well! Maybe it's thanks to the wonderful acoustics of Westminster Abbey, and the fact that it was the most beautiful wedding (I loved the trees on the aisle!) of this century. On the note about the congregation, I can understand why diplomats and ambassadors serving in London are invited (instead of the head of state - this wasn't the wedding of an heir apparent to the throne), but among those who attended was the North Korean ambassador to the UK. US, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan...yes, but North Korea? And while the Polish and Indian ambassadors attended, there were no representatives from Russia or China. I wonder what was Clarence House's criteria for the guest list...
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