The Darkest Drum Major.

Almost two months...that's a record, even for me!

Hello, y'all. As per usual, I'd like to apologize to everyone, especially Gracie and Steven, for not updating. Haha.

Man...I've forgotten so much that I wanted to talk about. And I still never did my Okayama entry.

Since today was such a great day, I just had to update. Why so great, you ask!?

1. OBAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

My man, Barack Obama has "clinched" the Democratic nomination! Did anyone else notice how many newspapers used the word "clinched" to describe his victory? NYTimes, ABC news...geez. Aren't reporters supposed to have big vocabularies? Haha.

Anyway, even though most of my international friends don't get how exciting this primary has been, since Obama's been sort of "inevitable" for the past two-three months, I am pumped. PUMPED. And he gave an amazing speech.

Clinton being open to the VP slot worries me. I just...don't understand how she's going to rectify that with the negativity she threw at him during the primaries, about how he hasn't crossed the threshold and all that. Backpedal?

I sort of have a conspiracy hypothesis that she wants to sabotage his ticket so she can run again in '12. I wish people would stop calling it the Dream Ticket-- IMO, it just highlights both of their weaknesses. Though I can see why it is appealing-- it would have a way of uniting the base, and all that.

I was wondering how this would be written about in history textbooks in years to come. Even if Obama doesn't win, this is still a major milestone. I just recall being in middle school and reading my history textbook about women's suffrage. Now that I think about it, it sort of had a feminist/sympathetic tone to it-- even though women were strong allies in the fight for freeing the slaves in the mid 1800s, black [typically male]intellectual allies largely left female suffragists high and dry after they were freed. Or something to that effect? I just remember the fifty year gap between the two being significant and having to write about it on a test...or something. Oh, sixth grade.

Anyway, I wonder if this primary'll be written in a similar tone in the future-- that women were once again ignored in favor of Blacks, or something. It all seems kind of divide and conquer/silly anyway.

Obama 08. Man...I do not want a Hillary VP. Part of the cabinet, fine. Secretary of State even. But VP? Urgh.

2. No more midterms!

I am praying for As but knowing my penchant for making careless errors...it might be a longshot. Either way, I finished my exams today! Glad it's all over.

Now that I'm just about over the halfway point with about two months to go, I think I can honestly say how dissatisfied I am with this program. It might be a combination of things actually-- me being tired of studying Japanese, wishing I lived closer to town, etc. BUT. Looking at the exam, I just feel as if I do so little work. I started studying for my grammar midterm like...a night or two beforehand. What? In China, I started studying for a whole week beforehand. In general, the Japanese classes here just seem more knitpicky here than anything-- which might have to do with the language itself? I feel that the difference between my study in China and my study in Japan is that in China there was a lot of breadth in what I learned. A lot. Japanese? I'm more learning accuracy-- how to write sentences as simply as possible so that I get as few points taken off as possible. I feel as if experimentation isn't encouraged here-- I don't use new patterns because if I'm wrong I'm penalized so heavily. Blah.

So, my dissatisfaction. Otherwise, though, Japan is actually pretty cool.

What else. Oh, I had sex with a Japanese guy. It was pretty bad. Pretty bad. Like, almost the worst sex I've ever had. 3/10, if only because he was sort of cute.

At least I'm no longer celibate.

I'm also going to China on Sunday. Can we say...excited? I don't think I realized it as much at the time, but my stay in China was really amazing. I can't wait to see all of my old friends again. We're gonna party.

Oh, my computer power cord broke again. Can we say...anti-Dell? I think this is going to be my first and last time buying a Dell computer again. Between hard drive failure and broken power cords...and it's been, what, three years? I just want to last through college...maybe I'll give Apple a chance. I borrowed a laptop from the school, so I'm using that right now. Japanese computers...blah.

I'm sort of listless right now-- excited because of Obama and the end of my exams, but indecisive about what I should do with my energy. I sort of want to study everything at once-- I was talking to Sergei[the guy I'm sort of/kind of involved with over here, I guess] and he said reading the news is a good way to study for the Japanese National Language Exam. And I do learn a lot of vocab that way. But...I also remembered I have all my Pimsleur suites! I kind of want to study French. Or Portuguese. Or Italian. All at once? Haha.

Anyway, just energy in excess. Perhaps I should do my homework in advance before I go to China. I'm gonna be gone for a week, missing class, so...maybe it'll keep me in my senseis' good graces?

That's about it for now. I'll try to update tomorrow if I remember.

Steven, out.