"Konnichiwa. Hajime mashite!! Watashi wa Kiasu desu. Ni juu isai desu. Davao kara kimashita. Daigaku no Immaculate Conception kara kimashita. Douzo yurishiku onegaishimasu"…
This was the very first paragraph I was able to recite in Nihonggo when we had the opening ceremony of ACTION TRAINING here in Cebu. I seemed like a baby uttering her very first words in front of strange faces. And it was the very first time I said something in a language I could barely understand.
I do appreciate the change in environment and the change of lifestyle we have. A 3-hour sleep every night is considered to be a blessing. And I’m starting to learn the lesson of "grace under pressure" as we report to the office before 8am every morning just to finish our set of shukudai, to study our lessons, and to memorize our vocabulary for our daily quiz. Apart from these are our mini-projects, Philnits classes, Module-end exams, and course-end exams.
I suffered failing quizzes and kenshusei-sensei confrontations during the first few weeks here. But now, I’m getting better in reading, and writing in Hiragana, and Katakana. Next week, we’ll also be studying Kanji.
Kiasu San’s Life Way Back Home
This is my third week here. And I had endured all emotional troubles already. I miss my bed, my pillow, our refrigerator, and the ordinary life I had. I miss waking up my parents and sister with really tight hugs, tickling my brother’s foot just to rise for breakfast, goodnight kisses, and leaning on my kare’s shoulder just letting time pass without saying anything, trying to read each other’s silent mind. I miss my space, my life way back home.
Japanese Culture
I am now starting to embrace Japanese culture and to understand it by heart. It values discipline, and exellence in every thing. Albeit it’s hard to cope up with the sudden change of environment, I have no choice but to adapt. And now, I’m starting to appreciate it. Discipline and excellence come with hardwork and a little bit of sacrifice. These words were never new to me. But now, I’m taking these in "big dosage" already.
Right at this Moment
Right at this moment, I’m trying to study Algorithms, and Data Structures for the quiz later this afternoon. I still have to work on my Nihonggo vocabulary because I’m at most 30 words and 2 days behind my quota. 33 minutes from now, we’ll have our defense of our individual mini-project I made just last night - EXPRESSION EVALUATION using only stacks. Tonight, I’ll be working on 3 sets of shukudai to be submitted first thing in the morning. Tomorrow will also be our course-ender exams on Basic Theories, Hardware, Basic Software, Multimedia Systems, and System Configuration. and quizzes on System Development and Operations.
have to say ’sayonara’.. 20 more minutes before the inevitable….
