I'm learning Japanese, oh yes, I'm learning Japanese, I really think so!

はじめまして。AnimeJune　です。　どうぞ　よろしく。
"Hajimemashite. Animejune desu. Doozo yoroshiku."
"How do you do? I'm AnimeJune. Nice to meet you!"

Japanese is now my favourite class. I don't know exactly what it is, but I'm pretty sure that a mixture of my constant watching of anime, my experience in linguistics, my knowledge of French, and my superior ear for sound and music have made it remarkably easy and fun to learn Japanese.

Plus, the textbook has been enormously helpful in getting me to recognize different symbols of hiragana, although when I read it directly from the page (instead of translating it phonetically into English, and then reading it, as I tend to do when I'm studying at home), I can be rather slow, and have to go over it several times.

Some sad news, however: I have (temporarily, at least) given up going to BAKA meetings. I know that many of my friends are there, but with my workload, I don't think I can spare the Monday evenings, especially when I have a film lab that lasts until 5. In all likelihood, I will have time to return to BAKA in the second semester, when I don't have a lab.

I'm still writing for the Gateway, although I've started forgetting deadlines and turning in shoddy material last-minute, I'm afraid. I'll have to work harder on that.

And...on top of all that, I've now joined the Mixed Chorus, as a Soprano 2, which means I sing the high parts when it's only Soprano, but when there's a harmony, I sing below. It seems really fun, even though I've been miserable during the last couple of meetings. I have managed to make a few friends and not piss everybody off with my constant whining and complaining. It's pretty hard to keep up with the music, but everyone I've come in contact with who's had any sort of connection with the club assures me that it gets better with time. So I'm going to stick with it.

Better news - my novel is going swimmingly. I've written far more than I used to during the summer. I think a structured lifestyle of University makes me want to write more than when I have all this time on hands during the summer. I've already finished 4 chapters of my second draft, and I'm started to wade into the better parts of the latter half of my novel, the better parts that I don't have to re-write so extensively. I'm going to have my mother read it before I go to my third (and hopefully final) draft, though.