school.

so my classes so far seem to be going well. I'm into my third week at Keio and have found the academic transition to be far more agreeable than the culture transition. The classrooms are mostly very nice, my profs seem very educated and eager to teach exchange students in tandem with the local Japanese students and I picked courses that genuinely interest me.

I'm taking nine courses (I decided to not take the extra Japanese class), and am conducting an "Independent Study" while I am here too. The independent study is hopefully going to be really awesome- I basically get to read books I want to, write some reports and comparative essays and hopefully get a credit that will transfer over at Queen's.

While I'm a bit worried about the Japanese class I am taking (we have weekly tests), my other courses seem like they will be at a very steady pace, and I don't see myself getting stressed out about much in terms of school. All the readings are pretty short because the profs have to consider that some students will be reading in their second language and may not realistically be able to read 60-100 pages in a week. Its nice because I get the chance to really look at a piece of work, and try to pick apart more and pay attention to the smaller details.

I think that my favorite class would have to be 20th century Japanese and Western Short Fiction, or Literature as History with a special focus on colonialism. I feel like I have a strong background for the colonial class and can contribute a lot to in-class discussion, and the 20th century short fiction class is really interesting. Comparing the two different styles is revealing plenty about cultural differences.

Anyways, class has started. I'm surviving and liking them. Sooo, so far so good.