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My Japanese exam yesterday was impressively evil. We had to know about 300 of the more advanced kanji scattered in about 160 words. Out of those, about twenty of them were really obscure and hard to remember like 驚く (to be surprised). I figured a few of them would be on the exam, but actually she picked out every single one and put it on the exam, so we had to be able to write the spelling of the kanji down on sentences like, "The Shogunate was surprised by the cast adrift on the ocean shipwrecked sailors." If I were a Vulcan, my eye brows would have been climbing higher and higher as I turned each page and found every single hard word/kanji on the final. Thankfully, I knew how much emphasis she put on the kanji and spent several hours in a cafe the day before going over every single one and forcing myself to write all the ones I'd have to be able to write at least three times. By the morning of the test I could write about 90% from memory and I drilled those until I could write them all. Since more than half of the exam was either writing the kanji or writing the spelling of specific kanji, then translating the sentence I'm confident I got through those parts, even the obscure kanji, with only minor spelling mistakes. The place where I really lost points was where we had to translate a paragraph from English into Japanese and I didn't realize that her "pay careful attention" in Japanese meant we were supposed to use specific grammar points in said paragraph. Still, it was only 10 points out of like 150 and though I know I lost a few more in other grammar places (I'm rather hopeless at writing a long, grammatical Japanese sentence without some mistake) I know I've still got the bulk of my points cause of my kanji. Very evil exam.
I'm sporting quite a few bruises this morning from Bujinkan. There's a small one on my right forearm, and a large part friction burn part bruise that's about three inches long and one inch wide on my left forearm, plus three little ovals of bruises on my lower left bicep, bisected by a long red scrape down around my bicep. Jack was evil last night, it being the last night of training for the year (January, we start again by spending the month going over basics). Every person there had to remember something we'd learnt over the year, then show it to the class. I spent the first thirty minutes terrified he would call me while my mind blanked on anything interesting we'd learnt (though I could have told you how to spell "vicious circle" in Japanese). I finally thought of something and was then able to actually pay attention to training, but those first several moves of the night are a complete blur in my mind. One person copped out and demonstrated a basic drill which both C. (my training partner who I haven't trained with in ages *hugs him*) and I went through them very fast and quick which is where my right forearm bruise came from. The big left one came when he was trying to save me from pain of having my shoulder twisted but looking at the bruise/rug burn, I'd rather have had the quick pain then the few days of this one healing. Poor C. kept trying to be nice but almost all of the moves don't work on me if you do them nice due to my flexibility. I tapped out of one not because it was painful but because I could feel my humerus was about to hit the edge of my shoulder socket. Tapping out even when it's not painful is what I've been told to do so I don't accidentally get my arm dislocated or worse but I have bad timing at it cause I don't know when other people are feeling pain and taping out. C. also discovered I was tickilish and that I eeped whenever he tickled me so from then on he would do the technique and tickle me in the middle of it so I'd eep *pout* I took to swatting, poking, kicking and threatening to break fingers every time he did, but the lesson didn't really seep in. I finally stole his bandanna during a technique and that got him to refrain for awhile. Looking back, I guess we were a bit bored *L*
We stopped a bit early for someone to do their first black belt test and the poor guy wasn't doing so well so Jack turned it into a test of endurance. The man had to do each of the nine techniques at least six times on five different people and then Jack came at him with a bamboo sword and he had to roll out of the way. In contrast, my black belt exam I had to fight one guy, who admittedly was twice my height and size and punched me in the face in the process, but I only had to do each technique twice, once on each side and no one attacked me with a sword. Anyway, the guy passed, but he must have been terrified in the process. My brother told me tonight (he doesn't train any more), that I didn't know what it was like in class for a guy with all the testosterone flying around and he's totally right. My black belt test was a lot like other black belt tests, and I assume the one last night was unusual because Jack didn't feel like passing the guy until he proved he could do everything under stress and exhaustion (four of our green belts just became black belts so I'm guessing the guy was feeling the peer pressure). But I can see that the class is even harder when you're a guy. Despite all my bruises etc, Jack does go easy on me because I'm female. I wouldn't say everyone else does, but yeah.
My final phd ap for SOAS looked so short on paper, but then I read the prospectus and discovered they want a tentative phd thesis proposal of around 1000 words with a tentative title, outline and bibliography. Cue bucket loads of extra stress pouring down on my shoulders. In the US, you wouldn't even write your tentative thesis proposal until the end of your first or second year. I have to raid the Metropolitan for sources next Tuesday now because there's only about four texts on my topic in English and I own two in Japanese and that's about it, and since I assume they'll want more than six sources in the tentative bibliography... *sigh* I just wanted the stress to be over, but it looks like it's just going to continue until I get this final thing done.
I'm sporting quite a few bruises this morning from Bujinkan. There's a small one on my right forearm, and a large part friction burn part bruise that's about three inches long and one inch wide on my left forearm, plus three little ovals of bruises on my lower left bicep, bisected by a long red scrape down around my bicep. Jack was evil last night, it being the last night of training for the year (January, we start again by spending the month going over basics). Every person there had to remember something we'd learnt over the year, then show it to the class. I spent the first thirty minutes terrified he would call me while my mind blanked on anything interesting we'd learnt (though I could have told you how to spell "vicious circle" in Japanese). I finally thought of something and was then able to actually pay attention to training, but those first several moves of the night are a complete blur in my mind. One person copped out and demonstrated a basic drill which both C. (my training partner who I haven't trained with in ages *hugs him*) and I went through them very fast and quick which is where my right forearm bruise came from. The big left one came when he was trying to save me from pain of having my shoulder twisted but looking at the bruise/rug burn, I'd rather have had the quick pain then the few days of this one healing. Poor C. kept trying to be nice but almost all of the moves don't work on me if you do them nice due to my flexibility. I tapped out of one not because it was painful but because I could feel my humerus was about to hit the edge of my shoulder socket. Tapping out even when it's not painful is what I've been told to do so I don't accidentally get my arm dislocated or worse but I have bad timing at it cause I don't know when other people are feeling pain and taping out. C. also discovered I was tickilish and that I eeped whenever he tickled me so from then on he would do the technique and tickle me in the middle of it so I'd eep *pout* I took to swatting, poking, kicking and threatening to break fingers every time he did, but the lesson didn't really seep in. I finally stole his bandanna during a technique and that got him to refrain for awhile. Looking back, I guess we were a bit bored *L*
We stopped a bit early for someone to do their first black belt test and the poor guy wasn't doing so well so Jack turned it into a test of endurance. The man had to do each of the nine techniques at least six times on five different people and then Jack came at him with a bamboo sword and he had to roll out of the way. In contrast, my black belt exam I had to fight one guy, who admittedly was twice my height and size and punched me in the face in the process, but I only had to do each technique twice, once on each side and no one attacked me with a sword. Anyway, the guy passed, but he must have been terrified in the process. My brother told me tonight (he doesn't train any more), that I didn't know what it was like in class for a guy with all the testosterone flying around and he's totally right. My black belt test was a lot like other black belt tests, and I assume the one last night was unusual because Jack didn't feel like passing the guy until he proved he could do everything under stress and exhaustion (four of our green belts just became black belts so I'm guessing the guy was feeling the peer pressure). But I can see that the class is even harder when you're a guy. Despite all my bruises etc, Jack does go easy on me because I'm female. I wouldn't say everyone else does, but yeah.
My final phd ap for SOAS looked so short on paper, but then I read the prospectus and discovered they want a tentative phd thesis proposal of around 1000 words with a tentative title, outline and bibliography. Cue bucket loads of extra stress pouring down on my shoulders. In the US, you wouldn't even write your tentative thesis proposal until the end of your first or second year. I have to raid the Metropolitan for sources next Tuesday now because there's only about four texts on my topic in English and I own two in Japanese and that's about it, and since I assume they'll want more than six sources in the tentative bibliography... *sigh* I just wanted the stress to be over, but it looks like it's just going to continue until I get this final thing done.
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