The true meaning of bimyou.

Good news: it's Tuesday afternoon and I've finished all my homework for the week, including my essays for both Uchino and Asahi, and preparing much more than is my custom for the mini-presentation in Japanese tomorrow, except for one thing.
Bad news: I am writing this to procrastinate on that one thing, the outline of my External Relations final paper, that I need to present (the outline, that is) on Thursday.

I did basically nothing interesting on Saturday, though I did go to Gasuto again. I go to Gasuto a lot lately... In fact, I think I know the faces most of the waitstaff at the Mitaka Gasuto. I guess they probably know mine too, then...
On Sunday I went with Yisha and Ayu to Kichijouji in the morning to buy cake, and then met with all(?) the other AIKOMsei and a few others to celebrate Joon Woo's, Yang Rui's and Robert's birthdays at a really, really delicious Thai food buffet.
Hana stayed up all night baking and as a result couldn't make it, but he sent his cookies and tarts with Alden. The cookies were my favorite. He had made them in the shapes of letters, and then mixed them all in a container which also contained a sheet of instructions. So, following the instructions, the three birthday kids pulled out the letters to spell their names, and the remaining letters spelled the mystery word, which turned out to be "Family." Oh, Hana. XD 僕の誕生日じゃなくても、感動したな。さすがハナ。<#
And then, afterward, Alden passed out the tarts to everyone, which were all wrapped in their crust. After everyone had one, he announced that most of them were delicious... But, as a test of our luck, five (of around 30) contained some spicy, terrible-tasting filling. So we all took big, brave bites or timid nibbles and found out. I was lucky enough to get a delicious one, but right next to me both Ayu and Francesco got bad ones. XD I tried it, and it wasn't so bad, really, though. 結局に、これも、さすがハナだな・・・
Also standing out in my memory is Yamaji, who was there, being Robert's tutor. Unlike many other east-Asian cuisines, Japanese food is really, really mild. When it comes to hot, wasabi is pretty much it, and wasabi is a very particular kind of hot. Even the "spicy" curry in the cafeteria is absolutely nothing but sweet. So Yamaji, not used to hot food, I guess, took some of the Thai-style green curry. I ate it as well (it was really good - way better than the cafeteria curry), and found it a little spicy, but not enough to even make my nose run after eating a big helping of it. But Yamaji was just dying. XD+ When he finally recovered, he just sat still, apparently all tired out from the effort of trying to eat it. 「体力を全部使ってしまった、それを食べて ・・・」

Yesterday was the last day and exam of Boccha-sensei's class, Dynamics of Japanese Cultural History. I wrote a pretty terrible essay on the exam... But the essay prompt was super-ビミョウ anyway. He just told us to write an essay titled "My View of Japanese Cultural History." What. But I'm not worried about it. He's quite famous for giving A's to those who show up and pay attention, and I participated in that class like none other. Based on what I'd heard from senpai and Japanese students about his exams beforehand, the prompt he gave us was not too surprising. And that's why the class is so popular with the Japanese students...

Today was the last real presentation in Japanese. It went fine, I think, though this time we were videotaped, which most of the class was not too wild about. Sensei asked us if we'd ever seen video of ourselves speaking Japanese before. Thinking about it, yes, I have. But it was always skits, not a speech... It's rather different, right? But, actually, no, I guess not. The way I normally deal with nerves when standing before an audience, especially if delivering something like a speech, the words of which are already cut and dry and practicable ahead of time, is basically by acting, instead of staying in myself. This is why my Japanese speeches are usually so animated, even though it's probably better not to be.
Related, though, the end of the term is shockingly near. According to the academic calendar instruction officially ends next Friday, but it's not clear when exactly my last class will be; maybe as early as a week from today. Whoa.
Of course, after that, I have three final papers to write, but still. Hopefully I'll do them quickly so that I can then enjoy the break to the fullest, without any black clouds looming overhead, like the one I have today about the outline due on Thursday...