The "full marks" breakfast

The day has come. After 11 months of studies I am going to sit for my first Japanese Language Proficiency Test. During the course of my revision the feeling that I should have taken the N3 test instead of N2 grew stronger and stronger. I am here now so that is moot. Anyway I got up early to make the "full marks" breakfast. My mother used to make this breakfast whenever my brothers and I are sitting for our school exams. She would cook one sausage and 2 sunny side up eggs and arranged them in to look like "100". It is her way of wishing us all the best in our exams. It is only now that I appreciate the thought that care and concern that she has in everything that has to do with us. 

After the very inspiring breakfast, I made my way to the test venue which is at Meijiro University.

I made it there in good time and was slightly taken aback by the number of N2 candidates. The doors opened at 12:00hrs. The test voucher states that the grammar and kanji section test starts at 12:30hrs and ends at 14:30hrs. What perplexed me was that the giving our of the question and answer sheets as well and identification procedure only commenced after 12:30hrs. We only started answering the questions 20 minutes later which I felt was time lost for us. Then I remembered that on the question sheet it was stated that we have 105 minutes to answer the questions. Hahaha. The test voucher should have been more specific, I think!

The instructions were given out no less than 3 times for the benefit of late comers. What got my attention was the part on rule violation. Depending on the severity of the violation you may be issued a yellow card of red card. The invigilator raised the cards as she was explaining the rules and it made her look like a football referee. By the way, at least 2 persons were handed the yellow card by the end of the test.

I came out of the test feeling forlorn; I generally understood the contents of the questions but it was not clear enough to give a confident answer. In other words, I am almost there but still not there. I know that by July next year I will be more than ready to take the test again. Hahahaha!

I am glad I took the test and that it is over. It had it degree of difficulty and my vocabulary was not extensive enough to equip myself to deal with the questions and that is something I will work harder upon from now on. Relieved and wanting to wind down, a few of us met up for dinner.

 お疲れ様でした！Yet more brain cells were sacrificed today in the name of progress so cheers to that!

On the eve

 One more day before the exams! It is another cold day and I really did not feel like leaving the apartment. But the environment at home is not very conducive so I made my way to the nearby cafe. Looking the at lighting that has been put up to greet the festive season and receiving a motivational message from a friend it brought a smile to my face. 

My revision was slightly distracted due to some necessary family chatting. Finally I took out a past paper to get accustomed to the test format. A little bit late I know but that was the last thing on my mind really. I was finished with the listening part quite some time ago as I really have rather bad listening skills. Overall I could understand the passages and answer the questions but it is the grammar that stumps me. Also if the sentence is exclusively hiragana it actually slows my reading reading pace considerably. My performance was mediocre. Bottom line is, just do it tomorrow and wait for the results. 

We came home to a very nice dinner. Spare rib soup!

As the weather gets cold soups warms the body and the heart. After dinner we decided to just relax and prepare the necessary for tomorrow's exam. For example…

After familiarizing myself with the examination venue and the instruction given on the ID pamphlet I am off to a nice warm shower and some music! 

Have a great Sunday!

An eventful day

A sense of hopefulness is growing inside me. Revision is drawing to an end and it is 2 more days before the "big" day. The more I revise the more I lose data. I am not really making sense, am I?

Tired out from the recent constant use of my diminishing brain power, I overslept only to wake up near noon. Luckily I remembered that today is the deadline to settle my insurance issues, I quickly made my way to the City Office. Although it was lunchtime my matter was settled within a matter of minutes and soon I was on my way to school. 

As usual on abstinence Friday I had a nice soba set lunch (which was very filling by the way) before heading for class. Class seats were switched as they do once a fortnight and I am glad that I do not have to sit right in front. On Fridays we get to watch a video with some Q&A before proceeding to grammar and kanji lessons.

The video we watched today was an interesting one. It was the story of a man who was punished by being set back in time whenever he fails to do a gratuitous deed when the situation arises. He wakes up on that particular day at 10:00hrs with a detailed plan to prepare for his girlfriend's birthday. He boards the bus and fails to give up his seat to an elderly lady. He wakes up and it is 10:00hrs on the same day. It happened a few times before he realized what was going on. Dreading to be sent back in time he helps out anyone who is in trouble. In the end his could not carry out his itinerary and also ended up losing his girlfriend to another man. From then one he continues to carry out gratuitous deeds and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize several years later. Unfortunately at the prize giving ceremony he accidentally stepped on someone's foot and ended up being set back in time! Although it was a fictional story the presentation was funny nevertheless. That was the fun part of class today.

It was my turn to buy groceries today and I felt like cooking something more special to take myself out of this sense of hopelessness temporarily before being sucked into it again during revision. I am not too happy with the arrangement but I will just have to leave it for another time. I enjoyed the cooking process as everything was cooked from scratch, including the sauce and dressing.

After dinner it was time to head to the cafe and get on with my revision. To my pleasant surprise I bumped into Ueshiba sensei and had a small chat with him. He very nicely wished me all the best for my coming exams. Smile. After revision I went for a walk with my flatmate and took some pictures of the neighbourhood.

Unfortunately the Christmas lightings had been switched off by the time I came back from my evening walk thus cutting short my clicking time. Awwww. I will have plenty of time after my exams. Hehehe.

I don't think I will be able to sleep anytime soon tonight so I might as well do another round of revision.

Twas a good day.