007 - best summer ever

This summer will be amazing.

In theory, it will be amazing. The whole month of waking up at 6 to hop a ride with my mom to get to school isn't amazing, but otherwise...yeah, it looks alright.

Month of Japanese at Rutgers. It isn't really to learn Japanese, it's more to make it look like I'm learning Japanese. Back at USC, I've tested out of the requirement and scheduling language classes is a pain in the ass, so to anyone who looks at my college transcript it looks like I stopped at the minimum which isn't good, especially not for applying to abroad programs. I want to go abroad, but the good programs usually require 2 years of college level Japanese. No questions asked. Not the equivalent, not an oral test, actual 2 years of college classroom Japanese which leaves me with a problem, in a quandry, if you will. Sooo I'm taking this summer class with hopes of making it look like I'm at least trying to keep on keeping on with my studies.

During the month, I might be suprising April (my girlfriend) by showing up at this Japanese American youth conference I went to two years ago and want to go to again. This all depends on whether or not I can get a scholarship to go...we shall see.

Then a week of Japan. Seeing as I'm the only one in the family who speaks the language and my mom hasn't been since the 70's, I'm basically the tour guide for this one. It'll be kind of weird because my brother freaks out (or at least he has in the past, maybe he's gotten a hold on) when people mistake him for a Japanese speaker and talk to him and seeing as we'll be IN JAPAN it'll be interesting. And I'll probably be the last person anyone would think to talk to if they were to address the three of us seeing as I look Filipino, so...we'll see. We'll be meeting our relatives there which should be interesting. They live out in the countryside where they've probably lived since my family left Japan in the 1900s.

After that, a month back teaching Japanese at Mori no Ike. This time I'll be the marketing chair for the camp, so that'll add another layer. I'll talk about that in another post, because...basically, this camp is my home away from home. This will be the fourth summer I spend there and the third I've spent as a teacher.

And then back to school and new apartment.

Yup. Good summer.