Classes and chocolate cake

This week is a bit ho-hum, because of classes. Funny thing is, I haven't described the classes I'm taking this semester. Compared to last semester, I don't go to school as often, but the work load is much more difficult now.

My first class for the week is every Tuesdays, a class for preparing me for the entrance exam for my department. It entails reading academic materials and doing exercises plus doing a summary on the spot. It can pretty much "understand" if I have my e-dictionary, but without it, my vocabulary is still not enough.

Wednesday is my busiest day, starting with vocabulary class, where sensei just gives us kanjis and the different compounds that go with it. It is followed by grammar. Saegusa-sensei makes us read fiction, then picks up grammar from the passages. It is a bit slow and boring for advanced people, but I like it. Third is reading comprehension, which comprises two activities, a speed reading and slow reading exercise. Both a relatively doable, especially speed reading since I just need to recognize characters and stuff. Last for the day is oral communication. As the name of class suggests, a speaking class. On our second week, me, Dolf, Nami and Derya were chatting up after class, when Saegusa-sensei just passed by, and gave us this Japanese pastry. The inside is sweet potato, (due to the influence of Kuitan), I loved it! hehe! Would've been good if it was warm.

Thursdays and Fridays, I have class called New Approaches to Japanese, which is a continuation of my old classes since we haven't finished the book yet. Iori-sensei handles grammar and Tsurota-sensei handles exercises. Finally, I also attend my professor's zemi (seminar) as an "observer". Honestly, I can't catch everything or sometimes, anything they say, so what I do is check their bibliography and figure out the topic.

On another note, I found an excellent recipe for baking chocolate cake in the rice cooker. Due to it's success in our floor meeting, Hailley(?) offered to give me bitter chocolate which was given to her and couldn't eat (since it was 86% cacao). Plus, my recipe called for bitter chocolate. I promised her I'd try cupcakes. It turned out great except for the shape, since I crammed 5 in one go. Lesson learned: in order to get the perfect shape, 3 at a time.

Other pictures here include a soup breakfast I ate before Church this Sunday. Minestrone soup. I mistakenly ordered the set and got a huge piece of bread. Hence I ended up being too full.

The last picture was a test on how my tolerance to spicy food was. I ordered this from the new Chinese restaurant in Fujimidori. It was sooooo spicy I couldn't taste anything at all. I ended up needing to buy an ice cream just to get the spicy, burning sensation from my lips and tongue. Oh well, something I wouldn't order again.

On a pleasant note, I met up with Ma'am Lydia and Sir Rico (Jose) with Hanna, Rose, Matie and Cheska. Hanna and Cheska are from JSP, Rose and Matie were former students in JSP. Matie turned out to be Ilongo (unfortunately, she has a common last name, but try to check in Iloilo: Marites Reyes). We ate in an Italian place and were chatting it up soo much that I forgot to take pictures of the food. Turns out, Sir Rico loves carbonara, hence we ordered that. Rose loved the calzone and ordered it. We tried a pumpkin gnocci (I'm not sure though if they have eaten it before) and I ordered an eggplant red sauce pasta. (if you notice, eggplant again). Everything was delicious!!!! We ended with dessert. The house specialty was apple tart. Rose ordered a pumpkin pie (since it is Halloween season). I tried both and they were sooo good. The sibs would be happy to know that both desserts were generously topped with cream, which I ate instead of setting it aside.