home for the holidays

I'm leaving for the station to take me to the airport to take me home in half an hour ^^ November was crazy because of Nanowrimo and studying for the JLPT... Afterwards, I crashed and then had midterms at school yesterday and the day before (Japan's school year starts in April, so the second semester ends in March...)

I finally got internet at home in the middle of November, and that didn't help my writing or studying at all... I did manage to finish Nanowrimo, coming from the furthest behind I've ever been, and doing 7k words the third to last day and finishing the next day, early for the first time. I resurfaced on Facebook, after I don't know how long of a hiatus...

I don't think I've ever studied this hard... and I'm not even studying that hard anymore, but I feel like it's actually making a difference. I guess studying a language feels different from studying other things because there's the feeling of starting from nothing and improving that I don't notice with other subjects, which are more just expanding on what you already know.

But it's been ages since I've read or watched anything in English... and while the stuff I do online is mostly in English, there are days when I don't speak a word of English. I once went more than a week without speaking any English.... I end up speaking more Chinese than English sometimes, because most of the people in my classes are Chinese. It's interesting that a lot of things are starting to feel more natural in Japanese than in any other language.

Of all the languages I know, Taiwanese and Japanese are the closest in pronunciation, so a lot of times when I'm talking to my parents, I'll end up wanting to switch to the Japanese. When I do that when I'm speaking Chinese, it's not a problem, because the people I speak Chinese to are also studying Japanese, but my parents wouldn't be able to understand... I slip into Japanese all the time when I'm speaking English or writing things out, though... Just things that would sound more natural in Japanese that don't translate very well into English.

Anyway, after I come back to Japan in January, I'll probably be here until the middle of next June, with a trip to Taiwan in the middle for the elections. Hope to see at least some of you when I'm back~