Packing...Check!

After spending the week making sure that I had everything that I needed for packing, I realized this morning (or rather my Mom told me) that I still had to actually pack my two suitcases for my Tuesday departure. So I spent the majority of my day picking out my clothes, putting bottles into plastic bags so they wouldn't burst onto all my stuff in case of emergencies, looking over my packing checklist, occasionally finding things that weren't on the checklist to put in my suitcase, and ultimately arranging everything in an organized manner in my luggage. So now I'm basically done packing, and it's kind of a relief to think I won't be scurrying around Monday night making sure that I have this, that and the other thing. However, upon the advent of being packed, and the fact that my departure date is nearing, Japan is becoming an ever increasing reality. Seriously, WHERE DID MY SPRING BREAK GO? Just last week I was finishing up finals and packing up my dorm room, ready to come home to a relaxing week before I vacated the country for three months. And now in basically three days I will be moving myself once again, except far from the beautiful golden state to a wonderful island in the Atlantic. Now, my nerves have begun to spike.

I haven't done nearly the amount of studying of Japanese I wanted to do this past week. Actually, I have done none. That was most definitely not the plan (lol!). But oddly enough, last night (or maybe the night before...the days kind of run together...) I was watching an episode of Sailor Moon in bed and the subtitles on the disc were lagging (which concerned me but that's beside the point). But in the moment the subtitles were lagging, two characters were having a conversation...and without subtitles, I UNDERSTOOD IT ALL. To clarify, it was all in Japanese! I was so shocked that I proceeded to rewind the disc a bit and played it again, with the lagging subtitles and I heard and understood the conversation perfectly. It was definitely the 'win' moment of the day. So...maybe it isn't all a lost cause. Perhaps I do have some confidence in my Japanese language abilities! Well...we shall see, we shall see.