shirenomad (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shirenomad) wrote2002-08-26 03:49 pm
shirenomad) wrote2002-08-26 03:49 pm
I just flew in from my midterm and boy is my brain tired!
Ugh, four weeks is not enough time to prep for something like that. Had a few moments where my mind failed me completely (mostly during the listening section; I can never keep up with the speaker), but the kanji section went fairly well, and I think I managed to bluff my way through the grammar questions. Also, the rest of my sunburn cleared up over the weekend, which I got complimented on a couple times, so if I went down in flames, at least I looked good doing it! :p
I wasn't expecting there to be a large enough Christian population in Tsuru to warrant a church, but it turns out there is one. A small one -- attendance was only about 25 yesterday -- but still a church. Didn't understand a word of it, of course, though I managed to figure out which passages we were reading by coordinating the pew Bible's table of contents with my own. Also, thankfully, the hymnals used mostly hiragana to help show how the rhythm of the song worked; that plus the slow pace of hymns in general meant I could actually read fast enough to sing along (not that I knew what the words meant). Unfortunately, I stood out like... well, like a white guy in a room full of Nihonjin, which meant I was an obvious newcomer. Which meant that at the end of the service, I got the standard treatment of being asked to come up and introduce myself. Managed to communicate my name, that I was studying Japanese at Tsuru U, and that I still stunk at it. Tae was thankfully also attending, and he managed to help me with some of their further questions. Mood of the service was traditional: standard hymns (some of which I recognized by the music), a couple prayers, scripture reading (Samaritan woman at the well), recitation of the Lord's Prayer, sermon, offering, and then out to the narthex for fellowship/socializing (and iced tea, thankfully; the heat decided to move back in that morning and the sanctuary wasn't efficiently air conditioned).
I wasn't expecting there to be a large enough Christian population in Tsuru to warrant a church, but it turns out there is one. A small one -- attendance was only about 25 yesterday -- but still a church. Didn't understand a word of it, of course, though I managed to figure out which passages we were reading by coordinating the pew Bible's table of contents with my own. Also, thankfully, the hymnals used mostly hiragana to help show how the rhythm of the song worked; that plus the slow pace of hymns in general meant I could actually read fast enough to sing along (not that I knew what the words meant). Unfortunately, I stood out like... well, like a white guy in a room full of Nihonjin, which meant I was an obvious newcomer. Which meant that at the end of the service, I got the standard treatment of being asked to come up and introduce myself. Managed to communicate my name, that I was studying Japanese at Tsuru U, and that I still stunk at it. Tae was thankfully also attending, and he managed to help me with some of their further questions. Mood of the service was traditional: standard hymns (some of which I recognized by the music), a couple prayers, scripture reading (Samaritan woman at the well), recitation of the Lord's Prayer, sermon, offering, and then out to the narthex for fellowship/socializing (and iced tea, thankfully; the heat decided to move back in that morning and the sanctuary wasn't efficiently air conditioned).