Recently in my Japanese class, about once a week, we’ve started learning Japanese idioms. One in particular came to my mind this afternoon “泣き面に蜂”, which directly translated comes out to something like Weeping face, bee (there’s a particle in there, “ni”, but I don’t grasp its meaning). Perhaps its “by a weeping face, there’s a bee.”  None the less, translated in a more understandable way, it means “misfortunes seldom come alone”, or “when it rains, it pours.”

Well, that was my lunch time today. Just before lunch, we got our tests back that we took yesterday. I got my written one back, and felt pretty good about it. 96 percent. No problems, a few minor mistakes, I totally get the grammar and vocab. Then I got my listening test back. Not so hot. I got a 76. Which in most places, isn’t really a problem. At Yamasa, its considered a failed test. You have to get 80% or better. If you fail a test, you can’t advance to the next class after the current quarter, unless you retake the test. If you score between 60-79%,you’re allowed to retake the test. Whew. Its my first failed test though – so I’m a little put out. But, I’ve always known my worst portion would be the listening.  I retake next Friday… so here’s to doing a better job.

After I got my test scores back, it was lunch time. I brought some soba noodles and a hard boiled egg from home. I decided to peel the egg and then try to warm it up in the microwave. Thinking about it now, I don’t know why I thought that was a good idea. I peeled the egg, put it in the microwave for a minute and waited. At about 45 seconds… poof! My egg literally exploded into a million pieces completely covering the inside of the microwave. I went into the teacher’s kitchen and stole some paper towels, but it took me a good two minutes to clean it out. Thankfully, no one was behind me waiting to use the microwave.  So I was out my egg and just had noodles for lunch.

Then I went downstairs to join William in his classroom for lunch. I was already kind of in a sour mood, but when I got there, the room had more people in it than normal, and there was no place for me to sit by William, so instead I sat a few spaces away between some other people. After that I was just grumpy. Though my afternoon nap definitely helped cure my grumpiness.

Yesterday after I got home from my test, I decided it was time to get to work on cleaning our apartment. I’ve been rather lazy about it for the past few weeks. I hadn’t dusted for nearly a month (Sometimes William vacuums, but generally doesn’t dust unless I specifically ask), the toilet hadn’t been cleaned in over a week, and my kitchen needed some scrubbing especially by the range and I needed to do a huge pile of dishes.William wasn’t home, and so I decided that since I was in the mood, now was the time. I dusted, cleaned the floor, did the dishes, scrubbed the kitchen walls (don’t be too amazed, I just cleaned behind the range and sink, Japanese kitchens are quite tiny when compared to American ones), cleaned the bathroom, mopped the kitchen floor, made muffins and bread, hard boiled some eggs, did a load of laundry and made dinner, all before 7pm (I got home around 2:30). I felt quite accomplished. Needless to say, I was wiped out. So when I came home from class today after having a rather yucky day, I watched some TV with William and took a nap. I think I needed some down time!