The Healing Power of Balloon Animals

So I suppose you want to know how the 1 kyu went.

Ugh.

I don't get the results back until the middle of February, but let's just say that I am already thinking about how to better prepare for next year's test (it's offered once a year).  I did think that the kanji, vocabulary and the grammar sections were pretty easy, yet I worry that I have again fallen victim to the reading comprehension. 

It's just that I read way too friggin' slowly and I never have time to finish all the questions.  When time starts to run out I panic, at which point I can't concentrate on anything at all.  The same thing happened last time I took this test.  And actually, I am a really slow reader in English as well.  I can't help but be reminded of how I always ran out of time on the reading comp section of the SATs.

Oh well though, I had fun studying insanely and rediscovering my inner nerd over the past couple weeks.  And overall, I feel a lot more literate in Japanese now than I was when I failed the 1 kyu 3 years ago.

At about 5pm on the night before the test, I stopped being able to concentrate on anything at all.  Instead of getting frustrated with myself however, as I am wont to do, I decided that I'd studied enough and it was time to chill. 

And so I learned to make balloon animals.  I highly recommend balloon animals to anyone who is stressed out for whatever reason, as it involves lots of therapeutic squeezing and twisting. 

Don't believe me?  Meet the menagerie:

From left to right, they are: Bugs, Naruhito, Kirin, Pink Choco, Roowena, and Fang.

Comments

[Kate]

oh, my goodness lea, that's 11 months...........great work!!!

[balloon twister]

If you want to learn how to make more balloon animnals try balloon-animals.com

I post free video there.