Kobe Rocks

After several days of rain, the sun finally came out. It was in the mid 70's here. The first picture was taken from my apartment. That big building wasn't here before the earthquake, of course. The next two were taken looking both ways on a nearby street. Busy city, but my apartment is quiet. 

Today was my level test. I think I did alright, but I'll see tomorrow. I found out both morning classes are for advanced students. I've been given little chance to get into those by the teachers here, but who knows. I'd rather take morning classes, because I do my best learning in the morning. My listening and speaking are good enough so that I won't hinder any of their classes, and I could use help with all grammar, so it probably doesn't really matter which class I end up in from that standpoint. I've studied all basic and intermediate Japanese grammar, I just need practice to let it sink in. But they have their rules, and if I don't know grammar "x", I can't be in class "y". 

Here's the number one reason Kobe rocks: language partners. The KICC (Kobe International Community Center) has a message board for language exchange. It's a really helpful, relaxed atmosphere where people can meet or get language exchange information. I've met with 6 different language partners already. I've met everyone looking for english posted on the bulletin board, and now I'm just picking up people who are in there browsing the bulletin board. My goal is to have a 1 hr meeting every day I'm here. In my experience, this means I'll need to meet 10-20 people (some quit really fast, some have scheduling problems and some aren't good matches).