We took a summer break! This post is from June 17, 2025. The last few weeks have been pretty busy as assignments have started to pick up. The semester is also a little over halfway finished, which means it’s time for midterms. I’ve already taken two and have another one coming up in about two weeks.
One of my “midterms” was for my Japanese speaking class. It felt more like a review than a real exam, so I only reviewed the grammar points we learned from that class. For a speaking-focused course, I got partnered up with one of my friends and we had to write a short script. We didn’t need to actually speak our scrip out loud when we were done and we were even allowed to use our phones to look up words we didn’t remember, so it was actually a pretty easy test.
The second midterm, though, was for my Natural Disasters class and that one I definitely had to study for. We were tested on earthquakes, volcanoes, mass movements and more. Science isn’t really my strong suit, so I tried to review as much as I could, right up until the last minute.
The format of the test was also interesting, one paper had the questions, and we had to write our answers on a separate sheet. I kept catching myself almost forgetting to write my answer on the answer sheet sometimes since I just wanted to write it down next to the question. Even though I was stressing out on how I did, I managed to pass with a C, which I’m honestly happy with.
Aside from midterms, all seven of my classes have been assigning more presentations and homework. The workload itself isn’t terrible, but it’s happening at the same time I’m starting to get notices about things to do before leaving Japan.
Balancing schoolwork and preparing to move out has definitely been stressful. I also want to keep my weekends free for exploring, which means I’ve been trying to finish all my assignments during the four weekdays I have class. It’s starting to become a lot to balance, but I’m still trying to do my best to stay on top of everything.
DU Abroad 