While waiting for them to prep and cook my order I stood aside and thought about how my day was going. Up to this point I had slept until 10:00, skipped breakfast, and went to class. So far so good. Class was mildly unusual as I showed up 5 minutes before class started and there were only 3, including myself, of the 10 student there. Different and interesting is almost always a sure way to get my mood moving in the right direction.
Class progressed normally with just the three of us, but had a feel of being special since there was much more one on one feed back from both the teacher and the other students. Eventually a few more students trickled in before the first break, but the mood had already been set in the class, so it progressed productively and with a high level of energy.
The material we covered in class was not particularly difficult to understand, but it required filling our mouths with many, seemingly unnecessary, syllables and spewing them all out at once without any errors. Needless to say it was mildly difficult and the results were often humorous.
By the end of class my head hurt and I could barely focus, but it was because of the amount of new knowledge that I had gained and was still digesting rather than confusion or illness. That's how I think a good class should go. In addition to that, various small things here and there had been going my way and it felt like I had luck on my side, so I felt pretty darn good at this point.
After class I walked with some friends, since our destinations required going in the same direction for part of the way. One was Korean, the other Italian, and yet another whose nationality I have to assume was either Korean or Chinese. In any case, our common language was Japanese, so that's what we used. It was casual, fun, and I could easily understand and keep up with everyone involved.
Since I've never followed through with a second language for this long before I had always wondered what the language would "feel" like once I got my head wrapped around it, and this group gave me a taste of that. The excitement caused by the foreignness slipped away and it began to feel like I was simply communicating rather than speaking in code. My phrasing is as the loss of excitement may sound depressing, but a new excitement took its place. I'm excited by the realization that my classes and exposure to the language are having a real, positive impact on me beyond that of simply memorizing grammar and vocabulary.
Eventually I split from the group and headed off in my own direction along the path I'm so familiar with. I thought about food and decided to grab something from the "Mom and Pop" store that I mentioned previously, which brings us back full circle. However, now I've reflected on how good my day had gone and the realization amplified the already good feelings. I stood and watched others collect their purchases and the "Pop" talk to and interact with a baby in a stroller that a mother had wheeled in as she collected her items. I let myself enjoy the positivity that seemed to radiate from everyone around me.
When my order had been completed I noticed that they were also selling the sauce that I had been looking for for the last couple weeks, so I asked to add it to the bill, paid, and thanked the man in Japanese as always and headed off. The decision to not buy the spring roll seemed insignificant with how well the day was going and I quickly forgot about it. Since I was in such a good mood, I decided to try my luck at a slightly quicker way home. I've never tried this route before because, from a distance, it looked completely blocked and I was always in a hurry, so I didn't want to end up going too far out of my way. This time though I wasn't in a hurry and my exploration offered a new perspective that revealed that the barrier that I thought I had been seeing was actually entirely passable and much more convenient. The only stoplight that I would have had to wait for turned green as I approached it and let me continue on without stopping my stride.
Cut forward a few more minutes and I'm home sitting in my room getting ready to eat. Normally in the morning I get 2 shrimp to eat with my rice from home and they add a small delicious fried chunk of potato to garnish the order, and when I looked into the wrapper of today's dinner I could see they did it again, as I expected, but they also seem to escalate with the size of the order. Instead of the one chunk of potato, I got 3. Even better, there was a spring roll and it was just as amazing as it looked!!!
I've had a pretty darn good day.
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