Christmas decorations

It looks like a hurricane went through campus last night. It was so windy. There are trees down everywhere.

It also looks like winter went through the cafeteria last night. I've never seem so many Christmas decorations go up in so little time. I guess people in Hawaiʻi make up for not having winter by overdecorating everything...

Possibly studying in Kobe this summer?

I can't believe my first semester here is already almost over! There's only about a month left until winter break. It feels like I just got here.

I've definitely advanced with my Japanese from what little I knew when I first got here. Previously, we had only been using the polite forms of verbs, but right now we're working on learning the plain forms. Fun fun fun.

A sensei from the study abroad department came to our class yesterday to talk to us about a summer program in 神戸 (Kobe). I would love to do this, but I'm not really sure if I can right now. Here are the facts:
- It's open only to intermediate students (as in, those with one year of formal training only, no more, no less).
- It goes from June 6 to July 19. Probably a good amount of time for my first time living over there?
- I would take classes at 甲南大学 (Konan University). In one and a half months I would finish two Japanese courses that would take me all next year at University of Hawaiʻi.
- I would stay with a host family, so I would get the experience of actually living the culture, rather just staying at a dorm at school. And the host family lives on the outskirts of Kobe, so I'll get to experience the city life during school and more rural stuff when I go back to the family.

I think it would be a good experience. Any ideas on whether to do this or not? The application is due sometime in February, so I've got some time to decide...