New semester update

So the new semester has started and I have about 3.5 months left in Japan. I am both very glad to be going home soon and very sad. I really miss my family and friends back home. I also really miss engineering school. It has been a great adventure living here so far. I hope I can make these next months last.

I registered for my engineering classes in the fall today. After looking at what path I want to take with my courses, I've decided to change my major back to Computer Engineering. I switched my major to Electrical Engineering a year ago for various reasons, but I've found that the classes I want to take in the EE curriculum are also available in the CE curriculum. I can also take some Computer Science courses that I want to take with a CE degree that I can not take in EE for credit. I think that programming will be a major part of my future, so I think it is important to take classes on the subject. I've selected the classes I will take in the fall and couldn't be more psyched. I will also be doing some undergraduate research for the UIC Microphysics Laboratory (MPL). They do a lot of work in that lab that is very much related to some undergraduate research I did last summer for the UIC Nanotechnology Core Facility(NCF). The MPL focuses a lot more on physics and science so I am very excited to see how my research goes there.

This weekend was quite fun. I decided I would go to Pub Popeye with some friends on Friday because there was a seasonal beer there that I really wanted to try and I didn't know how long it would be there. The beer I am talking about is the "Divine Vamp III" brewed by Baird Brewing Company here in Japan. This brew was only made once and is only sold at Popeye's. It had really good reviews on beeradvocate, so I just HAD to try it!

I tried gathering some friends up, and the people that ended up going with me were Anna and Kyle(Canadian). (There are two Kyles on our floor here, one Canadian and one American, so a differentiation has to be made whenever you talk about either of them.) We had a great time at the pub. The beers we had were excellent, and we got a cheese platter to enjoy with the drinks. I had not had such cheeses in such a long time. It had blue cheese, smoked gouda, cheddar, etc. It was a great platter, but it didn't have that much on it. I was very proud because I was able to make suggestions to both Anna and Kyle about what beers they should get and they both were raving about how good they were. No pictures yet, Anna has the few we took on her camera.

On Saturday, I went to Harajuku with my uncle Tim and we went to a taproom by Baird Brewing. It was a really nice place. The overall atmosphere was great. The brewmaster for Baird was even drinking at the bar that night! It was really cool to be able to talk to him. It was mostly middle-aged white men at the bar. They were a generally friendly group. I had my very first taste of coffee stout and milk stout style beers that night. I really liked the coffee stout! There was a lot of coffee flavor in it well matched with the barley. The milk stout was really nothing special. It was very mild in both flavor and smell. It was a cask ale, and it seems that cask ales are maybe a bit milder than other beers in my experience so far. For my last round, Tim and I both got a glass of the brewery's Imperial IPA. It was much better than the bottle of the same beer I had a few weeks ago. There was a very nice fruity/citrus flavor to it along with a strong pine smell. Here is a picture of our last round and the taps:

Uncle Tim also came here bearing gifts for me! He brought a french press that my mom gave him to deliver to me that works beautifully. I brewed a mug of coffee with it today and it was glorious. He also grabbed me two bottles of beer from an Alaskan brewery since he does connecting flights there. They are both styles that I very much enjoy and they both have gotten some good reviews. I am very excited to try them out. I think I will have one next weekend and save the other for the week after that. Thanks uncle Tim!!!

So yeah, epic weekend.

Classes are starting up now. This week will be week two. I think I've got my classes figured out. I am taking: Intermediate Japanese 1, Japanese Conversation, Intermediate Kanji 1(maybe), Linear Algebra, German 1, Japanese Econ, Design Science, Imaging Science, and Develop of Urban Environment in Japan. Some of those are just filler classes so that I have enough to satisfy the requirements of this program, but most of the classes I am interested in and excited to take.

I should get to studying Japanese/German vocab and such now. Please leave some comments ;).