It's Over...(疲れた!!)
I got third place in the Tokyo Japanese School Consortium Speech Contest! Not bad, considering this time last year, I really couldn't speak Japanese at all. The whole day was stressful but fun, I got to talk to a lot of other students, and meet lots of cool people.
The winner was a girl from Usbekistan and wrote about learning Kanji. I have to admit, I found her really fascinating to look at, I couldn't decide if she looked more Asian or Russian.
The second place was a girl from my 9th level at my school (I'm level 5). Her theme was about Akihabara, and she wore the classic Akiba-girl maid's outfit. The whole presentation was cool, her Japanese is really smooth, and she looks like a prom queen to boot.
It was funny, throughout the after-party, there were times that I would catch myself running parts of the speech through my head. Then I would remind myself that I can stop doing that, only to catch myself doing it again a few minutes later. I soon was able to stop, then I headed home. As I walked down my street, the weather was like spring, about 40°F. It felt relieved it was over, grateful for all the help I received, and happy.