The Midterms Are Coming!

So it's been a while since I last posted, and I should note that the most significant change that's taken place is the impending midterms.

This is not a good thing.  I took ぶつりがく last week and my freshman seminar has a project instead of a test, but that still leaves  日本語 and すうがく this Wednesday and Friday.   I have an oral midterm on Wednesday, which makes me particularly nervous because I've been slowly losing my voice for the past week and, more noticeably, it really freaks me out to speak in front of people, even in English.  I also have an amusing tendency to replace Japanese words that I've forgotten with Spanish words, so there's the ever-present risk that I'll suddenly lapse into Spanish during the midterm.
One of my biggest issues is with particles--they're just so different from English grammatical structures.  I'm the annoying person who is oddly fond of English grammar (an acquired taste after editing my high school newspaper for years), so it really bugs me that I keep getting this wrong. I'm going to summarize some of the particle uses here:

• -が is attached to the end of a direct object when the verb あります is being used.
• -に is attached to the end of a location when the verb あります is being used; it can also indicate a direction with other verbs
• -で indicates a location, regardless of the verb
• -を indicates a direct object when verbs other than あります are being used
• -は indicates the subject of a verb, like in わたしは, which is the subject form of I (for the longest time I thought this was a verb for some reason...)

I've noticed some nice pictures and artwork on other blogs, so although I love sushi and adorable Japanese cats as much as the next person, I'm going to leave you with some poetry: I love haikus because when done well, they really get it right.
I hope this lifts your mood like it does mine--