Pre-Orientation

Hello! Konichiwa! こにちわ！

Let's see...I left off last time with me falling asleep on Saturday night, so I will be telling you about Sunday and Monday.

Sunday

    I woke up around 7:15-7:30, getting about 7 hours of sleep. The covering over the window doesn't keep out the light AT ALL! And my room faces the east, so the sun comes streaming in with its wake-up call. I didn't feel tired though, so I got up. The third roommate came in a little while later. She seems very...bubbly. She came with a group of 10 students from her school, so she mostly hangs out with them. My other temporary roommate is more like me, quiet around strangers and keeps to herself.

    A group of us went exploring around 10am. The size and people kept changing. First we went to one of the other Seminar Houses and met up with more people. Then the group split up to go find a restaurant. The group I stuck with ended up at this cafe place called Cafe de Raffinee, in the park between the Seminar Houses. They had some good food: curry and rice, pasta with either salmon, tuna, or eggplant, and chicken teriyaki were some of the dishes we ordered.

    After this, the group split up again, with my group headed towards the campus. We found our way to the Main Gate. There are four gates, the East Gate is the closest to the Seminar Houses, but it leads to the Athletic Fields, so you still have to walk a ways in campus to get to the main buildings. The Main and South Gates are very close to each other, and the Main Gate opens onto the main quad area. The two most important buildings for International students are right there-the Library/Media Center on the left and the Center for International Education (CIE) on the right. We explored a bit and then headed back to the dorms. On the way we stopped by a supermarket and a konbini (コンビニ) (convenience store, pronounced like the first part of convenience, only with a "b" instead of the "v") to pick up some dinner and breakfast supplies.

    That took most of the day, and we were exhausted from the heat by the time we got back. I started studying for the Japanese placement exam, which I will take on Tuesday morning. I took a shower, which was an interesting endevor when it came to drying off. Since I'm doing a homestay, I didn't bring a towel, because those would be provided. The information given about orientation also said that we wouldn't need to bring any linen. However, whereas bed linens were provided, towels were not. I wrung out my hair and braided it to keep it from soaking my clothes and then tried to shake off as much water from the rest of me as I could. It was weird, but it got the job done. I tried to stay up later, so I could try skyping with my family, but I was too tired and ending up going to bed at 9pm.

Monday

    I woke up when the sun started coming in at 6am, but held out for a more normal wake-up time at 7am. I took my time getting dressed and eating an onigiri ( おにぎり) {rice ball, pronounced o-ne(as in neat)-gi(as in give)-re(as in really)} Then we walked to the campus and got there in time for the pre-orientation meeting. Today and tomorrow are pre-orientation, because people are still arriving. Actual orientation doesn't start until Wednesday, August 31st. However, I was able to get a lot stuff taken care of today.

    After the meeting, I took a campus tour. Then I was going to turn in my paperwork which I had filled out earlier that morning, but I had left it in the dorm! I ended up walking back to the dorm, getting the paperwork, and walking back to the campus. Keep in mind that the dorms are a 30 minute walk from the middle of campus, in the heat and humidity. Well, I made it back to campus alright, and met up with a girl from Iceland, who is in my dorm, and we had lunch in one of the cafeterias. Then I headed over to the Shomu-bu (which I don't know the translation of, but must be something like the business office) and paid the deposit fee. Outside of this office, a Japanese student came up and asked me if she could speak English with me and hang out for a bit. I said sure, why not? And we walked over to the CIE to drop off my forms. I had a bit of trouble with the insurance form, because I forgot to make a copy of the insurance card. I ended up going up and down the stairs a few times, because the copier is on the 1st floor, and the form dropping off room is on the 2nd floor. Then I signed up for a time to get my laptop registered, and was done with most of the paperwork.

    Aiko (my new Japanese friend) and I went to sit in the CIE student lounge area and talked for a while. She is majoring in Spanish, but wants to learn more English too. Sadly, she missed the application deadline to be a speaking partner, so she is trying to meet a lot of the foreign exchange students. Two other Japanese students walked in the door and walked past and looked at us, so I said hi. Trying to be friendly you know? Well, apparently I was acting oddly, because there were quite a few confused looks flying back and forth between the four of us. Eventually, they figured out I was an exchange student (and so allowed to be a little odd), and they sat down and introduced themselves and started asking me and Aiko questions in a strange, but understandable mix of Japanese and English. I answered them back in my halted Japanese and a lot of English. It turns out that they were 2nd year students, and one was studying English and wants to visit America, while the other is studying French. They were all surprised to hear that I also spoke French. We talked for about an hour, until I had to head off to the last meeting of the day.

    This last meeting was a banking session, where we filled out the paperwork that will allow us to open a Japanese bank account. It's required for all students who get a meal stipend. It's the only way for the university to give us the stipend money each month, and it also allows us to receive transfers from overseas. The only problem is that it takes three weeks for the account to be set up and finalized, so we won't be able to get any money through those accounts until the end of September.

    It's 6:30pm here now, and I'm back at the dorm room, which I have to myself for the time being. I'm debating between taking a nap and getting some dinner. I'm quite tired from being outside most of the day and jet-lag of course, and not very hungry. But it's dinner time so I should eat something. *sigh* I also need to study some more, so I can do well on my test tomorrow. Decisions, decisions.
Well, goodbye for now. I shall write again tomorrow.