Where to begin...Yesterday, I guess. The sun sets around 7 right now, and rises by about 5. Surprisingly, I felt pretty awake at the time. We had breakfast first before going to orientation, but the bike tour of the city was cancelled due to the unpredictable weather they've been having here. Still, I think most if not all of us ended up going out by ourselves, though a few of us (myself included) only stopped at the grocery store; it looked like it was going to rain, so...And somehow we managed to time it just right so that we missed the rain, while the group that had gone on to the mall got stuck in it. What an adventure yesterday was, too. It was interesting being in a store where I couldn't read most everything while trying to figure out what to buy for meals for the next few days. I feel bad, though, because when going through the checkout line, I couldn't understand something the cashier was asking, and probably a manager or just another worker had to come by and help, since she spoke English. Then one member of our group couldn't remember the code to the lock on her bike, but thankfully a couple of other people came and had it with them, since she'd contacted them earlier, I think. Now, trying to bike back with 20 lbs in my backpack and another 20 in my basket was interesting. I got it down eventually, but I almost fell over when we were first taking off. Normally I'd have been embarrassed, especially since there were people walking by and some were definitely laughing at the silly foreigner that couldn't seem to ride a bike, but I just laughed it off. You have to, all this being a new experience.
Let's see, so we finally got back, and I went downstairs to study. There were other people already studying, so I joined them, but of course it turned into more of a "glance at the page and then talk for ten minutes" type of thing, which is fine, since it's good to get to know the other 39 of us that are here. Which, by the way, everyone is very friendly, and I've met more people with the same interests as me here than I have in the last 3 years of college. I don't just mean that they like studying Japanese, but that they're also interested in nerdy and silly things like Doctor Who, anime, Japanese music, and Japanese dramas, to name a few.
In any case, we were still studying downstairs when people started arriving for the welcome party, which was with the English program students here at JCMU and the local university students. That was pretty fun, and as usual, they were going to do human bingo as an icebreaker game, but by the time the staff were going to do it and asked if we wanted to, nobody really wanted or needed to, since we'd basically done the icebreaking ourselves. I'm not sure anyone would've left by 6, except that they basically kicked out non-JCMU students, since guests aren't allowed past 8, and more because we needed to study for the placement test today. I finally crashed halfway through the party, too, and I ended up just going to bed by about 9 or 10 and getting up just before 4 am to study. I'm still worried about how the test went. Of course I wasn't going to be able to understand a lot of it, since I've only had a year of Japanese, but I still felt like I should've known more. We'll find out the results later today, in any case.
So now, in about 45 minutes we have the second orientation, and then I have the interview for a home stay at 3:40, and then placement test results will be announced, and then I have to go to my sensei's office to pick up my textbook and other study materials. And then study. Because classes start just before 9 tomorrow, and we're supposed to go to class having a healthy understanding of that day's material already. Any questions you may have from your studying of 3-4 hours the day before can be answered in class. And then, we're not allowed to speak English in the classroom unless we ask permission (in Japanese) first.
Otherwise, all I can say is that it's really pretty here, I think, and I like that it's not a huge city or anything. Getting to Beisha (the grocery store) was basically a straight ride and one turn to the right, so it was easy enough to get to. Now if I could just find the convenience store and the post office and 7/11 (the latter two just for the ATMs they have). I'm praying that my debit card works at one of them, otherwise this year could be interesting. Anyway, the city is basically surrounded by mountains, with Biwa Lake on the fourth side.
Oh, I did forget something, though. So, campus is really small--as in the residence hall, academic hall, and bike rack. However, there is a restaurant called Coco's connected to the academic building. Four of us ended up going there last night, and it wasn't too expensive I think (I had beef curry for about 820 yen, which is about $8). I'm glad I ended up going, because it was really fun and I got to know more people. If I gain anything from this year, it should be that my shyness will finally go away. I hope.
Also, as for the bikes, it's still really strange to have to ride on the left side of the road. Oh, and then it's weird how the sounds at night are virtually the same, except for these big birds that may be some type of crow, because they sound similar to them. Actually, I know I've heard them in the background in some anime and other shows I've watched. I'll have to figure that out.
Just a forewarning: when they say that these classes are intensive, they're VERY intensive. I'll describe more later, when I've actually experienced the classes, but just going by what I've read, and especially what they talked about today, it's going to be interesting. I may actually have to study for more than a half an hour for once.
Anyway, orientation starts in half an hour, so I'm going to head out for now.
Let's see, so we finally got back, and I went downstairs to study. There were other people already studying, so I joined them, but of course it turned into more of a "glance at the page and then talk for ten minutes" type of thing, which is fine, since it's good to get to know the other 39 of us that are here. Which, by the way, everyone is very friendly, and I've met more people with the same interests as me here than I have in the last 3 years of college. I don't just mean that they like studying Japanese, but that they're also interested in nerdy and silly things like Doctor Who, anime, Japanese music, and Japanese dramas, to name a few.
In any case, we were still studying downstairs when people started arriving for the welcome party, which was with the English program students here at JCMU and the local university students. That was pretty fun, and as usual, they were going to do human bingo as an icebreaker game, but by the time the staff were going to do it and asked if we wanted to, nobody really wanted or needed to, since we'd basically done the icebreaking ourselves. I'm not sure anyone would've left by 6, except that they basically kicked out non-JCMU students, since guests aren't allowed past 8, and more because we needed to study for the placement test today. I finally crashed halfway through the party, too, and I ended up just going to bed by about 9 or 10 and getting up just before 4 am to study. I'm still worried about how the test went. Of course I wasn't going to be able to understand a lot of it, since I've only had a year of Japanese, but I still felt like I should've known more. We'll find out the results later today, in any case.
So now, in about 45 minutes we have the second orientation, and then I have the interview for a home stay at 3:40, and then placement test results will be announced, and then I have to go to my sensei's office to pick up my textbook and other study materials. And then study. Because classes start just before 9 tomorrow, and we're supposed to go to class having a healthy understanding of that day's material already. Any questions you may have from your studying of 3-4 hours the day before can be answered in class. And then, we're not allowed to speak English in the classroom unless we ask permission (in Japanese) first.
Otherwise, all I can say is that it's really pretty here, I think, and I like that it's not a huge city or anything. Getting to Beisha (the grocery store) was basically a straight ride and one turn to the right, so it was easy enough to get to. Now if I could just find the convenience store and the post office and 7/11 (the latter two just for the ATMs they have). I'm praying that my debit card works at one of them, otherwise this year could be interesting. Anyway, the city is basically surrounded by mountains, with Biwa Lake on the fourth side.
Oh, I did forget something, though. So, campus is really small--as in the residence hall, academic hall, and bike rack. However, there is a restaurant called Coco's connected to the academic building. Four of us ended up going there last night, and it wasn't too expensive I think (I had beef curry for about 820 yen, which is about $8). I'm glad I ended up going, because it was really fun and I got to know more people. If I gain anything from this year, it should be that my shyness will finally go away. I hope.
Also, as for the bikes, it's still really strange to have to ride on the left side of the road. Oh, and then it's weird how the sounds at night are virtually the same, except for these big birds that may be some type of crow, because they sound similar to them. Actually, I know I've heard them in the background in some anime and other shows I've watched. I'll have to figure that out.
Just a forewarning: when they say that these classes are intensive, they're VERY intensive. I'll describe more later, when I've actually experienced the classes, but just going by what I've read, and especially what they talked about today, it's going to be interesting. I may actually have to study for more than a half an hour for once.
Anyway, orientation starts in half an hour, so I'm going to head out for now.