Yesterday, class was pretty difficult for some reason, and I don't think I'm the only one who thinks so. It was probably just one of those days. Today was better, though, and I didn't completely fail at the dialogue memorization bit. Ah, but yesterday said turn out okay. The Japanese students cooked a large meal again and invited some of us to eat (in the lobby again). I was able to talk with more people, including my roommate. I'm sad they're moving out tomorrow...I wish I could've had more time to get to know them, since I'm so slow at making friends. Well, but some may visit, and I'll meet when more people in my elective class that's at University of Shiga Prefecture. Hopefully.
Next week we'll finally start learning material I don't know yet! You know, I was thinking how this really is going to be one of the best experiences I'll have, and that I'll learn so much. I was also thinking how it'll be weird to take my last year of Japanese at MSU after this, because I'll have probably learned so much and become comfortable with speaking in and hearing Japanese, and having class completely in Japanese. I'm not sure what the upper level classes are like yet, but I'm not sure it'll be all in Japanese or not. I'm just thinking that if it isn't, it'll be weird and probably pretty easy. If I ever am able to improve my speaking...But that's partially why I wanted a host family, to force me to use Japanese every day.
That's another thing, is I'm already picking up some habits. Bowing or doing the bow/head nod, turning the paper around so it's facing the other person before handing it to them, handing in things with both hands, responding with "hai!" when called, and so on. It'll be even better after the host family. I'm also getting used to wearing slippers inside and having to change my shoes every time I want to go out. Sadly, I'm also used to just not understanding what someone has said. Oh, and from talking to Japanese students, I'm starting to say things in English like they do. Sometimes when talking with them, if they don't know much English yet, you kind of need to so they can understand you. Same goes for speaking slowly. Of course, I'm sure hey do the same exact things when speaking in Japanese with most of us.
A coupe things: I've seen about 5 other foreigners around, which is 5 more than I though I'd see here, judging from what I'd read. Aside from JCMU people, of course. Also, about laundry, unless you have enough room to hang your clothes on your room and have a fan blowing on them for a few hours, then don't expect your clothes to be dry sooner than the next night, or even 2 mornings later. And the dryers don't do squat, so don't waste your money.
One last thing is that after tomorrow, I'll be able to explain a bit more about gift giving, though not a lot, since I guess gift giving is rather complicated in Japan. Still, someone who's been here before said that the gift doesn't need to be wrapped, at least not giving it to the host family or roommate or friends, and to say つまらないものですが、どうぞ。(tsumaranaimono desuga, douzo). It's more humble, I guess.
Also, tomorrow we have an opening ceremony--something Japanese schools do, so I guess we are, too. It's pretty formal, so I'm going to need to wear my dress or skirt or something, of which I'm hoping at least one is appropriate. I'm actually more nervous about wearing appropriate clothing than I am about introducing myself. Oh, and today we have a mandatory fire drill at 3, at which one thing we will do is learn how to use fire extinguishers. Because apparently no matter what you do, fire is a big issue here. At orientation, most warnings were "blah blah blah...It will catch fire". We all started laughing after the twentieth time they said that.
Sorry, this post wasn't as interesting, but I thought I'd update on my plans, anyway.