OMG WTF

Orientation today!

That was no joke... They threw SO much information at us, in such a short period of time... my mind was reeling. I made a list... I have a plan of attack. I think i've got this? It basically means saying good bye to a lot of my money... sad days. On the plus side I got the JASSO scholarship! That means a monthly stipend. Thank GOD. But arranging to get the money is just another thing on my list...

So what I have been up to today... Rode the trains through rush hour. Not the worst part of it, but we were still being pushed into the trains and packed like sardines. If i could have gotten my camera out, I would have taken a picture to prove it... But words cannot express how tightly we really were packed in there. Wow... But the trip to my school was relatively painless, and now I know how to get there and back!

Orientation was crazy... like I said. Then I met up with my student mentor, Mami. She is a student at Sophia who is supposed to help out with any questions we may have. So me and a few other students had lunch and talked about all the things that we had to do. Yay for making friends!!!

After lunch was the Japanese Placement Exam. Omg, that was impossible! The kanji section (Chinese characters) was the first part and I guess for pretty much all of it. Then they had the grammar section, which I did relatively well on, and I got pretty far (the test got progressively harder until you gave up/ran out of time). Then a short composition about what I do on weekends, and I was outta there!

The entire day I was freezing my ass off because I didn't have a jacket (being as I threw up on mine the day before, and my bags were delivered while I was at school). So we tried to go find me a cafe. Instead we ended up hitting up the convenience store for copies of our passports and the computer lab to set up our school passwords and e-mail. Then we went to a welcome party for the exchange students. They had a shamisen and karate demonstration which were pretty cool. And some finger food. Otherwise, it was pretty lame. I got to see my ambassador, Asuka (I remember her name now!) again and we made arrangements to hang out on Sunday.

I then left with a group of people and we figured out our way back to Nishi-Kawaguchi (where my dorm is located). A new friend of mine, Young, and I grabbed some dinner and then hit up the dollar store on the way back. When I got there I was glad to see my bags waiting for me! Lugged those bad boys up the stairs then went to the grocery store with some friends. Got enough groceries to get me by for the next 3 weeks or so (hopefully) for roughly $25.

Then it was back to my room to prepare for a much needed shower. I awkwardly wandered around in my robe for a bit before I located it, but I got there! The showers aren't bad except for two things. 1) Its on the first floor on the opposite wing where my room is (on the 2nd floor). B) The water stays on for about 30sec and then you have to press the button again. I think the latter is the most annoying... that will take some getting used to.

Now I am all unpacked (save my clothes) and ready for sleep. I even figured out my heater! And by figured out I mean it was explained to me. Now I have to get a good nights rest so that I can go to the Dorm Orientation at 9am... lame.

Till next time! (I promise my updates won't be daily for ever, there is just so much  new and interesting things going on right now!)
~Sam