It's the Year of the Orientations... (for me at least)

The past two days have been filled with busy schedules, frustrations, moments of triumph, and, above anything else... Orientation, yay! (not really...) It's only been two days since I last wrote and I have so much to say. So, pull up a chair and drink another Dr. Pepper for me. Oh what I wouldn't give for a Dr. Pepper...

After I wrote my last post, my roommate Koti (who is from Argentina) invited me to go with her and her friends from last semester to a place in Hirakata-shi called 280. 280 is a restaurant where everything you order is only 280 yen. The portions are a little small so you'll want to order at least two things but it's still very inexpensive compared to everywhere else. Water is free, but you can order what is essentially Japanese alcohol and sour fruit juice for 280, and a tall glass of beer for 280. And we're talking TALL glass of beer. I had water because I'm on limited funds right now, but that's only until all the banking paperwork goes through, which should be this week. But, Koti had the sour lime and let me try it, and it was very good. I don't know the names of what I had to eat (it was all in kanji and I can read only a few of those) but one was chicken and mushroom and broccoli that was grilled together and served with a sauce that looked kinda like soy sauce but wasn't, and the other was what looked like a very small jelly-filled doughnut but it had some sort of cheese inside. Both were very good too. I would like to go back, but not right now, since the bill was 600 yen and the bus ride (too far to walk--we had to be back by 11) was 220 each way... I spent about as much as I would spend at Taste of Thai at home.

As for yesterday, I took my placement test at 10:00 in the morning. I did horrible on the listening part (they spoke really fast, the tape only played the dialogue once, I didn't know the questions until after the dialogue was finished so I didn't know what to listen for, and I didn't study all summer so I'd forgotten most of my Japanese). Then they handed out the hiragana/katakana part which of course was SUPER easy. Then came the grammar part. And in this part, there was a definite line between what I knew and what I didn't know. At first, I was just flying through the sections because I knew all the answers. But at about level C, I just suddenly had no idea what the answer could possibly be because I'd never seen the sentence pattern before. I either knew the answer or had no idea, which was weird because I was expecting a sort of gradient: things I knew, things I sorta knew, things that I knew I should know but didn't, and things I definitely didn't know. But no, it was definitely either one extreme or the other. As for the results, I won't know until Friday what level I'm in. I'm shooting for at least level 2.

After the test, I went and had lunch. I had Makudo (McDonalds) and I'm never eating there again. For starters, the lines are incredibly long. It took me 15 minutes to get through. Next, there are less choices, so I had a chicken sandwich and fries. It tastes exactly the same as home, but the portion is smaller and the price is higher. It cost me 650 yen. In fact, almost all food in Japan is more expensive, but especially American goods and anything with fruit in it. However, Japanese dishes are usually less expensive and are definitely more filling. It is very difficult for me to finish a meal that I buy at the cafeteria for only 300 yen. Too bad I have no way of sneaking the meal back to the dorm for later.

After lunch, I went to the banking session where I was to set up a bank account in Japan. It was an absolute nightmare. Oh, I have never been so frustrated over something that should be so easy. First, I had to go all over campus trying to find a place to make a copy of my passport because everywhere that had a copier had only a broken copier. Secondly, the bank is very very picky about everything. First, your name and address had to be written in EXACTLY THE SAME WAY as it was in your passport. Which means that my name was last name, then first name, both in all caps, while my address was in normal print. So, after having to redo my form because it wasn't written in exactly the same way, I took it up front to be checked by the staff that were there... and they made me write the forms over again because they didn't like my capital Y! I write my capital Ys with two strokes. It's the same height as the rest of the capitol letters so it's definitely capitalized but it's written like a proper times-new-roman lowercase y. Just start typing in Word to see what I'm talking about. But even though it's definitely capitalized, they wouldn't accept it because it wasn't a proper times-new-roman capital Y. I haven't written a capital Y like that since first grade. And it looks absolutely disgusting on the paper too because it's my neatest handwriting until you get to the Y, where it suddenly looks like I gave the pen to a first grader to let them write the last letter. So, after I finally fixed that, I flip the paper over to realize that I'd have to do the whole thing again. Why? Well, it was one of those sheets where you write on three pieces of paper at once and it marks on all three. On the top page, you can't tell that someone had written their name in pencil, but on the last page, you can definitely see their name covering up mine. Gah, so I had to go and write it all AGAIN. It took me four tries to get through that line and I was so frustrated that all I wanted to do was scream as loudly as possible.

So after my nightmare at the nit-picky banking session, I met up with Autumn, Whitney, and Peter (all fellow Americans). At least I think that's their names (I'm sure that Autumn's name is Autumn). I've been meeting so many people this week that I can't remember anyone's names and it's really embarrassing. But, anyway, I went with them to Hirakata-shi (we actually are on the outskirts so on the mail we're listed at Hirakata-shi, but we're not actually in Hirakata-shi... according to the RAs and staff at Kansai Gaidai). It's about a 30 to 40 minute walk from campus to Hirakata-shi, and on the way there is all downhill. We went shopping in a place called Izumiya for a journal for Peter, but ended up getting Autumn an alarm clock. Izumiya is both rather messy and very neat at the same time. It's like the store has too much stuff to sell so it looks messy from a distance, but then you realize that every single item has its place, but that there's so much that you can't take it all in at once. They had a few interesting things there so I'll have to go back there again sometime. The walk back up the hill was murder though.

After we got back to KGU, we went to go watch the cheerleaders. All the sport team members at KGU are attending summer training right now (their classes don't start until Sept. 25 while ours start Monday) and the cheerleaders invited us to come watch their practice. It was fun to watch their routines, but most of their cheers were "Kansai Gaidai, let's go" repeated over and over. In case you're wondering, Kansai Gaidai's team is the Pyrates, and they do have a football team. And I mean REAL football team, not soccer. Though they have a soccer team too; they do all their workouts in the big open area between the cafeteria and the Makudo.

For dinner, Koti and I went and bought dinner at the grocery story Top World, because we decided that we couldn't afford to go to 280 two nights in a row. We went on Koti's bike. Top World is more expensive than the 99 yen store, but after 8:30, if you buy from the "deli" area (you know, the pre-made lunches section) it's cheaper. They close during the night and they don't want to have to throw the food away, so that's why. Again, I can't tell you the name of what I had, but it was like a salad only with noodles instead of lettuce. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't absolutely fantastic either. Hopefully by the end of the semester I'll be able to read all the kanji and tell you some of the names of what I've been eating. But I have a new rule of thumb with trying things... Try everything, but don't ask what it is until you've already finished it.

After dinner, Koti and I went upstairs to discover that Koti's new roommate (we're three to a room until I move into the host family's house on Sunday) had arrived while we were eating. Crissy had us introduce ourselves, tell us where we were from, told us where she was from (Alabama), and then promptly went to bed. It wasn't long after that I went to bed as well.

Today was the first official day of orientation, but having arrived early, I was able to get most of the stuff I needed done out of the way. Crissy and I attended the opening session and arrived soaking wet because it decided to rain on us. I thought I was a very thorough packer and packed everything I'd possibly need, but it seems I forgot a very important thing... An umbrella.

Opening session was boring. In fact, most everything I had to sit through today was boring. Most everything I had to sit through today was also lines. I had to sit through a line to get my traveler's insurance all lined up, another line to turn in that insurance so I could participate in the registration lottery (I get to be the 298th person to sign up out of 450 people... blech) and I had to stand in another line to pay the last of my tuition (just a small payment that they keep until the end of the semester to pay for any charges I run up (i.e. library charges) and "forget" to pay for). The highlight of the day was that I made three new friends while standing in those lines, and I found my KGU mailbox which contained a catalogue of studies for the semester and a paper telling me about my host family (more about the host family in a moment)! Heidi, Sophia, and I (both of them are from Sydney, Australia) went to the women's session because apparently the female international students who go to KGU don't know that it's not safe to walk alone at night. Everything they told us in that session was stuff that I already knew. Granted, I missed half the session because I was standing in line for the payment session, but... from everything else that I heard, I can only imagine it would be more of the same. Oh, and I completely missed the introduction of faculty (damn lines again, or so is my excuse). I did attend the homestay meeting too, but again it was boring and was spent going over the already self-explanatory contract that they'd already given us to review months before.

After we were done for the day, Heidi, Sophia, Daniel (my third new friend from Sweden), and I all went down to Hirakata-shi in search of cheap food, a hyaku-en mise (100yen store), and a place to buy a cheap bike because Heidi is living in Seminar House 4 for the semester and my information sheet about my host family says I can make it from their house to KGU in 15 minutes by bike (meaning it's not much further away from KGU than Seminar House 4 is). We found a Lawson Convini where I bought a salad with tuna and corn in it for lunch, and we sat across the street at the little itty bitty park to eat. By small, I mean this park could have easily fit inside the UA union computer lab with room to spare. After lunch, we walked down the hill to Hirakata-shi, where I found a fairly nice bike for 5000 yen (approximately 45 usd). The funny thing about the bike store was that it was more like a miniature car dealership than the bike section at Wal-Mart. So, in the tradition of naming my modes of transportation (and several other inanimate objects), I have named my bike Blueberry because she's a pretty silvery-blue color and it sounds like a cute name for a bike. I'm still deciding how I'm going to decorate her, but I'm almost positive I either find a shop full of stickers or maybe some really cheap acrylic paints--I just may have to go to Osaka to get it. Maybe with Blueberry I won't miss my car so much. I took a picture of Blueberry, myself, the dorm, and the sign in front of the dorm, but I can't upload it yet. Koti has the same camera as me and said she'd let me borrow that cord I need to transfer the pictures, but I don't want to borrow it to transfer only one, so I'll wait. Oh, and I stopped at the 99 store to buy an umbrella on the way home. No more looking like a drowned rat.

All I have left to do for Orientation (which is tomorrow and the next day) is get myself advised (meaning I'm going to look over possible classes tonight while I eat dinner), get Blueberry registered, and register myself. There are several other things for me to attend (one of them offers free food--heck yes!) but if it's at all possible, I'll try and avoid most of them. I feel like such a bad kid, but at the same time, I really just want classes to start.

With the Razorback's first game of the season coming up, I demand to know who won and what you thought was the most amazing play. I, on the other hand, shall be spending that weekend packing everything back up to move into my host family's home on Sunday afternoon. And will be greatly saddened not to hear how my Razorbacks are doing this first game of the season. Though I won't miss working the during-game-shift at Kohls. I swear, those wives that don't want to watch the game? They're worse than the usual customers.

Anyway... Here's what I know about my host family (I don't have the paper right in front of me so I'm just writing what I remember). Their family name is Yuasa, and they live 15 min from KGU by bike. The father is a teacher (don't know what subject) and likes cycling. The mother has no job listed so I assume she's a stay-at-home mom and she likes cooking and gardening (hopefully she'll teach me to cook all kinds of very good Japanese food). They have two daughters. The oldest is in high school and likes music, and the youngest is in junior high school and likes piano and volleyball. They have no pets, they do not smoke, they've lived abroad in the US before, and at least one of them speaks English (I'm betting both the father and mother, and possibly the daughters). I am not required to teach anyone English (though I'll gladly help). The room I'll be staying in is the size of 6 tatami mats (which I have no idea how big that is but I'm guessing it's probably about the size of the bedroom I had in the Quads. I can't tell you how glad I was to get that information sheet! It feels so good to have a name and a little information about them. After getting that sheet, I'm really excited to meet them! I meet them Saturday when I move out.