Preparations Galore

I really only took one picture today, and that of dinner. It was drizzling all day, so photography was a bit difficult. I also did not really do anything picture-worthy. We tried going to the KGU museum today but it doesn't even open until tomorrow! We hope to go next week. So this morning, I walked to school. Then after all our orientation stuff, we walked almost to the station to go to the museum, but immediately walked back to school. I then walked home. That's when I learned that something we plan to do tomorrow requires a PRINTED voucher - and no, just showing what's on the phone is not acceptable. So I had to walk back to school to use the library (at which we have 500 sheets of free prints in our student account) HOWEVER I forgot to bring my library user name and since I just got it this week, I have not memorized it yet. So I talked to the assistants in awkward Japanese and went to the opposite side of campus to talk to a kind of tech-support group. They were very nice, but it was also a little awkward. Then, I had about 15 minutes before the library closed and ran back to the library. I returned to the library out of breath, my spectacles speckled with raindrops, nodding to the helpful assistants, and sat down just as the "we're closing soon" music and announcement was played in the library. Thankfully, I was able to print out said voucher and will most likely not forget my user name again. (Then I walked back home).

So I ended up doing a lot of walking today without doing much, hence no pictures. I did see more birds than I thought I would in the rain, but the following formula will do my explaining:

camera + water + walking alone with no one to hold my umbrella = bad

Today's orientation was very exciting though. There were a lot of announcements and procedural steps and dividing into groups. They kept saying "We'll announce your placement levels soon." I mean, they most likely said it 7 or 8 times and each time I got more anxious. For those not in the know, since I took JPN 301 last semester, I was anticipating and hoping for being placed into level 3 of 6. However, I actually got into...level four!!!!! I was so happy! I think five or fewer people got into level four, including a friend of mine, while two or three were put into level 5 and only one person achieved level 6. There were also about 6 people who took a separate test because their Japanese level is so high that they can take regular university courses and not just the English ones provided through the international program.

The way the program works is that, for those in the language track, students are automatically put into the mandatory classes of whatever level into which they were placed. These count for about 6 credits. Non-language courses count 2 credits each and meet only once a week. I have hopefully enrolled in the following additional classes:

• Geography of Japan
• Environmental Issues of Modern Japan
• Japanese Art
• Japanese Religion
• Japanese Dialects
• Writing

However, I am uncertain of the last two and will either drop one or both. Here, the program encourages you to sign up for whatever you want and however many classes you want and then to determine after the first week which courses you will be keeping and which you will be dropping. So no matter what I choose, it will be okay.

Well I think that's it for today. Dinner was fried chicken, some vegetables, a mix of Japanese root vegetables called chizenni, miso soup with chunks of wheat gluten, rice, and two types of dengaku - one was tofu with a miso-sauce (basically barbecue sauce) on it and one was konnyaku with the same sauce on it. I believe I mentioned konnyaku before - it is made from the root vegetable called satoimo. It was pretty delicious - a mix of Western and Eastern flavors. I liked the "barbecue" sauce...obviously.