Orientation Week

I have a whole lot to talk about. I hope I remember it all.

First of all, I’ve been very busy this week. I’ve barely been online so I haven’t gotten to most of my emails. Not to mention that the Internet connection at the seminar houses is horrible.

Now that I have some time, I’ll blog.

On Monday I went to the Intro to the Orientation program, where people welcomed us, explained the orientation schedule, and answered questions. The mandatory general meeting on Wednesday morning was essentially the same thing.

On Monday I also paid my fees, turned in my signed forms, and went on a campus tour. There is an ATM on campus where I can withdraw cash, but I’m not sure what the charge for doing that is. In addition to a few cafeterias, there’s also a McDonald’s and a Seattle’s Best Coffee on campus. The campus isn’t that big. Most buildings look the same on the outside, which was confusing at first.

On Monday afternoon two Japanese college students approached me and we ended up chatting for five hours. During which mosquitoes stung me at least 20 times. Now I have more than 20 bites. I don't know why I've had such a problem with mosquitoes.

On Tuesday morning I reviewed Japanese because my placement test was scheduled for that afternoon. It went fairly well. Then I went to a banking session to set up a Japanese bank account. Now I have at least six different bank accounts in four different countries. Don’t ask me how I keep track of them.

My third, temporary, roommate arrived on Tuesday night. She’s from Iceland and she’ll be moving out this weekend to go stay with a host family for the semester. So far I’ve met people from the U.S., Japan, England, France, Sweden, Latvia, Russia, Portugal, Germany, Thailand, Hong Kong, Australia, and South Korea.

Yesterday, after more orientation sessions, I walked to the train station with some people. Hirakata city hall is close to the train station. We submitted our addresses to be written on our residence cards, which we received at the airport upon our arrival. We also looked at a few shops in a nearby department store.

I’ve been extremely busy because I’m out on campus or around here during the day and when I’m in my seminar house I’m always hanging out in the kitchen or in the common area near the lobby. I really like the seminar houses. It’s easy to meet people.

I thought I had a ton more to talk about…

I’ve learned some things about Japan that I’ll write about in the next post.