So, Where to start? To say I’ve been busy would be an understatement. Last time I updated, I was in Mito, heading off to Saitama. Well, I arrived on the first–nearly two weeks ago. (Jesus, has it been that long?) I headed through Tokyo from Mito to Omiya station, where I would be picked up by a Saitama student. I would need to call the office to tell them I needed to be picked up, despite not having a cellphone, I found a pay phone. I called, and they told me I would be picked up very shortly. I wandered over to the spot where I was to be picked up, and I ran into a guy by the name of Yoshiki, who immediately ordered a taxi. Another 20 something guy was standing there, speaking Japanese. He got into the backseat, and Yoshiki into the front, and I hopped in the back. After sitting for a few seconds, the guy I was sharing the backseat with began chatting to me in Japanese. We talked for a little bit, and I discovered his name was Yang, and he was actually from Korea. He spoke Japanese almost fluently, but doesn’t speak English. However, my Japanese was proficient enough to have a full conversation with him. After maybe 20 minutes, we arrived at the dorms. Yoshiki quickly took back off, and Yang and I were on our own enough that we stayed together and became fast friends. We filed through some paperwork, and found our rooms, and dropped our things off, to go find a bite to eat. I tried out the Cafeteria for the first time, which was pleasantly surprising in both taste and price.
Though after dinner, we both called it quits for the night. We had busy days ahead of us.
That first week, while we didn’t have much to do, I spent most of the time moving in, meeting people, trying to get situated in my house and trying to get my internet to work–which I finally did–obviously, a few days later. I met most of the fellow STEPS exchange students; there are still many I don’t know as the Koreans and Chinese are pretty de-facto segregated. However there are 4 students from Thailand, 3 from Sweden, 2 from Germany, 4 from Australia, and 4 from America. In addition, there are several non-steps students which hang around. Mostly its an Italian guy and another American–though hes not around much.
The four Thais are really nice, though they have rather silly nicknames. Thai names are extremely difficult for English speakers to pronounce, and even more difficult for the Japanese. Therefore, most of them have given themselves nicknames that are more accessible to the Japanese tongue. One of the girls, her Thai nickname–which I have no idea how to write/say/spell means “Shrimp,” so she goes by the name Eh-Bee. (エビ） Theres another girl by the name of Bee. (Confusing, eh?) The other two Thai students I haven’t met well enough yet. The three swedes are Peter, Carl, and Sebastian. They’re all super nice too. They don’t look like they have much in common, well, Car and Peter both have long hair, and fit more of the heavy metal scene. To enforce the point, Peter paints his fingernails black. Sebastian on the other hand would fit more into a scenster look, with stylish belts and glasses, messy look hair, etc. However, all of them are really cool, and some of the best people I’ve met overseas. The four Aussies, Jessie, Andrew1, Scott, and Sean. Andrew and Jessie have been here 6 months, and will be leaving in 6 more. Sean and Scott are only 6 month stay students. The two Germans are Jon and Oliver. Same as the Swedes, they come from completely different areas in their home country, and I don’t think they have much in common. Oliver and Jon are both pretty tall, around my height. The Italian is Allessio, and he’s rather rambunctious, but a lot of fun. Got a really quick sense of humor. The last American, is named Andrew as well, (Andrew2.) Andrew2 lets just say hasn’t made a good impression, on anyone, ever. The first time I talked to him, the conversation went something like this. Andrew: “Hello, My name is Andrew, I have no friends!”
Red flag? I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he’s cripplingly clingy, he talks about 500x as much as I do–which is too much as is, and he talks about subjects no one wants to hear about. He’s been getting a bit better, but it’s still a longshot to say he’d ever be socialable.
The other two Americans, Kyle and Jacqueline (Sp?) are nice too, I’ve not talked to terribly much to either of them, but they’re very friendly in the times I’ve talked with them.
The first week went by so quickly, and it was followed by the orientation week from hell. We had like 15 orientations, not to mention several opening ceremonies and several tests and interviews. We had orientations for the dorms, student life, the university, STEPS (classes), and finally the Police/Emergencies. The police’s orientation was hilarious because they barely spoke any English, but spoke in English the whole time. They were discussing ‘snatchers’ which was a term I found hilarious, as I thought they meant to say thieves. However, I soon found out they were actually talking about underwear thieves. After the laughter died down from that discussion, the police handed out a gift of bag basket–which is basically a 6 prong bungie cord, which I happened to win. All the orientations went smooth enough, then came the placement test. We were all really woried about the test, and rightfully so. The test itself varied in questions from frightfully easy to terrifyingly wtfomgbbq hard. Then the listening section came up–my strong area. I understood like 4% of what was said. I used my best effort to guess and go along, but it was horrible. Dejected, we finished the test and headed out. We would have an interview later that day to determine what class we would enter. There are 5 classes, A, B, C, D, and S. A is beginner. B is basic grasp/early 202 level, C is 302 level, and D is 402 level. S is “holy shit wtf are you studying Japanese for, you’re fluent”?
I wanted to get into C, because I was afraid if I had done really good on the test I would get in D and be over my head, or if I did bad on the test, be placed in B and be bored and repeating too much. When I arrived for my interview, I walked in, and there was a panel of 4 judges, which only made the whole event that much more nerve-wracking. They asked me some questions in Japanese, and I responded to all of them pretty easily, they asked me to read out of a book, which I struggled with, as my Kanji is pretty terrible, and really, the words were things I’d not ever seen before. However, I figured it was around my level of reading, so when they asked if I understood it, I said I did. They then had me read a handful of kanji out of a book, of which I got 18/20. They then said my Japanese was around C level, but my Kanji might be B level. Then they told me I would have to wait until Friday to find out what class I was in. for two whole days, I worried about it, knowing that if they were any bit unsure, I’d be placed in B class, which I definitely did not want to be. When Friday came around, I ran to the building and saw I was in C class with 3 of the Thai students, all of Swedes, and Sean, the Aussie. It was a wild week, but I was glad it was over, and I had to be ready to start class on Tuesday, as that Monday was a national holiday. The weekend was full of partying in Tokyo, Saitama and all around. Pictures can be found on my facebook until I can get a decent enough computer to upload them to photobucket or something. If you want to see them, add me as a friend through my badge over on the left hand side, and send me a message saying you were referred from my blog. =)
I’ll update with Week 2 when I wakeup/not/sleep/zzz
