Orientation

It's been a couple days so far, and the weather has been getting cooler by each day (which is a SUPER relief).  Today was actually clear and sunny!  With the cooler weather though, the number of mosquitoes flying around have increased though.  :-/  I have bites everywhere on my arms and legs - it sucks.

This week I and the other international students here began our orientation.  Yesterday, we took our placement exam.  We first entered the building, after glancing at the seating charts, not knowing at first what they were.  However, once we entered the examination room, I, at least, quickly realized that we had assigned seats according to our student ID number that we did not know.  So, the first couple of minutes I spent trying to figure out where my seat was, and I ended up asking one of the Japanese CJS workers to direct me to my seat.  Everyone had to seat at least one seat away from each other, as expected.

The examination instructions were given in both Japanese and English.  Our exam was very straightforward: a quick 5-6 question part on listening, and then a 4 page multiple choice test followed by a page where you had to read and answer questions about the text.  The whole test was in Japanese, but most of the instructions were written in English as well.  I have to say, I though the multiple choice section went okay, but the reading section killed me.  I gave up after spending around probably 15 minutes trying to decipher it.  Many people, including many who could even attempt the section, stayed until the very end of the time limit to finish.  Most of us though just gave up, maybe answered one or two questions concerning vocabulary, and turned it in.

Today, we received our results.  I would say I'm pleased with mine, and a little intimidated.  Not because of the grammar for my class - I know almost all of what we should know.  The kanji is another story - most of the kanji we are supposed to know, I do not.  >__<  That means I should probably study this week before classes start....and we have to take 2 more tests; one to make sure we were placed in the right level, and another if we want to go up a level.  These tests will determine if we know the grammar and kanji, so . . . need to study!

Around 11:30 orientation usually takes a break for lunch.  For now, we have two choices on where to eat: the cafeteria or convenience store (konbini).  The cafeteria is very simple: just stand in what is usually a long line and order your food after looking through the options posted on top of the cafeteria.  Compare to the konbini, it's more expensive.  However, they serve different types of udon, curry, and soba.

The konbini on the other hand is less expensive, and they too serve a range of items from sandwiches, salads, and zaru soba, but it's cold or at least room temperature.  You have to ask them to heat something up for you - they usually have a microwave - but I have seen anyone do that at the campus location at least.  What's interesting is they also serve 'American' food - things like hamburgers and what looks like a hot dog with a slightly bigger and flatter bun.

The school campus is smaller than my home campus.  However, there is a lot of trees and shrubs everywhere, which isn't what I expected on a Japanese campus.  From what I heard before, the cities where devoid of a lot of vegetation, but obviously that's not the case on my campus.  I also heard from other friends at other schools that they too have a lot trees and shrubs.  It's really refreshing just to walk around the campus, and be surrounded by the old buildings, and see the Japanese students walking around in their sports uniform or just everyday clothing.  Yesterday, during my campus tour, we passed a group of theatre members practicing a religious play.  Although I am a christian and a little fluent in Japanese, I couldn't tell what they were acting at all.  However, the tour guides couldn't help but smile a bit as they walk by, which intrigued me though I didn't press why.

The welcome party was really nice, even though I don't like crowds.  I met a lot of people, both international and Japanese.  It was really interesting to see which international student knew each other, or where from the same area, or even if someone else had something in common!  In a way, I think these little things all connected us somehow more so than the fact we were all Japanese students.



That's my update for now.  I hope that whoever reads these blogs enjoy them some what.  If not, sorry for wasting your time.  In these blogs I try to remain as objective as possible, adding as much details from what I remember.  The purpose of my blog is to make sure I write down my experiences here so I won't forget them later.  Then, I can see if I could analyze what I wrote down and see if there's anything in there I can use for a future paper about my time here.  Very vague, I know, but right now, I'm just enjoying the environment I'm in.