Long Day

Well, today was quite exhausting. I got to campus and got into my intermediate ceramics course, so I went to the Shomu and paid my 100.00 art fee. They were efficent and easy. They only accept cash, so you just hand them the bill they put a stamp on your sheet and you're good to go.

I also went to the campus store, it's clean, well orginized, and has a lot of good stuff. I still haven't found postcards though, it's like the Japanese don't believe in them! I picked up a 5 meter eathernet cable for 5.00, since I heard most host famlies have wired internet. Beyond that I can now access the internet in the dorms so I'm writing right now plesantly from the couch in my dorm room.

Then I went home and ate some ramen noodles. As I was muching one of my roomates commented about the insurance waver, and I noticed on my sheet it said I hadn't completed it. I should've checked earlier, but we sent it in via the mail so early I assumed they'd recieved it. I called my mom to verify and then lied down for a bit.

Well... a bit turned into like 2 hours, and I woke up 25 minutes before my laptop apointment (which after I was heading to the formal ceremony), now please remember also - it takes 20 minutes normally to walk to school at a fast pace.

I dressed like a sprinter and was out the door. With a combination of walking and running I made it to school at 2:05 (not bad). They said it'd take about 20 minutes for the laptop set-up and that they'd hold it behind the desk for me and I could come back after the Ceremony.

The ceremony was a bit dull, but alright overall. The best part was when one of the Japanese professors made a speech, she did it in Japanese instead of English. The professors at Kansai have a policy to speak Japanese only to the students. They say if you come to them with a problem they want you to really try to speak only Japanese or they won't see you. I'm sure they'll be a bit leniant if it's a real issue, or something difficult to convey, but it was nice to see a speaker trusting us to get something if they spoke in Japanese. I understood a lot of it, but not all, it was a funny speech.

Following that we all went to have a big buffet banquet. There was fresh tempura, udon noodles, ice cream, sushi, sashimi, hot dogs (random), and other various meats and vegtables. But what I was the most excited about were the platters of fruit. Strawberries, grapes, melons, grapefruit, all laid out on a platter in front of me. Everyone was hounding the sushi, I was planted firmly before all the delicious fruit. I ate a bunch.

Then I went back, registered my laptop and went to the office to figure out my insurance thing. The laptop registration was easy. Really they want to verify you have virus protection software and are not someone who's gonna be hacking the network.

The insurance form was actually, also, surprisingly easy. I explained what happened and gave them copies of my insurance card. Becuase I can't get the Japanese insurance for the first month they want to make sure I'm somehow covered. It got handled in like 5 minutes, it was easy and awesome.

After that I tried to find my classes and I couldn't becuase they were late in getting them to our boxes.

I came home and have been attempting to get into the server for the aaapodcast website, but it's not letting me on, I'm worried it may be some issue with the network. I'm through a proxy lan eathernet cable... so I'll have to see tomorrow when my wireless kicks in if it fixes itself.

We all relaxed a bit then of course someone had to make a super market trip so we went out with them to keep company. I got some more delicious milk tea for 100 yen at the store. My feet are really torn up. My heels are bloody, the bottoms are soar, the top has blisters, they're in bad shape. As much as I want to expore a day of foot rest may be in order here sometime in the future.

On the way back Gita and myself decided to go check our classes again. She likes walking and running and I don't mind at this point. What's an extra mile or two right? I found out I got into my Anime course, yay! I'm taking 14 credit hours. I find out tomorrow what Japanese level I got into. I also get to pick up my student ID tomorrow - how exciting!

Despite taking a nap, I'm really tired today. All the walking, and the sun, and the heat, really takes it out of you. I look forward to having a bicycle at my host family's house. All of my cloths are dirty and gross, and this is not the conditions where you can get away with wearing something twice. I'm thinking of doing laundry here in the dorms so I don't walk into my homestay with a load of dirty clothes.

Tomorrow I'm going to get up and pick up my ID around 9:30, then check the bulitin board for when I'm meeting my host family tomorrow, then head to a General Breifing at 10 (for god knows what), then a safety issue orientation at 11:00am (going over bicycle safety and things like that with a Police officer), headed back to the dorm at 11:30, eat some food, relax, then head back to the campus to head to Kyoto at 2:00. I'm really excited for the trip, I'll have lots of good pictures I'm sure.

Speaking of pictures, now that I have my own computer I can finally post photos off my camera! I'll post again with a backlog of photos after this.

Also, speaking of policemen, there's one at each gate into the campus, who greets every student and checks them out (in the safe way, not the perveted way) and stops every truck/car comming to and from campus. They're nice men and really pay attention, not just sit behind a desk and read a magizene.

I'm going to go shower and rest, sleepy. Miss everyone, Japan has been awesome thus far.