Another day, another batch of craziness. A good example of how funny this place is, I'm sitting in the computer lab next to campus' international playboy. Yes, we have one. Apparently this guy was only known in infamy a few days after getting to school. He's homestay but was living in Seminar House 3 (my seminar house) when he invited a Japanese student over and was having "extramarital" relations in the shower when a roommate called Otoosan (dorm dad) and he came up stairs and caught them in the act. Poor Otoosan, I can only imagine that it took years off the guys life, but I'm more amazed the roommate called that in. Typically you'd let something like that slide or give them a warning or something. Just common curtosy, but then again I have no clue what the Emily Post protocol is for this.
Anyway, so this guy was just talked about around town for a while and all we knew is what happened and that he was from Princeton, NJ, was rich, traveled the world and ontop of being fluent in Japanese was as truth would have it, a playboy. After our late night on Friday (trust me I'll get there, super swear) Erica and I sat delirious on the bus with our stuffed animals from Kiddy Land when this guy from Kansai sat next to us in the back. We started up a conversation since we're the only white people on the bus going to the college so we must be classmates. Plus it was early so we all had fun stories to tell. After a short while Erica and I finally look at one another and realize that this dude is the international playboy. Nice enough guy, which sucks because you're supposed to hate a sleazy ball like that. He makes for good stories so I'm sure he'll popup again in the future. I just brought him up now because he was a computer or two down from me in the lab and asked how far we were from Nara.
Last night I started this post: Right now I'm sleepy and want to go to bed, but I can't since my temporary roommate Maria (new from Columbia and hence different person than last Maria) is talking on the phone whilst sitting/lounging on my bed. So to avoid awkwardness I'll just wait till she's off the phone. It's not a huge deal it's just that I've been on a weird schedule since coming back on Thursday night and going at a weird pace ontop of being jet-lagged to all hell. Friday morning I got up at 7:30am unable to sleep and spent the whole day doing paperwork, paying fees, taking tests, meeting up with people, thanking people, looking at clubs, etc. I had to take my placement test whilst the teachers graded everyone else's and I sat out in the hall. They said I just had to pass section B to get into level 4, but it was kind of easy to I tried section C too. It wasn't too terrible, it was all stuff I'd seen before in my level 3 class, but since I didn't study quite as much as I should've it was pretty fuzzy. I had to take Kanji reading sections too and during that one teacher came out and asked how I was doing and reminded me that I shouldn't guess if I don't know the answer, this was as they were grading my previous sections. Yeah. Total vote of confidence there. I also had to do my listening with one teacher all on my own, while he stared at me and I strained to understand what in the hell was being said on the tape. This was followed by an interview with another teacher who wore one of those damn face masks you wear when you have the plague so I couldn't understand him for most of it. The final result was that I ended up in level 4. Yeay! But I'm section A, not so yeay. Level A is the LOWEST level of 4 in existance and therefore I think they just bumped me up to get rid of me. I'm actually okay with that since level 4 for them is the start of level 3, which I survived Uotate (evil Japanese professor at UF) for two semesters and passed so, here's to hoping it isn't going to kill me.
Post from Today: As for my English classes I got two that I really wanted. I registered after everyone else so I didn't get into painting, but since I'm a nerd the classes I wanted were no where near full. Yesterday (Monday) I had Death in East Asian Thought for the first time and from now on I'm just going to call it Death. I love the name it's so damned angsty it's fun. Death was great though, the teacher seems nice and we have to write a few papers or we can take a test or just add 4 pages to a paper. It's a nice system and the topic seems fun. We're studying everything from medical definitions of death, to pet cemeteries, ghosts and cremation. Skippy! Tomorrow I have my other English speaking class for the first time. This one's called: Struggle for Justice. Another great class title. This one is taught by my Japanese Law professor from last semester and focuses on criminal justice systems complete with a trip to the court house and prison! :) This semester is going to rock.
As for my daily life thus far it is also going very very well. I live in Seminar House 3 (with the crazy militant Okaasan) and got switched from floor 5 to floor 2 so I could live with Erica (RI girl, vegan), Tracey (British), and Drew (Ohio) who were my original roommates last semester before I did homestay. I get the added bonus of a new roommate DJ, she's Korean, but from Canada and very very quiet so we don't know much else. I'm just hoping she's not an ax murderer. Oh, and Drew's new roommate and my new flatmate is Myrta (I'm probably spelling it wrong), she's great fun and fits right in with the rest of us chilling in the lounge of the flat. She's from Holland and lived in Tailand for 8 years from when she was 5 until she was 13. She's really nice and fills us in on little things from Holland. Example: Miffy is not called Miffy in Holland, but instead is Nijntje and since she's from Holland that's her name. Either the Americans or Japanese changed it to Miffy at somepoint and she just thinks that's weird. Another added bonus was that she knew who Tin Tin was and loved the calendar I got. :) I couldn't explain Tin Tin to Erica so I'm so happy she was there to back me up. His name isn't Tin Tin either, it's Ga-fee-ya, which is the name of his hairstyle and a sound on the end making it sound cute. So I guess he's Cowlick chan or something in Holland.
I promise to update you about Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and today later on. I have to run to class, but I will leave on an up note: I couldn't be happier. I am so happy to be back in Japan, I love my friends here and I love my living situation. I watched the temporary roommate leave on Saturday and Sunday to go with their host families and I thought I'd miss it. I thought when I had to do laundry or cook I'd regret not going off with a Japanese family. I don't. I love being in the dorm and although we speak English there I'm learning a lot in other places. I'm planning on joining the archery club and maybe the art club to get out there and practice more. I already have Yoko and Yuri texting me to see when I can meet up to chat.
More later! :)
