Orientation

I keep meaning to post, honestly! But ever since I woke up super early for the placement test on Wednesday, I've been sleeping in a lot and I guess because of sleeping too much maybe I've been feeling so sleepy. I've even been skipping studying days! x.X

But let's see, Tuesday was my orientation. Ugh man, it was so boring. And not to mention they tried to explain everything to us so fast none of it made sense! A Spanish speaking girl sat next to me, and said she thought I was half Japanese because of my clothes (I was wearing my Rose Fan Fan military one piece, the leopard scarf that comes with it, the marine style tanktop I got from Uniqlo, jean short shorts, and my new backpack) and makeup and was shocked that I had an American accent. When I told her I wasn't, she said I was turning Japanese really fast...haha.

After the long speeches and explanations and stuff, we met our "monitor students" which were two Japanese girls, one of which couldn't speak English. A few of the people in my group couldn't speak Japanese at all (surprisingly) and the rest were kind of bad at it. One of the people in my group was actually from my school, although she didn't know my name since I was in a class higher than her. I knew her name though from Facebook...

The monitor students gave us a tour of the campus, which wasn't very long since the campus to my school is very small. Nothing compared to UMASS. After the tour we exchanged Facebook and cell phone information and went home. I didn't really take any pictures this day, sorry!

Though, I have this picture of katsu-curry, so I think Dan and I went to Nakai for dinner. So yummy I love katsu-curry!

Wednesday was my placement exam. Had to get up super early to put on my makeup and stuff, though I ended up being ten minutes late for the exam. First section was kanji, which I knew nearly all of, though I had to guess on a few of the advanced kanji. Then there was some verb conjugation table, which I'm not so sure I did okay on. That was followed by grammar, which was simple enough. I think I might have confused a few grammar points I've been studying recently, but I think I was fine. After that was reading, which went fine until the advanced portion. I understood what the advanced readings were going on about thanks to studying kanji the Heisig way, but I honestly could not explain that stuff in my own words. After that was a short essay. I think mine was kind of lame... I won't find out what course I tested into until the 28th.

After the test I was going to just head home, but the other people from my school were there so I stayed there and chatted with them. None of them seemed to manage to get very far, and even just gave up when the reading sections came up. I probably won't be in classes with them.

After all of the people from Umass finished their test, we ended up heading to Jonathan's though first we had to wait for people. It was sooo hot that day!!! I think it was at least 35. I ended up sweating so much that it caused an irritation with the necklace I was wearing and now there's a few spots on my neck that have been stinging a bit. Eventually we got there though and since there were so many of us though we had to sit in the smoking section. I don't know if I mentioned it, but it's okay to smoke here in restaurants as long as it's the designated smoking section. Ewww.

Then we were faced with the menu, and some of the people in our party just didn't know what to do or to make of it...I don't think they had even been to an actual restaurant like this before yen. The two Japanese girls with us and I had to help them figure out the menus and what some of the food actually was.

I got what you see above. It was really good, besides all the fat in the steak.

Someone couldn't really handle their noodles though, and got some stains on their white shirt. We had time to kill before the welcoming dinner party, so we ended up going to Shinjuku to go find a shirt for him at Uniqlo. This was their first time at Shinjuku.

The dinner party was entertaining, even though I was exhausted and sat in corner for the beginning of it. My feet were hurting so much by then since I had the sandals I bought in Ueno on. I was also wearing the black vest and white tanktop set that I got from Cecil McBee. I'm not so sure I really like that tanktop so much though...I think I might wear the vest with a different one from now on.

Anyway, I met a nice girl named Emika thanks to their game where you're supposed to go up to random people to fill in a question sheet. I ended up inviting her along to the restaurant we all ended up going to after, which I guess a girl who had been on exchange to Umass was working at.

Took this picture on the way out, but this is the place we went to.

Inside we were served a ton of sashimi. I was only brave enough to try the pink stuff in this dish, and I immediately wanted to spit it out. I don't think I am a fan of sashimi.

After this ended up going home, though some of the others were going out to drink more. I ended up passing though since I was just way too tired.