Whirlwind!

Hey! A lot has happened in the last few days. I've had the chance to get used to the area I live in, called Eda. There is a great store called Recycle Garden that sells everything for super cheap - I think I will buy a mini shelf because I don't have as much desk space as I did at UMD (I have a lot of books already from home!). There is a McDonald's and a 7-11 (it's called 7 & i Holdings over here though), and have gotten a little more used to buying things without feeling really nervous about speaking and understanding what people are saying to me. I love how polite people are here. The service is super fast and I feel like I'm a valued customer.

I've made friends with the other exchange students who from all over the world, such as Canada, Korea, China, Germany, Thailand, etc. It's a great mix of people - I haven't met everyone yet, but I still have lots of time! When I was at UMD, I always noticed how the exchange students stuck together - now I understand their feelings. It's comforting. We're trying to speak more Japanese with each other but for the most part, we speak in English. We help each other out though when we stumble through our Japanese. It's been easy making friends here. Everyone is so nice.

And speaking of friends, I was able to meet up and have lunch with my friend Ayane who came as an exchange student for the 2007-2008 year. She was my freshman year roommate and we became great friends. We kept in touch and we were both so excited that I would be coming to Japan. It was fantastic spending time with her and I can't wait to spend more time with her.

Yesterday was my first day of orientation. I had a tour around the campus (it's TINY compared to UMD's campus, by the way. I can walk from one end to the other in about 15 minutes) with Yuri, my wonderful tutor who I've been emailing for at least a month before my arrival. She's very nice and I know I'm going to have so much fun with her. I have orientation all this week to get prepared for school next Thursday.

I have so much to say, but I feel like I would be writing a book! So, for now, I will provide pictures. I have trouble uploading them to this blog, but it seems to work on Facebook. Fortunately, Facebook has a feature where I can share the album anywhere with a link. I will provide this link in each of my posts so you don't have to always come back to this one to see them. I take so many pictures, my album will probably have several new ones every day for a while. I'm still in tourist mode! I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017965&id=1230390045&l=fe935f12ae

One more thing before I sign off - a little story about how the Japanese say no without saying no:

There are a lot of rules about shoes. We take off our outdoor shoes upon entering the second lobby. We put on indoor slippers. We must take off our indoor slippers before entering the shower room, the toilet room (other shoes are provided there), and the room where you can iron your clothes. Apparently, I'm not allowed to just not wear slippers either.

The first full day of living in the dorm, one of the kitchen ladies was concerned about my feet because I didn't have slippers at the time. She essentially told me it was dangerous. I bought some slippers that day but I have rather large feet and Japanese shoe sizes (for women at least) don't go up to my size. They're a bit uncomfortable, so last night, I just went without them. The same lady caught me again and asked whether I had bought them yet. I couldn't think of how to say they hurt my feet (of course, now I can, but at the time....not so much), so I just said I did buy them and that I forgot to wear them.

...

She told me again that I should wear them. That's when my Japanese culture lessons in my head kicked in and reminded me that essentially, she's demanding I wear slippers in the dining hall. I don't know that much Japanese yet, but it was obvious that not wearing them was not an option. She makes it sound like a suggestion, to be polite, but it's not just a request. So, until my mom sends me slippers my size, I'll just deal with the ones I bought.