First Day of School

It was so hard to wake up this morning. Before my alarm rang, I was woken up by Yuko calling me to breakfast. So I guess breakfast was at 6:11 this morning then.

We had toast and salad with canned tuna (ew). I still cannot get used to salad at breakfast either. At least we got lots of fruit - bunny apples and mikan. I'm also still sick, and coughing so much.

While I was getting ready for school, Yuko came in to ask me about something in one of the English books Miyabi got from the library. It said "caw caw" and has a picture of a crow. She wanted to know how to pronounce "caw caw" lol. And she told me that in Japanese crows say "caw caw" too!

It was sooo effing cold this morning. 30 degrees and I could see my breath. In Blacksburg in the winter, I avoid my bike like the plague because I'd so much rather walk when it's that cold out. But the station's too far for me to walk to. :(

My hands were numb by the time I got there (even though I had gloves on!)

I took pictures of more cute drain covers (this time in Ichinomiya) for Bridget:

(I really like this one)

Then the worker at the station told me to get on the train to Nagoya if I wanted to go to Kanayama. I suspected this was wrong, but followed his advice. Asshole. It was wrong. I had to switch to another train to get to Kanayama (normally I just take one). 

I asked a girl on that train if the train was going to Kanayama to make sure and she said it was and sure enough, the next stop was Kanayama. I need to find my super rapid train again. I miss it. At least I got to study a lot this morning on the train. And I noticed that Ichinomiya is surrounded by mountains just like Blacksburg! :)

I still got to school early, so that was a relief. I sat with Rana and we talked about our weekends. I also ate my peach bread because I was really hungry for some reason.

It was soooo good! It had cream and little peach pieces in it.

Then I had to say goodbye to all my friends, because they went to the 400 level classroom and I continued upstairs to the stupid class.

The classroom was on a floor with all classes for Japanese students. I walked into my classroom and the only person in the room was this Japanese guy in the back corner glaring at me. :S

I checked my sheet to confirm I was in the right room and I was. He walked out and then came back and got his stuff and left lol.

View from the fifth floor:

After other people came in, we started class. It was easy stuff. We went over directions and greetings in Japanese. We're starting with Genki I (the book I used at Tech) Chapter 1 and going until the fourth chapter of Genki II.

But I've already learned the first 9 chapters of Genki I ugh. And there are two guys in the class who have never had Japanese before. Rrrr.

There are already like 3 tests the first couple of weeks so at least I'll be prepared and I've already done almost the whole workbook so I won't really ever have homework.

And the sensei is とてもかこい ;)

I took the first part of the test to try to get into 400.

Then we had Japanese reading and writing. We all took a hiragana and katakana test because it's required to know those to study at Nanzan. I did perfectly on the hiragana (although he corrected the way I wrote some of them), but forgot a few of the katakana.

Then I took the second part of the test for 400.

After that was over, I met up with my friends and we went to lunch. I got ramen!

The ramen tasted just like the maruchan ramen I get at Kroger, so all those stories I heard about how much better authentic Japanese ramen is were lies.

And the dude didn't even give me a whole fishcake which pissed me off.

We all ate upstairs at the place with the coolest name:

The Sarada Baaaaahhh (salad bar lol)

It must have been the cream in the peach bread I ate this morning because I got really, really sick after lunch and missed almost the entire second half of my afternoon class (woodblock printing).

In Hanga (woodblock printing), we watched a movie where this guy had girls in kimonos model for him and then he a drew them. Then he carved the drawing into the wood and painted it. After that, he laid a piece of paper over the wood and pulled it up and he had a beautiful painting! This made me decide to stay in the class (I'd been thinking about dropping it). 

Then we all made the first part of our first woodblock painting. We're going to carve them next week! Thankfully I did it quickly enough that I didn't miss anything when I left to go die in the bathroom.

The first person to guess what mine says gets a prize!

(Yes, it's backwards)

I found out after class that I did really badly on the test I took today, which sucks because I thought I was prepared and thought it went okay but I guess not. So I'm stuck in the "stupid class" forever :,(

I had to get home quickly because I was meeting Yuko at Ichinomiya Station so she could go with me to update my address at city hall and help me get my national health insurance.

(Yagoto Nisseki, the station near Nanzan)

At Kanayama, I missed the super rapid train, which sucked, but hey, at least my butt was warm.

But I still got to Ichinomiya before 4:30. Yuko was there already talking to a friend of hers. She introduced me and then we said goodbye and headed to the City Hall. The wait wasn't too bad because Ichinomiya isn't as big as Nagoya. 

When they called our number, I had to sicgn and fill in some stuff. Then they gave me a "Welcome to Ichinomiya" packet with free coupons to places like the local indoor pool, public bath, museum, and planetarium! It was so cool!

Then Yuko and I waited for them to get me a new Visa card with updated address. We watched Sumo on TV while we waited. When they were done, I went up and got my card and insurance and then we left. 

Yuko went to go pick up Miyabi and I rode my bike home. 

Yuko and Miyabi beat me though. At home, I did my homework. I have a test tomorrow on Chapter 1 vocabulary, which I'll probably just skim over because it'll be a joke.

It feels like I'm regressing since last night I was studying chapters 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15. :(

But tomorrow we're going on a field trip to Nagoya Castle!! Yatta!

☆*:.｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*☆