Settling In

It's been a busy week here. The program started and while we don't have classes yet, we have orientation, placement tests and interviews this week. This all wraps up with a welcome party on Friday. The other center students seem nice - this week everyone is going in at different times for interviews, so I haven't met everyone yet. There aren't as many historians as I thought there would be (boo!) and the student population skews a bit younger than I expected, but people seem friendly. What was not friendly was the placement test. It was really hard!! So I am glad that is over with and now I have to wait and see what class I end up in. The apartment is working out well - very comfortable. Talking to other people at the center, I feel like my living situation has worked out really well and I definitely have the shortest commute of anyone that I talked to. Aki and I have taken to chatting in Japanese in the evening - sometimes it's a little awkward (and we need a dictionary) but it's definitely good practice. The third roommate, a lit student from Yale, arrived last night so I look forward to getting to know her as well. Aki also took us on a small tour of local food stores last night, including a couple of import stores and they were awesome! Lindt intense orange!! Refried beans!!! Vegetarian soup!!!! We also went to a natural food store which had fake meat!! It was great. Of course, all this stuff is a bit expensive, so it's a question of just spreading it out a little bit . . . but it was definitely nice to find some more recognizable food options.

Weather update - I actually miss the rain now. It's just been really hot, with little relief in the evening. Yesterday I went running at 7 am and it was already 80 degrees out! And this is still with 85% humidity. Apparently things will calm down in a few weeks, thank god. In the meantime, one good thing about hot weather in Japan is that you are never far away from a vending machine!! Though I don't think Japan is on board with the whole "avoid plastic bottles" phenomena . . .

Yesterday I also ran a whole bunch of errands, made copies etc. - I'm gathering materials to open a bank account and be able to move currency around. To open the bank account (which I can do by mail) I had to go get a "Certificate on Registered Matters" at the ward office, the same place I got the foreigner card. My ward is Kanagawa . . . lovely my town!

Finally, I thought I would include this picture of Japanese school kids. They all wear uniforms and straw hats . . . its adorable, they look like Madelines! (sorry for the fuzziness, I took the picture quickly so that I didn't look like some weird foreigner taking detailed pictures of Japanese children!)