Settling in

take away the trees and add buildings
and you'll have the view outside my
window right now.

It's amazing to me how much at home I feel here. I feel nothing of that awkward insecureness that I felt when I was here 3 years ago. Might be the fact that I am older now and have been living on my own for the past two years, so the shock of being away from my family is less...well, shocking (but I still miss all of you like crazy!).
I keep reflecting back on those times in Shizuoka and realizing how much that experience changed me and how much I grew from it. I am much more confident in myself and my decisions then I was back then and I think that my whole first experience here is what caused it. I wonder what kind of person I would be now if I hadn't have been able to have that adventure? Although I do take into account that most people do a lot of growing (personality and maturity wise) from the ages 16-20 but I think that I would be a much different person had I not  gone all that. Throwing yourself into a culture that's completely backwards from yours at a fairly young age is pretty mind blowing.

Right now there's a huge thunder storm going on. Listening to the rain pound against the windows has never made me felt more at ease. <3 rain storms.
~

Me and Saki! Hisashiburi ne!!

Monday I meet up with a girl I went to high school with (here in Japan) and we had a fabulous time catching up and wondering around Shinjuku. I guess that quite a few of my buddies from Shizuoka now live in Tokyo, so hopefully I'll be able to hook up with more of them in the future!

Yesterday I went and opened a bank account with Citibank. As soon as I get my account number and card I'll submit that to the SILS (School of International Liberal Studies) office and then i'll be all set to get my first scholarship installment! Yay for money!

Me and Aiko(?) in the park drinking

Last night was also this party for all the foreign students and friends. Pretty much it was a bunch of people shoved into this outside cafeteria and feed some awful food and booze. It cost 1,500 YEN and I was a little angry about going at first (it wasn't mandatory) but then I got to talking to people (and drinking more than the alloted one beer) and I started to have fun and eventually forget about the 1,500 YEN and awful food. Afterwards everyone seemed to go to the same park near campus and drink (all split up in groups of course, no mingling done there. Meaning of course that all the OUS students hung out with all the OUS Waseda volunteers, all the California students with the cali volunteers, etc) until the last train when people either went home or, in my case (and three other students) went to Karaoke until the first train started in the morning. Got home around 7am, said sorry to my host family (I had called them so they knew and just laughed at me when I walked through the door) and promptly went to sleep for 5 hours.

Tomorrow I have another orientation (like part 6 or something, jeez!). But we're going to get reimbursements for the fair from the airport to the hotel as well as all the meals we had to pay for during the past two weeks.
 
School starts on Monday and I couldn't be more excited! Though i'm always excited before each term starts then a couple days into it I can't wait until the next vacation ;D

"don't step on it...it makes you cry."

Oh, then next Friday i'm going to go get my physical on campus so that I can use their gym and pool! Stoked! I brought my yoga mat with me (best decision ever) and have been doing various yoga routines religiously, but  I miss running and lifting weights. And I'm going to start swimming as well! Fitness here I come!!







until next time,
Peace
Jamie