Its impossible to be frugal in Japan. Why? Theres just so much stuff you want to get, especially if you’re a fangirl/boy. Like yesterday, i took the free bus downtown. Free. Good. Then we took the tram to search for the English bookshop so i could find a dictionary written in Romanji, not Kanji (the pretty and crazy characters). I settled on a nice medium priced one. maybe now I wont worry about all that fun call Japanese Conversation INTERMEDIATE. Shopped, dranked a Japnese latte drink, and took the bus home. Im getting the hand of the Japanese bus system. I cant read the characters, but i can saddle up to a random sailor uniformed school girl and ask,” Kore bus wa Togitsu ni arimasuka?”  I get an eye downcast nod.
I think its cute but worrisome for females everywhere (or that can be the enthnocentrism speaking).
Also vending machines. I love them, they have tempting things inside, but i must resist the urge. Im holding off on getting capsule toys until all my books are decided on. I also want a watch. I’ll settle for a nice looking cheap watch or an awesome if not expensive anime cartoon watch. seriously. Im just that scary. Im in Japan, gimme the anime, gimme the cute (of which there is tons).
In addition to that though, first Japanese language class was a disaster. Its hard to do well In Japanese conversation if you dont… won’t … converse?  I’ll do better next week.

I went to my induction and felt so out of place, not because I was the only American there but because it was mixed in with “freshers” (freshmen). A woman (who turned out to be one of my “tutors”- professors) told us things about the courses we were taking (which I wasn’t because I’m taking upper division) and the English major at Middlesex in general. I felt like I knew most of the information plus I already had my ID card and timetables for my class. It felt sort of pointless to be there especially since I couldn’t buy my books for my classes yet.

But the one time I haven’t minded being called a “fresher” is for all the social events. Normally, if at NP, I wouldn’t go to such events, thinking them to be very lame. However here I’ve gone out with friends I’ve made so far and met new people as well. It may sound lame but I totally recommend Freshers Week!

Thursday night all the international students were taken on a Riverboat Disco on the River Thames. I wasn’t so much into dancing that night, having totally worn myself out the night before doing the same thing, but I enjoyed talking to new people and crusing on the Thames at night. It was nice because I know personally I would have never picked to go on a riverboat myself, so it was nice to do something that I normally wouldn’t.

Friday was my friend’s birthday and so the whole “International Group” (people I’ve met during orientation- from the US, Spain, Greece) went out to a local pub and invaded it for karaoke night. It was nice to get off campus and explore our local surroundings however it was obvious that we’re all not from around here. When we first entered the pub I heard some woman whisper to another “I think they’re tourists!”
Saturday night I went into Central London with some friends for some band’s single release party (it was a friend’s flatmates boyfriend’s band). They were called LaHanya; they were pretty good and I was glad to get out and see some live indie music. After the show we headed to Camden, which feels sort of familar, like the Village in NYC, but not quite. Many people asked me about NYC and London and which I like better but all I say is that they both feel so different. London is spread out more horizontally, whereas NYC is spread out vertically. As for favorites, there’s no way to compare the two!
Tomorrow I start my courses, I’m a little nervous because I know that I’m going to have to read at least one, and most likely more, books a week, which is way different from the US and NP. But I’m also really excited as I feel that I had too much free time this weekend. One of my friends said how time is going to fly by because soon all my time will be spent reading and going out.

Tower Bridge at night from the riverboat

where we did karaoke

LaHanya

This is a frustrated post.  I have now spent almost two hours of my day trying to figure out how to upload my photos and it’s making me CRAZY.  The internet cafes won’t let me download the programs to upload all of them at once onto any website and I am not going to upload one by one.  I’ll figure this one out, I still have plenty of space left on my memory card.  I suppose I could also just buy another memory card and deal with all the photos when I get back, but that seems wasteful and then it would create a huge project for me when I get back.  gobbledeegobble dee blah blah blah. 

 Classes started today, and my first class was supposed to be Gramatica Contrastiva.  Unfortunately, the Professor decided not to show up.  In Spain, according to Miguel (the extremely helpful and fun program advisor who would never read my blog of course) sometimes Spanish professors just do that.  Good times, good timse.  My other class was Contemporary Spanish Theater.  It will be interesting just because I’m getting exposed to playwrights whom I have yet to encounter at all. 

I was actually a little frustrated to see just how much the Prof slowed down his Spanish for us.  I understood ciento por ciento of what he said, and it will be boring if he speaks that slowly the whole time.

I made my first friend outside of the program yesterday.  I got kicked out of the internet cafe as it was closing, because on Sundays, not much happens.  Anyway, this girl got kicked out of the cafe at the same time, and I asked her about the bike she was unlocking and from then on we chatted, exchanged numbers, and will hopefully become friends. 

Apparently, many landlords advertise pisos (flats) for just women only!  That would be illegal in the States, but it’s much harder for male students to find places in this city, and I imagine it is similar across Europe. 
And my more interesting cultural obersavtion is the lack of defined social realms that young people occupy.  For instance, this girl was getting on a bike, and I chatted with her expecting to immediately recognize the distinct attitude of a bike rider in a city would have if they were in American.  Bike culture in the states is sharp and condescending and more.  There was none of that, and nobody walks around wearing their locks like jewlery.  Moreover, this homogenity at school was even more apparent.  Everybody was vaguely hipster, generally attractive and well kept.  Dread locks don’t indicate hippy, tatoos don’t indicate punk, and everybody wears nice shoes.  Popped collars are don’t have the same statement here…how is it that semiotic significance can be diminished by geography?

 Oh I forgot about my digital frustrations at the beginning of this post.  The capacity to immediately review your memory of the previously breathtaking moment, I believe, diminishes the affect.  My memory itself is becoming lazier now that I have a digital camera.  What do I need to focus on any of these magnificent views such as this: or this  when I can just post it here anyway. 

And by the way I’m not sure about the first bridge there but the second is definitely Calatrava, one of the architects involved in rebuilding ground zero, including the new path station.  If it ever gets done.  But the bridge, especially from the top of La Giralda, is very beautiful. 

Hopefully this experience will help me answer some of these questions.

all the students studying abroad say this, but i love my place of residence.

That is, Japan. Japan is just amazing in my opinion. Theres this mmagical combination of nature and man interacting so well. Well not always so. Nagasaki University, where I am attending, is built atop of a shaved mountain top. There`s a terribly winding and swift hill one must climb in order to get to the school. Other than that, there are recycle cans everywhere, asides from the famous vending machines everyone has surely read about. I`ve only seen the ones with drinks and small capsule toys, not like porn or lube or anything … yet. Its a big city and Ive just begun to explore it.

Please excuse my keyboarding; the set up of the Japanese keyboard is a bit more ackward that I`m used to (with three writing systems plus english for them, i suppose it can be allowed) but it`ll take some adjusting.

Estoy aqui en Sevilla. Hopefully I will be successful at making this entry interesting.

So ya know, Spain is not all that great, unless you like stuff like beautiful views, perfect weather, ridiculously amazing cities, cheap yummy wine, whatever. And of course this program has been really tough so far. This orientation rigorously subjected us to tours of a breathtaking city, a fancy hotel, and a very challenging stay at a resort in Marbella, on the Mediterranean.

I’ll try and write about the entire past week, but I doubt I’ll have the patience to share all the details.

Look!  We all managed to find each other in the airport, how exciting.  The awkward sparks of friendship, as this picture indicates, were flying.  The flight was fine and I started reading my book.    

We flew into Madrid, and the airport there is thrilling.  I´m tempted to Wiki the architect, but if I start Wiki-ing now, I´ll waste time and money.  Perhaps Wikipedia is a distinctly American diversion.

But anyway, this is a poor attempt at conveying the fantastic design of the airport.  It looked like it could blow away with mild gust.  The end of my vegginess began on the plane, as I forgot to preorder a vegetarian meal.  In case you are flying with dietary concerns, always make sure to take care of that ahead of time.  Especially when you have to ask for it in Spanish. 

We transferred to a flight to Granada, and stepping off of that plane onto the airfiled was a moment: perfect blue sky, everybody in their sunglasses, shocking mountains in the distance…The landscape of Spain is tempting.  Each mountain, and rolling hill, presents itself with maturity and invitingly.  Each cliff says something like `you will be able to climb me, ìt won´t be as easy as it seems, but you´ll just have to move onto the next one after.´

Well.  My friend and I are here at an internet cafe, I started this entry on my roomates computer but then we lost wireless so the pictures that made it are from then, and I can´t show ya´ll the rest that I´d wanted to.  However, this was my first night in Spain: It was perfect, except that European written journalism is shockingly biased.  THe only paper I had ever heard of is El Mundo, so I bought it, but holy moly is it a fan of the right.  They were extremely candid in their review of a speech by Zapatero, and it was actually funny to read.  TOday I bought El Pais, the paper of the left.  I have yet to reach an opinion on the pros and cons of conciously biased print journalism versus American style. 

However, if that is one stylistic of Europe that I have a problem with, it pales in comparison with the superior style of Spain as a whole – food, dress, fun, coffee, shoes, cars, whatever.

 Oh except the mullets…still trying to figure that one out. 

And wine is cheap and good.  And I swam in the Mediterranean. 

Peace out.

How I love Japan? Lemme count the ways. Its been 3 …4 days since i go there and i seriously　dont want to leave. the plane ride was scary and exhausting, the chase to get to our prospective connecting flights and busses even worse, and the blatant uncertainty and lack of sleep (three days or 4?) insane.

Wow. I cant speak Japanese. Or at least anything that isnt juvelielle or silly. My host father, Kousan speaks English a little better than my host mother, but shes who im with most　of the time.
Also, hot spring trip friday into saturday. that means nakedness.  or so i:ve been told. nah, i dunno whats gonna go and happen with that. the instructor mentioned hiking? good picture oppportunity. just a note – ive run thru all of my 1 gig camera space. ny laptop wont be net ready til next wensday. youll can wait, ne?

 Notes*

I love Japanese vending machines.

The air is so clean and clear here.

Nakedness is not that big of an issue, as my host mother seemed cross when i didnt want to bath with her daughters.

I lost my wallet and it was returned, all ￥ 70000 safely still in there.

I lost my passport, boarding pass, and chapstick in the mountain of my luggage.

Speaking of which, all my customs go-thrus were very swift and easy.

I’ve realized that even though the same langauge is spoken in both countries, things are way different in the US and the UK. It feels like certain things- waiting for my room key, getting my student ID, etc.- are done really inefficiently. It all involves long lines (where no one except Americans complain outloud), waiting and lots of people not knowing what’s going on. Somehow, miraculously, it all gets done.
I have my own room, my own small bathroom(!) and a shared kitchen. In my flat there are five other girls- Jess from NP, a girl from Maurtinas, two from Japan, and one from outside of Bath, England. After the first long jet lagged day, Jess and I relaxed in the campus bar, had a pint and played a game of pool. It was something that had to be done!
The orientation program that I signed up for is really keeping me busy which is a good thing because it keeps me from freaking out and thinking about home. I’ve also met lots of internation students- people from Spain, Greece, Norway. However I do miss having a computer, I wish I had a laptop as I’m not in the school’s system yet and so I can’t use the computer lab. It definitely takes time and patience to settle in. I’ve learned to not want too much (such as wanting friends, plans and to be unpacked all in the first night) too soon, it all takes time and comes in little steps.
Over the weekend we (the international students) went on a quick tour of London before we were dropped off at Covent Garden. However Damon and Cristobel (Cris), a couple student helpers who helped some of us move in, were nice enough to introduce us to other places in London such as Leicester Square, through St. James Park, passed Buckingham Palace, to a pub (of course!) and eventually we walked along the South Bank through the Thames Festival, across the Millennium Bridge before taking the tube home (the bus was provided to take us back to campus but the group of us decided to stay and walk around with Damon and Cris). It was a good introduction to London as well alternate ways to get back to Enfield campus from central London. It also helped me to feel less stressed out as I learned to be satisfied with little things such as when we were just hanging out in St. James Park and people watching. It was a long day and my feet were tired but London by the Thames was beautiful at night and lively with the Thames Festival and I was glad that we had such great “tourguides”.
The next day we got up early for a trip to Brighton, again with tour guides Damon and Cris (they’re what made our traveling oddball group not so dysfunctional, without them we probably would have been more lost and confused, plus they were just fun). We walked along the pier and amusements, reminscent of the Jersey Shore. We sat and chilled behind the Royal Pavilion, then headed back down to the rocky beach. Damon said how English seaside towns are neglected because now with cheap airfares, it’s easier to go abroad. After we got back to Enfield we headed to – yes you guessed it! The pub! We walked to The Goat down the street. Around fifteen of us sat outside enjoying the cool weather, good beer and foreign languages, accents and questions all around us. The pub is way more relaxed than any drinking establishment in the US especially that night with such an array of students from different countries.
This week is all about induction, I’m still not really sure what that means or what our equivalent would be but it was nice to keep busy over the weekend, travel around the area a bit and meet lots of new people.
Kiss cross (as Cris says) from London

Brighton Beach, don´t be fooled, it´s all rocks!

It appears our flight has been delayed two hours. That’s not bad, surely it’s not. However the airport never called us to tell us about this development. Rather my dear friend Brian M (You’ll hear more about him n future posts to come, I’m sure of it) called up my household and informed me of this. He’d checked the info online and discovered this. If I had not been called, we (the fam) would have ended up in quite the uncomfortable situation with even more waiting time at the station. However when I called ANA the woman I spoke with was very helpful and informative about things I needed to do. She changed my connecting flight with a promise to hotel us if we couldnt make it. I give props to the Nice Japanese Woman.

Also, as to avoid uncomfortable in air travel … for 16 hours … I forgo sleep tonite! No self medicating though. My sudafed stays in the caryon.

Another also, honestly I’m surprised at the ourpouring of support or awe Im getting from this trip from family friends and family. There’s hugs and snuggles and questions of “Where did the time GO?!” and cautions to be safe and its simply. All of my friends at OCCC are jealous (as most of those tend to be the scary otaku sort), and all my older cousins, of which i have many, as I’m 2nd to youngest in the generational set, state in a bewildered way, ”JAPAN?!”

Wish me luck, or ganbatte

It’s about 10am. I’m essentially done packing. My mom is obsessively trying to pick up everything from my floor. Money – set, Shoes (two pairs and sandals) – set, Forms – copied and set, Friends – said goodbye, Books – we’re about to go get the two books I am set to read.

I could continue with the details but they are BORING!. I am ready to go. I think I should’ve not bothered packing and just brought an extra pair of underwear and toothbrush.

We had a family dinner last night – Chinese food, the true American meal. None of that barbeque stuff. Oh and I went bowling on Friday night, Cosmic bowling oooooo.

That’s gotta be an American invention. Gosh, I think I’m really gonna have culture shock, I mean how will I live with Chinese food that never makes you feel full and neon-lit bowling?

Hopefully I’ll have interesting thoughts upon arrival. I am SOOOO ready to chill at the beach in Marbella. Yay school!
Do you think they have allergies in Spain? I don’t. Allergies are totally an American invention.

Alright, next post de Espana (Sorry, I can’t do the tilde over the N on my laptop).

Three or two; I’m not bothering with the semantics at the moments. I stopped by the Int’l House to drop off the agreement form; i was a bit late with that I admit. I meant to do it at the stdy abroad orientation, but things were so busy, and Im just blah blah blahing about that.

Ive got most of my things packed; I keep putting it off since Im scared witless about the entire prospect. My kitten has started to sleeping in my perpetually unzipped luggage case. I’m hoping this means that this trip is blessed or lucky; Japan likes its kitties. Her white and gray fur will remind me of what I have at home.

I received an evil slew of dental and auditory apointments and works in the past few days; nothing says prepared like a package of presciptions “just in case.”

I bought a set of CD and book sets today for the twins of the family with whom I am fostering with; aka, the family I’ll be living with? I’ve never been an older sister (”onne-chan”) before. The Host family opportunity at least affords me that. The girls turn 6 about a week after I get there, so obviously a gift would be nice or appropriate. I only hope that we all get on splendidly, and an international incident does not follow me (no throwing up on the VP going on here!!).