Global House

So I've been in my new dorm, Global House, at ICU in Tokyo Japan for five days. But it seems more like a month. Classes haven't even started yet, and already I feel like I've been here an entire semester. The week was filled with orientations and orientations and introductions for every part of the campus and lifestyle and programs and clubs and the dorm has meetings every day or twice a day and we're working on an initiation project involving mummy wrap and dancing on a hill during lunchtime for the other students. It's...fast-paced. Add to all of this that I know enough Japanese to introduce myself and talk about the weather, and it's been quite a week. Or five days.

And the thing I find the most annoying is that whenever I send a message or e-mail to someone in the US, I still keep expecting them to reply right away. Time after time, I forget the time difference (^_^), which is 13 hours, which means that right now it's almost 7 p.m. here but 6 a.m. in Michigan. No one will reply to my e-mail!

I have so many friends already; all of the members of Global House tend to stick together, especially the international students. I know almost everyone's name by now (which is amazing, I'm horrible with names), plus there are two French guys who I became friends with and an American girl who went to my home university who I've been hanging out with, so I always have someone to talk to and to do things with! It's weird, because there's so much to do and I'm so used to being bored and doing nothing all day after a summer of idling. The dorm has parties every night!

I already have a Japanese bike, cell phone, and bank account. It just doesn't really seem real...but now it seems so natural. Classes start on Monday and I'm taking an intensive Japanese course; it lasts 6 hours a day, five days a week! I'll improve quickly! A lot of the material, though, is for beginners, so I don't think I'll be too bogged down by material, at least not at first.

So...this is crazy.

Global House

I got two big pieces of information today about my study abroad. One, I received my certificate of eligibility from Japan, which allows me to get a visa which allows me to stay in the country for more than 90 days. Yay! Very important paper. Grand Valley is sending it to my mom's house, so I should have it within a week, then I have to take it to a Japanese consulate either in Detroit or Chicago.

The other thing was that my dad got a package from ICU about my housing. Apparently, I've been accepted into the Global House, which is an on-campus dormitory. It's kinda cool, but I was actually assuming that I'd get an off-campus student apartment in downtown Tokyo...which is what I applied for...I thought...but anyway, the dorm requires a lot more community living (like having chores, group meetings, and wearing giant teddy bear costumes the first week of classes), but I think I'll be alright. I look forward to it.

The Global House is the newest building at ICU. It's also the biggest dorm, housing 64 people. Which isn't a lot in Grand Valley standards. Most of the dorms at ICU have around 24 people. It's insane. Anyway, about half of the people staying in Global House are international students, so I can only hope that I'll be living with people who are going through the same new experiences that I am. We may even have the same classes, since there's only one class for each level of Japanese!

I've been feeling a lot better about going lately. Ever since Kanako-san started e-mailing me (the girl picking me up from the airport and showing me around the first day), I've been much much more at ease about the whole thing. I've even had a lot of good dreams about it. Plus, I've been chatting with this French guy on Facebook who is also going this fall. It's very reassuring to know that I will at least have a couple of connections when I go there. ^_^