SJSU PDO

So, I’m in the airport right now, reporting to you on my Word Document.. I’ll find a later time to upload this onto the internet.. somehow. Anyways. For the past.. three days, I’ve been staying at SJSU attending Japan’s Pre-Departure Orientation. So, the first day, I got really mad at my parents when they were dropping me off. I like.. took my passport out of my little neck/money holder thing and then my mom was all like.. “PUT IT ON, PUT IT ON.” Uh. No. I don’t want to put it on. But then she started calling me all these names in front of everyone. Doesn’t she understand that she’s embarrassing me? It made me really pissed off. I still haven’t gotten over that.. So stupid. Anyways, after I checked in with YFU, I went to get my dorms assigned to me. As I was going up to the second floor (Girls floor) I had to lug my large suitcase up the flight of stairs and some kind girls offered to pull up my ginormous suitcase.. I just gave them my carry on and carried my suitcase up myself. After I settled in, I went downstairs, got lunch, hung out a bit. The first day wasn’t very exciting.. We got into our kumis(groups) and then we did some stuff. I honestly don’t remember. This is PINK kumi (<3):

On the left, holding the pink flag is my friend Anna, who hails from Wisconsin, she's really funny, and her laugh is just the most adorable thing ever. To the right of me would be my new friend Jess, who's the most artistic person I know!

So, at night, I met my second roomie Lily, and my third roomie Jess. They’re both really awesome people who have been the most greatest and understanding roomies ever. It honestly, must have been fate that they were assigned my roomies. Haha, Jess and me just talk about.. stuff all night while Lily is the responsible one out of the three of us. I had a blast sharing my room with them. The second day.. a really busy day.. I woke up and had breakfast with my kumi (Pink kumi btw) and then we went out to the lawn in front of the dorms and did some radio exercises. Then we went into our classes to discuss our homestay experience and I was placed in an intermediate Japanese class. I learned a lot, like how to say “I come from ____. This is a gift, please accept it.” and etc. Well, after my language class we did current Japanese news and then had lunch. Bafa Bafa was a fun activity and then we did Japanese High Schools and what they were like. A break and then another Japanese class. Shortly after the Japanese class, we discussed Culture Shock, oh and Jimmy who won the Okinawa Peace Scholarship last year visited. Apparently, he also had Pato-Sensei, who was the sensei of my kumi, last year. After that, Dinner, and our cultural workshops. I signed up for Yukata try-on and also for J-Dorama/J-Pop. The yukata I tried on was gorgeous! I took pictures, which I will upload later. Then after that, free­-time and then we went to sleep.

Yesterday, I woke up at seven and went to eat breakfast, then do radio exercises and we had our Japanese class. Then we learned Japanese etiquette and had a break. We played Barnga which was the most frustrating game ever. So, basically, it was a card game that we were to play, which eight tables and four people. Each table got a set of instructions on how to play the game. The winners moved up a table, losers moved down a table. BUT, there was a twist to this. The rules given to each table was actually different. People were expected to adjust, some tables, Aces were the highest while others they were the lowest, some tables trump cards were spades and others were diamonds, etc. Lunch happened after and then Japanese class. We had a Not with Me! Session that talked about personal space and stuff. Then we had an alumni/gender specific alumni panel. We had departure info and then free time for packing. After that, we went down to learn a Japanese Bon dance and then we had to make up a dance for our own kumis. I only have the other kumis’ dances, but it was all good. We actually won second places and was the second group to get our obento. They were delicious! I didn’t finish because it was so large, but I really did want to keep eating. So yummy, I swear.

So, I may not have mentioned this, but between all the activities YFU set up, I actually made a lot of cool friends. Jess, my roomie is an amazing artist and we hung out and drew a lot. She has inspired me to start a manga, or well, create a character at least. And I also met a girl named Mary-Anne Bowen, Mabs for short. Haha, I also met a girl named Anna who’s as great as I am. We had a blast drawing together, it’s all so fun to hang with them. A lot of the time I hung with Jess because we really have similar interests while reading manga and she’s just a really great person to talk to.

Last night was terrible. I got a call from my parents and they were all like.. “Oh, you’re staying in Tokyo for a week because they want to isolate foreigners coming into Japan for that length of time.” Okay. One. They make it sound like I’m really going to be staying in the freaking hostel for a week when it was only a possibility. It really made me distressed when I was talking to my dad because he kept insisting that I contact them every day—insisting is not a good word to use. It was more like.. forceful threatening. It really made me upset that my parents couldn’t understand my predicament and what kind of circumstances I would be under. Yeah, well, after that, I was called down by one of the YFU staff staying at the dorms. He told me that I was selected as a representative member of the Okinawa Peace Scholars. What a big honor! I never imagined I would be picked. I get to present a plaque to the U.S. Embassy in Japan and thank them for letting me go on this trip. In addition to that I have to make a speech. This is the thing I’m most scared of.. I hope I do well.

This morning, I woke up at six and got ready with my luggage, went through all the steps for checking out of the dorms and then went to have my speech that I worked on the night before translated. Now I have to remember the speech, I’m so scared. Got on the bus, tried to memorize my speech.. right now, I have like.. one sentence memorized. I hope that I do well, I’m so scared.. Honestly, I don’t know what I’m going to do if I mess up in front of a lot of people. Auuugghhh. Yeah, well we got to the airport, and I checked in my luggage. Guess what? My luggage was 51.8 lbs. 51.8 pounds. Goodness gracious! The lady let me go through anyways, and I was so glad for that, she didn’t even say anything! I’m so happy that she let me pass through.

Well, after that, I went to get my stuff scanned and like. Holy crap. I forgot shampoo was liquid. And I had stuck it onto my carry-on. So I had to run back out and tell the YFU staff about it. It was all a big mess, I got really upset and had to get out of line and go back out and then after giving them my shampoo I went to get back in line, which got longer already. God, at this point, I felt really upset, stressed out, felt like crying. I went through the scanner things had to go through the electric scan thing and then I walked off to my gate. I almost forgot my carry-on. What the heck. At this point my day was terrible, and it was only like.. maybe 9:30 A.M. Terrible. Disaster. I was just really upset! Yeah, so I walked to gate 99 where we were supposed to be for our airplane and then met up with Jess, Anna, and Mabs.

And then I decided I would want to type up my blog here and post it later. After maybe.. two paragraphs..? Pato-sensei called me over and OMG. A girl named Nicole had not checked in and my shampoo is with her now! I’m so happy that I won’t be all dirty and stinky and smelly at my hotel. I’m so glad Nicole had checked in at a later time, I’m so thankful for being here.. And well, I’m just getting ready to board my plane. This must be a really long post.. but it covers a lot! I can’t possibly explain the kind of feelings that I’ve been experiencing but I can try to convey my frustration, my irritation, my excitement, my stress. Alright, well, I guess that’s it, unless I think of something else. Time to memorize my speech.