Day 5

I think my host family really likes Disney. Or did. The seven dwarfs in particular. On the porch steps, there are some statuettes of the dwarfs along with other random Disney stuff scattered around the house. Actually, in my room in particular.

Today, I went to school all by me onesie. It was nervewracking, especially since I didn't realize I was going on my own until I was heading out the door. After I finished my breakfast, I was putting on my shoes, under the impression that my host mom would take me to the university again to make sure I got the directions down. When she just stood by the door and said, "Bye," that was my first clue that that probably wasn't what was gonna go down. She also told me that if I had any trouble to call her, which I didn't know what to make of as I don't have a cellphone or any actual tangible money.

So once I climbed into the bus, I started of thinking of what I was gonna do once I got lost when I figured my odds would be better if I just followed the large crowds of people since they probably knew which stop led to the train station. Haha, success. I usually have to transfer between 2 trains before I get to my last train stop, and then it's a 20 minute climb up a mountain. Sorry, edit that: a goddamn-haha-she's-wearing-boots-she-hasn't-broken-into-yet-let's-torture-her mountain.

En route to the campus. Even though it's uphill battle to the death for my feet, it's actually a very nice scenic route. Now that I have a better idea how to get to school, I can take my time and take more pictures tomorrow.

When you go through the main entrance and down the main path, the first thing you see is the library. Nice, huh?

I don't like talking about depressing things so I'm going to skip the exams and interview we were given today. Anyways, I actually got to school 30 minutes earlier so I kinda wandered around campus for a bit before going to the meeting room. I'm pretty sure we have around 50 exchange students this semester. I find that so crazy. Most, I think, are from England...Oxford University, maybe? I heard that school name thrown around a bit when we were doing introductions. I also met a girl from Australia with an awesome Australian accent. Sorry, I find that worth mentioning.

We were also introduced to our Nihongo (Japanese) partners, who were for today, suppose to give us a campus tour and help us buy a commuter pass for the trains. I was assigned to two girls who were very cute and extremely cool. While they walked me home (showing me a flatter route to the train station), they were very kind and we spent the whole time talking and laughing. Kind of a bad thing though 'cos now I can't remember said flatter route. Haha, sad. I think I'm still going to take the death route though because I need the exercise. Also I forgot my sneakers back in the U.S. And I don't know where the gym is. And I'm pretty sure I'm going to be too lazy to go the gym so the death route is a good way to force me to exercise. I'm going to sooo hate myself later for this.

OH. I still have not mentioned the highlight of today. At the end of the Orientation for today, the CIEC staff told me that I had been selected to be the recipient of the JASSO scholarship (of which they almost forgot to tell me). It's a really good damnass scholarship so needless to say, I was THRILLED. Having the luxury of spending time in Japan without having to worry financially is well, extremely rare. So I'm extremely grateful. And will now spend it all on food.

See? I need the exercise.


Oh, and one more thing. Tonight it snowed! Which is crazy since it rarely snows in Osaka. I didn't have my camera with me so I couldn't take a picture. However today was extremely cold and the winds were on steroids so I don't think I would be able to take a good picture anyways. :\