Reporting as ordered!

Jun 04, 2007 16:26


Hi all! Angela here, live from the computer lab at AP house 2 in Beppu, Japan.

I met the former prime minister of Japan today. It was very cool! We were just getting a tour of the campus from our student buddies, and the president of the university walked by on his way to meet the former prime minister. He invited us over (the Japanese kids with us were sqeaking and jumping in excitement and awe) and we all said hello. I even got to shake his hand! Talk about experiences of a lifetime huh?

Here's a video that shows my view of the city from my dorm room window. I'm on the fifth floor, and on top of a mountain, so it's really spectacular. The weather has been foggy (real fog, like can't see more than five feet in front of you fog) but today was absolutely beautiful. The sea breeze, and being so high up makes the heat very bearable. We're surrounded by beautiful green mountains.

The oddest thing is that I feel a bit like I've stepped into a pokemon game. I'ts very surreal. There are a ton of odd little differences. I've written most of them in my realjournal, but I left it upstairs so you'll all just have to wait. Well, here's one odd little thing. Check out the sink attatched to the toilet in my room in this video. Weird huh? I still need to take a picture of the toilet at the bus station that is what the girls in my group call a "squat toilet," where the bowl is in the ground and you have to squat over it to pee. I haven't tried it yet. One step at a time right? Cristina and I are going to the public bath tomorrow in the dorms, to get used to it before we go to the Hot Spring or "Onsen" with the group field trip. You can expect a full report on that probably later in the week or this weekend.

Classes start on Wednesday, and I actually will be a taking 12 hours a week of intensive beginning Japanese along with that culf class, to equal 9 SEU credits instead of the 6 I thought I was getting originally. Professor Lawson is convinced that we will all be fluent by the time we leave here, and I have to say I almost beleive him. I've learned so much of the language in just three days. I'm pretty good at picking up on cues too though, compared to some of the other non-Japanese speakers in my group.

Anyway, I'm going to fiddle around with my photos some more because they are taking forever to uplaod to photobucket, and them I'm probably going to go take some more. Ja ne!

prime minister, japan, video, classes, beppu, scenery

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