Entrance Ceremony, Classes and Pictures
Konichiwa Minna-san!!!!!
It's about five after five pm here in Japan and I have officially survived my first week of classes, but before I dive into that: My Entrance Ceremony story.
Here in Japan entrance ceremonies mark the occassion as students enter their school for either the first time or are returning to the school for another year. Think of it as the first day of school in America. Now, I knew nothing about what Nagoya's entrance ceremony and none of the students (who were here long before I came) were really forth coming about information. My room mate (who's name is actually Satchou, not Suika) knew even less because she is in grad school now. The only thing I knew I had to do was read a pledge in front of an audience and that was that. Also the International Office suggested that I dress up.
April 1st was the day of the Entrance Ceremony. I was dressed up (about as dressed up as I'm gonna get!) and was about to leave for the Nagoya Congress building (where the ceremony was going to take place) when someone knocked on my door. It was one of the many teachers from the Inter'l Office and he said "You are late!" and made gestures that I should beat feet. The ceremony started at 10:30 am and it was 9 am. I tried to tell him (keyword: tried) that I was just about to leave, but he then said "You were supposed to be at the office at 8:50!" That stunned me. No one said ANYTHING about having to be anywhere on this day aside from the Congress building. I was beginning to think that the Inter'l Office liked to keep its students in the dark....!
So now, we were walking at a fast pace toward the building. This building is HUGE. All gleaming white stone, with two towers on both sides of the main building and had an all-white statue of a samurai (drawn like pictures from the Edo period, in the center of the courtyard) on top of a white horse, like the man was ready to charge off into battle. The teacher quickly navigated through the twists and turns of the corridors of the building till we arrived at a room called "The Millienium Room". Does that say serious or what!?
This room was stunning. It was very theatre-esquse like the Library Theatre (back at home) except so much larger! First there was the first floor which was set up like terraces. One landing of chairs, then a small set of steps leading down and repeat several more times! I was to sit in the very front row with only two other students for company. Here I was directed how to approach the stage. I was to ascend the wooden steps in front of me, first bow to the important guests on the right, NGU's board of directors (or something like that) on the left and then bow to the head honcho who would be standing at the podium in the center of the stage. Then I was to read my pledge (in English) stating that I would obey the rules and regulations of the community and to study my brains out learning the Japanese language and its culture.
However at the time, I didn't understand just what I suppose to do and to make matters worse I was left by myself. The girl sitting next to me was nice enough and we had some short conversations while we were waiting. I was half-tempted to ask her just what we were supposed to do again, but I had no idea how to even begin the bloody sentence....! I was freaking out at this point and depersetaly wished I had brought my purse which contained some of Aly's advan. (Did I spell that right?) I could have used it at this point! As I waited, students started to file into the "room" and I noticed that 99.9% of the students were wearing black. Me, on the other hand, I was wearing a russet red button-up shirt, a cream-colored camisole, khaki pants and khaki-colored shoes. "Sticking out like sore thumb" was exactly what I was doing at this point and this made me only more nervous.
Now, while the first floor is filled with students and other people, there is a second balcony which is partially filled up and the third balcony area (above the second balcony) remains empty. Like I said this palce is huge...maybe I'll sneak back into the building since I don't have any pictures of the room....
Soon an hour passed and the lights dimmed. Camera flashes were seen again and again as the Nagoya Gakuin's Entrance Ceremony was about to begin.
I believe I told everyone that NGU is a Christian college so, after 30 or so minutes of listening to a Japanese Christian priest say something out of the Bible and the Chorus singing the college song, it was time. Now, I was praying that someone else would go first, so that way I could see just what exactly I had to do. Lucky me, I didn't go first. The girl next to me went first, then the boy and finally me. It all passed very quickly and thankful I don't remember much...I think my bowing may have been a bit off. Finally, all was said and done and took at grand total of almost two hours!!! Did I mention I had testing that day too? I did....
*le sigh* NOW for classes! Sadly, most of the classes I wanted to take this year weren't even on the schedule due to moving campuses and teachers and other assorted stuff. I was really looking forward to my Ceramic art class too!!!! I'll be taking four classes this year. Two of them are in Japanese and the other two are in English.
Now before you all say anything, my language classes take up 75% my schedule and the three other classes are only once a week. Language, a culture class, karate and badminton are my classes. *cheesy smile* And you know what really sucks? This was all I could take. There were other classes, but there were some restrictions.
1) You must me in Japanese language class IV or V to take some classes.
2) They weren't available.
Most of the other students were in the same boat, but some were in the higher language classes so, ....yeah. I really does suck! I wanted to broaden my horizan, to get a view from the Japanese side of things. Only to have my horizan narrowed before I even start!! BLEH>P Aside from that, everything else is A-OK. I love my classes and my constant change of teachers for language. Some are goofy like Furumoto-sensei and Saito-sensei while others are more down to earth like Mizuno-sensei and Ideguchi-sensei (he's my karate teacher!) The rest are normal enough for Japanese people....I think.
I'll go and upload the pictures so you guys can see what I've been seeing for the past two weeks!!!
Take care!
PS I also wish I had a gun to shoot these stupid crows on our balcony! They are so %$#!&^%$##$ annoying right now!!! *tears out hair*