The story doesn't end with me crying in a bathroom!

I haven't posted in awhile and I don't want everyone to think that this story ends with me crying in a bathroom...so here goes a slightly uneventful post.
School has gotten better. I think I'm adjusting. Ten kanji per day is still kind of brutal, but it's somehow getting easier.
Also in case I haven't mentioned this, living in Japan is expensive. The school cafeteria is closed for the next two months (I'm not sure why) so I'm going to have to figure out ways to eat lunch cheaply. This is a challenge because by the time I get out of class I am a ravinous monster and really not the mood to cook. Well, good thing I brought my lunch box to Japan!
Doing laundry in Japan is also kind of annoying. In America, I like doing laundry...it's warm, it smells nice, it's clean. Here, it's time consuming and kind of expensive. A small bottle of Downy (the prefered brand of most people I've talked to) was $13. I'm saying, like 1/4th of the size of my regular $10-bottle of detergent at home.  It time consuming because I have a washer, but the world is my dryer. It's not the pastoral fantasy I thought it would be. There is a dryer-place about 7 minutes by foot from my apartment, my only qualm is it's about $3 to dry a load. Oh well, I think I'm going to suck it up and pay. The next week is suppose to be cloudy.
Before I type my next entry, let's hope I do something interesting, for everyone's sake.

The Bad Student

So, as I have mentioned on my facebook, there are only three people in the class: the teacher, Mike and me. This makes classroom dynamics interesting and overly-simple: there is the teacher, the good student and the bad student. It's really an unfortunate situation. Mike has always been better at languages; he watched a bugs bunny marathon and couldn't lose his bugs bunny accent for a week. I, well, I just have to try a little harder. Rather in comparing to Mike, I just have to try; he does not.
--- *excerpt from Tina's mental diary: this morning 10:15am, 45 minutes into class, after receiving a 3/10 on her kanji quiz.*---

Tina: Sumimasen [excuse me] (sniffles and gets out of chair)

Teacher: Daijobu [of course, are you okay?]

Tina: (shuffles out of room, hiding her face, once out of room sobs and runs to the bathroom)

Tina (internal dialogue): Damnit! Why is this bathroom so damn cold?! I know, it because they want to make the choice between going back into that classroom and staying in this bathroom easier with the threat of hypothermia. Well, guess what?! It's not easier. I'm going to stay in this bathroom forever. Damn, I can't even sit on a toilet and cry, I just have to stand here and cry by the sink. School sucks and I suck at it....I don't get hearts on my homework or passing grades on my test. *sniffle, wheeze* Hearts and passing grades are for Mike only! *wheeze* and I always get pink stuff! I don't like pink. *sob* Crap, I how am I going to go back in there, I can even look at that teacher, I'm just going to....*sob* break down! Ah person! *jumps into stall*...False alarm.

[Begins the process of trying to look normal, dries tears, washes face and goes back into the classroom, only to find, awkwardly, that class has been halted in her absence. The embarrassment sends Tina into tears, along with reminding her that she sucks at Japanese-school. Shortly after the teacher calls for a 15 minute break, so that Mike and Tina have a chance to pull themselves together. Mike too, has burst into tears because Tina is upset.]

---

Yeah, today was real awkward.

---

In case I haven't said this, the first seven weeks of school are 'intensive'. In school-language, I have learned, this is a euphemism to describe an impossibly hard, foot-to-the floor accelerated, break-neck pace course. I HAVE NEVER EVER SEEN ANY CLASS THIS FAST! We have two texts; they are the same textbooks we had in the U.S. In a semester in the U.S. we cover 4-5 chapters per semester. Here, that same chapter: 2 days. The other textbook we cover approximately 8 chapters per semester. Here: a chapter per day with a quiz on it in two days. It has literally sent me into tears. As of today, it sent me into tears once in public.

Lastly, some cultural hints from our teachers: if I want to be cuter I should wear a skirt, men should always pay for dates and Mike should have given his first date a big bouquet of flowers.

I really hate pink.

Ebb and Flow

Today I am learning about yin and yang, the ebb and flow of things. Here are some examples of the ebb and flows of my life as of recent:

-A day ago I was having a fluent (and interesting) conversation in Japanese with Sakura (one of my tutors)...the ebb and flow takes hold...9:30am today I find myself in a 3 hour Japanese grammar test trying to figure out how to fill out the test, much less writing correct answers on it.

-A day ago I thought my two-minute haiku was highly successful...and then...non-dyslexic, Mike, tells me that haiku syllables go 5-7-5, not 7-5-7.

-Tonight I wrote a brilliant self-introduction! I spent two hours on it...yin and yang...as I'm sending it to my four professors I accidentally change the title from "Lorino's Self-Introduction" (in Japanese) to Lorino’s [insert nonsensical symbols]. It's going to look really foolish; my title that's mentioned three places is complete gibberish.

-A week ago eating a bowl of rice made me ill and green tea repulsed me...now...I'm drinking and eating the stuff like my life depends on it (though in a way it sort of does) and enjoying it!

Aside from the literal ebb and flow of water (which is abundant right now; it's raining), there are the highs and lows of studying abroad. As for now, my 'low points' (they're not that low), are entirely learning experiences.

I wonder what events will mark tomorrow. Tomorrow is my first real class, today there was a three hour placement exam. Mike and I are the only students and there are four professors. I think this is one of the most intimidating experiences of my life thus far. I get a touch nervous when one person with a doctorate's is talking to me...now there's going to be four of them? And I can't speak the language?! Eh, no use complaining, after all it's not like they're going to be surprised by my lack of language.

I will deliver on my promise; the hand washing habits of the Japanese peoples. So they wash their hands before meals at fancy places. But, and this is so gross to me, they only rinse their hands after the bathroom! A lot of the time, in public bathrooms, there aren't any soap or towels to be found. I still don't know entirely what to think of that...

Stay tuned to PITiBSJ for the random high school girl that introduced herself to me in the grocery store, what the first American car I saw was and to find out if I lived through my first day of classes (and if I did, what pastry aided me in my survival)!

The Adventure Begins

This is day-four (I think) in Japan. It is diffucult to sum up everything I've been experiencing here...so I will write a haiku to attempt to convey my feelings. *begins stoically and clears throat* 

tasty and small everything
walk on the left side
beer before karaoke

I've done so much in the past couple days it's been hard to muster the will to begin typing about it! The tutors here are amazing...they're combination traslators, city-guides, friends, heck, I wouldn't be suprised if they were trained EMTs too. The last couple days we've been toted everywhere (toted has a negative connotation, but I feel it best describes the level of dependence...), various grocery stores, home improvement stores, peoples' dwellings, campus buildings, kendo arenas. The night we arrived when Mike and I were dog-tired, they were waiting in my apartment holding a tea-party and the feeling of commardary hasn't left!

So far I've had a lot of questions about the food here. My response is: TASTY! All. of. it. Yeah...so far, I've eaten everything ever put in front of me without many questions (it's my challenge to myself). I've liked everything people have put in front of me and not just kind-of either, more like ravinous-dietary-deficet-chowing. Though to be fair, I do have werid tastes for an America,  I tend to like "cheap" cuts of meat (I put cheap in quotations because nothing is cheap here, a quarter-pound of chicken skin was $2.50). Running on the tangent of affordability, pre-made meals from the supermarket plus rice and a salad (both made at home) make a tasty, affordable and quick meal. Mike and I haven't had many chances to do this though, because we're always being invited to friends' and friends' of friends' apartments for dinner! It is a very social culture! I find this style of eating to be the most fun. You sit and talk in someone's nice cozy apartment, hudled together under this heated table-thingy, they give you food and you pay your share. Wonderful, wonderful system! I plan to have people over soon.

Stay tuned to PITiBSJ for updates on my classes, my apartment, the puffy stray cat outside my apartment, how freakin' cold it is and the hand washing habits of the Japanese peoples. Along with photo collections of toliets, pastries and vending machines!