First Week

Wow! That went by fast 0_0  My first week here is almost complete (technically I need a Saturday to make it a full week) and my classes have all gotten underway. I like them all well enough, but I think I'll have to get another week in but here's my initial impressions.

• Honors 103 (Western Cultural Traditions): I've only had two days of this class, but the professor seems interesting. We're going to be reading stuff like The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, Virgil, Plato, Aristotle... So that will be interesting.  The only problem is we have two things assigned right now to read, and since I didn't know which to read first, I had been reading both of them equally. However, when we started discussions today I wasn't done with either XD Let's just say I didn't talk as much as I usually do.


• Japanese 104: This one is that review of first year Japanese so we're supposed to be going through the material quickly. Except, we're not getting off to the best start. I think the main problem is that the class is at so many different skill levels right now, so it's hard to figure out how fast to go over things. I'm thinking that once we get a pace going it will be fine, but right now it's a little weird.


• Honors Anthropology: Currently, this is my favorite class :D The professor is hilarious and really nice :D We haven't gotten too far into the material yet, but the first book we're reading (an anthropological study of these people called the Dobe Ju/'honsi) is really interesting.

Plus, there's way too many things to do.  I've been out most nights checking out some activity or another. Like Wednesday Erika and I checked out the Lutheran Campus Ministry here (which I may or may not be going back to) and last night there was this free showing of Star Trek on this HUGE screen they set up outdoors. I freaking love that movie :D

Overall, I do like it here. As with everything else I think it takes me forever to get used to things. Plus, I forgot how much I suck at actually making friends XD (quickly anyway).  I'm just really not that social. I am becoming friends with my roommate and suitemates, and I've been talking to a few of my neighbors, so we'll see how that all pans out.  I figure I just need another week or two here, and it'll all be good :D

I Have a Box

I have currently been at college for two days now (one night) and okay, I really don't have much of an impression on it yet. I like it here, I've met some nice people (my roommate and suitemates included, I think we're going to be a good group :D), and I've explored a little.

Yesterday was mostly moving in. I, for some reason, wanted to get up at 6:30 (leave at  7) so I could be here right when move in started. We got here at about 9;30ish, then made a complete mess of my room XD However, we did finally get everything situated INCLUDING my awesome wall decorations. Plus, I discovered I really didn't need to worry that much about bringing too much stuff.  It all fit nicely in my desk, closet, and wardrobe drawers :D And the room is a nice size too! The only problem is that it gets REALLY cold in my room (the building my room is in has outside hallways) so I imagine my comforter and quilt my mom is making will come in VERY handy in the winter. After all, it's summer and in the 70's right now so I can't imagine what it will be like in the winter. Also, when I got here the light in my room didn't work XD On the bright side (no pun intended) I did learn how and where to fill out maintenance requests. It actually didn't get fixed until this morning, so last night the only light Erika and I had were from the lamps we brought.

Then today, there was a bunch of orientation stuff and some errands I had to run. I picked up my bus pass (a phrase making me nostalgic for my high school Japanese class), and I also picked up my textbooks. I had to get them in a box because there was so many.  Afterwords I went to the information fair with Stacey, and signed up for more clubs than I'll probably be able to do (Lutheran Campus Ministries, Harry Potter Club, Japan Club, Circle K, and something else I can't remember). There's also a poster sale going on, but when I walked by the line to buy was WAY too long. Hopefully I'll be able to check that out later (and actually buy something). There was a bus tour of the area that I decided to go on as well, and it seems like the bus system around here won't be too difficult to use. Plus, I freaking LOVE the city around here. Gorgeous :D

Tomorrow I need to grab a few supplies, and pick up this article I need to read for my honors class.  I think I may have to start reading my books BEFORE class even starts as I'm going to have a lot of reading to do.  I might take a look at the poster sale again and hopefully the line won't be too ridiculous.  And hopefully the printer in the computer lab my building has will work so I can print out a few things that, again, I need for my honors class. However, right now I'm tired so I'm going to watch Hook, take a shower, and SLEEP.

Just an Update

In the past two-ish weeks I haven't posted I really haven't been doing anything. It's been filled with seeing friends, packing, and more packing.  Currently I'm sitting a few feet away from five flip-crates that are stuffed maybe a little bit too full, two backpacks packed with stuff, two pillows, a small sized bulletin board, a laundry hamper, and a mattress foam topper all piled up as carefully as they can be in the corner.  I'm probably bringing too many books, and maybe too many shirts, but whatever.

Tomorrow morning I'll head up to Bellingham, move in, and do all of that fun stuff most of my friends did a month ago.  I *might* do a video blog as I do that tomorrow. Who knows. We'll see.

Alright, next time I blog I'll be blogging from Bellingham, but, until then, I'm going to play some Halo with the brother.

It's Been One of Those Days

I've been having one of those days where you just wake up and DO NOT want to do anything.  Yet, you continue on and try to be productive because you know you should, but your efforts are thwarted by the universe and cosmic whatever.  Then you think to yourself, "crap, what kind of a day is THIS one going to be?"

But then good things happen that make the morning bit not so bad!

That's the kind of day I've had.  I've been sleeping really weird lately (and by weird I mean I've been having really weird, long, crazy dreams that feel like they've lasted the entire night and when you wake up you feel like your dream-self went to bed because your dream felt like an entire day) so when I woke up at 8:30 I wasn't in the mood to do anything.  However, I decided that maybe if I ran on the treadmill for a bit I'd wake up and feel better.  Which I did, until my favorite water bottle fell out of its holder and smashed apart on the treadmill belt sending water EVERYWHERE.  I had to run around with my mom (who was up at the point) to find as many towels as possible to clean up the huge puddles of water.  At this point, I was kind of upset because my favorite water bottle was broken and the exercising that had taken way more motivation than I had today got interrupted.  So once the water had gotten cleaned up I decided to screw it and go play video games.

Now maybe this is a false sense of accomplishment, but I'm so excited because I FINALLY finished Kingdom Hearts II.  For those who haven't played KHII (or KHI) the games usually have a secret ending that you unlock by doing various things in the game.  The task for the first game wasn't too ridiculous, but the second game involved this REALLY long list containing kind of difficult tasks. Tasks that I've been working on for ages.  However! Today I finished all of those tasks, defeated the boss, and unlocked that secret ending!  A secret ending that prompted me to research the game hinted at in the ending due to it's awesome crazy (but it's not even out in Japan yet, so I spent a lot of that time translating the Japanese site that's up to advertise for it).

Good thing number 2 that happened was I finally got a package I've been waiting a really long time to get :D One of those things was a CD I've been wanting to get for a while. And I haven't bought music in a very long time.  The other thing in the package was an limited edition bobble head of one of my favorite authors, only 500 made!  Yes, you read that right.  A John Green bobble head.

Then, instead of cleaning my room so a friend can come over tomorrow for our Uwajimaya snack run/Japanese drama watching marathon, I made some more charms out of clay (which I'm getting pretty good at now :D) while listening to that new CD.  However, I should probably go and do that now (the cleaning, not the clay making), since it's almost nine and I honestly don't have anything else to do.

お休みなさい! (Translation: Good night!)

Days Left Until Move-In: 12

A Few Things I've Discovered

Only two weeks left until move-in day! I'm feeling a ton better about moving in since I've met my roommate (who seems really awesome and I think we'll get along pretty well) and have gotten almost all of my shopping done.  However, there's a few things I still need to look at getting. Mainly...

• A water pitcher (like those Brita ones, because I'm a water snob)


• Shelf/Basket to put coffee mugs and things in


• Wall hooks to hang up my bulletin board


• Get more clay to finish garland I'm working on (okay, not really necessary, but I won't be able to make clay stuff at college)


• A new pair of jeans (because honestly, I have one, maybe two, pairs that aren't falling apart)

I think that's it.  Okay, even without those things I'm pretty much ready.  The MUCH bigger problem I'm facing is which titles, out of the million books I own, will be coming with me to Western.  In addition to that I'm wondering which DVDs I'll bring (although, a lot of the movies I absolutely love and watch regularly are already on my computer or external hard drive, so that's taken care of). Again, I'm going to list the ones I've already got in my "to bring" pile on my desk (if they're in the same bullet point, they're by the same author, and all the DVDs are going on the same bullet).

• Bible


• Harry Potter 2 and 6 (my favorites) as well as Tales of Beedle the Bard


• Pride and Prejudice, Emma


• Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns


• The Book Thief, I Am the Messenger


• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian


• Hana Yori Dango Volume 1 (in Japanese)


• Mere Christianity, Out of the Silent Planet (haven't read OotSP)


• 100 Years of Solitude (haven't read yet)


• Hunger Games, Catching Fire (haven't read these yet)


• Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Lilo and Stitch, 27 Dresses (maybe), Pride and Prejudice (short version), Doctor Who season 1

Yes I know, there's too many on this list.  Not to mention the couple of reference books I have for Japanese (pocket dictionary, pocket grammar guide, large kanji dictionary and the kanji workbook that goes with it). I'm probably going to rip a few of the DVDs and put them on my computer, but I'm going to make the books fit XD  Not to mention the textbooks I STILL haven't bought. You know what, I'm going to do that right now. Really. Right now.

Days left until Move-in: 14

PS I've started using facebook in Japanese. It makes me feel like I'm not wasting so much time while checking everyone's status updates.