After spending a few hours after she went to bed rereading my old Japanese textbooks again to try and get back up to snuff (I'm rusty as hell, which does nothing for my confidence in conversing), 12:30 rolls about. I pack up a basic bag'o'stuff in my handy dandy messenger bag I love so much, and head off to the orientation a scoche early.
This is the first time since I got here I've actively ventured out of the APU House (my dorm), so I dutifully bring along my camera as I start to get the lay of the land. I see that a miniature farmer's market-type deal's been set up on the front steps of my dorm, which I both not-so-dutifully forget to photograph, but also don't think of buying anything just yet.
APU's campus and dorms are bisected by the highway, so there's a nice walkway and bridge above said highway, with a delightful 3-story column of stairs (and an elevator, but meh, screw that) to get to the campus proper.
APU's campus and dorms are bisected by the highway, so there's a nice walkway and bridge above said highway, with a delightful 3-story column of stairs (and an elevator, but meh, screw that) to get to the campus proper.
This here's the view from that walkway looking out at the highway I came in on.
And looking straight down along it.
I can tell I'll be getting some nice incidental exercise just from walking to class, which is a nice bonus.
APU's a pretty recent University, having
only been established back in 2000. All the buildings are brand-spanking new, and though kinda tiny for what most people would think of as a "University," you can't beat the scenery. This is the view that'll be welcoming me each morning from the walkway onto the campus proper. Not too shabby.
only been established back in 2000. All the buildings are brand-spanking new, and though kinda tiny for what most people would think of as a "University," you can't beat the scenery. This is the view that'll be welcoming me each morning from the walkway onto the campus proper. Not too shabby.
It's situated up in the mountains outside Beppu, which itself is a smaller town of Japan, but sits out on a bay on the northeastern side of the main island of Kyushu (southernmost section of Japan, opposite side of the island is home to Nagasaki, and the Ryukyu Islands of which Okinawa is a part trickle off the end of Kyushu to the southwest). It has the fresh open air smell that you'd recognize and enjoy immediately if you've been out camping or hiking the Appalachian Mountains; it's the rainy season here, and it's a delightful dose of familiarity, and a wonderful departure from metropolitan smog.Orientation's pretty well straightforward, there's 30-some-odd people in this year's Summer Gateway Program including myself, so I take the opportunity to finally talk to some people that I know I'll be spending the next few weeks with. We're introduced to the Japanese language course teachers, the program director, and a small contingent of our "APU Buddies," other international students at APU (for longer terms than us, obviously) that we're paired with for the duration of the program. There's a lot more activities than I was first led to believe during the span of these 2 months: in addition to the Nagasaki and Farmstay weekends, there's such things as 2 Tea Ceremonies, a Beppu Scavenger Hunt, Calligraphy, and numerous other nifty Japanese cultural oddities.
As a bit of an icebreaker and bit of fun before we head off on the campus tour, we play a game they dubbed "Jankensen." Janken is just the Japanese name for Rock Paper Scissors, and the particular object of this rendition is to walk around the room, and when you come up to someone, you do a round of Janken. The loser then follows the winner around, conga-line style, going up against each other group in turn. The more a person wins, the longer their Jankensen (as in Shinkansen, the bullet trains) becomes, until the whole group is one big train. Seems a bit silly, but it was fun and more relaxing.
Off we go on the basic campus tour. On the first floor of the building Orientation was in lies the Co-Op store, a handy little all-inclusive stop for anything from basic groceries to school supplies to books and even bus tickets. Continuing down the main avenue shown above in the walkway, this shot's from the approach to the center of campus, accentuated by a cool fountain that's in the right of the frame. Turn left at the fountain, and you look out at the shot of Beppu seen above.After the slightly rushed campus tour's over, we head into the classroom building (picture right above, building on the left) for our placement tests. Since my last class was 8 years ago, I'm naturally a little worried over this. While I've been rereading my old textbooks, something which I'll still be doing in the duration to shake the rust off...reading to oneself and actually conversing are quite the radical departure from one another. Given how much language training I've had thus far, I was tentatively placed into the Japanese C level, the highest they were offering.
Much to my surprise, the 2-part written exam we get was far more simple than I was expecting, covering perhaps the first half to 2/3 of my first old Japanese textbook. I went through that pretty easily, having expected something much tougher, and fraught with a great deal more kanji.
The interview, however...hi2u panic. 1-on-1 interview with the instructor where I was decidedly nervous, though managed to read a full passage with only 1 or 2 kanji I couldn't remember, and a series of questions I did...okay at. The teacher seemed rather surprised when I told her that it had been so long since my last class, but was quite nice about it all. I was the second person of the 9 placed into that level to finish the written and do the interview, so I got to then wait out in the hallway with the few others from the placement tests who'd finished, all of us chatting about what we've learned and how we thought we did.
Following the placement tests was a short little video about guidelines for the on-campus fitness center gym hoopty, which I tried not to openly cringe with the over-doctored text accompanying the bilingual voiceovers (there's only so much you should do with the emboss feature of Photoshop, I swear). In addition to the stair climb and walk I'll get daily, I've weight machines and treadmills at my disposal, which will definitely be nice to occupy a few afternoons or weekends.
There's an hour until our welcome dinner, so a few of us wander
over to the co-op store to buy some snacks, drinks, or other food-related miscellany to stock our mini-fridges with. Among other little delights and kitschy drinks, I picked up a teriyaki burger which I can apparently microwave...we'll see how that turns out. Back towards the APU House we go, and stopping this time at the little farmer's display out front. I picked up some nice bananas, a bag of apples, and just to give 'em a try despite the fact they weren't such a great deal, a little pack of strawberries. Across the road in front of APU House 1 is a Yakitori stand, which I was mighty tempted to patronize were it not a scarce half hour until a large meal of free food.Stowing my new acquisitions in my dinky little fridge, I scarf down a banana and head off to the dinner. I meet up with, and meet a few more new people, expanding my new acquaintance circle, something which puts me steadily more at ease. Like I said last time...traveling alone sucks. We meet our APU Buddies, mine's a guy from Korea whose name I can't fully remember right now, which is driving me a bit batty. The results of the placement test are in (speedy work, which is nice~), and I get to stay in the C level, which means that all the credits I need will transfer back, which is precisely what I wanted to hear. Worry level goes down yet another notch.
Dinner's pretty tasty; fried chicken, sweet and sour shrimp, roast beef, and quite to my surprise and delight, paella. Sitting down with one of my new acquaintances and his APU Buddy, I and mine dig in, and chat a bit. My Japanese vocabulary for speaking has become pretty shoddy, also hindered by my nervousness in speaking it with people I've only met 15 minutes before, so I'm a little quiet, but able to translate some of the more complex questions my new erstwhile companion has yet to learn. My buddy's also kinda quiet and seems to feel a bit awkward, his English is about as nervous as my Japanese, so small talk is a wee shaky. After a round of desserts, including fresh cut pineapple (huzzah~), I retire early, feeling more than a little tired...physically and of the moderately sized social scene .___.
I took a bit of a longer detour about campus, snapped some of the above photos, and made my way back to my dorm room. I need to hand in my little move-in evaluation so I can get the one flickering overhead light fixed, as well as figure out how to get my bleedin' a/c unit working. Fortunately I've a nice large window I can open which lets in some cool air right by my desk.
Time for a little reading, perhaps some DS'ing, a little more review from the old texts, and then off to sleep I go on the new Super Monk Slab™. Tomorrow's our shopping excursion down to Beppu proper...I plan to get myself a new, larger friggin' pillow for one, check out the Hyaku-En shop (dollar store for all intents and purposes), and have some local delights, such as some tonkatsu ramen. Photos and a new post will ensue.
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