It's only the beginning

Hi everyone,
Let me just say that I hope that when you are reading this, that you are having a good morning/afternoon/night...

So far I have been living in Japan for about 5 day now. When I first arrived, it was pretty late so there was no time to for us to do anything special except go to our dorms, unpack, and have dinner-along with some quick dorm rules for everyone.

My group this year consist of twelve females (two from Bulgaria, one from Malaysia, one from Nepal, as well as eight from the U.S.) and four males (1 from Turkey, one from Malaysia, and the other two from the U.S. as well. As you can see, we are all very different but nonetheless share one interest, Japan.

Personally, it has been a little difficult for me to really connect with all these different individuals but I have still been able to manage. I'm sure though, that by the end of this semester, we'll all be more comfortable with one another.

Other than finally moving in my new home, I have been able to see a few places so far. I still have yet to remember what those places are called but no matter where I go, it's all just so amazing to me.
There is still a lot more I should probably share with you guys but I think it's okay to leave some things out and just keep it for myself.

Anyway, I will be starting school tomorrow-finally-and I'm pretty nervous. I'm nervous because the teachers all have one way of teaching things, by lecture. I'm nervous because tomorrow we will take a Japanese language placement test that will determine which level I will be put it for learning the language here, so I really hope I can remember what I have been practicing so far. Which is why I'll be studying after this blog post. Lastly, I'm nervous of what my grades will consist of by the end of this semester. I have been told that of all the study abroad groups Saint Ben's and Saint John's hosts, that the study abroad group that goes to Japan is the one that scores the lowest. The reason for that though, is because the teachers here have a different grading scale for the school I am attending here. Sure I can say, "Oh, it's not my fault that the scale is different from the U.S.," but I do not want to make that as an excuse. Therefore, my biggest goal for this trip is to study hard and as much as I need to, but I promise I will not let it get in the way of exploring Japan like I have always wanted to.
So until my next post, you'll be seeing how my first week of classes goes.

Thanks for following!


P.S. One thing I really love the most about this semester is that...I have no class on Mondays!