Today was a pretty relaxed day. I woke up quite early at around 7:45am in order to avoid being late to the Matriculation Ceremony, which opened at 8:30am. I felt embarressed and shamed enough from being late yesterday to the Academic Orientation, so I didn't want to repeat that mistake... and also didn't want them to think badly of me.
Anyways, after waking up, I got all spiffed up, showered, and headed downstairs at 8:25am. The church is literally just around the corner so I didn't need that much time to get there. Ironically I was now one of the first people from our UC group to get there, so that was nice. Before leaving, our dorm parent Toni Tomita-Sensei commented on how another advisor called him earlier to make sure that I wasn't going to be late this time... (-_-). He also commented on how I was missing a belt (._.) anyways, I showed him that I didn't need it because It was tight enough to stay on by itself... He was probably just critiquing my style since I'm on his watch-list. (Way to put me on a guilt trip right?) While he may be strict, and really scold/remind me of things that I did wrong Mr. and Mrs. Tomita are a really nice couple. They watch out for us, while staying strict to the rules and make sure we don't disobey them...
Speaking of which, Toni-san commented to me that my roommate came into the room late at around 4:00am which I find a bit odd knowing that he knows, but there are security cameras in all the floors (except for the rooms). I guess it's for our safety, but it's kind of surprising how closely watched we are. He actually WATCHES the security tapes to make sure we're not violating any of the stringent rules all safe. Anyways, creepiness aside, they're great people and are looking for our best interest while also following the rules such that the system will work smoothly. Everything in Japan seems to work smoothly since all Japanese are quite hard workers, and efficient ones as well due to the fact that they don't slack like some Americans sometimes do. They put in quality work, and do their best in everything they do (or so it seems) while we seem to be quite the minimalist society; get it done with the least amount of time, or least amount of money used.
The Matriculation Ceremony felt like it was quite lengthy, but in fact it was only 2 hours long. However, I got there 1 hour and 30 minutes before it started, so I just hung around for a while. During the ceremony, they had speeches, lots of congratulatory applauses, some Christian prayers, gave us some MORE forms as well as our Student ID cards, and acknowledged each one of us by name for getting into ICU. When they applauded for all of our accomplishment I actually felt quite proud and it felt nice. Being a non-religious person, I could have done without the prayer, but considering this is a Christian university, I could respect it. Some people actually told me that not a lot of people on campus are actually Christian. Anyways, we sat through the ceremony and before I knew it, it was over.
Following the ceremony, all students were photographed on the lawn in front of the church, which was quickly followed by Lunch which was provided free of charge at the Dining Commons. In order to wait for everyone to get there before eating (and before grace) One of the administrators introduced all the faculty which numbered at around 20 or so people. One of which claimed to be the creator of the ATM (I looked ATM on Wikipedia, and unfortunately, his name never popped up), which was pretty awesome. The lunch was all delicious. I filled my plate high and finished it all with ease. Two Japanese regular students talked to us about a "party" (Dinner Reception) that was happening on Sept. 27th and that we should all go. It was funny because they were in box outfits. One was.....wearing a hat that said GREET? while another was wearing a cardboard armor type thing... It was quite funny.
After lunch, I relaxed at my dorm room for a bit, changed out of my semi-formal clothes, and had a chat with my Dad through Viber. I had to talk to him because I had questions about Financial stuff basically. I still need to call Union Bank about being abroad, but that now seems much more possible since my awesome Dad put money into my Skype, which will allow me to Call anyone's phone from around the world for a small monthly fee.
At 1:40pm, I had to leave for a Library Tour. Basically everything was quite normal. We had to swipe our ID card to get in, there was an automatic check-out, a computer with the database to find books, etc. BUT it got really cool when they showed us the mechanized book retrieval system that was at the basement of the Library. WE WERE ABLE TO SEE IT. It was awesome... no other word can describe it. These machines would grab books from shelves that went very far back, and used some type of claw / conveyer system to get what books were needed.
Anyways, from the Library until now, I have been doing busywork. Mostly it was listing everything that I had to do (Crazy to-do list) and e-mailing people that I needed to e-mail, finish talking to my Dad, working out which classes I'd take, and FAFSA loan stuff. I STILL have to do laundry and fill out shit tons of forms, but I mean right now it's only 7:33pm so I think I still have time.
Tomorrow I have another early event to wake up for....THE DREADED PLACEMENT EXAM for Japanese....I found out through e-mail that if I get placed into a Japanese Course that I've already taken, the UC won't give me credit (since it's a repeated course) but it will still count to the UCEAP credit requirement, which is good! I don't really want the credit anyways, I just want to review my Japanese. While I may be enthusiastic now, however, I heard that both the Placement Exam as well as the Japanese Language courses are extremely hard, so I will probably take the option of reducing the amount of units it's worth, as well as making it P/NP.
Welp -- it's been fun! I've had a lot of free time so it's nice to just kick-back and relax (Granted I don't have any pocket money on me to do anything, LOL). And it's been good getting shit done.
Anyways, until tomorrow everybody!!
Andrew
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