Today. was. GREAT.

Seriously, today was full of awesome. So so much awesome in one day. First of all; our placement test. It was in two parts, a written part and then an interview with the Japanese teachers. The written part was super easy, and the interview went well too. BUT when they asked me which level of Japanese class I wanted to be in, the slow A class or the fast B class, I said B, and they told me that there was one more written part for those who wanted to try for the B class. That written part? So damn hard. So of course after the test I was all worried... but we went around the campus a bit, and by we I mean almost all of us... which the exception of three... and took some pictures. First, here's part of the KGU campus:

This is the building where our classes are held. It's called Foresight. You think this is all of it?

...nope! There's the rest. I think it's about 10 stories high.

The chapel. It's really pretty in there, but really REALLY hot.

I took this picture to check my hair, which obviously wasn't much help. Then we decided to take some creeper pictures. Let me know which one is your favorite...

Creeper Nicole.

Creeper Alex. Oh shoot my curl is all up in his grill.

Creeper Cassie.

Creeper Emily.

After that, I had forgotten most of my test worries. Then when we were all gathered back in the International Programs center, the Japanese professors came and told us the results...

Emily and I were the only two to make it into class B!!

Class B is shooting for the N2 level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, which is the second highest/hardest level (the hardest being N1, the easiest being N5). I was SOOO relieved! But from tomorrow on, we have to do our best with studying. It'll be really difficult, but I'll do my best!

So after that, I was totally ready for the KGU Welcome Party! It was for us exchange students, KGU's IPO faculty, the buddies, and some friends of the buddies and other students from the college. When I first got there though, Oshii-san (on of the IPO faculty members) called me over to talk to these three...I don't even know, rugby players or something, to make friends with them, because they don't have much experience speaking with foreigners. Umm... Oshii-san, why ask me? I'm not quite that social. But I introduced myself and chatted for a bit throughout the party. They were really shy and... kind of... not the most interesting people to talk to. Oh well, I was sort of happy Oshii-san asked me out of all the exchange students to try to make friends with them.

And Cassie's old conversation partner, Yuka, came too! Here we are:

It had been a long time since I had seen her, so it was really nice!

At the party, we played this guess-who-I-am game, where the exchange students were asked to come up and read the clues in Japanese. I'm about to brag, so watch out: I totally kicked ass reading mine. Like a boss.

Here's a bunch of us at the party:

Here's Yinzhou, me, and a bunch of Nonoka's friends. I hate to say it, but I can't remember... any of their names.

After we talked for ages with Yuka and some others, a group of us decided to go to Daiei, the shopping mall type place that we went to yesterday.

Here's some of us at the Starbucks in Daiei. Notice Emily making eyes at Nicole, I see love a-brewin'.

I decided that since I did well on my test, I deserved a present. So...

You can't see it very well, right... here, let's break out the webcam:

What you see, the belt, vest, and dress were all on sale. As a set. For 980¥ or about $10. I KNOW! What you can't see is the slip underneath it I had to buy, as the dress material was super see-through, which cost me about $20. But overall I bought all of that for only about $30. Oh hells yes.

Afterwards, Cassie, Yinzhou, Nicole, Natsume, Takako, and I went out to eat at this Korean restaurant near the Seminar House. The food was pretty expensive, but SO good. Here are some pictures, I can't tell you the actual names for the dishes, because I don't know...

Meat! Pork, to be exact.


More meat! More pork, I think. Oh shoot, sorry it's blurry.


Food~


This had meat, I think beef this time, onions, spicy (I mean "spicy") peppers, and noodles in it. So good.

And the best part?

That is a Lemon Sour. That's right. There's alcohol all up in that. But apparently not a lot, because
A: I could barely taste it, and
B: I didn't feel tipsy or anything.
But the lemon flavor was really good, so it's something I'll be ordering again. I know some of you are feeling pretty proud of me right about now.

Also, at the party they surprised us with some small gifts. The first was a stamp that had our name in katakana in it. The second was a USB drive that said KGU on it. The third was this sweet t-shirt:

The back:

I suppose it's not all that interesting. The shirt, I mean.

Well, that's about all for today! Tomorrow we start class (at 1:00!!), which is Politics. Heh.

Anyway, I'm going to go get my clothes out of the drier and go to bed!

Goodnight~