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This Is The Life

I am really enjoying my time here, settled into Global House.  I have been in Japan for two months so far, and I have enjoyed every moment of it.  But, during the past two months I have felt like I was on vacation.  Don't get me wrong, I love being on vacation just as much as the next person, but now I have a new relationship with Japan.  I have started calling Tokyo "home."  Don't worry, America is still home, too, but I am really comfortably settled in here, and I'm loving it.
So, this is just a post to check in and assure everyone I love that I am as happy as can be, despite missing you all very much.
My dorm room, which I will show you later, feels very homey to me.  It's my own room, and my bed is finally comfortable (really comfortable).  Even though it smelled strange in here when I moved in, I found a candle for 99 yen and I light it whenever I'm in my room, so it smells like brown sugar all the time.  I also always manage to have a great time with the people around me, and I feel like I've gotten quite close to a few people, even though I have only been here for less than a week.
I volunteered to be OYR (one year regular, aka exchange student) representative and I have found myself enjoying the benefits of my first real leadership role.  I have been working on organizing the dorm for our initiation week, during which each dorm's group of OYRs has to dress according to a theme and perform one day during the week.  Our theme is ganguro and charao style (see the pictures) and we will be performing a few dances.  It's pretty hectic, but I have been told that my efforts are appreciated, which is good to know.
We have been having a lot of orientations, having to register for classes (we finalize it tomorrow), and are doing a lot of meet and greets and parties to get to know everyone from Global House and from other dorms.
On top of that, we are all deciding which clubs we want to join, and I am considering a tennis club called Footloose (my unit mate Emi is in it) because I have always enjoyed tennis, but I am so incredibly bad at it that I may just cause the court to combust.   If I don't decide to face my extreme tennis handicap, I will join a martial art, most likely Karate or Shorinji Kempo.
I love being so immersed in my life here at ICU already, and I'm sorry that I still haven't gotten up my Kyoto and Osaka posts, but I haven't forgotten.  But now I need to go, because I'm going to watch a Japanese horror film with my unit mates and a few other people.
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