Alysse Abroad

Quite a while ago I went to the Imperial Palace grounds with a few friends for our Contemporary Japan class.  The class requires us to visit a different part of Tokyo each weekend and do "field work" so that at the end of every third week we can pick one place or monument and write a paper about it.  Nobody actually goes to all of the places, but rather picks one to write on and visits it with that in mind, but that's beside the point.  My first paper was on this place, and I think I picked a pretty nice place to go.  We didn't do a whole lot other than look around, take pictures, enjoy the scenery, and get a whole lot of sun, but it was still a good day. So, we went to Tokyo Station, and when we walked out of the station itself, we saw this, which is depicting what Tokyo Station is supposed to look like (what it used to look like). But this is what it really looks like right now..... Saw some Engrish as we walked toward the Palace grounds. It took us a wh...

"Hisashiburi" means "it's been a long time" in Japanese.  "Ne?" is an expression kind of translating to "right?" I've gotten back into the swing of college with homework, essays, quizzes (almost daily), and tests, and it's really sucked up my time.  But I am doing great. The weather has been getting nice here, just the way I like it: no sweat, and the occasional rain. I've been working on getting my schedule put together well and being able to get a good night's sleep, while still keeping up my grades.  When you feel like you're on vacation, it's easy to forget that college really is hard. So, I wanted to check in with all of my loved ones and ask your opinion on something. I was thinking about doing a sort of "day in the life" video, where I record the main parts of my daily life and show you all exactly what my life is like here, from waking up and getting ready, to heading to class, to lunchtime, to h...

So, I guess Typhoons are a big deal.

Apparently typhoons are a big deal.  They cause a lot of rain and wind and more rain, and people in Japan don't like the weather, so typhoons are drastic.  Japanese people like to carry umbrellas with them to protect them from the sun, from the rain, from the wind, from the clouds, and from asteroids, so when a typhoon hits, you can only imagine how many umbrellas are out.  But this is the third typhoon I've experienced and not once has one brought about more rain than California gets during winter time.  But, I suppose I can give typhoons a thumbs up, because typhoon translates to "a possibility that there will be so much wind that the trains will blow off the tracks, so all trains must stop, and since trains are the main mode of transportation in Japan, all classes, part time jobs, and other transportation-necessary events must be canceled, giving Alysse a day off." So, it's raining here, and I get to sit inside wearing my sweat pants and slippers, being a very...

It's a pretty daunting task when you do so many things and don't have the time, energy, or motivation to keep on top of blogging about it all, and it gets backed up like this.  But it's time for me to tackle this task and let you know how fun the beginning of my school year has been! I have done far too many things to blog about it all, but I have pictures to share for some experiences, so I suppose those ones will be the lucky winners! I moved in by simply piling all of my things into whatever bags, boxes, and containers I could find, and making trip after trip between Dialogue House and Global House.  I then met all of my unit mates and got myself settled in.  We had a welcome meeting and later that night we had a sort of welcome party in one of the guys' rooms, where I was able to meet a lot of people and get to know them better.  At one point, I was conducting one of the oh, so repetitive "Remind me your name again?  And where you're from?" conver...

This is the place I will be calling "home" for the next ten months!

This is where I stayed in between my time taking summer courses at ICU and starting my year at Global House.