HIF program has begun

So lots happened yesterday and today. Met my host family, had orientation for classes, met the teachers, heard a bunch of lectures, met the sixty of so other students (well, obviously not all of them, but a select few), got a touch overwhelmed. Nearly all the students are American and from ivy league colleges. All have some experience with Japanese, but it varies. For example, at Lucky Pierrot's today one girl could barely read the flavors of shakes from the menu. As a contrast, some jerk with curly blond hair sitting behind me as i type just blurted out some nonsense in Osaka dialect after being prompted by a harmless joke i made to a supervisor containing a single colloquial Kansai word. Where did he learn it? Why did he feel compelled to demonstrate his skills in Osaka dialect jokery? Why didn't i immediately toss him out the window and into the Pacific Ocean? These remain unanswered.

My host family are way cool. They are a dairy farmin' couple in their 70's who live on the skirts of a small forested area, an expanse of which is directly outside my window. Their house is mostly wood and done up in the Western style with one Japanese room (tatami floors). However, the shoes must come off in the genkan (front hallway) and into the getabako (literally geta, or clunky wooden sandals, box) as usual. My okasan (mom) speaks very slowly and is always grabbing me and pulling me this way and that. When she speaks to me while eating, she often sprays crumbs into my eye. My otosan (dad) is a smiley old man who drives a big SUV and delivers milk to the neighborhood every morning. They really are fun people though. When i woke up this morning, a beautiful breakfast was already fixed for me (what service!). Who knows what fun adventures await me on this upcoming weekend before actual classes begin? (The last weekend i have no homework). I hope we get to sit around the table and stare at each other for hours. Or watch game shows all day. Or drink miso soup until i explode.

I had to take a proficiency test yesterday with my old Japanese teacher from Binghamton (both she and my teacher from Duke teach in this program). She kept asking question after question, seemingly with the purpose of finding my cracking point. She asked me first what my area of study was (environmental management), then asked me to explain what that meant. I can't do this in English. I dread to try and remember what i even said. I was then asked about environmental problems, and she came to New York's garbage dilemma. She demanded of me a solution, whereupon i produced the eloquent argument of, "Just move it somewhere else, where there's no people and stuff." I should then have restated the fact that i have a Masters degree. Then she asked me if i liked any Japanese movies, and i naturally picked one with an incredibly obscure and circuitous plot--"Castle in the Sky", or "Laputa" in Japanese. I shouldn't have been surprised when she then asked me what it was about. I came up with something like "together, robots and humans protect nature." What else could i say? But all in all i was hard to shut up--the linguistic drivel i produced was much like a broken fire hydrant flooding the street--so i suppose that is a good indicator of my speaking ability in some warped way. I'll find out my placement results on Monday.