Classes have begun in full swing, and it is a great time to begin the semester since the cherry blossoms are in bloom. The day of the entrance ceremony, for instance, was capped off with us getting to take photos underneath the tree in the front of campus. That was amazing and even my usual routes are being sprinkled with cherry blossom leaves so I can already tell I am going to miss these views when they are gone and will be very sad if I don’t see them bloom next year. For now, though, the scenery has greatly improved my first exposure to my new class routine, which I’m especially grateful for since I need to adjust to that now. I take seven classes this semester that each get one in-person meeting every week, and those classes are not scheduled in a neatly structured way like I was used to having at Tech. Instead of having classes neatly filed into Mon/Wed/Fri and Tue/Thu, for example, most days I only have one class—one of those being a 9a.m. class on Saturday—with no classes on Monday. The less strict structure of what counts as my “work week” and “weekend” have somewhat uprooted my typical habits. I am adjusting just fine and making sure to relax when I can, though.
In fact, getting the time to settle into my new normal has given me the time to gather my thoughts about how different my living situation is. Firstly, being so far away from my family is heartbreaking and I am only beginning to realize how much of a privilege it was to have my loved ones so close to me. It’s equally lucky that I can still talk to them from overseas. Secondly, having a living space completely under my supervision has revealed just how little experience I have with this kind of responsibility. I’m not incapable of cleaning up after myself, obviously, but I am a novice when it comes to scrubbing the hard-to-reach places and I had to rediscover where to buy cleaning supplies and what kind would work best for me. Luckily, convenience stores really live up to their name here and supply all kinds of helpful tools. Consider that a free tip from me.
Overall, I am glad that this new environment is helping me learn about myself as well as Japanese culture. It makes me feel like I am going to intensely miss this place when I leave, and I haven’t even had the chance to see a lot of it yet.
– Titus
