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While some people went out on the first night of orientation in Chicago, I passed out. Staying up all night the night before to pack will do that to you. The orientation was fun, but it was strange to have the limbo place between me and Japan. I'm really glad that the program made such an effort during orientation, because after two weeks of enjoying my American life, it was much easier to get into the process and get excited than it would be if I was coming in cold. The downfall was that it was hard to reorganize my friend group every minute as I realized I’d probably never see that person again because they were placed on the other side of the country. At dinner that night we ate by prefecture and I got to hear some interesting stories, including one about kanchou, which if you know what it is, you’ll know it was a hilarious story and that you'll definitely want to ask me about it sometime (*cough* Brad *cough*).
All things considered, I'm glad we stayed at the hotel because it meant that I got to say goodbye to my parents at the hotel instead of in front of the whole world at the airport. My mom was a trooper though, bless her heart. Now that I'm suffering from +14 hour JET lag and it's 5 in the morning, being a night person who sleeps late into the day is working out in my favor.
We were herded around a lot the following day, but through some process of a busy airport, heavy luggage,12 hours on a very warm airplane, and countless conversations of varying levels of enjoyment, I ended up in Tokyo. Oh, and it was cool because we got to sit in a fancy lounge with free deliciousness where I had a wonderful conversation with a group of people while drinking free Courvoisier. The plane ride itself wasn’t so cool because it was way too warm, I couldn’t sleep, I forgot my Japanese language textbooks in my checked luggage, I couldn’t find the damn old man in my Zelda game, and I felt kind of sick, which of course then made me terrified that I had swine flu, which would mean they couldn't let me into the country. I didn't, of course, it was just bad air on a warm plane, but you always think the worst when something is really important to you.
The only good thing was that the plane was Japanese, so it had a cool videogame feature instead of just in-flight movies. I played Tetris for a good 3 hours of the flight...Maybe more.
All things considered, I'm glad we stayed at the hotel because it meant that I got to say goodbye to my parents at the hotel instead of in front of the whole world at the airport. My mom was a trooper though, bless her heart. Now that I'm suffering from +14 hour JET lag and it's 5 in the morning, being a night person who sleeps late into the day is working out in my favor.
We were herded around a lot the following day, but through some process of a busy airport, heavy luggage,12 hours on a very warm airplane, and countless conversations of varying levels of enjoyment, I ended up in Tokyo. Oh, and it was cool because we got to sit in a fancy lounge with free deliciousness where I had a wonderful conversation with a group of people while drinking free Courvoisier. The plane ride itself wasn’t so cool because it was way too warm, I couldn’t sleep, I forgot my Japanese language textbooks in my checked luggage, I couldn’t find the damn old man in my Zelda game, and I felt kind of sick, which of course then made me terrified that I had swine flu, which would mean they couldn't let me into the country. I didn't, of course, it was just bad air on a warm plane, but you always think the worst when something is really important to you.
The only good thing was that the plane was Japanese, so it had a cool videogame feature instead of just in-flight movies. I played Tetris for a good 3 hours of the flight...Maybe more.
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