Pre-Day 1 - I'm Learning Japanese I Think I'm Learning Japanese

Before you pat my back for the witty twist on an 80's classic, I'll admit I thought about this post 2 months ago and have been waiting ever since to make it. If you still think it's pure genius, I guess I'll accept the recognition.

Today was the first official day of the program, and as you can imagine I was pretty keen on finding out more about what the hell I'll be doing for the next 3 months.

9AM: Orientation

Luckily I set two alarms because the one at the hotel didn't go off (go figure). Being that this was technically my first day of school I decided to dress my best; jeans and a t-shirt it is. I got ready pretty quickly which left me with some time to read my e-mail, which is a good thing because had I not I would have never learned how to

"Show your girl a huge explosion as I used to do Buy this product now and all women will be yours It’s the best thing you had ever seen!"

After finding out a bit more about the Nigerian Prince who wants to give me half of his $15,000,000 inheritance I got a call from Claire, one of the other REU participants, and we decided to go to orientation together.

The orientation was brief but interesting. They explained the purpose and history of the program, things we could expect, and other miscellaneous information.

10AM: Walking Around

After the orientation, Ashley (the REU coordinator), Claire (aforementioned participant), and I went around the building to meet people and for me to get better acquainted. Apparently Claire knows everyone, so it was really more Ashley and I watching her catch up with people, which was rather entertaining to be honest.

Noon: Lunch

Lunch was pretty uneventful. I met my advisor, Dr. Bender, and had to bite my tongue to avoid making Futurama references.

2PM-5PM: Japanese Lesson

After lunch we went over to the other side of campus to meet Sakakibara-Sensei for our first Japanese lesson. Tim (one of the other REU's) and I had a relatively easy time for the first lesson since we'd both done some lessons on mp3's ourselves, but it's always fun to see someone struggle with the language for the first time. Words like "hajimemashite" become "nanawakam...no no, this isn't right at all, what was I saying?" I had to stop myself from laughing because I kept thinking of the scene in Office Space:

Bob Porter: We'll be getting rid of these people here... First, Mr. Samir Naga... Naga... Naga... Not gonna work here anymore, anyway.

After Japanese class we went back to the hotel and took a bit of a break, went to watch the USC game, and then came back to the hotel where I'm about to finish this post to go brush up on my Japanese. Sayonara.