The first thing I did was go to the 7-11 and buy a notebook and a red pen, then I headed toward the school. They told us to arrive about half an hour early so we would have time to figure out which classroom we were in. Being overly cautious, I arrived 45 minutes early. As it turned out, the process of figuring out what classroom you are in took about 25 seconds. I’m on the 4th floor, the 3rd out of 5 level 3 classes.

There are exactly 20 students in the class. Of them, about 15 are Korean. One was from Taiwan. At least two are from China. Then there’s one other American and myself. One of the guys from China sat next to me and we talked a bit before class started. His name was really hard to remember, for some reason. I’ll get it eventually.

There was indeed an initial shock when the teacher came in and began to speak. It wasn’t that fast, but it’s really the only situation I’ve ever been in where I had to understand for a long period of time. She would occasionally ask questions, so there was no slacking off. Initially, it took a severe cognitive effort to follow along. Every so often there would be words that I don’t know. Every so often, I would have to nod after she said “wakarimashita ka?” (do you understand?) without having any idea what was said. After struggling for about an hour though, I suddenly forgot that I was listening to another language. I guess that’s good.

The most confusing part was that everybody except myself had been in a KCP class before. The Korean program (and Chinese, Thai, etc) isn’t like the American one where you just pop in for a summer and then leave. They’re mostly there for at least a year, and start at level one. It was a situation where, even if it were taught in English, I would have been confused to hear everybody around me acting so familiar toward the things the teacher was saying, while it was my first time hearing it.

The grammar point itself that we discussed was probably the easiest part of the class. It was something that I had covered a while ago (verb nominalization — things like: “watching movies is fun”, or “I forgot to bring my pencil”). But around the cracks, there were things like the nuances of certain words, drilling on particles, really hard vocabulary, that made it necessary to keep alert.

Class got out at 12:15 and I wandered around Shinjuku before going home. I had an inkling that I would be spending the rest of the day in the dorm doing homework, so I stopped by Kinokuniya (large bookstore that makes Powells look like Barnes and Nobel) and picked up a book on katakana speed reading for 1200. That, lunch, the notebook and pen, and a green tea that I bought before class made this the most expensive day yet at 2,412 yen. So far, I’ve spent 6,495 yen over the course of 5 days, which is 1300 a day. I still haven’t had to pull any money out of my bank account, and at this rate I won’t have to until just before the mid-term exam. Especially if I get a homestay next semester, or at least a dorm with a meal plan, this trip might not turn out to be as expensive as I thought.

I want to see if it’s possible for me to write a blog entry under 1000 words, so I’m going to stop pretty soon. But not before the…

BONUS BREAD SECTION
I’m trying to make it so that at any given time, I have about 5 pieces of bread in my “closet” (under my bed). One piece is usually sufficient for breakfast, and three or four will make a decent lunch or dinner. In case there’s ever a time when I really don’t want to go out and get something, it’s a good thing to have.

As I mentioned, there are a ton of different types, and the term “bread” that I give them only represents the lowest common denominator. There are still many more varieties than what you see here, but I only decided to start taking pictures of them today.

“Cream Bread”
Presumably has some sort of cream on the inside. I haven’t tried it yet.

“Curry Bread”
Filled with, you guessed it, curry.

“Bacon Mayo Bread”
It has ham on it, too. This is basically the greatest breakfast bread imaginable.

“Melon Bread”
It has something to do with melons. I haven’t tried it. If you look closely, there’s something like sugar baked into the top of it.

“Chicken Roll Bread”
Chicken pieces and I think mayonnaise. It’s more like a sandwich, actually.

“Yakisoba Bread”
Grilled noodles are inside.

“Chocolate Bread”
The bread itself is insanely puffy. There is chocolate all over one side of it, as you can see.

As I get different varieties, I’ll post them. Also, I’ve got some pictures taken, but I’m going to spread them out a little bit.

Things I wish I had:
*A good pillow. I’m getting maximum mileage out of my U-shaped travel pillow, because the only other pillow I have is about half the size of an American pillow and filled with what I think is rice. Is this really a pillow? Or am I misunderstanding some customary rice gift upon moving into a new dormitory.

*A mattress covering. I’m a bit jealous of the one that Thor bought when we were out together. The mattress is really hard, so I ache a bit after waking up. I don’t know about paying 5000 yen for one though, especially since I don’t think I could or would want to bring it home.

*Curtains! I tried to take a nap at 3:00 pm, but the sun was beating directly into my window and across the part of the bed where my legs go. I put the air conditioner on full blast, but couldn’t get it much lower than 31 degrees (C), while my legs were probably about 35 degrees. Something to block the windows would be nice.

*Butt cushion. This computer chair isn’t too comfortable, either.

For the most part, I have just enough to be happy without much luxury. Still, there’s always some way to make life a little more comfortable. I think that’s why everyone’s a big fan of capitalism.