Why English?

Ok, people have been asking me from the start (and before the start even) as to why I blog in English. It seems I should have explained that from the start.
Do I have to remind you that I have lived in three different countries? And I went to a very international college back home in Iceland.
I have friends from all over the world.
Switzerland and Japan of course. Then I have very good friends from/in China, Russia, America, Holland, Sweden. I know people from Vietnam, Mexico, Ghana, Thailand, Poland, The Philippines, New Zealand, Check. And I am probably leaving some out. Like South Africa.
I don't mind in what language you post your comments, just remember that they are there for everyone to see, and not all of them speak Icelandic.
That's why.

Manga & Anime

Manga. Anime. *sigh*
The answer to the question I got in the comments to last blog is no. There is no manga or anime class in this university. There isn't even a literature class! I don't know what I am to do here. I can choose Contemporary Japanese Economics, but somehow, that doesn't really appeal to me.
The bad thing is that it does apply to me. I should take anything that has anything to do with Japan, and at the rate my application for classes is going, that will be the only class left for me to take. The classes I want to take, that are related to my major (Japanese Language and Culture), are all full; all seats taken. Or, like in the case of History, I probably can't take it because I already took a History course back in Iceland that was too similar. I am waiting for an answer about that from University of Iceland.
Æææ.
Oh, before I forget. The first manga I saw when I arrived to Japan was Fullmetal Alchemist 17!

There is a TV in every kitchen here, and there is a kitchen on every floor of the dormitory. Tonight was a special one hour episode of Naruto, Shippuuden on Tokyo TV channel. Too bad I'm not in Tokyo. But, oh well, maybe it is better to simply see it later, and with subtitles = understanding what is going on.
The TV cabinet on the first floor on the Right (AP House 2, Right wing), is full of scattered manga. Inu-Yasha and Video Girl something-else-than-Ai. On top of the TV is a glass box with Dragon Ball Z characters for show. I tried reading the manga when it was obvious that we would not be watching the Naruto Special (they're all special I tell you, all of the Shippuuden episodes!), but they were all in Japanese and numbered 23 and such, so I had absolutely no idea of what was going on. Then we found a Akira manga. They are big, and thick. But this one was also in Japanese. *one more sigh*
We watched this show instead about this little girl, in very yellow and very red clothes with bobbed hair, who wanted to meet her favorite singer. The famous singer was ofcourse an arse, so her dad ended up getting his friend to dress up like the singer, in a white overall, a white sweatband and long hair blowing in the wind and confetty flying around (they provided all of this), to appear in front of her window and sing to her, sometime late one night. It was quite obvious that this pudgy 40-something old man was not the young star he pretended to be, but it was dark, and he wore big sunglasses, and the little girl had the time of her life. Then the movie/episode was over.

I don't look forward to tidying up my desk, it's a mess.

Health Check-up

I can't leave the blog like that.
We had the health checkup today. I was right, it was interesting. Imagine going with the bus the health clinic and go between booths, or stations along with a whole lot of other kids in the same situation. I got to know a few more exchange students while waiting in line in front of various ...stations. I got a chest x-ray. It took one second only, the guy had hardly closed the door behind him when he came back in to tell me it was over. I also had an eye-test. I stood with a plastic spoon-like thing in front of one eye, then the other, and tried to see where on the circle there was a gap. I guess I could have gone with the hiragana, but all foreigners are treated the same. They can't read, so let's give them rings. I had to point in which direction the gap on the ring was, up, down, right or left side of the ring. The nurse sounded surprised when I couldn't answer. Do you think that means I need glasses? I cant' wait for the results. There were more rings that I could not see, than that I could see. I'm curious.
Then they took some blood samples from us. The nurse, in her pink apron, stuck the needle in, and the blood started to leak, slowly, into the tube. It was so slow that I was afraid that she would have to sting me somewhere else, to get any blood. But that didn't happen. When the tube was filled, she changed tubes, and this time, the blood flowed with great force, splatting on the walls of the tube. It made me laugh for reasons I cannot recall, but I know that laughing when you have a needle inside you is not a good idea, you shake too much.
Then we also got the tuberculin test, the little tuberculin thing that is put underneath your skin, and if the skin is red and irritated around that place in two days, it can mean that you are sick, that you are a carrier, or simply that you have had vaccination against it. In other words, it doesn't mean anything.
Ok, I'm tired, it's half past two in the morning already and I woke up at seven o'clock for the check up. The mosquito bite on my shoulder itches. The one on my back itches more when my hair touches it.
Good night everybody.

I'm being mean to you

I was planning on being very positive in my second blog about my exchange program, and make APU look good to the kohai (younger students), but...

As I was sitting in my room, working on which classes to take this semester, the announcement bell rang. The announcement bell is a bell that goes ding dang ding dong before an announcement is made, first in Japanese, then English, then Chinese, then again in Japanese, and again in English, and once more in Chinese too. Then it goes ding dang ding dong again. And this is heard throughout the whole school, loud and clear.
As I was saying, I was studying the all the courses APU has to offer, because as an exchange student, I can take whatever courses I want to, no matter who they are aimed at, when the announcement bell rang. I looked up from my papers to listen when the English version came. It sounded somewhat like the this:
"To all students. Regarding an incident that happened thirty minutes ago with a knife, we ask you to stay in your rooms. If you need to go outside, do not go alone. Go at least two together for protection. According to a witness, the culprit was wearing dark sunglasses and a beige t-shirt. If you see him, do not go near him, as he may be dangerous, and let the nearest staff know."
Five minutes later, Nika called me to ask if I wanted to go out for a bite.
Around ten o'clock, the announcement bell rang again, telling us that the man who had attacked a student with a knife was still at large, and possibly still on campus. They told us to be very careful and stay close to the RAs (Residence Assistant) when we took out the trash. (Trash time is between 22 and 22.30.)
I am now sitting by my computer in my room with a bruise on my arm, a band-aid from the hospital, and a very red and itchy shoulder and back.

APU (Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University)

Main Characters
I: Solveig, an exchange student from University of Iceland to APU in Japan
Nika: My classmate and also an exchange student to the same university


As soon as I stepped out of the plane...
No no no. That beginning has become a cliché. Not that pointing out the clichés hasn't become a cliché. But here is something real, no matter what you think.
When Nika and I stepped out of the plane, someone was waiting to help us get on the right bus to Beppu and APU. It was already completely dark, shortly after nine o'clock in the evening and the heat and humidity was stifling. 32 degrees Celsius. As we sat in the bus, we asked the man how hot it must be during daytime, if it was this high so late in the night, well after sunset. We were quite relieved, if not surprised, when he told us that it was just the same, the degrees did not alter that much.
Then the two hours trans-island drive from Fukuoka Airport to Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University began.
We could see nothing out of the windows. There were no lights anywhere, once we were out of Fukuoka City. No lights except inside the bus, where all the lights were turned on, and so was the television screen in the front, airing a Japanese comedy, it seemed, without sound. I could just as well watch it's reflection in the window, such was the darkness outside. Half asleep, half awake, we sailed through the night, without any idea of our surroundings.
It was not until at our destination, where a few students greeted us with flashlights to guide us to our new homes, that we could see anything. Our bags were put in a car, but we were made to walk towards a sight-seeing spot, where we were to descend some very steep stairs. As we came to the spot, the crickets singing loudly, the earth suddenly seemed to drop down from our feet and the overview of the school campus in a valley and the dark-blue mountains around, hidden half-way in a misty fog, disappearing into the darkness, made all of us stop and stare.
It was indescribable, but I humbly try. (see, Japan is already having its effect on me)

Ok. Here goes.
I did not have many expectations for the school, because I was fine with whatever it would be like. What I wanted was simple:
1. To live somewhere hot, for once. To live somewhere where I can just go out for a walk without having to think too hard about what I have to wear or take with me. To live somewhere where I can sit down in a park, and read a book in peace. Somewhere where I can study outside (to sit underneath a tree, reading for class).
2. To go to Japan and live among Japanese people and learn more about the culture and to get better at Japanese.
3. To live in a city, bigger than Reykjavik, so that I don't have to worry about meeting people that know me if I leave the house to scandalize.
Now, how hard can that be coming from Iceland, going to South Japan?

Here's what I got.
1. APU is on the island called Kyushu. It is the southernmost island of Japan (out of the four main ones, that is). It is 32 degrees Celsius now, and it might possibly snow in Jan/Feb, if we're (un)lucky.
Then why did the man at the orientation talk to us about so much snow that they have to close the school sometimes??
2. The first friends I made were American. The next were Norwegian. The only Japanese person I have been introduced to speaks perfect English.
I don't feel like I'm in Japan here. There is nothing here that reminds me of the Japan that I know and love. The university is so new, everything is in such good condition, and modern. None of that old Japanese building style. And the store is Co-op! Papa, maman, vous vous souvenez de la Coop, non? (yes, I meant to say the store) No ramen shops, no sushi shops, no combinis (convenience stores), no nothing that I recognize.
3. Foreigners that I have met in Iceland make fun of Reykjavik, and call it a town, not a city. I try do defend my beloved hometown... I mean city ! by saying that it's not the number of people that make a city a city, but the number of cultural thingies. Theaters, universities, museums... And Reykjavik has a LOT of those. In 2005 I stayed in Fujinomiya, a town of 121 thousand. That was a town where they had chickens in their backyard, and no movie theater in sight. (They only had one run-down bowling hall where the machine that kept the score kept making mistakes over and over again).
Now I live in Beppu, a city of a 126 thousand. That is a city with two universities, museums, etc.
Reykjavik is a city of a 112, or a 180 if you take the greater area into account.
I was a little disappointed when I found out how small Beppu is, but soon got over it, because it is a city and not a town. It has (at least) two universities, Beppu University and APU, and it has museums, movie theaters, and such cultural stuff.
Now, as you can see on this map here, Beppu City is a city by the sea. That's nice, there is even a beach there. When we go down town, we are advised to take the bus to Beppu Station, and from there walk around or take another bus.
In the upper right corner of the map, there is a search function. Type in 'Beppu Station' and place your cursor over the appropriate choice, and arrows should appear on the map to show you where the station is stationed in the northern part of the city. See?
Oh, Þórunn, you are so going to laugh at me now. Type 'APU' in the search function and place your cursor over 'Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University'.
I live up in the mountains. It takes forty minutes by bus to go down town. And when I say down town, I really mean it. I have to pop my ears every time I go down the mountain, or up the snakelike road. I am not exaggerating!
Þórunn, mamma. I feel your pain.
I feel like I am in Bifröst University you know. Far away from the real world. (I have no Idea how far Bifröst is from Reykjavik.)
Good thing that this unreal world I live in, high up in the mountains, has a very good population. Everyone is so polite that they greet you wholeheartedly when you meet them on the hallways. Of another building that you've never entered before, and you are certain that you have never seen that person before. It's nice. Everyone starts from the point that the other person is a good person and interesting and fun to talk to.
And all of us new people, exchange students and international students as well, we get along really well, and always start with the same questions: 'What was your name again?' 'And where did you say that you're from?'

How come I'm always learning from an institution that is new? First there was IB, in Hamrahlid College. It had only been running for four years when I enrolled, and none of the teachers or office people knew how it worked, and they could never answer any questions. Then there was Japanese at the University of Iceland. That had also only been running for about four years, am I right? And now I'm in a University with only seven years of history. Imagine, the founder of the school is still working here. Kinda cool.

Allright, it's almost midnight now, and I have to wake up early tomorrow morning to go to the health examination. They are going to measure my height, my weight, my blood pressure... they're going to take a blood sample, a urine sample and and ex-ray...
I'm looking forwards to it, its got to be interesting.