Learn by looking at others

Today I’ve spent my whole day in the library studying for my mid-term in Biological Anthropology tomorrow. I love that class. It’s one of the few classes I’ve ever had that I actually don’t fall asleep under while trying to listen. My teacher Akiko Uchida, is super smart and what I’ve been told she graduated from Harvard and is now working at Waseda and Yale University. She’s added to my “people I admire” - list.
On Thursday and Friday we don’t have any classes, so I’ll try to do something fun but of course I have to study too. Probably I’ll go out window-shopping again.
David is coming to Tokyo soon! Great, we’re all going to the Sophia festival on Friday to watch Itsumi (Japanese girl who was in Uppsala too) dance. And on Saturday or Sunday Kai is taking me to the Waseda festival that is supposed to be fun.
I haven’t done much touristy things here in Tokyo, but maybe I’ll do some this weekend. If not I’ll do them when my mother comes in December.
Japanese girls amaze me, they’re always well dressed with perfect make-up and super high heels. I could never do that. I don’t think any Swedish girl could do that. They’re so small and pretty, you just want to hold them. Foreigner guys love them, but it’s not always good. It seems as if many Japanese girls get used by western guys. It makes me so mad and sometimes I feel ashamed being from a western country. Japanese people treat us so good here but some of us don’t respect them back. Japanese guys are not like western guys, they don‘t touch your private parts when you’re out dancing etc. In Sweden for example it’s common being harassed on the dance floor, you have guys all over disrespecting you and Swedish girls have “learned” how to defend themselves. But Japanese girls aren’t used to that so when a rude western guy comes and is all aggressive I can only imagine how hard it must be for a Japanese girl to tell him to leave her alone. You just don’t do that in Japan, it’s considered rude. And foreigners take advantage of that of course. Not all western guys, but many.
Another thing that makes me feel ashamed is how my country, Sweden, treats foreigners. Globalization is a fact in the world today but to me it seems as Sweden doesn’t invest (or doesn’t want to invest) in the people showing interest in our country. For example when I came here Waseda Uni. took such good care of me, but I don’t think Uppsala Uni. took as good care of Izumi, Rei and my other friends when they came to Sweden. They loved Sweden though, and they never say anything negative about Sweden but I still feel as if Sweden is loosing so much by not caring more. But not only foreigners coming to Sweden for a short period of time but also how people like me that have been born and raised in Sweden, how our country sees us. I’m seen as a problem in Sweden, something to be ashamed of. I’m not even referred to as Swedish, I’m “Second generation of immigrants”. Instead of seeing the potential in people coming from a multicultural background we drive them out of the country. There are people who know how much benefit there is when it comes to international relations but I think that they’re still in minority. I wonder when my country will realize that and start changing?

Finally you'e here weekend, I've missed you so much

Hello everyone! Or maybe I should say goodnight because it’s soon 3 am here. I just came back from Stuart’s birthday party which was fun. We went to a nomihodai (meaning: eat all u want) and unlike the previous times I actually got some food. It was mainly because you ordered what you wanted and not as other times when the food is already chosen. After the restaurant Pia, Brian (Canada), Antoine (France), Paul (France) and me went to karaoke. We stayed for about an hour. Singing really makes me happy. I really need the weekends here so that I can relax a little. This week has been so full of things to do, and not only fun things. Yesterday I had an orientation at a company that hires teachers. They sent me an e-mail telling me to go to their office in Tokyo (a part of Tokyo that’s about 30 min from where I live with the JR line) and so I did. I left early so I had enough time if it would be hard to find (but it wasn’t). I was supposed to be there at 6 pm and when I got there they told me that they had made a mistake in the mail they sent me so instead of sending me a map to the studio in Ikebukuro (that is not even 10 min from where I live with the JR line) where the orientation was ment to be they had sent me a map to the Tokyo studio! And they couldn’t do the orientation in the Tokyo studio so they wanted me to reschedule for a new appointment next week. They wasted two hours of my precious time and then the say “we’re sorry there has been a mistake, do you want to reschedule for next week?”. I didn’t like how their mistake was on my expense (their apology was not very sincere and it didn’t give me my time and ticket money back) so I’m not going to work for them. Maybe if I get desperate for money, but I don’t see that happening, or if I forget how angry they made me.
I’ll write soon again because I’m getting kind of sleepy now…

so much to do but so little time

A month has passed and this is the time known as the time when you should be the most homesick. But I’m not homesick. Not at all.
Today I had my private tutor for the first time and I really liked her. She was very tolerant and she encouraged me a lots. I only have her for one hour a week but one hour is more than zero hours, isn’t it? I also had lunch with my friend Kai at an Indian restaurant. The food is great and for 700 yen you get food, rice and all the nan you can eat. That’s as close to heaven you can get! I haven’t seen Izumi for a week but I‘m having lunch with her on Wednesday. I’m going to her university (Sophia) and we’ll probably have lunch there. Time is just flying now, I don't know what I'm doing with my days. School, gym and homework takes most of my time.
This week Halloween is coming up, and there are many parties. Today I have gotten invitations to three…I’m going to one…maximum two. The problem is that you have to dress up and I don’t have a costume. I can’t believe I didn’t bring one from Sweden :) !
This weekend was great, Saturday I spent with Ayumi, Miu, Andreas and some other people at a dart restaurant. We played games and eate and later I returned to the dorm where Bryan (NY) had his birthday party. It was so much fun, I haven’t laughed so much in a long time. Actually I was laughing at Phelipe (Chile) because he was “dancing” and I think he was kind of drunk, he was so funny. He also tried to put his hands where they didn’t belong on both boys and girls. Latinos, que mas puedo decir…
Friday I went to Ikebukuro by foot with Brian (Canada) and then I went to bed early. I needed that!
Soon David is coming to visit us in Tokyo, that's going to be fun.
That's all for today!
Godnatt!

Waiting for everything

Today is one of those days when I can’t really concentrate on anything. I hate when I get this way, I know that I can get things done well and fast but today is not one of those days. I think that it has to do with waiting. I know that someone close to me is waiting for something awful to happened. I can’t get a hold of him so I hope that he’ll read this soon and know that I’m thinking of him. Ring mig när du kan, jag väntar…
I have talked to two of my best friends at home and it made me happy, I hadn’t realized how much I miss them. Sometimes I feel as if I’m living in a dream. Not reality. And I’ve been gone only a few weeks. If you take the plane at Narita airport and fly for about 11 hours you’re in Sweden. I had kind of forgotten that. I forget things easily, how things were in Uppsala and peoples faces. Strange isn’t it. Lennart and my family are now voices on the phone, it feels so strange at times. As you see I’m having one of those days when you analyze things…to much. I have been thinking about everything I had planned for this year and how I’m going to get those things done. I didn’t come here just for fun, I have to remember that. When I came here I was so tired of working as hard as I did back home but now I’m feeling ready to start working again. Maybe tomorrow…

Photoalbum is updated!

I couldn’t fix my old album because of the proxy-thing, but I’ve a multiply page instead. You can enjoy pictures and videos! Sorry it took so long.
Yesterday morning at 06.39 I experienced an earthquake for the first time in my life! My whole room was shaking and I actually enjoyed it, but it was a small one maybe a 3 or a 4. I wouldn’t want to experience a big one!
On Friday we went to an Italian restaurant and celebrated Enrica’s birthday. It was fun and I actually got some vegetarian food. Saturday I studied an cleaned my room and today I’ll be studying encore une fois! I wanted to se Izumi, Rei and Andreas today but I don’t think there is enough time.
On Monday my friend Jennie has rented a club in Shibuya and we’ll celebrate her birthday there. Japanese clubs aren’t like Swedish clubs when it comes to the music, they don’t have much variation here. That’s only what I’ve heard though, I’ve only been to one club so far.
This week is going to be hard because I have so much to do, but time passes very fast ever since school started. The first two weeks felt like one month. I’m very glad to be here and I enjoy Japan more for each day that passes by. It’s thanks to all the people surrounding me I think, my friends from Uppsala, my new friend from Tokyo and everyone from my dorm. They’re so wonderful. It’s strange that just a month ago I didn’t even know they existed! I know I have a bad habit of repeating myself but I have to say that it’s an extraordinary thing how you meet people. And now I’m a half Indian half Colombian girl who’s born in Sweden but lives in Japan! The world is just amazing.

Sports day

Today it’s sports day, a Japanese national holiday. I went to the Waseda gym that’s very nice and only costs 2000 yen a year. I’ll try to go there often. My weekend has been quite calm, I haven’t done anything in particular because it’s been raining and I‘ve been tired. I’m still tired but I have to study. I have loads of homework. I think that the Japanese way is very good is very good. I really learn the maximum every lecture if I do everything I have to do. My lectures are very effective and it’s because of the pressure. I think that Swedish schools/Universities would need some of the Japanese discipline.
Actually yesterday I went to Kichijoji with Izumi, Rei and Andreas and there we saw really big fish in various colors. There was a park and in the middle of it one could rent small boat like things that were shaped as swans and feed fish with bread. It was great! I love fish. Andreas told me about a saying that says that if a couple come there together to feed the fish they will break up. Lennart really likes fish too and we’ll probably go there when he comes to visit me and it will be to hard not feeding the fish because they’re so big and have such cute mouths. I really hope we won’t breakup!
This week I’ll get my alien card and then I can apply for a work permit. It wouldn’t hurt having a part time job. Tokyo is that kind of a place where everything is more fun if you have money…like the rest of the world.

Japanese, Japanese and more Japanese

I did well on my test today but everything else went bad! As I already wrote before I’m the worst student in my class and I really showed that today. My teacher had to repeat one thing six times and I still didn’t get it. Now I’ve got it though…
I have another quiz tomorrow and I have to do well to compensate my bad oral performance. I’m trying to think about the fact that I haven’t had any Japanese before and the others have. My teacher is nice and she tries to help me.
I haven’t told you very much about Shinjuku yet. I live in Nishi-Shinjuku, that’s about half an hour from Shinjuku station that is the worlds most trafficked station. Two million people pass through this station every day and in the mornings and evenings there is staff there to help pushing in people into the trains. Inside the station there’s hundreds of stores and restaurants. Sometimes you can even se homeless people sleeping there. We always meet at Shinjuku east exit in front of “Studio Alta” a very big ‘depato’ (department store) that has a huge flat screen with music videos and commercials. There are skyscrapers surrounding the station and behind one of the many skyscrapers you can find a Shinto temple. I went there and made a wish and I was surprised of how calm it was. It’s in the middle of Shinjuku but it was very quiet and empty. Beautiful.
I’ve visited Tokyo Metropolitan building and it had a great view of Tokyo. I’m going to publish photos as soon as possible (I’m going to get help at Waseda computer support tomorrow) because it’s hard to explain how big this city is.
I’ve also been to Ginza, Shibuya and Roppongi. Ginza was fancy, we went to a Sony store and they showed us the newest flat screens. It was amazing, you could almost think it was for real and not on tv.
I didn’t go to TGS (Tokyo Game Show) and I think it was the right choice, not really my thing. I don’t like tv/video games very much and I hate exploitation of women’s bodies so TGS is not for me. I read on Andreas blog and he and David seemed to have enjoyed it!
I have to study now but I’m thinking of you all!

Back to reality

Yesterday I had my first school day and my first lecture in “Biological Psychology”. It was pretty good and seems very interesting. My teacher spoke english well and she seems to be very nice. There was one thing I didn’t like though and that was that she said that women and men use different sides of their brains and that it’s genetically. I know people say that all the time but I can’t stand hearing that I’m not blessed with logical thinking as a woman. I don’t believe that at all! But if I don’t consider that little particulate thing everything was good.
I also went to check out one other biology class that I’m not taking to see if it was any good…but it wasn’t. I’m studying the SILS program and all lectures should be in English but this teacher didn’t know any English so he was speaking In Japanese and laughing all the time. I thought he was drunk! My fellow students classes had been exactly like that one with a teacher speaking bad English and mixing it with Japanese. I consider myself lucky but I still have two biology classes that I haven’t attended yet.
Today I had my first Japanese classes. Intensive Japanese and Kanji. I understand why it’s called intensive Japanese because I was exhausted after three hours of it. I think the class was really hard and next time we’re having a quiz! I can’t believe it. And I just have to add that I was the worst in the class because everyone else had studied Japanese for one year or so. I don’t know how I managed to place for that level, and I’m in level 1B! And how can people that have studied Japanese for one year place for level 1B??????? Well, I hope I’ll pass the quiz on Thursday…but the teacher was very nice! She helped me a lot. After the intensive Japanese class I was really thinking of dropping the kanji class because it seemed like to much for me but when I went there the teacher said we didn’t have to worry about exams etc. because she just wanted us to enjoy and learn. So I’m taking the kanji class! I’m still worried since I’m taking 19 credits and the recommended amount of credits is 16. But I really want to take all the Japanese I can and then if I drop one of the biology lectures I would only have 15 credits.
I bought some of my books today, they’re so expensive! I hope they’re worth all the money!
Tonight I’m having dinner with Izumi and later on I’m meeting the international students to sing karaoke. We’re going around 11 pm so I think I’ll be tired tomorrow! Now I have to study for my quiz…