Day 56 and 57: Moving out and First day at TMU

Hello!

Thursday 2nd of April

So today I had everything packed and was ready for inspection from one of the staff members. It went fairly quickly because everything was in order. The only "problem" was all my luggage! All of the luggage in the picture is mine (except the boxes to the left). I actually had to borrow Jimmy's blue suitcase to fit all my stuff....Done a little too much shopping? I think so too... Jimmy had to come with me because he helped me with my luggage. He's way too nice. I actually had to let a few things stay with Steffi, haha. 

 Either way, with some pain on the way we managed to take 3 different trains to Seiseki Sakuraoka station and meet up with the others. They were students that are attending SATOMU: Semester Abroad at Tokyo Metropolitan University which is going to live in the same Share Place as me. We ate lunch on the way before coming to the house.

This is how it looks on the outside:

This is from the hills:

We got some papers to fill out, got to know the rules, got keycards, saw the building and where everything was etc. After that we could finally put our stuff into our rooms. This is how my room is:

 I really like it! It's awesome :D The neighborhood is very beautiful:

We later went to Daiso and the supermarket to buy some stuff we need. I bought some cloth hangers, boxes, slippers etc and breakfast for tomorrow:) We also bought Japanese curry and made that for everyone. It was very good!

After dinner we stayed in the kitchen and talked. Many new faces showed up and we got to know them as well :) Everyone speaks (at least a little) Japanese, so that's making it easier for everyone too.
I was one of the first to go to bed because I was so tired. I managed to clean a little while skyping with Jimmy before going to bed at 22:00.

Friday 3rd of April

So I woke up very early, around 7:00... I was tired but couldn't fall back to sleep. So I got up, took a shower, got dressed and headed to the kitchen to eat breakfast. 

While being in the kitchen I ended up chatting with some of the other residents there (that's not SATOMU). It's a good way of speaking Japanese, even though I have to ask or say something in english. After eating I continued to clean my room and studied some Japanese. Then I met up with some of the others to eat lunch near the station:

 Then we met up with some of the others that didn't join us, to go to the University. At the university we met up with other SATOMU students that live different places. IT WAS SO WINDY!!! 

 Here are all the SATOMU students

I talked to some of the other students, but as far as I know I'm the only one from Norway. Everyone seem to be nice so I think we'll work well together. I especially talked with a Japanese girl, she was way too cute! 

We then got inside and this was my "seat" with a student card and information. We were here around 14:30.

It was a lot of different information that took a while. We then got a break before taking our Japanese test at 17:00. I got my very one tutor! Everyone got one, so that's very nice. The tutor is a regular student that is going to help you. It can be practicing Japanese, or maybe you have questions about school or certain topics. When it was breaktime we went to Subway to eat lunch. We then went back and I got ready for the test. My tutor went home at this point, but e added each other on Line, so communication will go smoother. I have NEVER taken any type of Japanese test, so I though it was hard enough to understand what to do, haha!!! But I wanted to try the N4 lever which is the next lowest one. (N5 is the lowest). I though it was difficult, because I haven't really been studying properly... But I actually got 45% correct! Too bad I need 70% to actually take N4 level~ So either way: I'm taking the lowest level with around 6 others. 3 students didn't take the test because they can't any Japanese, but 2 others took the same test as me, but scored lower. So I'm a little motived by being the best of the worst, hahha!! No, I'm just kidding. But I really hope I'll be able to try to get on a higher level soon. Now it's really time to study!   After the test the others went back to the house while I took the train to meet Jimmy :) Tomorrow I'm meeting Steffi and we're going to have fun at the Omori House :)

じゃ、またね！
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Day 23: Language exchange and visiting Hiro

Hello!

So today I had my language exchange in Ichigaya, Shinjuku. It took about 40 minutes to get to the place we were going to meet. It was at the Borderless House building, since they're the one organizing the meeting. My partner was Moe, a japanese girl that wanted to learn english. Jimmy was so nice to travel with me, because I was afraif of not finding the place. But we did find it! :D So at the meeting we startet with a little self intoduction and filled out some paper work. Then it was 20 minutes talking japanese and then 20 minutes talking 20 english. But the thing was that we were on a very different levels. I could speak a lot more japanese than she could speak english. That wouldn't necessary be a problem, but she was very shy! So I think she was a little afraid to try (and maybe fail)... I spoke a lot of japanese, even when I know it's wrong. As long as she understands it's a good start. So the employee at Borderless had to translate a lot, but we did manage to speak together. We were both going back to the station and taking the train to Akihabara. And on the way there we actually spoke more than we almost did during the whole meeting xD Haha. We scheduled to meet in a week at her shared house. I'm going to study some more for the meeting! :D

After being in Ichigaya I took the train to Asakusabashi (one stop after Akihabara) to visit Hiro! And this we could actually meet :P It was so nice to meet his daughter Aimi! I brought norwegian chocolate and mom's gift to Aimi. Mom knitted a hat and sweater in the "Marius"-pattern, with norway's colors: red, white and blue. Yuki and Hiro were super happy for the gift, even if the sweater was a little big.

 

Yuki made a delicious dinner! It was so good! :D We also ate alot of snacks! I ate candied beans...yeah! BEANS! It was actually pretty good! 

I also got to try japanese calligraphy~ I tried to write Aimi's name, but it came out horrible! Haha! I tried my best... While I was at Hiro's house we spoke a lot of japanese! So it has been a good day, thinking about practicing the japanese language. Jimmy has been doing some shopping for our date tomorrow <3 So I'm looking forward to that! :D

Before my date tomorrow, Steffi and I are going to the hairdresser to do something awesome to our hair. Let's just hope it goes fine, keeping in mind they most likely don't speak english! Wish me good luck!

じゃ、またね！

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