One Orientation Down...

Helloes!!! Hasn't been that long, has it?

Oh well! Today I went to my pre-California orientation! It's a residential orientation, so kids that were going abroad (to anywhere, not just Japan) that lived around a certain area met up and we had a 7 HOUR orientation. You're probably thinking "ridiculous," right? But it was  surprisingly fun! :)

Most of the kids there (like 3/4 of us) were headed to Japan during the summer. I made lots of friends there! It was super fun! During our breaks we all stood around and we just TALKED and TALKED. Some of the things we were talking about were actually pretty obscure. It was so hilarious! I laughed so hard today!

Orientation (the whole point) itself was actually pretty interesting. We had these huge discussions on culture shock, what to and what not to do, etc. Just some good "survival" tips. However, during one part, they did some sort of fake ritual to us. I'm not going to go into detail, in case whoever's reading this does end up going to orientation, I don't want to spoil it! :) but you should have seen everyone's faces during it. We were all so confused! We found out at the end that it was to help us try to appreciate and respect other peoples' culture. Granted, it was a fake (i think...most likely) culture, but it actually made a very valid point.

A lot of other stuff happened too, but if I went into all the detail then this post would be longer than the 7 hour orientation.

The orientation  may have been mandatory, but I'm glad I went anyway. :)
It really was extremely helpful in many ways, and during orientation it actually hit me:
"I'm going to Japan for six weeks...I'm going to be living with a host family..."

But no doubt I am UNBELIEVABLY excited!

There are actually 3 orientations:

• Residential orientation
• California (pre-departure) orientation
• Tokyo orientation

And then the rest of us will be headed to our destinations (for me, namely, Okinawa!)

Unfortunately, no pictures today. I didn't feel it would have been appropriate to be randomly filming during orientation. Luckily, one of the friends I met did, so during breaks she would whip out her camera.

Well then,
'Till the next "exciting" expenditure!