Turning to the dark side . . . kind of.

こんばんは!!!

So, here it is . . . Sami's first public blog . . . just for the summer of course. I figured since I'm going to Japan, and I've been yelled at by multiple people that I should send them postcards and letters and such that I'd go ahead and see if I can blog during my trip. This way you can all stay updated on what I'm doing, and I can hear from you. It seems a heck of a lot easier for me to stay in contact.

I know I'm going to miss all of you so much this summer, so I hope to hear from all of you.

Here's my current dates:

Wednesday, May 25 - Finish my horrible Biology final and then pack up all day, and hopefully, I'll leave either Wednesday night or Thursday morning.
Monday, May 30 - Leave from Fort Wayne to Chicago (AA flight 4404: 9:09 to 10:02 am), and then from Chicago to Nagoya, Japan (AA flight 27: 12:45 pm to 3:45 pm - 13 hours!).
Tuesday, May 31 - Arrive in Nagoya, Japan at 3:45 pm.
Wednesday, June 1 - Go on some train from Nagoya to Kanazawa
Friday, June 3 - First day of KIT
Saturday, July 16 - Last day of KIT; leave from Nagoya to Chicago (AA flight 26: 6 pm to 3:45 pm (Yes, it's 11:45 long and I arrive before I leave on the same day . . .) and then from Chicago to Fort Wayne (AA flight 4271 : 8:53 pm to 9:46 pm)
- then drive from Fort Wayne to Terre Haute
Sunday, July 17 - Fast-Track Begins!
Saturday, August 20 - Fast-Track Ends!

Okay, just to make it clear to anyone I might have not explained it to previously.
I took four years of Japanese in high school, and I passed into the last level of Japanese, 6, here. Of course, I can't resist a trip to Japan, and I wouldn't mind increasing my skills in Japanese, since I can't take it here anymore, so I jumped at the opportunity for this KIT program.

KIT is a 6-week summer program for "designed to give participants a rich experience in improving Japanese communication skills, learning basic terms and expressions useful in the fields of science and technology, and understanding Japanese culture and society. " (See the website - http://www.rit.edu/~aep/studyabroad/kit/) KIT stands for Kanazawa Institute of Technology, which hosts the program. So for 6 weeks, I'll be living in a Japanese apartment, sleeping on a ふとん　(futon = mat on the floor - very uncomfortable in previous experiences). I'll be not only improving my speaking and listening skills in Japanese, but I'll be working with Japanese students on engineering-type projects. In all honesty, I don't know exactly what I'm getting myself into, but I'm hoping to have a good time!

I'm actually pretty nervous about the whole situation right now. As if anyone couldn't tell, I'm a little short on time, and I'm supposed to take a train from Nagoya to Kanazawa, and I don't have the slightest bit of confidence in that matter. I'm going to be all by myself getting to Kanazawa, and my faith in my Japanese isn't very high. Everyone says that I know more than I think, I just hope that that's enough.

Okay, then after that, I'll be a counselor for the Fast-Track Calculus program at Rose. I did it last year, and it's pretty insane. We cover a years worth of Rose-Hulman Calculus (15 credit hours) in 5 weeks. It's pretty much math boot camp, but I like math, and I overall enjoyed Fast-Track, so I've chosen to pass on the "joy."

If anyone ever has any questions, I'll always be happy to answer!