Well, we've had a lot of rain in Kyoto the past two days. I figure most people know that a typhoon passed over the country. My Dad told me there were some evacuations? I've been too preoccupied to read anything about it. But, aside from being constantly soaked and suffering from awful humidity, things are fine here.

Sooo, biggest piece of news. I'm returning home at the end of the semester instead of a year. Taking a year off my major is REALLY going to keep me from graduating on time, so I'm trying to work how I'm going to get enrolled in Spring semester at Memphis. Our spring semester concludes on the first day of February, so I'm looking into taking my exams early or seeing if I can start late. Hooray for different school calendars.

What else have I been up to?

I went to downtown Kyoto a couple of days ago. It's very nice, with a lot of covered shops that sell things from anime figurines, to trendy clothes, to traditional wares. There are also lots of restaurants.
I also went to a maid cafe! Well, the group I was in had no clue it was a maid cafe at first, we saw a girl in a cute waitress outfit on the street showing people a menu; we were hungry so we decided to check it out. Upon entering the restaurant we realized that the clientele was entirely male, all of the waitresses were in frilly uniforms (even the female cook had booty shorts on under her apron!), and there was J-Pop and K-Pop music playing. I only bought tiramisu, but it was quite good and cost only 200 yen.

I just finished my second day of orientation as well. I'm all done with my placement tests, thank goodness. It was very nerve wracking, but I tried not to worry about it too much, since I'm really just taking Japanese for my own personal enjoyment and don't need the credits anymore since I decided to focus on my photography when I get home. It takes off a little bit of pressure. We've learned a little bit about campus during some seminars. There are two more days to orientation, and on the final day I'll find out my score on the tests and what classes I am to be placed in. Supposedly the teachers who conducted our interview portions will most likely be the ones teaching our classes, and if that's the case my teacher seems quite nice.

I'm starting to miss food from back home quite a bit. I try to cook for myself, but on campus I don't have much choice but to purchase from the cafeteria. The one open right now serves only Japanese style food, but there are other cafes and we have a Subway on campus (don't hurt me Josh, I really want a sub sandwich and you can't airmail me Lenny's...) I've been eating lots of rice, pasta, curry, tofu...I need a steak. Or a slice of pizza.