UH West Oahu Orientation & Preparation PT2 (July 7-July 11)

Did I mention that while I attended these daily three hour orientation-lectures that we ate constantly, if not all of us than I did. It did not help the matter that nearly every class day we end up ordering pizzas and I end up dishing out money for my share of the pizza. Money of which can be spent with a purpose in Tokyo, Japan. Regardless, it was an good investment for my growling stomach day after day of lecture. Besides these private pizza parties we also as a class decided to get to know each other better by having a karaoke get-together after our last day.

I always seem to forget that our course orientations runs through Saturday because I remember that I was seriously disgruntled when I found out that I had to to cancel a much-look-forward-to-outing with my friends that weekend. If all things went as planned, my friends and I will be moseying on down to North Shore with our mouths stuffed with their notorious shrimps in our mouths on an all-day road trip that Saturday. The lecture sessions completely barricaded me of this. It was with a heavy-heart that I attended the last orientation session with only the aspect of karaoke to brighten my day as the professor droned on about the history and past of Japan that rather it seems meaningless to me. I think the information went in one ear and out the other and my friend, Judy can confirm this.

As the last day of orientation neared to an end, I got really excited about karaoke seeing as I have not touched a microphone for the last few months. As we all arrived at the karaoke place, I could not help but to feel that it was a bit of a deja vu from that other time I went karaoke with the professor in the other class I took from him previously. As I entered the karaoke room I did feel a tad bit nervous and just a bit suspicious of my professors' intentions in the sense that why do we need a get together to get to know each other before the trip when surely there was plenty time for intimacy with each others while we are in Japan. It also made me wonder if this professor taking students out to hang out and sing karaoke is a regular occurrence or activity. And his purpose for doing that because as a student here at UH Manoa I have yet to come across an instructor that feels comfortable and at ease hanging with his students. It was then that I knew that the professor was trying to explain some social aspect of Japan that we have yet to experience.

After the orientation meeting days at UH West Oahu were over, I busied myself into getting the rest of my trip preparations done including purchasing all the readings needed for the course and making certain of all the items I need to pack for the trip. It was rather troublesome to go to Borders' two to three days in a row to get all the books needed to do the homework assignments and yet to worry about making trips to Walmart or Longs to get missing items for the trip. I just wished it was a bit more clear on what readings we needed in the first place or at least had an initial syllabus ready for us at the beginning of the course.

In conclusion, as far as preparation for the Tokyo trip we were not thoroughly prepared but we were given the tools to fend for ourselves. And fend for ourselves we did.