When I got back from Tokyo, the dorm was a lot noisier than when I left it; the Korean students had all arrived while I was gone. I dragged myself in the front door well past seven just as they were setting up a big get-to-know-you party in the kitchen. We sat on the floor, ate and drank, introduced ourselves, and laughed a lot. Most of our communication is in Japanese, which makes me realize just how much I've learned. Most of them can speak some English too, so we have that as a crutch.

Three students have arrived since then, one from Montana and two from England. We just went out for drinks and karaoke with the newest arrival, which was fun and helped her get adjusted. Sarah demanded that I sing, but when my song came up she was on another floor for some reason (hah!) We're planning on teaching Pat how to ride a bike at some point so that he can get downtown with us next time.

In other news, I'm in a band. Rawr. Sarah wrote a song; she's got the main vocals and first guitar, Mike is on second guitar, I'm singing backup and possibly playing an electric bass if I can get my brain coordinated, and of course Chris brings it home with the drums. We're still working out the kinks, but we've agreed to perform at the welcome ceremony on the 11th, so wish us luck.

Our placement test is on the 7th, though no one seems too keen on getting around to studying. People are joking about sand-bagging to get into the A class and have less homework. Speaking of which, I still need to find out what I forgot to do for class....