Hello Tokyo

So - I've been kinda-sorta neglecting making any real-live posts that are unrelated to studying or some other triviality, so let me spend my downtime (sick in bed again - my immune system just can't handle the germs of 60+ other people in a cramped dorm without just keeling over and dying with little more than a whimper) making a bona-fide blog post. I made it to Tokyo, and have been enduring orientation week at Temple which is like one part informational, and one part scare-tactics-slash-comedy. I know but two things for sure: Don't touch bicycles in Tokyo, and We're All Doomed to Die in an Earthquake. I THINK that was the general message, anyway. My dorm is pretty nice. My room is, as anticipated, narrow, but I've rather gotten used to living in a linen closet. A short trip or two to the 100 yen shop (dollar store) supplied me with enough plastic containers and random goods to turn this tiny space into a pretty well organized and well appointed pad. The only complaint I have is that if I leave a day's laundry on the floor, I pretty much lose any sight of the carpet, and leaving anything out at all makes the place look like it was shelled. Average sized messes in tiny spaces is kind of an exercise in square-pegging-round-holing. It just doesn't work. The community kitchen is decent and serviceable (aka I can cook there without wanting to kill myself before it comes to life and kills me first like other dorm-kitchen experiences I've had), and I like the living/dining area, and the dorm managers are really really nice. The only genuine complaint I have (gotta have at least one, mirite?) is the shower room. It kind of resembles what I imagine the love child of an airplane hanger and a real shower room would look like. Furthermore, it's gross. The floor is kinda slimy and the main shower's curtain has black mold and sludge all over it. That it was ever considered a place for getting clean almost seems anachronistic, or like a bad joke at best. In other, slightly more scholarly tuned news, I've taken all my placement tests and I placed exactly where I was aiming for in Japanese (Advanced II, yay :D), and managed to test out of having to take any math courses, but somehow ended up having to repeat English composition - the one exam I was so certain I wouldn't have any problems at all with. I don't know. After an Honors Comp/Lit class and two additional literature courses in college, you'd think I could string a few words together. C'est la vie : / Otherwise I'm kinda just sitting on my hands waiting for stuff to happen - I need to wait until Friday to have my application to change my residency status reviewed and signed off on so I can take it to Immigration. And then I can apply for my Alien Registration Card. And THEN I can apply for Health Insurance! And get a bank account! And a cell phone! And a discounted student commuter pass! -- To say that a lot of shit is being held up thanks to this one thing is kind of the understatement of the century. I hate the hurry-up-and-wait game :< And I'm SO TIRED of crap-ass upper respitory infections! RAWR!