Okay so I made it to Akita on Monday, and now it's Thursday night, which means I have been here for four days. Throughout the past four days I have unpacked my belongings into my dorm room, met my roommate Miki, and suite mate Reina, gone to eight different orientations, taken a Japanese placement test and additional oral interview, and have met people from all over the world (Japan, the U.S., Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand, Australia, England, New Zealand, Ireland, Cypress, France, Germany, Mexico, Canada, Spain, China, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Morocco, Norway, Lithuania and more.) A rather entertaining evacuation drill took place today. After evacuating to the parking lot, gasoline was poured into this huge metal basket and then lit on fire, and a few of the students got practice using the fire extinguisher. Then a few students climbed up a ladder onto a fire escape balcony and got to practice releasing and climbing down the built in ladder. It was pretty exciting. I've been quite busy and tired lately, but I promise to get more Akita pictures up soon with more info about my awesome suite mates!