First Day Experience

The day that we, the delegates, have been waiting for has finally arrived which is our first day in school. After almost 12 stations from our hotel and 5-minute walk from the station, we finally reached the campus of the National Institute of Technology, Akashi College and it was just how our professor had described it to us during our orientation, it’s between the neighborhood, has a wide entrance, huge open space, and no guards (but still safe). After a few minutes of arriving, we are directed to a room and when we opened the door we are surprised by the second year students who will be our classmates for the next few days. They are all singing our Alma Mater Song and I was really touched by their effort to actually learn the song and at that time, I really felt their warm welcome to us. After a few introductions of some classes, we are already directed to our respective classrooms. That is the time where we got to talk and interact with our classmates and I won’t really forget how our classmates gave the five of us who were in the Architecture class, a green baller bracelet which they said is a trademark of their class and whenever you will see someone outside the classroom wearing the same baller, he/she is also from Architecture class and that you are free to approach them anytime. Our first class is Architectural Design Studio II, a specialized subject for the class that I was in which is the Architecture class. The class was supposed to continue their project that day which is a concept for a cafe that’s why our professor, who was very kind and approachable, asked us to ask our classmates about the concept of their cafe, because of this activity, the concept of their cafe became a conversation starter with them and we ended up leaving the class with some new friends. Our second class for that day is English that’s why I’m really looking forward to it since we might relate to the lesson more this time compared to the first class since we are really familiar with the language. The professor made us participate in the class by letting us answer a quiz with them and by checking their answers in their graded recitation on the board, We didn’t felt left out of the class since aside from the professors that would incorporate us in our activities, our buddies and seatmates would also help us in understanding some lessons like in our Math class where they helped us in understanding some parts of the lessons. Our final class that day would be Physical Education and I was quite nervous since our classmates said that the sport would be lawn tennis and even though we don’t have enough background knowledge about it, our classmates and professor didn’t let us feel left out by making it to a point to teach us the basic guidelines and surprisingly, by the end of the period, we were already able to play multiple sets.

I didn’t really expect to gain a lot of Japanese friends since it’s only the first day of classes, but I did. Fun is an understatement for what I had this day and I am really looking forward to the remaining days that we have.