What happened on my first two days at Kyoto Seika

So.

First day- Monday IN DETAIL



There's a gathering of the whole department, all four years in a big classroom. We are two exchange students and we sit a bit off the rest of the classes. I'm the one of us that don't speak japanese. Some teachers stand in the front and talk and talk and talk. Ok so everything is going to be in japanese, I think. Then the students of the first year have to line up in the front. I think they are introducing themselves. Sometimes the audience laugh a lot. Even if I don't get what they are saying I can tell it's awkward. Every one of them ends their talk with "joro shik-u on-e gaj-shi mass". Then applauses. They are done. Then every other year have to stand up from theyir chairs together at a given signal and get some applause. And then it's our turn, says my friend who understands what is going on. So we walk up there in front of all the 100 students or so and I excuse that I don't speak japanese and introduce myself as "Maria from Sweden who studies in Holland, joro shik-u on-e gaj-shi mass". But instead of applause there's silence. Everybody just stares blankly into space. And at last an applause. And then my friends turn. I don't know if there's anytime in my life that I've felt so socially lost. It's not really bad.. everybody looks at us in a polite and curious way so it's fine but, well. Yeah. You get it. No clue of what's going on over and over again.

Later on we follow the teacher team into their coffee room to drink coffee. And they continue to speak japanese. And then, at last, some guy with a beard tells me he's been to Copenhagen many times, he intends to have a conversation with me! In english! And more teachers turn to me in english, and they look at my portfolio and ask interested questions and compliments my works. We are shown to a really big studio space that we will share with a phd or master student. And that's it. No classes for us, kinda cut off from the rest of the class. Total freedom to do whatever we want.

Second day - Tuesday.

I eat this in the canteen:


A green croissant-like bread with a rice cake inside, and inside the rice cake there's sweet red beans.

We meet up with our supervisor, the wood carver professor who shows us to use chisels and a little japanese tool with a similar function as a cheese slicer (OSTHYVEL).

I start making the hole.

We take a break and hang out in our professors room a bit. He says we should have sushi some day. Then we go back and I continue with my hole.

Deeper.

That's it.