I am so excited to learn this

Yesterday I did end up going to the Japanese Lantern Festival, and it was actually really cool. There were tons and tons of people there (seriously, like MN State Fair amount of people) and lanterns all over the park. I went by myself but I actually ended up running into two other girls from my program while I was there so I hung around with them for a while. I drank bubble tea and had some fried Chinese noodles. There were even fireworks at the end, which followed some hardcore Japanese band that some people were moshing to. Interesting, huh. I ended up walking back to PSV by myself at 11pm, which I didn't particularly like because a) I had to walk up this giant hill, b) it took forever since I took the street instead of going through the park, and c) I was super paranoid of something bad happening, even though I had my phone and the street was deserted of people.

Today, we had our first day of International Student Orientation. Apparently there is an average of 5,000 international students at UofA at any given time - bigger than the entire student population of Gustavus. Weird to think about. There was a powhiri where I saw traditional Maori dance, called Kapa Haka. The video is of the last dance that they did. Seriously, if you can see, check out their faces! There were tamer Kapa Haka dances as well, but I seriously enjoyed this and am looking forward to learning how to do it!



After the dance, we went inside and had tea and sandwiches and then got a ton of information about international resources and events. I got lunch and then headed off to the city treasure hunt. The city treasure hunt was not super fun because it was raining and we walked everywhere and my knees were hurting. In my group was another IES girl, a guy from Singapore, and two girls from Sweden and Denmark. I was really excited about the Danish girl (she was from Copenhagen) but she actually got on my nerves quite a bit during the treasure hunt. She wanted to walk EVERYWHERE and was a control freak. Oh well though. She was fairly nice? And so was everyone else. I ended up going to the campus bar afterwards and just hung out and met a bunch of people. I met a girl who lives in PSV from Norway and we eventually walked back to PSV for the barbeque. The BBQ was okay (free meal!) and then I hung out in a flat (with almost everyone that was at the BBQ it seems) since it was someone's birthday, and met about thirty people over the course of 4 hours.

I think one of my flatmates may have moved in? Stuff has been moved around at least. So I'm hoping that I meet this flatmate tomorrow or something. It is likely that if this person comes back later tonight and I'm still awake that I will have a panic attack. No really, I will panic and think someone is coming into the flat to steal from me or something. (Thanks Mom and Dad for making me so paranoid all the time.) My biggest complaint right now is the intense fear I have of the cicadas which have invited themselves in through the open windows. :( I know they're harmless, but they're also about 2 inches long and two of them are inhabiting the hallway outside my room right now; I think another 4 or so are up in the living room. Seriously. Intense fear of them flying into me or for some reason being able to bite me. :( :( :(

Anyway, tomorrow I think the only thing I'll be doing will be going to Quiz Night, which is from 5-7 . Hopefully I'll register in time, it should be fun. Other than that, probably going grocery shopping (the fun never ends) and if it's nice I might go to the beach. My nose and forehead are peeling from my sunburn, but overall it's not bad.

I know I've said this, but I'm definitely not missing the MN blizzard. No way. Hope you're all staying safe though!