Day One

Well, Day 1 is over. It wasn't a particularly busy day, but it had its challenges. George and I went and had lunch at AGU, chilled out in cafeteria and observed the students. George immediately decided he didn't like them - they seemed way too cool for his liking. And I could certainly see his point - every guy looked like he'd spent an hour doing his hair and putting his earrings in before he got to class. And every girl looked like they'd put an entire bottle of hairspray into their hair and picked the highest heels they could find to wear. And those few who weren't dressed up like that, were usually in sports uniforms, as AGU has a big sport focus and has quite a few strong teams in different sports. But we were challenged by the story of Jonah, not to pre-judge the people at AGU. Jonah had decided the people of Ninevah were evil and not worthy of God's grace, but God had other plans. Likewise, the students at AGU might seem too cool for the Gospel, but God may well have other plans.

We paired up with two of the staff (Takeshi and Masayoshi) and went out to meet some students, chat with them, see what they were like and find out what we could about the campus, as we knew nothing really. I was with Takeshi who speaks basically no English, so that was challenging, then add to that trying to talk with Japanese students who also spoke little to no English and I was in for a mentally tiring afternoon. It was tough, and I didn't understand everything that was said and I had to concentrate quite hard, but if I keep it up I'm hoping my Japanese will improve a lot more.