SILS Opening Ceremony and Activities Fair

 

Yesterday was the opening ceremony for the School of International Liberal Studies at Waseda University. It was held in Okuma Auditorium, named after Waseda's founder. 

Here is a shot of the side of the auditorium, but I'll get a shot at a better angle to include in a later blog post. 

This is the inside of the auditorium from the top balcony. It's actually pretty huge and the acoustics were amazing. The opening ceremony essentially consisted of the dean of the school making a speech and the rest of the professors introducing themselves in various languages. 

Then there was a random performance by four guys in an acappella club (guess Waseda is more like UVA than I thought) called Street Corner Symphony. 2 out of the 3 songs they sang were gospel songs, which I thought was sort of weird...but they were pretty talented. 

 

After the ceremony was over, we attempted to walk over to the SILS building, where they were supposedly providing us free lunch. This was easier said than done, as the school activities fair was in full swing. I was bombarded with at least 50 flyers from different clubs (the belly dancing club seems to really want me to join), and I'm ended up signing up for the American football (aka football) club just to make the guy leave me alone. 

I took some pictures of the fair after I pushed through the thickest part of the crowd.