This is a brief update to demarcate the worst part in my Japan trip, because if it's not then this trip wasn't worth it. I will explain later, but it involves me perhaps moving out soon. Learn more tomorrow by reading 日本でMY感動!!!
All I can say is that I came here to chill out and explore, not to be hounded by restrictions beyond my understanding. Also, apart from a temporary boost in my Japanese, I'm definitely gaining nothing academically from this trip. At least I can gain an understanding of Japan's restrictions?
But right now, when I am trying to study for a very important test that will determine whether I stay in my Japanese reading and writing class, I do NOT appreciate this shit: having to be reminded about the possible downsides and losses that I could've gotten by going here, reminded that I am a silly distance from home, reminded of things too trivial and unimportant for any one of them to finish this tricolon that I can deal with myself anyway.
What I just don't understand is how hospitality works here. Since when is it hospitable to chide someone on his contradictions when he's trying to make it easier for you to be hospitable? Jesus Christ, give me some help here. This time I'm not using your name in vain.
This shit is bananas. God. The number one thing I want to ask my host family that will not translate in any way is this: can we chill? Seriously.
I notice that today marked the last day for Tufts students to add classes. I also thought that finally being able to buy a cellphone today marked the end of me possibly seriously considering going back home, considering what life would be if I stayed at Tufts, taking math courses, living off campus, totally independent of university housing rules, or at least much more independent than last year, nothing to worry about because I'd be waaaaaay ahead of the game for math graduate school. But did I choose that easy route? No.
If I move out, I've got a Hobson's choice, but at least I can take it: move on. But h-what am I doing here?
And I'll be up and early, on probably five hours of sleep, no more, tomorrow morning. Confessingly not bright, not jovial, ... this communication barrier is too thick. At least my face can do the trick.
I can't help but feel maybe my Japanese teacher was right when she said I shouldn't study abroad. And now I've got to deal with the consequences of my actions.
Sigh.
mardi, septembre 16
lundi, septembre 15
Japan blues
You can't do something big everyday, even if you're in Japan. That's why I did nothing big today, except perhaps you might call it big that I played Shanghai III 2-player with one of the guys here that I met through frisbee. On an arcade machine! That was awesome. I still prefer the old really quick joysticks from that machine we used to play on in Vancouver, Titus.
I did my work today, but very slowly, and I spent too much of the day on the computer. I spent some of it biking, under a slight rain. I also bought a 93¢ umbrella (converted to American, but not including tax) that really did not do its job and made me bump into things while I was on my bike. Probably not using that again.
I biked around out of frustration that my room was too dusty, or that the house was too dusty, or that I was inhaling dust from SOMEWHERE. I think closing the window solved the problem. Maybe it's because of the neighbors' cats, which I'm certainly allergic to. It might also be the fact that I failed to vacuum my blanket, which I certainly should have.
Part two in the saga of the missing gym shorts: when my host mother gave me back my gray gym shorts from the same brand, I reached inside and found something I'd never seen before: a price tag from Barnes and Noble that said Champion athletic. Wait, what? I didn't get these shorts from there... Oops, I just solved this mystery by thinking about it right now while I was typing. Yeah, first of all, the brand's different, and second of all, my mom must've bought one of the presents I gave to my host family from Barnes and Noble. (So the tag from one of the shirts I gave them got sent through the laundry into my pocket.) They've been using the t-shirts and apparently abstaining from eating the chocolate. I can't blame them. Tonight, I finished off this red bean mushy thing from like three days ago (Galen, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't be doing things like this) because I was really craving sugar food (e.g. brain food) and because it didn't look like mold had any effect on it. Well, I feel kind of weird now, and it's from the beans, not the mold if there was any. I think that if I were following traditional Japanese dining rules, I shouldn't have eaten that. To think about how healthy this society is! (At least when it comes to dining. To daily life, that's debatable.)
I'm using my chopsticks that I no longer use for eating as a support for my left wrist, because the laptop is wayyy too hot where my left wrist is supposed to sit.
I have a wicked hard "review test" for my reading and writing class on Wednesday, and the same day I have a vocabulary test, and I don't know how much I have to study just yet. Probably all of the list. Instead of getting ahead for that I was reading my sociology stuff for Wednesday (I'm skipping the econs reading for today) and it wasn't very exciting. Some of the stuff the person was explaining was extremely obvious and just needed some extreme clipping. Didn't manage to finish it, and I need to go to bed now so I can wake up in eight and a half hours.
I'm awaiting your comments, and an email (or two? the nonexistent suspense!!!). I know that everyone else's blog has pictures, but that's not how I roll. If you want pure, unblogadulterated pictures, you can go to my Flickr or the other obvious source. I suppose I should link the Flickr, but I need to sleep waah.
Yeah, I'll put it on the sidebar.
Also, the TV was showing a pretty powerful... argh, mot juste (translation: what's the right word... Flaubert was always looking for the mot juste btw so you know I'm literary)... insight (forget the last words. I've studied surrealism too and at least in France they had fun forgetting what they just wrote down) into the lives of wives who had gone to Iraq and come back completely traumatized. Makes the editorial in the Tufts Daily today (yesterday?) about McCain and winning the war in Iraq (winning? haven't we learned that there's no concrete way to say you've won, especially when you messed up in the first place by going there?) look completely barbaric. I'm filing for my absentee ballot.
I'm sorry that this blog is more personal than Japanese today, but I'm also going to add a little note that Georgia dropped out of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest which is going to be held in Russia. Haha, there was no way they were going to be able to outdo themselves on "Peace Will Come" anyway... maybe they'll send the US in their place?
I was hoping Tufts would have a segment on what the IR and poli-sci professors were saying on the South Ossetian conflict and the US's reenactment of Commodore Perry's 100%-purely-peaceful-nope-yep-nothing-going-on-here-WARSHIP-nothing's-wrong entry into Japan, anyway... really more of my tax dollars are going to stirring up tensions in foreign countries? Enough.
I did my work today, but very slowly, and I spent too much of the day on the computer. I spent some of it biking, under a slight rain. I also bought a 93¢ umbrella (converted to American, but not including tax) that really did not do its job and made me bump into things while I was on my bike. Probably not using that again.
I biked around out of frustration that my room was too dusty, or that the house was too dusty, or that I was inhaling dust from SOMEWHERE. I think closing the window solved the problem. Maybe it's because of the neighbors' cats, which I'm certainly allergic to. It might also be the fact that I failed to vacuum my blanket, which I certainly should have.
Part two in the saga of the missing gym shorts: when my host mother gave me back my gray gym shorts from the same brand, I reached inside and found something I'd never seen before: a price tag from Barnes and Noble that said Champion athletic. Wait, what? I didn't get these shorts from there... Oops, I just solved this mystery by thinking about it right now while I was typing. Yeah, first of all, the brand's different, and second of all, my mom must've bought one of the presents I gave to my host family from Barnes and Noble. (So the tag from one of the shirts I gave them got sent through the laundry into my pocket.) They've been using the t-shirts and apparently abstaining from eating the chocolate. I can't blame them. Tonight, I finished off this red bean mushy thing from like three days ago (Galen, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't be doing things like this) because I was really craving sugar food (e.g. brain food) and because it didn't look like mold had any effect on it. Well, I feel kind of weird now, and it's from the beans, not the mold if there was any. I think that if I were following traditional Japanese dining rules, I shouldn't have eaten that. To think about how healthy this society is! (At least when it comes to dining. To daily life, that's debatable.)
I'm using my chopsticks that I no longer use for eating as a support for my left wrist, because the laptop is wayyy too hot where my left wrist is supposed to sit.
I have a wicked hard "review test" for my reading and writing class on Wednesday, and the same day I have a vocabulary test, and I don't know how much I have to study just yet. Probably all of the list. Instead of getting ahead for that I was reading my sociology stuff for Wednesday (I'm skipping the econs reading for today) and it wasn't very exciting. Some of the stuff the person was explaining was extremely obvious and just needed some extreme clipping. Didn't manage to finish it, and I need to go to bed now so I can wake up in eight and a half hours.
I'm awaiting your comments, and an email (or two? the nonexistent suspense!!!). I know that everyone else's blog has pictures, but that's not how I roll. If you want pure, unblogadulterated pictures, you can go to my Flickr or the other obvious source. I suppose I should link the Flickr, but I need to sleep waah.
Yeah, I'll put it on the sidebar.
Also, the TV was showing a pretty powerful... argh, mot juste (translation: what's the right word... Flaubert was always looking for the mot juste btw so you know I'm literary)... insight (forget the last words. I've studied surrealism too and at least in France they had fun forgetting what they just wrote down) into the lives of wives who had gone to Iraq and come back completely traumatized. Makes the editorial in the Tufts Daily today (yesterday?) about McCain and winning the war in Iraq (winning? haven't we learned that there's no concrete way to say you've won, especially when you messed up in the first place by going there?) look completely barbaric. I'm filing for my absentee ballot.
I'm sorry that this blog is more personal than Japanese today, but I'm also going to add a little note that Georgia dropped out of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest which is going to be held in Russia. Haha, there was no way they were going to be able to outdo themselves on "Peace Will Come" anyway... maybe they'll send the US in their place?
I was hoping Tufts would have a segment on what the IR and poli-sci professors were saying on the South Ossetian conflict and the US's reenactment of Commodore Perry's 100%-purely-peaceful-nope-yep-nothing-going-on-here-WARSHIP-nothing's-wrong entry into Japan, anyway... really more of my tax dollars are going to stirring up tensions in foreign countries? Enough.
vendredi, septembre 12
More frisbee
Yeah, I forgot to mention in the last freewrite that we were practicing our lefty forehands, none of us lefties, and the Japanese guys pretty much figured out how to do it right away. I tried again today and I still can't do it. I just added basically this little bit to the last freewrite, er, blog entry, so, it's there now. Complete.
And I'm completely exhausted. My breath is short right now because I'm exercising too much. Also, the tap water tastes as though it were mixed with perfume, which isn't good. If it's not cold enough, it tastes like tobacco. Oh, and there goes my right ear, starting to hurt. This is the first time in a while one of my ears has started to hurt. I think I need to go back to relaxing again. Hopefully I won't be walking amok all across Kyoto tomorrow. The four of us Tufts-Kansai people are getting together with the Tufts-Columbia people (Columbia has a program in Kyoto) in Kyoto, and the last time I was in Kyoto, I was walking around way too much led by three female tour guides, two of whom were wearing high-heels. Geez.
The last three days, this has been my routine: Wake up at 7:30 (today, 8:30), bike vehemently to school and get there in 15 minutes, which is more than early enough to get to my first class at 9:00 (today, 10:00), in which time I ascend a hill ridiculously steep and basically run out of breath before I reach the top (and the point at which I run out of breath has gotten earlier and earlier), cross the street, and bike a straight shot to the South Gate, and then huff it up two slight inclines, continuing to pedal faster so that I can coast into the bike parking lot, go to classes, sit around in the lounge sometimes, sometimes bored, sometimes conversing with a lively group of people, go to 7-Eleven at least once (if you had told me I'd be going to 7-eleven every day in Japan to eat delicious bread products I would've never believed you), eat usually the same カツ丼(katsu don) lunch every time, play frisbee for 50 minutes with an awesome group of people, including both 日本人 and 外人 (Japanese people and foreigners), toss for another 50 minutes, and leave on my bike, pedaling faster and faster until I get to the hill where eventually I don't have to pedal anymore, hand on the brake to make sure I don't fall into the traffic coming up behind me, balance steady to make sure I don't flip over onto the sidewalk, another smaller hill, the downtown area, and home, where I eat dinner, saying いただきます (itadakimasu, humble form of "I receive") at the beginning and ごちそうさまでした (gochisousamadeshita, it was delicious) once I'm done, do stomach crunches on the floor of the room where the washing machine is (I think this is why I'm sneezing a lot), take as cold of a shower as possible (regrettably 35ºC, as displayed by the water temperature control panel, is not cold enough, and that's as low as it goes), and go to bed, maybe sneezing beforehand, and sleep through the night (except for last night when I woke up and had to sneeze a LOT). Hopefully tonight the sneezing will change, because I intend on cleaning my room.
Tomorrow, it's 京都(Kyoto) time.
And I'm completely exhausted. My breath is short right now because I'm exercising too much. Also, the tap water tastes as though it were mixed with perfume, which isn't good. If it's not cold enough, it tastes like tobacco. Oh, and there goes my right ear, starting to hurt. This is the first time in a while one of my ears has started to hurt. I think I need to go back to relaxing again. Hopefully I won't be walking amok all across Kyoto tomorrow. The four of us Tufts-Kansai people are getting together with the Tufts-Columbia people (Columbia has a program in Kyoto) in Kyoto, and the last time I was in Kyoto, I was walking around way too much led by three female tour guides, two of whom were wearing high-heels. Geez.
The last three days, this has been my routine: Wake up at 7:30 (today, 8:30), bike vehemently to school and get there in 15 minutes, which is more than early enough to get to my first class at 9:00 (today, 10:00), in which time I ascend a hill ridiculously steep and basically run out of breath before I reach the top (and the point at which I run out of breath has gotten earlier and earlier), cross the street, and bike a straight shot to the South Gate, and then huff it up two slight inclines, continuing to pedal faster so that I can coast into the bike parking lot, go to classes, sit around in the lounge sometimes, sometimes bored, sometimes conversing with a lively group of people, go to 7-Eleven at least once (if you had told me I'd be going to 7-eleven every day in Japan to eat delicious bread products I would've never believed you), eat usually the same カツ丼(katsu don) lunch every time, play frisbee for 50 minutes with an awesome group of people, including both 日本人 and 外人 (Japanese people and foreigners), toss for another 50 minutes, and leave on my bike, pedaling faster and faster until I get to the hill where eventually I don't have to pedal anymore, hand on the brake to make sure I don't fall into the traffic coming up behind me, balance steady to make sure I don't flip over onto the sidewalk, another smaller hill, the downtown area, and home, where I eat dinner, saying いただきます (itadakimasu, humble form of "I receive") at the beginning and ごちそうさまでした (gochisousamadeshita, it was delicious) once I'm done, do stomach crunches on the floor of the room where the washing machine is (I think this is why I'm sneezing a lot), take as cold of a shower as possible (regrettably 35ºC, as displayed by the water temperature control panel, is not cold enough, and that's as low as it goes), and go to bed, maybe sneezing beforehand, and sleep through the night (except for last night when I woke up and had to sneeze a LOT). Hopefully tonight the sneezing will change, because I intend on cleaning my room.
Tomorrow, it's 京都(Kyoto) time.
Penultimate frisbee
I've learned about a gajillion new words recently in Japanese, and I don't know how many of them I'm going to actually use. One of them, however, is ほこり (hokori), which means dust, and I had to use that word this morning to explain to my host mother how my room is waaaay too dusty and I need to clean it tonight. I woke up at 4 AM this morning and had to sneeze for about 20 minutes. That wasn't good. Fortunately I fell asleep at like 9:30, but then I went back to sleep at like 5, woke up at 8:30 and the effect is I'm tired. Why???
Hopefully, also, I'll be able to continue in Japanese at the level I got to through the placement test. The "review test" (another test to make sure they placed you at the right level) was extremely difficult and I don't know how well I did. I know I misunderstood "coffee" as "copy" and "sugar" as someone's name. Oops.
I have sociology in less than an hour, so I need to go eat lunch. It seems like I allow an hour for almost everything here, including getting to school but excluding homework. But first let me discuss how awesome the frisbee here is.
I play with both international and Japanese guys and girls, and the Japanese guys have really beautiful throws. One of them (whose name I've already forgotten, argh) can throw a behind-the-back forehand for a touchdown no problem. He did it twice in one game. And when I was tossing with them, they were taking about making their フォーム(form) きれい(kirei), which means beautiful. And they probably have the smoothest throws I've ever seen.
And, lunch.
Edit: Oh, yes, I forgot what throws we were practicing. We were practicing our lefty forehands, none of us lefties, of course. And guess what? The two Japanese guys got it pretty much right away. And today, I tried again and came nowhere close to accomplishing it. Imagine if ultimate became an olympic sport dominated by Japan! They'll have to lower the price of frisbees from 2100円 first, though... because that's just about 20 dollars. (You could probably buy a frisbee online and get it shipped from the US for less.)
Alex
Hopefully, also, I'll be able to continue in Japanese at the level I got to through the placement test. The "review test" (another test to make sure they placed you at the right level) was extremely difficult and I don't know how well I did. I know I misunderstood "coffee" as "copy" and "sugar" as someone's name. Oops.
I have sociology in less than an hour, so I need to go eat lunch. It seems like I allow an hour for almost everything here, including getting to school but excluding homework. But first let me discuss how awesome the frisbee here is.
I play with both international and Japanese guys and girls, and the Japanese guys have really beautiful throws. One of them (whose name I've already forgotten, argh) can throw a behind-the-back forehand for a touchdown no problem. He did it twice in one game. And when I was tossing with them, they were taking about making their フォーム(form) きれい(kirei), which means beautiful. And they probably have the smoothest throws I've ever seen.
And, lunch.
Edit: Oh, yes, I forgot what throws we were practicing. We were practicing our lefty forehands, none of us lefties, of course. And guess what? The two Japanese guys got it pretty much right away. And today, I tried again and came nowhere close to accomplishing it. Imagine if ultimate became an olympic sport dominated by Japan! They'll have to lower the price of frisbees from 2100円 first, though... because that's just about 20 dollars. (You could probably buy a frisbee online and get it shipped from the US for less.)
Alex
mercredi, septembre 10
Work? What's that?
Well, today is the first day I've had to really do homework. Homework is no work for me, at least while I'm in Japan. The real highlight of today was playing frisbee outside with a bunch of awesome people. The lowlight of today was accidentally hitting a Japanese girl in the face at the end of a throw. I was so embarrassed, but she wasn't peeved at me at all, and she kept saying "daijobu daijobu daijobu yo" (it's okay, it's okay, it's okay) so, I guess it was okay. But other than that, frisbee was really fun, and a rather exasperating workout under the simmering sun. And the sun was still simmering at 5:20 when it ended!
I told my host family I would be back at 8:30 tonight because I needed to do some work and play some frisbee. But the language lab closed at 6 (which I didn't know it would because the hours are posted on the INSIDE of the lab) and so I didn't do my listening homework properly. In any case, the transcript of the conversations is provided, and I'm supposed to check my answers on that. I'm going to tell my teacher anyway in case she can see whether I actually listened to the whole file (which is 18 and a half minutes long) three times like I was supposed to. Argh. At least I think I'm going to tell her. Argh, what should I do? I wasn't the only one who didn't listen more than once. Oh well, not like it really matters. The other people can just claim they got it all on the second try. Yeah.
I'm good.
I mistyped that as "I'm god," which I'm certainly not. Geez-us.
My sociology class is going to be so awesome. I'm really looking forward to it. The econs course should be interesting, too, although it went at somewhat of a plodding pace. So did the sociology class, though. And this was all because it was the first day, and the professors here don't have the attitude of the Tufts professors that you should get something done on the first day aside from introducing the course with information that people don't need to write down. And I like it this way, although it also helps that the tuition is lower so you don't really feel like you're wasting money. Either way, let's put this in perspective: I'm in JAPAN. Who cares if I get to relax for once?
Alex
I told my host family I would be back at 8:30 tonight because I needed to do some work and play some frisbee. But the language lab closed at 6 (which I didn't know it would because the hours are posted on the INSIDE of the lab) and so I didn't do my listening homework properly. In any case, the transcript of the conversations is provided, and I'm supposed to check my answers on that. I'm going to tell my teacher anyway in case she can see whether I actually listened to the whole file (which is 18 and a half minutes long) three times like I was supposed to. Argh. At least I think I'm going to tell her. Argh, what should I do? I wasn't the only one who didn't listen more than once. Oh well, not like it really matters. The other people can just claim they got it all on the second try. Yeah.
I'm good.
I mistyped that as "I'm god," which I'm certainly not. Geez-us.
My sociology class is going to be so awesome. I'm really looking forward to it. The econs course should be interesting, too, although it went at somewhat of a plodding pace. So did the sociology class, though. And this was all because it was the first day, and the professors here don't have the attitude of the Tufts professors that you should get something done on the first day aside from introducing the course with information that people don't need to write down. And I like it this way, although it also helps that the tuition is lower so you don't really feel like you're wasting money. Either way, let's put this in perspective: I'm in JAPAN. Who cares if I get to relax for once?
Alex
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