Monday, December 31, 2007

Papa

Papa invited us for lunch at a nice nearby restaurant. Thank you, Papa. Lunch was delicious.

He is such a sweet person as DG is, wearing a smile always. And I like that Papa and DG keep a good relationship. I hope Papa stay healthy and happy.

It was sad to leave, but I couldn't change the tickets because they were cheap and therefore unrefundable and unchangable :( But it was really cute that E (DG's 2-year-old nephew) tried to say, "Duck, stay here." Oh man, I'd love to. E, don't make me cry.

I'm grateful from my heart to DG and his family and friends for their hospitality. Visiting and seeing them is the wonderful year-end event in my life.

New Year's Eve Party

DF kindly came to pick me up at the airport, and she took me directly to their family friends' New Year's Eve party.

There were four couples (including DF and MF), their kids and tons of food at the house. American home parties are always plenty of food. They eat and chat ... a lot, and I had a good time to get involved :)

We celebrated a new year with champagne at midnight, and saw fireworks from the windows of the sun room. A happy New Year!

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Local Community


DG and his friends who share similar taste of music played music at a local bar. After long drive (for me) coming back from Toronto, setting up instruments, drinking tons of beer and playing music would make me exhausted, but DG was tough. Well, he's young anyway.

Their music, well, was new to me so that I can't say either I like it or I don't like it. But compared with other musicians, I thought they did better job. You may say favoritism :)

More than music, I appreciated the atmosphere of the bar where local people who know each other are hanging, sharing similar values.

While we were hanging at the bar, it started snowing. It was so beautiful and romantic. In general, I prefer warm weather, but snow is a different story. Well, I admit that I'm a wayward person :(

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Awesome!


Oh man, Niagara Falls are amazing. It was freezing cold, but it was worth going closer to feel mist from the falls. It's really soothing. I love the falls!

... But, DG and his friends were not as excited as I was. No wonder, because they are all from Buffalo and have seen the falls several times in their lives. Instead of the falls, they got excited to go to Lego Brick City in the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. Kiddos.

After Niagara Falls, we moved to Toronto. The center area of Toronto reminded me of the Shibuya crossing, with neon billboards on the walls of skyscrapers (well, buildings are much lower than those in Shibuya, though). I just peeped Toronto, but it seems to be a neat little city with diversity.

I appreciate very much that DG remembers I love the falls. Thank DG for taking me there, driving all the way and treating me good :)

Friday, December 28, 2007

Lovely Cards and More ...


DG kindly came to the airport to get me. I was relieved to see him relaxed. Phew, it made my day.

He took me to a nice, little restaurant on the way home, and gave me more Christmas presents: a card, photo frame with Oregon photos, CD and gift card ... I was embarrassed because I didn't bring any presents for him :( His card was so sweet. Geez, he was so good to me that I almost cried.

His sister (J) is also nice to give me a lovely card and cute teddy bear. More than that, she supports my relationship with DG. It would be not enough to give her a thousand hugs to express my gratefulness.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

My Barista


I have a barista here who brews coffee every morning only for me. Her name is Barista HF!

She's so cute. One night, she asked me, "Duck, what time will you get up tomorrow?" "Well, around 9:30?" Next morning, when I came into the kitchen, coffee had been ready. DF told me that she never taught her how to use the espresso machine. Wow, HF may have learned how to do by watching her mother, then.

Barista HF never fails to ask about the taste of coffee, like, "How was your coffee?" MF teased me that I'm so brave because HF's coffee might be too strong or too weak. But non non, her coffee is perfect. I like it. Thanks, Barista HF.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

2.8 liters

Before ...

and after.

This is a 2.8-liter bowl which DF's mom (C) gave me as a Christmas present (Thanks, C!). It's foldable (Cool!). And DF teased me, saying that it's like breast implant. Before, it's flat, and a second later, it's inflated (Huge!). That's hilarious.

Oh well, I can't carry 2.8 liters in each breast (5.6 liters in total) because I'm so used to my small breasts. I'm enjoying my prestigious (?) membership of the small breasts club :)

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Haircut


Yay, after four months, finally, I had my hair cut! DF's niece gave me a haircut (as usual, in fact, every time I visit DF, I ask her to give me a haircut). My hair is light now. Thanks, D!

The Crowd

After haircut, a crowd of people came. Yes, seriously it was a crowd people ... and tons of food. The crowd was people who I know (most of them, not all of them though), so it was nice to see them again. Everyone of the crowd seemed to be healthy, and that's really good to know. Oh, well, I feel old because I have become to worry about people's health more than anything.

Anyhow, I think I ate too much. I'd better give my stomach a break tomorrow :(

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Grant's Farm


DF's neighbors took DF, HF, me and other neighbors to Grant's Firm which is owned by the Busch family. Yes, St. Louis is the birthplace of Anheuser-Busch Co., the largest brewery of the world!

Unfortunately, I didn't feel good today because I was catching a cold. But DF knows how to drag me out very well. "Duck, they serve free beer there. You will have two glasses of free beer!" OK, I'm in. What a simple person I am.

During Christmas season, Grant's Farm is decorated with thousands of lights. It was neat (and it was very American Christmas decoration, I thought). A couple of shows were on, and kids were glued to them. While the kids were attracted by the shows, I was glued to free beer :)

Friday, December 21, 2007

With My Own Eyes

Oh, man, I'll never take that surgery. Never!

DF took me to her hospital and let me observe a surgery. Ho-ho, I was excited, but at the same time, kind of scared. You know, there's no operations without blood and needles. I don't like both of them. Yeah, you can call me wimp.

Anyhow, I was given an opportunity to observe a breast implant surgery. The patient is 20-something years old, and she was excited to go through the operation. After all check-ups and paperwork, she was sent to the operation theater and went to sleep under anesthesia.

And ... show time!

The doctor cut open under her breasts, and push her finger under the skin to make room for silicon bags ... that's gross. I felt like seeing a splatter movie or something.

I was standing on the platform set at the patient's feet until then. But I couldn't stand because my stomach became sooooo upset. As a nurse suggested, I gave up standing and had a seat a littler far from the patient. But I kept watching because this was a good experience to see a surgery with my own eyes.

Next, the doctor pushed a vinyl bag into each breast to inflate them to see how the shape would be. After adjusting the size, those vinyl bags were taken out, and silicon things were put in instead. It was weird to see the girls' breasts suddenly becoming big (huge! 400cc each!). It's almost like Hollywood special effects ... gross.

The unbelievable thing (for me, but maybe it's normal for nurses) is nurses were talking about food during the operation, beside the bleeding patient and the doctor pushing her finger in the breasts. Oh, I cannot be a nurse :(

CD & DVD


Oh, man (again). This is lovely! This guy (DG) did an awesome job. Music is beautiful, photos are great, jackets are original, and his haiku ... I'm overwhelmed.

Sharing the DVD that DG sent me here with DF and MF was something too. Now, they know who DG is. I think the impression which DM got from DG and the one which DF got from DG are totally different.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Finally in St. Louis

Saying bye to DM and CM was sad. I wonder when I can be spoiled by them again.

Anyhow, DM dropped me off at the airport (again). And luckily, my flight was confirmed, and I succeeded in catching a plane. Good, very good. But that's the story of the flight to Atlanta.

There was a delay in Atlanta ... damn it. Well, delay is much better than cancellation. And the delay was not so bad, in fact, that was only 30-minute delay. Don't complain. OK, no complain.

DF kindly came to the airport to pick me up, and I'm here in St. Louis. It's nice to see DF and her family. It's been two years since I visited them lat time, but I have a "Hi, neighbors" kind of feeling each time I see them. Yeah, they are very at-homey people to me.

But, man, kids are big now. They were babies when I saw them for the first time. The oldest son (16) is soooo handsome, man. I knew that. The twins and HF are also beautiful (and cute). Oh, I love them.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Again?!

Damn it! My flight was canceled again. Well, it was not cancellation, but the airlines didn't allow me to get on the plane! It's because of cancellation of the flight between Eugene to Las Vegas. When it was canceled, the airlines should have rearranged every flight after that, but they didn't. Come on, airlines, I'm a frequent flier.

At the airport, a guy at the check-in counter tried to fix my problem to put me on the plane. Yeah, he was a good guy. He couldn't do it at the counter, however, he sent me to the gate, saying he would issue a ticket at the gate. So, I joined the long line for security check and reached the gate just 10 minutes before departure. Then I found the guy at the counter wasn't there. Airline people at the gate were suspicious about me, asking why I could come to the gate without a ticket. Well, in fact, the guy at the check-in counter issued an "emergency ticket to get to the gate anyway" ticket which was collected at the security check before I reached the gate.

In a minute, the guy at the check-in counter called them to explain my situation, but the result was ... the airlines couldn't fix my problem by the time of departure. Instead, they gave me a seat of the same flight tomorrow. Damn.

I was supposed to visit HF's elementary school to talk about Japan tomorrow, but I can't. HF must have been excited to show me off to her friends. Sorry, HF:(

DM kindly came back to the airport to pick me up, and now I'm back at his place to enjoy another beer, yay!

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Where's A Border?


DM took me to the other side of the Organ Mountains. We were going to drive up to the peak of the mountains, but the road was closed. Damn. So, we changed our plan and decided to drive farther across the desert. It was so quiet (and empty) there. I understand why some people love the desert, I think. They love this quietness, apart from noisy, troublesome, modern life. I liked that quiet atmosphere, but at the same time, I felt scared because there's nothing, no food, no gas, no civilization in the desert. What if we run out of gas? What if we run out of food? That kind of idea scared me.

On the way to the nearest town across the desert, we got in trouble. We went through a checkpoint controlled by Border Patrol. What's the hell Border Patrol?! We were not crossing borders, neither national or state. We were just driving across the desert in New Mexico.

Anyhow, there was a long line of cars to pass the checkpoint in front of us. Here came our turn. The officer asked DM, "Are you an American citizen?" and DM answered, "Yes, I am." Yes, he is. Next, the officer asked me the same question. I answered, "No," because I'm not an American citizen, and I didn't need to lie, right? He asked me for documents to show that I'm a legal immigrant. Unfortunately, I didn't carry my passport or I-20 document with me because we were not going to cross national borders, you know. Why do I have to carry those? Then, can you imagine what happened? Yes, we were put aside for the secondary interrogation. Geez.

A few minutes later, a different officer approached our vehicle, and asked me other IDs. I gave him my student ID and driver's license. He also asked me some questions like which country I'm from and which state I'm from. Because I told him I'm Japanese, he lowered a barrier (I guess), and went to check my records. Another few minutes later, he came back, and told us that I was easy to find out because my last name is unique. Well, my name is common in Japan though. He warned me to carry my passport and I-20 document all the time even when I move around in the country. (That's ridiculous and humiliating!) But we found that he was a nice guy with normal sense. I'm glad to know that those officers with authority are not always mind-controlled by the ideology of the (hawkish) dominant group.

Well, it was a good experience because at least I wrote it down in my blog.

Organ Mountains


Oh, man, the Organ Mountains reflecting sunlight when the sun set were amazingly beautiful.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Dying River


Global warming is right here. Rio Grande is dying. This river used to have plenty of water, but now it doesn't reach to Gulf of Mexico. I wonder how people who live along the river are surviving.

DM gave me inspiration about how environmental changes threaten democracy. Yeah, right, he is right. In addition to the economy which I thought affects everything, other things including the environment are all related to democracy, the future of democracy. It's scary but at the same time it's a very interesting topic to think about.

I found a cool graffiti beneath the bridge over Rio Grande. And while I was taking this photo, dope dealers were doing business in my sight. Oh, well, I admit I'm in America!

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Professional Conference Should Be Fun

DM let me observe a presentation of one of Ph.D. students in his school, not from his department though this afternoon. His topic was something like archaeological remains on the moon or something which I couldn't understand. So, I didn't have any opinions on his context, but I had a say about his presentation style. He just read his paper in his presentation. What surprised me is that one of professors commented that his presentation was almost perfect and all presenters at professional conference read papers. It was a practice for him to go to a real professional conference in the near future. But, what? At professional conferences, every scholar just reads their papers? That's not interesting. Boring, in fact. I want to have eye contacts, a sense of humor, passions from presenters as an audience, you know. I told this to DM after we were dismissed, and he agreed with me. Academic presentations must be fun in a sense to reach out not only academic people but also people from outside the field, that's what I believe.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Sick of It

Oh, man, what a crying day. I cried all day today after I had a hard conversation on the phone last night. CM and DM were patient to listen to me, hug me and kiss me. They are really like parents to me. I really appreciate that I'm here with them. Without them, being alone to go through this hard time, I would go crazy. DM and CM love me, support me and respect me. So, I understand that's why they do not tell me what to do to get over this situation. They just left it to me. I am the person who decides. I know their opinions. They liver much longer than me and have much better perspectives and insights on people.

... and at night, I had another arguing conversation on the phone. I'm now tired of this.

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Billy the Kid


We went to "Billy the Kid" town, well, the real name is Mesilla, which is one of the oldest towns in the States. The town looks like Mexico, to be exact, my image of Mexico, with brown brick houses and shops. It's a nice little town to walk around and feel a small community atmosphere even though it is a very much tourist town.

I found a little Mexican looking post office there and thought it would be a good idea to send a postcard from there. And I bought it at a souvenir shop, wrote a message, and went to the post office to get some stamps ... and I realized it's Sunday. Yes, it was closed. Geez, I've already lost sense of day.

Anyhow, it was sunny, peaceful, slow day. Organ Mountains in the distance were so beautiful reflecting sunshine. I had a negative image of desert, but desert is not that bad, I think.

Friday, December 7, 2007

Before I Leave

I wanted to see DG once again before I leave here to New Mexico to see DM and CM tonight. I had an appointment to see SR to see if she's OK after chemotherapy in the morning. I told that to DG. And he also had a school thing which he had to handle in the afternoon. So, I thought he would call me when he finished it. I waited he call, waited, waited ... I felt almost like a teenage girl. Just at the moment I reached my limit to wait, he finally called and told me that he was also waiting for my call. Oh, lost in translation.

Anyhow, he kindly came over. What makes him special and adorable is ... his thoughtfulness. Even though he knows himself he doesn't like DM at all because DM insulted him (But it was not DM's fault. It was my fault. DM just tried to protect me), he wrote a Christmas card to DM and CM. Ah, I'm really in love with this guy.

I will miss him so much.

The Funny Thing is ...

My flight was canceled, because of sick fight crew. That&s ridiculous, you might think. But it is a small airport, and therefore, airlines do not keep standby crew as they do at big airports. Well, that's the way of small towns.

Anyhow, they rescheduled my flights, and I'm going to take a morning flight tomorrow. At the airlines counter, the clerk asked me if I had someone to pick me up, and I said no. Then he put me in a hotel. OK, well, staying at a hotel is much better than going home because my flight tomorrow is really early, at 5:40. It means that I have to check in as early as 4:40. I have more time to sleep if I stay somewhere closer to the airport. That was what I thought. But I was wrong. I popped in on a hotel shuttle bus and realized, when the bus stopped in front of the hotel, that I actually came back to town. I should have recognized the hotel is in town when I heard the name of the hotel, Valley River Inn. There is a shopping mall called Valley River Center, and I know that, don't I? Yes, I do. The hotel is located just in front of the shopping mall. I couldn't stop laughing.

And guess what I did. I called DG to come to see me, and we spent some good time over a couple of beer at the hotel bar. That was a nice surprise :)

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Hell

I can't forgive myself over what I did to DG last night. I hurt him bad. And now I'm so scared of losing him. He would never come back to me.He's far from me. I was stupid. I was careless. I was rude. I'm losing my important person, and that feeling makes me miserable. I'm so sorry for him. I can't blame myself enough ...

Don't Apologize to Me


DG took me to Florence to see the ocean. On the way, in the car, he apologized to me. It's not his fault at all, but it is MY fault. I'm the person who deserves to be blamed of. I appreciate his efforts to fix the relationship and try to be calm. I understand his feeling and situation. He could kill me. I deserve to death. He is my important person. I know that, and I should have showed my respect for him. I'm so sorry, and I'm really grateful to him. I will never hurt him again.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Celebration of the End of the Term

I feel I have been waiting so long for this day when DG is finally free from school stress.

We went to a Thai restaurant to celebrate liberation from school work. We had a bottle of Chardonnay, a couple of main dishes, which turned out to be tasty. But I'm glad to see DG's relaxed face, more than anything. Congratulations, DG. And thank you for treating me good.

Monday, December 3, 2007

Very Last Paper

Yay, I'm done with everything in this term! I've just handed in the very last paper. I'm through. I'm overjoyed at that I've survived!

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Donald


Don't tell me. I know I have work to be done by Monday. But every time I have something to do, I want to do something else. As usual, I did something else. I borrowed a book from the library.

Here's my excuse. I wanted to read this book, "How to Read Donald Duck," from the beginning of the fall term, but I couldn't read it during the term because I had tons of reading as coursework. Now, the term is over, and I'm free and I have time to read something other than mandatory reading materials.

Well, I will have my paper done later tonight or tomorrow :( Am I pushing myself to the edge?

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Term-End Celebration

My cohort got together at Excelsior to celebrate the end of the fall term. Yes, we have survived! J arranged the lunch of celebration for us and treated us. Geez, we should've gone Dutch, but she insisted. She is too much. Not only she is sweet but also my cohort itself is a group of sweet people. I'm grateful to be among them.

Final Paper

Yay! I handed in the final paper of JW's seminar. I'm free, I'm free, I'm free at last! Oh, well, there is another paper due next Monday, but it should not be a big deal, compared with JW's final paper. Let me celebrate with IPA!

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

No Email

Well, I haven't received an email from the complaining student yet.

Sometimes I don't understand those students. One student emailed me, saying, "I have concerns about my essay and want to talk in person," and I replied, "OK, then come over during my office hours," and the student never showed up. Where did his concerns go? One student sent her paper via email, "I'm intimated by the professor, so please let me hand this in to you." Oh, man, you should know that the electric version is not acceptable. That kind of stuff.

I gradually understand that university teachers are having a hard time to handle those young students.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Complaining Student

Oh-oh, I got a direct complaint from a student about my grading. Yes, I graded his essay and gave it a poor mark because he didn't follow the guideline which the professor indicated. The guideline says the essay must discuss ONE medium (television, radio, Internet, newspaper, magazine,or whatever), but what he did is to refer to The Economist, The Financial Times and Reuters. Excuse me, all three are different media: The Economist is a magazine, The Financial Times is a newspaper, and Retuers is a news agency. Well, I understand that he wanted to discuss "financial stuff" in his paper, but I couldn't give him full points because he ignored the guideline.

Anyhow, he came to me after class and insisted that The Economist is categorized as a newspaper and Reuters publishes a financial paper for ordinary readers. Really?! I don't think so. I asked him to send his evidence via email. Now, I'm waiting for his email.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Check-Up

Because suspected hemorrhoids (well, irregular bleeding, actually), earlier period, and this and that, I went to see a doctor this morning. I was thinking of seeing a practicing doctor in town during the weekend because I had irregular bleeding again and it lasted two days this time. I was worrying that it's getting worse. If so, seeing a "real" doctor must be better, I thought.

But my bleeding had stopped, and I decided to go to the health center of the university instead because it might be cheaper and easier to make an appointment. And luckily, there was a cancellation, and the doctor saw me right away.

Oh, I don't like gynecologic visits at all. Each time, regardless of countries, I have to answer very personal questions (well, related to sex life, of course) and sit on the table with legs wide open (embarrassing ...).

To get to the conclusion, there was nothing to worry about. The doctor checked everything from a pregnancy test to microscope exam, palpation, sampling and whatever, and concluded that I'm not pregnant, and my thing seems normal, clean and healthy. Though we have to wait for the results of a couple of lab tests, the doctor told me there would be no problem.

Then, why did I have irregular bleeding? It's because of my age and stress, according to the doctor. When you get older, your body tries to reproduce as much as possible, and it causes bleeding in addition to regular period, she said. Gee, I feel much older now. Also, stress from graduate school is a big issue. Yeah, I know, graduate school is crazy here.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

A Week Has Gone By?!

Can't believe it, a week has gone by already since I last uploaded a blog?! Well, this week, many things happened, but I didn't have time to post blogs.

On Thursday, GM invited us, new doctorate students and families, to Thanksgiving Dinner at his place. That was great with good food, easy friends and adorable kids. More than anything, I was glad to feel like belonging somewhere. They accept me, ant that's great because I feel lonely almost all the time here :(

Friday was AS's DJ night, so we went to see him at the club. And I had a couple of gin, mm, I love gin even though I know it contains tons of sugar. Gin reminds me of my days in Cardiff. Oh, I'm sentimental now ...

Yesterday, I was kind of crazy, grading. I blamed myself of ignoring grading for long. I should've started earlier, and I wouldn't be stressed out. But it was too late to regret. Just grade them!

And today, I continued to be crazy, grading. But I managed to finish it in the afternoon, and that was a big relief for me. Thank Buddha, my lip didn't break this time. After grading, the final paper for JW's class came. Yes, I should've started this earlier, I know that. But again, it was too late to regret. So, I just did it! I managed to form the essay, quality aside, by 10, not a.m. but p.m. of course. Now I'm waiting what DM would comment on it. I know he will criticize it a lot, but at the same time, I know it's good for me to improve my writing.

Sentimental


I feel more and more lonely here. It's kind of contradictory because I'm supposed to feel more comfortable with my cohort, and actually I do. And I have DG. But ... I'd better not be too serious about this, otherwise, I would be depressed. Christmas break is coming soon, and I will see DM and CM who accept, spoil and love me. Two more weeks to try to be sane. Two weeks ... two weeks ... and I'll be OK ... In the meantime, IPA soothes my feeling.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Waterfalls!


Holy cow, what the nature (again)!

On the way back, DG took me to see a couple of waterfalls. The photo is one of them called Sahalie Falls. Isn't this gorgeous? Walking down the trail from the parking lot, the moment the waterfall came in my sight, I felt in love with this. What an impressive scenery! The water on the top is a little greenish and changes colors into complete white when it falls. This subtle color change is the beauty of the nature, creation of the nature. Ahhh, it's too beautiful and powerful to be true.

There's another waterfalls down the way, called Koosah Falls, which character is totally different, like mini Niagara Falls. Either waterfall is amazing and astonishing. The sound of water clashing down in the pool is so relaxing and never bore you. Oh man, I love waterfalls.

Feel the Nature, Naked

The grand finale (last destination) of our short trip was Cougar Hot Springs. It's totally natural hot springs, and people bathe themselves naked. Wow, in the nature, bathe naked?! I wished no one had been there, but there were. But luckily, there was a naked women among three naked men (Yes, of course, everyone must be naked in hot springs). "Phew, I'm not the only one," I thought.

Anyhow, it was not sensual at all. The strangers were friendly by waving and saying, "See you next time," when they left. Some of them were talking about politics, which we tried not to get involved. Actually, I got an awesome feeling from bathing naked. It's the feeling of being a part of the nature, maybe.

Well, I took some photos there, but I'd better refrain from posting them here.

Again, thank, DG, for everything. It was such a nice, relaxing, amazing weekend. I like this guy very much.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Smith Rock


Holy Toledo, what the nature!

Last night, DG proposed going on a day trip on a whim (or maybe he had been planning). So, we rented a car and went to Smith Rock. Gee, the scenery was overwhelming. Each rock has different appearances, colors, textures. Especially, the moss on the rock was amazing, and its color, deep green, was soothing and healing. You may feel very relaxed, seeing that from far. Oh, my my my my, I'm totally amazed.

We decided to stay in Bend instead of going back because we had too much beer to drive for three hours to get back. Mm ... locally brewed beer, Anniversary Ale, was so good.

Thank, DG, for the trip, driving all the way, preparing things, and everything!

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Presentation in Front of a Bunch of Young Students


This quarter is done! Over! Yay! ... Oh, well, I have two papers to go, but my presentation which was the most concerning thing in this quarter was done! All my presentation was recorded in this tiny video tape.

Ahhhh, I'm so relieved, and I'm so grateful for DM, GM and SR who helped me a lot in terms of structuring and practicing my presentation.

Also, I appreciate the students. Not all of them, but I believe majority of them paid attention to my presentation and responded to my questions during the presentation. They wrote good comments and compliments on their write-ups. Oh, what a lovely bunch of young people.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Pancake Brunch

Hmmmmmmm, DG's pancake was so good. Pancake baked with banana, served with "real" Canadian maple syrup ... mm, so yummy.

After a little nap, we went to Hendricks Park to feel the nature because the weather was unbelievably nice. The park was quiet and relaxing. Listening to birds and looking down the town, I could forget my struggle in school (at least for a while). The good thing is that here I don't feel like, "What am I doing here?!" which I felt all the time as long as being at my office in Tokyo.

It was an absolutely relaxing Saturday.

Oh, well, after relaxing, reality comes to you. I have to do abstracts now. That's my reality.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Credit Card

Travelation.com was giving me a hard time. After I bought air tickets online, they required me to send them verification documents such as a form and photocopies of my credit card and my driver's license because my credit card is not issued in the States. Yeah, it happened in the U.K. too, and they didn't accept my credit card because it is "international." Geez, credit cards should be able to be used all over the world.

Anyhow, at first, I sent the required documents by email by scanning them into PhotoShop files. And ... they replied me, saying they couldn't open the files. Damn it. Their office doesn't have a single Mac which carries PhotoShop?! So, I changed the format into JPEG and PDF and sent them again. And ... they replied me, saying they were too blur to read. Damn it. Finally, I gave up and faxed them. Damn it. In this digital era, why do I have to make a photocopy of my credit card and driver's license and send them by fax?! That's too analogue.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Feeling Blue

I've been bad this week, feeling useless. I know myself that I'm trying to avoid socializing as much as possible, speaking minimum. Once this starts, things go worse for a while. I come to be unable to comprehend what people say, say what I want to say, think what I have to think, and on and on. I want to escape from this vicious cycle! Someone help me out!

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Hemorrhoids?!

Geez, did I come down with hemorrhoids?! But the "hole" doesn't hurt at all. What's this?! ... That's what I thought when I saw blood on a piece of toilet paper in my hand.

My period is always irregular, and it usually comes late. So, I didn't think up that it might be period. But it was. It came 10 days earlier. Oh, my, I hope nothing wrong is going on in my body.

I might be proving that American food contains too much growth hormone at the cost of my body. Geez, that's awful.

Monday, November 5, 2007

Box Full of Japanese Taste


The box that YO sent me finally arrived, yay! I was so excited to open it. And I got more excited to see what inside: a tube of wasabi! grilled chestnuts! sheets of seaweed! udon noodles! soba noodles! and a lot of other stuff! I really appreciate YO's sympathy. She is a person of consideration.

Now, I'm excited to think of eating those Japanese stuff!

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Hiking

I joined DG and his friend from his hometown for hiking to Spencers Butte. The way up to the summit is steep and rocky, but it is worth climbing it because the scenery from the summit is gorgeous. You overlook the whole Willamette Valley under your feet, Mt. Hood to the north, The Sisters to the east. It was peaceful, relaxing and refreshing up there by forgetting about school and work. That was an awesome hiking experience here. Thanks, DG and M!

Football 201

Oh, well, today is Saturday, that means, today is college football day. And, DG kindly gave me a lecture on football following last Saturday. I'm not into football, to be honest. But what can I say?

Because he had his friend (he is not into it, either) with him, we decided to watch the game at home. But we faced a problem. The game, which was a big game according to DG, was not on TV. How come? The game took place in our town, and our school was in. Why didn't TV broadcast the game in the town? Anyhow, DG has a cable TV at home which is supposed to broadcast all college football games. He called his friend to check out what the problem was and figured out bars have the game on TV. Isn't that weird? With some reasons, bars have special licenses to broadcast games which are not broadcast to TV at home, DG's friend who joined us at the bar where we ended up explained to me.

At any rate, DG enjoyed the game (our school won!), and I enjoyed beer. Oh, I love IPA, which is very tasty beer. Yummy. Let's see ... I didn't learn anything from today's football lecture because of three pints of IPA.

Monday, October 29, 2007

Essay Grading


I was still annoyed by essay grading for my GTF class. I believe I'm doing good. If I follow the grading guideline, I have to give some poor grades because their writings are not satisfying. But the instructor seems to try to be generous. She added some points to the papers which I gave fewer points. And I lost my confidence, thinking "Didn't I understand the content of those papers though I read them through three times to make sure that my grading could be justified? Did I do wrong?," etc. I felt devastated.

Essay grading is subjective, and it is impossible to be coherent.

The good news came in the evening. It turned out that the other GTF in my GTF class is also giving some papers low grades because of their poor writings, poor analysis and poor discussion. It is a relief to know that my criteria is similar to his. I was not wrong.

Grading drained my time. That makes me irritated and stressed out ... and my upper lip broke. Damn it.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Football 101

Geez, why Americans get excited when it comes to (American) football?

Saturday is the day of college football. Well, I was not going to go, in fact, I was thinking of reading and doing abstracts as usual. But DG took me to his friends' house to watch the game (our Ducks vs. USC) on TV. Oh, well, my precious three hours ...

Anyhow, I saw an interesting scenery of American culture there. There were three guys and six girls in total in front of TV, and I realized that only guys reacted every single movement in the game, and girls ... were chatting of something different by ignoring noisy guys. I learned that American football is a totally man thing.

It was "football 101" for me. DG would never give up converting me into a football fan by explaining the rules. Oh, well, you will see.

The delightful thing is that DG took me there to get me involved in their circle.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Power of Flower


It might be an old trick, but still, flower works today. This simple red rose made me throbbed, warming my heart. I like the guy who gave me this magical thing very much. It is comfortable (100 percent stress-free) to be with him, and that's really something to me.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Relief

I don't like Thursdays. It's a long day when I'm mentally devastated by Prosem.

Anyhow, there was one little good thing tonight. I just want to write it down.

Feeling down after a long day, I was walking to where I parked my bike. It was kind of dark though it was still 6:40 p.m. or something. When I got to my bike, someone was unlocking his bike which was just next to my bike. Seeing him, I realized that he was a guy from the class I'm GTFing. And what is worse, he is the guy who complained my grading on his essay question (I gave him 0 point, and I believe the professor defended my grading on my behalf).

"Uh-oh, this is a really uneasy situation. He hates me. What should I do?" I thought. But it is true that he is a student who I know. So, I said, "Hi." Surprisingly, he replied, "Hi." While I was unlocking my bike, he left, saying "See ya." Wow, that's great. And I said, "Have a good weekend." And he said, "You, too." That is really great. Maybe it's too early to conclude, but he doesn't seem to hate me. Oh, what a relief after a long devastating day!

Come to think of it, he is cute. Definitely. OK, now I'm encouraged to grade their essay assignments. 45 papers to go!

Monday, October 22, 2007

Rain Boots


I have been so excited to have this rain boots delivered. Rain boots are a must here because we have rain everyday more or less. Oh, well, today was an exception. It was a perfect day with bright sunshine, without rain and wind. Come on, give me an opportunity to put on these rain boots!

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Gahhhhh!


I'm gonna kill cutural studies! What are those scholars saying? I just can't get it from their articles. Yeah, I remember I had a really hard time to understand Stuart Hall in Cardiff. Hall's encoding-decoding model is interesting, and I like it actually. But those scholars including him tend to think culture in complicated way in which I easily get lost. Hall's writings are puzzling ... almost mysterious to me. Geez, it's totally frustrating.

Young Students

I felt kind of generation gap today in the class I'm doing TA. The class had an exam today, which was not difficult at all if you attended classes and read the textbook. During the exam, I was asked questions from some students (I praise their bravity to ask me questions because I barely speak English), and I became speechless to hear the questions. One student asked me if he could keep the exam paper after the exam. Definitely no! You have to write down on it and hand it in. Didn't you listen to the professor's instruction?! One student asked me if 1885 is the 18th century or 19th century. What?! I doubted my ears. We are living in 2007 and at the same time in the 21st century. Guess from the present! One student asked what UNESCO stands for. I got a headache.

Young students are still cute to me, but I cannot simply understand them. Why didn't they get prepared for the exam? The professor explained again and again about the exam and gave specific areas which would be on the exam. If they read the textbook, the exam might have been pretty easy. Don't they care about grades at all?

After the exam, I graded essay parts of the exam. It was almost a comedy that majority of the exam-takers made up stories. I don't think I'm a strict marker, but I can't help giving them 0 point. They're gonna hate me.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Obnoxious Letter Afterward

As I wrote here a couple days ago, I received an obnoxious letter from the admissions office, saying that I will not be allow to register for next quarter becasue the office hasn't received the official transcripts from my univeristy in the U.K. Oh, I miss my days in Cardiff now.

Anyhow, I went to the admissions office in the morning to show them the transcripts which I have in my hand here. The receptionist checked my application form, which is managed online (that's cool). The database said that the office has transcripts from my university in Japan but doesn't have them from my university in the U.K. How come? I handed them in when I applied for the J school! Wait, in the first place, why the office isn't satisfied with my degrees from my univeristy in Japan?!

Getting agnry is meaningless. I'm in the States. Calm down. OK.

So, what I did next is to explain that I handed in the transcripts from Cardiff University and it was your fault if you lost them, but I had the transcripts that you needed with me. Then she called someone else, and someone else showed up in a minute to pick up the transcripts to make copies of them. And ... I'm all set. Theoretically, I can register for next term. If there's no problem to update the data online ... My fingers crossed because unpredictable things happen all the time here. Oh, well, if I'm not allowed to register, I could spend for 10 weeks doing nothing. That might be a good option. No, I don't think so.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Headache

Here comes a headache again. Since yesterday afternoon, I've been suffering from headaches. Once I take medicines, headaches are supposed to be relieved. But today, it is not the case. I took medicines, but they didn't erase the pain. What's wrong with me? Yeah, I know. It's because of an essay for Prosem. I didn't construct the structure of the essay, and that stressed me out.

So, after I failed to find out what to do, I asked for brainstorming to DM. Then he told me something that I hadn't expected. He said that I shouldn't wait until stress got over me to ask for help. I was stressed out because I couldn't figure out what the essay should be like, but I think students have to figure it out by themselves or at least try to do so at first. And I did. Am I wrong? Oh, well, I might be too Japanese to think this way.

But brainstorming with DM helped me a lot, and my essay is almost done now though it's not completed yet.

I wonder how many more times I will go through this stressful moment. Sigh ...

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Delight of Fall


Isn't this tree beautiful? I found it near the music school, rushed back home, grabbed my camera (well, it's my brother's, to be honest) and came back to take a photo. I wish the fall and nice weather last long ... I heard four months of dark, gloomy, rainy, damp weather are coming soon. Geez, I'm gonna be depressed.

Roller Derby


This was hillarious. I had some kind of culture shock. It's ridiculously American! Roller Derby is the name of the event tonight. Girls, well, people a little older than girls, wearing punk clothes and roller skates, ran round on the track, hitting and pushing each other. Well, I'm not a person who loves violent sports such as boxing at all, so I didn't like the hitting and pushing part of Roller Derby. But it's still fun to see and experience an "American" thing.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Invoice After Invoice ...

Invoices are continuously coming to me. Electronic, cellphone (which charged me unexpected amount!), the Internet ... Give me a break, American profit-pursuing corporations! I don't have a steady income here, you know. Well, I have a tiny amount of stipend from my university and another tiny amount of moonlighting money from my former company. Yeah, I have to appreciate that, otherwise, I'm really, simply a poor student.

Oh, right, another obnoxious letter came to me today. It is from Admissions Office of my university. It says that my registration for the winter term is blocked because I haven't handed in the official transcript from my university in the U.K. Are they kidding me? Of course, I did when I applied for the school here. Why do I have to pour my energy in something that I don't have to?! Be rational, save energy! Anyhow, there is no choice other than going to the office and complain even though I know it's waste of energy and time. Sigh ...

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Trick of Cellphone


What?! I owe $66 for using my cellphone last month. You must be kidding?! My plan is $30 per month and it includes 200 minutes free talk, isn't it? Have I talked on the phone more than 200 minutes? I don't think so.

But the invoice says I spent 360 minutes! What the hell!

I was informed after I read a blog on "Bonnie Blue in Norwich" that when you get a call from someone, the call costs the caller's as well as your minutes. Gee, is it possible? It doesn't happen in Japan. Cellphone comapnies in Japan just want their customers to use as much as possible, beyond their price plan. If they charge incoming call, who would pick up the phone? What they want to do is to make their customers to use their phones unconsicously, without noticing how much they are consuming their minutes. In that sense, Japanse cellphone companies have more tricky price systems. Who could clearly understand those system other than system managers anyway?

Anyhow, I learned something from the invoice: My price plan doesn't cover all calls that I have and I must control calls in 200 minutes maximum regardless of outgoing adn incoming calls.

Agh, cellphone gives me a hard time ... I remember I had a hard time in Cardiff too. Gee ...

Monday, October 8, 2007

Escapist

I spent a day by ignoring what I really have to. What I really have to is to prepare for facilitating class discussion tomorrow. Well, I just didn't feel like it. Even if I prepare for it, I would feel miserable after class as I did last week. I felt exactly the same way in Terry's seminar in Cardiff, I remember. Even if I think I understood what the article says, I can't express what I learned from it. Is it because of my English or because I simply don't understand the article though I think I understood? Forget it! Forget it! I don't need to feel miserable before class.

I don't want to see people listening to me with the knot between their brows. What's wrong with my English?! Aghhhhhh! Yeah, I know, pronunciation, grammar, shallow thinking and everthing cause trouble to me. But what can I do? Sigh ...

Cut it out! I said myself that I don't want to feel miserable now. Geez, am I a patient of multiple personality disorder or something? You've got to be kidding me.

Emotionless Manager

As I said several times here before, the manager is handsome, or cute from a perspective of my age (yeah, I know I'm old. You don't have to waste your breath).

He showed up at my door in the morning with his emotionless face. But he's cute anyway. Ah, I realize something. It is a privilege for women at my age to call someoner younger than us cute. If you're young enough to be a love interest and you call someone cute, you are thought that you have insterest in him who you call cute. But I, categorized out of love interest, can call handsome boys handsome, cute, sexy or whatever freely! This is fun!

Anyway, the manager came to wipe my oven and fix the curtain rail in my bedroom. I was busy that time doing abstracts (as usual!), but I was almost to say, "You are handsome. Why don't you smile? Then you will be much more handsome!" as I did to CB in Cardiff. It worked for CB. CB started making smile to me after that.
Hmm, I should tell him next time. But what if he gets offended? He'd never maintain my apartment ... that's scarey.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Beautiful Sunday


Oh, I love the fall here. Trees are now so pretty. Isn't this photo beautiful? Those are trees in front of the business school.

What is more, today, it was really really sunny! Why not go out and enjoy the sun?

Unfortunately, my bike-ride friend, DG, was not available this afternoon. Gee, that was too bad he had to stay at home grading when it was incredibly sunny.

Anyhow, I biked around the town for a little and went to the library. Well, the NIKE library (the NIKI founder built the library) is kind of my second house. I spend majority of my time there. I sat on a bench outside for a while, enjoying the sun, and ... got cold. Gee, I'm too sensitive to the cold. So, I went inside. My favorite NIKE library cozy sofas welcomed me as usual.

What I was surprised at is that many people were studying. Well, it might be understandable, given that it's almost time for undergrads to write the first term paper. But it's Sunday, and many people were studying. That amazed me.


This is a photo of the NIKE library of today, by the way, which is built by a tiny portion of NIKE's huge profits gained from cheap labor in sweat shops in the Global South.

What's This?

WARNING: a grotesque image is shown in this post.


See this reification of metabolic syndrome!

No, I don't mean to boast my metabolic stomach here. I just want to say, "What's that?!" I've got something in my belly. I noticed is a few days ago and forgot about it. Today, I realized it again and touched it. It was hard, and I felt a clot under the skin ... and it broke, bleeding! Wwwwwhat's that, seriously?!

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Sake

As I said here (and everywhere) before, I don't like meeting people who I don't know. I'm a really really shy person. But tonight's party was kind of obligation for students in the first year because students before us were throwing a party for us. And it'd not be a big deal because I know some of them already and I know my cohort, of course. But still, I hesitated like, "Well, it's cold outside ... a little later would be fine ... oh, I will write emails before I go ..." and something like that. Actually, it was cold.

At the moment I decided to leave, I got a call from DG, and he offered me a ride. Thank Buddha! Thank DG! So, he and his friends kindly came to pick me up, and I finally got to the party.

Party ... I don't like the word. I prefer nomikai, which is more familiar to me.

Anyway, I was there, at the "party" ... and I found sake there! Oh, man, I was glad to be there. Sake! The sake is not perfect to my taste, but still good, better than American beer or cheap wine.

Beside sake, it was good to share something with other students in a relaxing manner. And I wonder, "Why they are so relaxed?!," while I'm kind of tensed, not that seriously though. I hope I would be like them next year.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Genuine


My genuine driver's license was mailed today, hooray!

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

October

Wow, it's October already. Time flies at sonic speed. It's October, and that means I've here for one month already. What can I say? ... Wow.

New Record

Yeehaw, I made a new record! A record of staying late in the library. It's 11:00 p.m., and I broke my own record of 10:30 p.m. Yay!

... Wait. Is this a thing that I should be proud of? I don't think so, or no one thinks so.

Well, I'm coming back to the old same question: What am I doing?!

There's Another Thing


I was devastated in class as usual. I go like, "Oh, how stupid I am! Anything that I read and thought I understood doesn't stick in my head?! What's the problem of my brain? Am I an Alzheimer's patient or something?! Someone, fix my brain, ahhhhh!"

Anyhow, I'm not going to tell my story of class inferno here on and on and on and on ... because it will only make me feel miserable. So, let's look at the bright side of my life.

When I came home in the afternoon, not after I made a new record in the library, carpenters were busy changing windows of every unit of my apartment complex. They started doing this yesterday and they've done half of the units.

Anyhow, because a kind of refurbishing is going on here, both the general manager and manager are here to supervise what is going on. When I came home, I came across the general manager and chatted with him for a little while. Actually, I asked him to have a piece of duct tape to fix my balance ball, which came too close to the heater and blew up last night. The general manager told me he would give it in a minute ... and he forgot. Well, he's American, you know.

Because I had a class in the evening, I left home again. And I came back home again to eat before going to the library, of course. I saw the general manager and asked him again a piece of duct tape. When we were chatting, the manager came in sight. So, the general manager asked him to get it for me on his behalf. The manager was cool as usual, emotionless in another word. But he's cool anyway.

He was busy picking his hangnail. So, I asked him to get his attention, "Well, is it easy to find the duct tape or hard to find it?" And he replied me, "It's easy," and rushed to get it. Hmm, he's cute, isn't he?

After a while, he showed up at my door with a duct tape in his hand, saying like, "We have a bunch of them if you like." Isn't he cute. Yes, he is. I explained to him what happened to my balance ball, and he said, "Oh, it blew up, huh?," and left with smile on his face. Absolutely, he's cute when he smiles. And it helped me out of the class nightmare (or evening-mare if there's such a word?)

Unfortunately, the duct tape didn't work. My balance ball is dead now.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

What Am I Doing?

Oh, what am I doing? I'm asking myself this question numerous times. I want to go home (I'm in the library at this time of the day, on Sunday!), but it's heavily raining outside. Well, it is raining all day today. I like this library, to tell the truth, partly because of this cozy sofa. But what am I doing here almost all day?

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Ask Me the ID!

I was excited to buy beer with my newly-acquired driver's license. You know, I look far younger to American people, hopefully to Asian people too.

Anyhow, I went to Safeway to buy beer. I had waited in line for a while and my turn came. I made sure if I had my driver's license in my purse while I was waiting. "OK, I can show it to him," I thought.

"OK, $**.**, ma'am."

Wait! You don't ask me my ID even though I acquired a driver's license for this?! Don't I look young?! Well, lights are normally dimmed in a pub. Maybe that's why I cannot buy beer at a pub without a proper ID.

That's what I learned today outside of academia.

Baker


I have something to do, I have something to do, I have something to do ... well, let's bake bread!

This is a typical pattern of behavior of mine when I have something to do. I want to escape from something to do. And I regret later, like, "I should've done this earlier!"

Anyhow, I baked bread with a bowl and instant dry yeast which DF sent me a few days ago. I had bought flour whose package says "better for bread" beforehand. I have butter, salt and honey. All set.

I mixed everything as I had done in Japan ... and the dough became hard. It kept being hard while growing and being baked ... and baked bread came out hard.

I felt something different, kneading the dough, and it must be flour. The type of flour is different from that I used in Japan. I need to add more water next time.

To my credit of a long-time home-baker, the bread still tastes good, even though it's a little harder than usual.

Friday, September 28, 2007

Long-Awaited Driver's License


Yay, I passed a drive test and obtained a driver's license! Deepest gratitude to P for letting me drive his car.

From now on, I can buy beer without my passport, and that's great!

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Devastated and Saved a Little Bit

I was totally devastated in the Prosem class, being unable to say a word about articles in the reading assignments. Gee, I was misled into thinking I understood what those articles were about. In reality, I didn't understand them. Or at least I couldn't paraphrase arguments in the articles, well, this is a paraphrase of that I didn't understand.

Anyhow, I was completely lost ... hmm, not lost but speechless. And I felt almost like rushing back home, grabbing my passport, rushing to the airport and going back to Japan, screaming "I'm going home!"

I can't do this. Otherwise, I'm gonna be a loser.

Then, there was a grad student get-together thing at a pub near campus. Well, I'm not sure if they call it "pub." Maybe it's a "bar" for them.

Getting back to what I was talking about, I needed to have beer! No one could blame me after such a miserable experience in class. So, I went to the counter and ordered beer. Then, a bartender asked me my ID. Damn, I didn't have my passport. Who carries his or her passport all the time?! What if you drop and lose it? Disaster.

Getting back to what I was talking about again, I couldn't buy beer! The good thing was, the bartender told me that I looked under 30. Oh, what a sweet person she is. But I was disappointed ... then, here came J! He said to her, pointing at me, "She's a Ph.D. student!" Such a cute boy. He is as cute as Evan, so I call him Evan when I talk with DF (Evan's mother).

But the bartender still didn't allow me to buy beer. Then Evan the sweet whispered, "I will buy a pitcher and we will share." He's really, really cute. And suddenly he became a savior to me. Of course I paid because I'm far older than him.

Over a glass of beer, I met and observed a bunch of academic people. I was so glad that they were speaking plain English! Especially it was after I had felt dumb,kicked and punched by academic jargon and other unfamiliar expressions in class, I was about to scream, "I can understand what you guys are talking about!"

Good grief, the first week ended.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Moving?

Did I move? I feel like living in the library. Why? Because I am in the library all day other than attending a class. Actually, I'm blogging from the library. Viva, Ph.D. student life!

Box from St. Louis


Hooray! The box which DF sent me has arrived here, finally! She put a lot of stuff in the box: bowl, sieve, oven plate, spatula, knife, bike bag, cups, clothes and you name it, oh and a bag of instant dry yeast. Thanks a bunch, DF. I will bake bread this weekend and relieve stress from coursework.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Good Thing to be a GTF

I like this! I like to stand in front of a bunch of young people and talk whatever I want! This is great!

Bad Thing to be a Ph.D. Student

Oh man, I can't read these all!

Monday, September 24, 2007

Bloody Books!


Acamedic books are fxxxing expensive! They are bloody, seriously bloody. Oh, well, I'm now pretending to be a Briton.

Anyhow, I will wait and see tomorrow if I really need to buy other two expensive books. Otherwise, I may photocopy required chapters to read from books in the library.

Hum, I had something to write down here, but forgot what it was. My age.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Double First Names


My debit card was mailed, and I found it carrying two first names of mine and none of my last name. On the envelope, which shows my wrong name -- two first names -- and my correct address, a BIG question mark was written. A mail person might have wondered if it was a correct recipient because my mail box shows only my last name.

That's funny that my debit card has only my first name, twice, but that's not funny if it wouldn't work at ATM marchines and shops. It's a ridiculous mistake done by the bank. And it's ridiculous to bother to go to the bank, stand in a line for a while, ask to change my name on the card and wait another few weeks to have a correct card.

Well, I should understand that everything does not necessarily work in a rational way here. You someitmes have to be patient in an irrational way.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Brown?! or Black?!


I've been wondering if my eyes and hair are brown since yesterday when I passed the written test for driver's license.

In order to take the test, you fill out the form, writing down your name, address, weight, height and so on. I left "hair" and "eye" sections blank. I didn't do that on purpose, but I simply didn't notice those sections. Then, a DMV officer glanced at me and filled out those blanks with "brown." Hm, are they really brown? I don't have my hair dyed in brown or wear color contacts. Well, my eyes can be said "brown," especially they are brown when they are irradiated with bright light. But my hair ... is black.

Then, I have come to wonder that calling something "black" is not politically correct. If so, my question is: What do they define colors if African-American people come to obtain driver's license? They have pure black hair and eyes more than I do.

In the first place, it's ridiculous to refer to colors of hair and eyes because they can be changed with hair dye and color contacts. Why does the authority stick at these meaningless trifles? I'd better ask them when I go to DMV next time.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Universal

The computer language is universal. That's true.

I asked a computer guy at my school to allow my PC to print via a printer in school. Because I brought my PC with me, the guy opened my PC in a moment and started it. Well, my PC requires my fingerprint to login, so he couldn't proceed without my fingerprint though.

Anyhow, my PC is Japanese, right? But the guy went through to get where he should reach without my translation. Isn't that amazing? Right, the layout of Windows is the same regardless of languages. But still, I thought it's amazing that a person who doesn't know my language at all can set up something with my PC which handles a language he is not familiar.

In the future, people may not care language at all because of universal lanugage (if you call it lanugage) in our computers. Gee.

Farewell to the Written Test


Yeh, I passed the written test! I've come a long way to pass it. But finally!

To be honest, my score was really close to fail, and actually I got just 80%. Phew, I slightly passed. To be honest, without an officer's help, I would have failed. I got confused with the definition of "skids." I know the word thanks to "Skid Row," yeah, viva the 80s' rock! But I didn't know the specific definition. So, I asked help to the guy.

To be exact, I was wondering between two choices: "Traveling too fast" and "Turning too rapidly" against a question like "When is mostly skids occur?" If "skids" include "spins," the answer would be "turning too rapidly," right? But, it "skids" doesn't include "spins," the answer would be "traveling too fast." I asked the officer the definition of "skid," pointing out what I thought. He looked puzzled, looking for defintions withough giving me an answer. That was funny.

Anyhow, he gave me a big hint, so I made it!

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Driver Manual


I found something hilarious in the driver manual: the "Animal" section.

It says, "Use caution when you approach or pass someone who is riding, leading, or herding livestock on the highway." Livestock (Mind you, they are not cats or dogs!) on the highway?! Unbelievable. I haven't seen animals except dead cats or birds running on the highway in Japan even though I'm originally from a rural town.

And it goes on, "If you ride, drive, or lead any animal on a road, you must follow the same rules of the road as motorists ..." Gee, you let your animals run on the right, keep traffic lights and speed limits and signal when they make a turn?! That's hilarious to imagine animals carrying frontlights, taillights, hazard lamps and whatever.

Homey


In order to make my apartment more comfortable, I bought a room light. It costs me about $9 which used to be not a big deal at all. It means only 1,000 yen. And you cannot buy a similar room light for 1,000 yen in Japan. Well, these are supporting ideas to justify to buy the room light.

As a result, my decision was right. The additional light makes the living room look warmer and cozier. I might be going to like my apartment.

Smiles make people beautiful

I'm glad to know he smiles and wave his hand! He is the manager of my apartment. Well, I'm not sure if it could be called "smile." What he did is to lift one edge of his lips slightly for 0.01 second.

As this happened after I saw his emotionless face yesterday, you would never imagine how moved I was. I was about to scream, "He smiled!" waving my hands in the air.

A little later, I became to wonder if he read my yesterday's blog. Couldn't be. Sure?! Blogs are borderless, I know that.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Smile Costs $0


The manager of my apartment never smiles. Did I hurt his feeling? No, I don't think so, oh well, my English might have given him a hard time to understand. But the interesting thing is, he never smiles but he never frowns while listening to me. Actually, he understands me quite well. Then, what's wrong?

Each time I see him, I say hi to him with a big smile on the face. Yes, I'm trying to be a smiley person from nowhere, maybe from the Far East.

I put a note for a FedEx guy on my door the other day, saying "Dear FedEx, I'll be back at 11:30. Please come back after 11:30. Or the manager upstairs would save your labor." When I came home, I found something written over "the manager upstairs would save your labor" part. It said, "Sorry, I can't do that" or something like that. I thought the manager wrote it and I should appologize him for putting that note without his permission. And today, I saw him and appologized him. But he said without turning a hair, "What note?" I explained everything. He said, again without turning a hair, "That must be the general manager because I was out of town." Totally emotionless.

Oh, the expression "totally emotionless" reminds me of Romans. Right, they were seriously emotionless. Mm, the manager might be a man of Roman descent?

Anyhow, I'm disappointed that he doesn't smile (well, he may smile to other people) because he is a good-looking guy. If he smiles, he would look far more handsome. CB back in Cardiff used to be the same. He didn't smile at first, but I knew he would be much handsome if he smiles. So, I told him to smile because he was such a handsome guy, and he took up smiling. Then, I found out that I was not wrong. He became more handsome with a smile on his face. I could tell CB to smile because he is my friend but can't to the guy here because he is the manager here. How frustrating!

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Pub Duck

Wow, I'm so excited. My publicity on a Japanese band is posted on the web of WOW Hall. Gee, it is ecstatic to see my byline on the top of an article. I love writing!

But, I don't know how long I can keep on doing this. It totally depends on my course work. I'm a liitle scared because students in their second, thrid and fourth year told us, new students, that the first quarter would go crazy, repeatedly saying, "Don't kill yourself." Because they said it again and again, I became to think, "Should I kill myself?!" Kidding. I will try to stay insane, oops no, sane, I mean. Am I crazy already?!

Monday, September 17, 2007

Orientation Week Starts

I was ridiculously nervous in the morning, thinking, “I will meet a bunch of people who I don’t know,” “What if they don’t understand my English?,” “Will they like me?,” “They may think of me as a weird-looking, eyeglasses-wearing, prototype-looking Japanese-like Asian or something?” (Gee, I should’ve hung my camera around my neck to make my appearance perfect!), and so forth. I went to the bathroom again and again before I left home though I didn’t want to relieve myself at all. That’s funny. I almost laughed at myself.

At school, yeah, there were a bunch of people who I didn’t know. At the moment I turned around and rushed to the door to get out (Oh well, I didn’t actually do this. A little exaggeration here.), someone said hi to me. So, that’s it. I came in to the classroom and sat next to him, chatting. Then, the orientation started, all students, faculty and staff introduced themselves, and we had lunch together. Yey, I survived! I got over one of orientations!

The one thing that I felt today is that everyone looked serious. Master’s students back in Cardiff were not like students here. They were more relaxed and most of them didn’t have backgrounds in journalism. Actually some of them were just out of undergraduate. But here, many of them seem to have already got in touch with their advisors and supervising instructors. Gee, I haven’t done that yet. I emailed to my advisor, but she hasn’t replied me because she’s not here but in Europe or somewhere. What is worse, I didn’t know about my supervising instructor until today. I definitely have to find her tomorrow.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Brainwashing Kids


A documentary movie called “Jesus Camp" was shown at DIVA tonight. It’s free to everybody. And kindly DG showed his interests. So, why not?

The movie was nominated as an Academy Award but failed to win. Incidentally, Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” took it instead. Still it’s worth seeing, I thought.

Yes, it was worth seeing. It crept me out. Those kids in the movie made me sick. I know those kids are just victims of adult extremists. How easy kids are to be brainwashed, huh! How cunningly extreme preachers control kids’ ways of thinking, huh! That’s amazing. They criticize Muslims but do the same.

As a namely Buddhist Japanese, I was taught by my family that I should respect my ancestors because they were there and that’s why I am here. That’s true. Because I am blessed to have them before me, I have my life, doing whatever I want to. Thank you, my ancestors.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

View from the Hill


The sun shone brightly on us this afternoon after a while. It was cloudy and sometimes misty for the last few days. So, why not go for a bike-ride?

Though the sun was shining, just in case the temperature was low, I was armed with fleece gloves, scarf and leather jacket. Mind you, I’m extremely sensitive to the cold. I rode my bike for 10 blocks or so with the bright sunshine on the back … and I sweat. It was not only sunny but also hot! That’s what I realized.

I climbed the hill in the north, northwest to be exact, of my university to see the entire city from the hilltop. Well, yes, I pushed my bike because delicate city-riders like me intend to ride up winding bumpy roads in the first place.

The scenery from the top of the hill was pretty, especially because it came to my eyes after pushing the bike all the way sweating. The city is very green as I expected though trees have started turning yellow already.

Climbing down the hill was fun. I rode my bike, of course. Slight-built city-riders like me tend to enjoy being lazy. Riding a bike with pedaling, that’s very nice! And it was very nice and fun, almost like riding a rollercoaster! Yeehaw!

Friday, September 14, 2007

Home-Brewed Coffee


Finally, my boxes have come! Thank Buddha, they came just before the weather goes seriously cold. It’s been chilly already for the past few days, and I desperately needed warm clothing.

The warm clothing is the primary things the boxes contained, and what comes next is my lovely coffee maker. Now, I can say goodbye to over-the-counter coffee, especially Starbucks. Starbucks here suck. They serve watery café latte which is not actually café latte at all. If Italians know that they call that café latte, they must collapse on the spot. That’s a sure thing.

As soon as I opened the boxes and put everything away in certain places, I rushed to a near supermarket where I bought a bag of fair trade organic coffee, freshly ground, Italian Roast my favorite. Then, I rushed back home and brewed coffee. And I tasted it. Mm, that’s what I wanted for long, for the past couple of weeks. This is good.

So long, Starbucks, until I become missing Green Tea Latte some day.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Internet at Home at Last!

Oh my, I feel I have been kept waiting so long, but finally, the Internet was installed in my apartment, hooray! This would liberate me from backache a lot. Carrying my heavy laptop to the library everyday has been a big burdon. I'm free at last!

What is more, thanks to the Internet, I have some entertainments, too: online news, web radios, Skype and such. But it seems to be impossible to download heavy stuff like movies, TV programs and something like that because it's only 4Mbps. Yeah, I have to convince myself that I'm no longer in Japan where 100Mbps is becoming standard.

Anyhow, I've been missing accessing news because I'm a kind of news addict. I haven't read newspapers or watch news programs since I came here. That's why I missed big pieces of news such as Abe's resignation. Now, I can keep myself updated. That's great.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Carry a Gallon of Water


Sure, I know Americans love everything bigger and larger. But carrying a gallon container of water is a good idea? Isn’t that too big to carry all the way? It has been hot in the afternoon, and I saw someone on the street drinking water from a gallon container. Not once. Later, I saw another guy on the street drinking water from a gallon container. Tiny, little, ordinary Japanese usually carry a 500ml bottle of water. But here, Big, robust, ordinary Americans usually carry a gallon bottle of water?! One gallon equals 4 liters, which is 500ml bottles multiplied by 8, wow. Amazing Americans.