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?

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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?!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

Son?!

I went on my bus adventure which has become a routine since my student ID was issued. Today’s bus driver was a talkative, merry lady. When I asked her to drop me off close to somewhere, she willingly accepted. On the way, she kept talking to me like, “Well, if you live in Eugene, blah-blah-blah,” “Take so-and-so bus to get there, blah-blah-blah” and blah-blah-blah. After a while, she said, “Son, here’s your stop.” In the first place, I didn’t realize that she was talking to me. So, I ignored. Then, she turned around, peeped out of the driver’s seat to face to me and said again, “Son, here’s your stop.” Oh, well, she thought I was a boy. Yeah, I was wearing a cap with which you might think I am a boy and I acknowledge my breasts are quite flat. But because I chatted with her for a while, it seems to have been obvious I’m a girl (a little older, though) with a tone of voice. Or, I may misunderstand the definition of “son,” and the word might be applied for a female child?! Amazing American English.

Mormons

Wow, Mormons are so conspicuous in this hippie town because there’s no one else wearing a tie and white shirt.

When I was waiting the traffic lights to change, two Mormons approached me and said something like, “We are from The Church of Jesus Christ blah-blah-blah.” They didn’t say they were Mormons, but it was obvious. I explained them that I was namely a Buddhist and didn’t have any interests in religions.” Then they gave up persuading me and left, giving me a flyer. I saw through it and found http://www.mormon.org/ down in the flyer. See, they were Mormons.

Three Classes for the First Quarter

I visited PH at her office today to ask about registration. Because DG asked me yesterday if I have already registered classes and my answer was no, I was a little upset. I asked P if I register before the orientations start and can see the list of classes and syllabuses online or somewhere else. She said yes. Come on, PH, tell me much earlier. I’d been curious what classes I would have this quarter.

So, I went online to see what classes I would take this quarter and register them. Actually, I don’t have any choice. There are three classes designated for new Ph.D. students. Well, it’s gonna be hard. Yeah, of course, you are a Ph.D. student, what else do you expect? But there’s one good thing: One of the three classes is Wasko’s! Oh, my, I didn’t expect I would join her as early as the first quarter.

Globalization

Running a bike shop chain next to universities could be a big business because universities have new students every year and those students tend to have a bike. Probably they buy secondhand at other places, but still you can sell fenders and baskets and maintenance services which secondhand dealers and nationwide discount stores are not likely to provide. If the bike shop chain is nationwide or global, it is easy to buy and stock things massively and cheaply. Then it could provide cheaper services which local businesses cannot compete. And you would end up being rich, destroying local businesses.

I myself went to a bike shop next to the campus today to have my bike equipped with fenders. It cost me $28 for fenders and $4 for putting them on. The shopkeeper didn’t tell me he would charge me extra $4 when I asked him to put them on. He’s not honest very much L

I might be pro-globalization even though I know it’s not good to environment, small businesses, localness or whatever. Globalization is good for people with lower income like me. In this case today, if you go to Wal-Mart, and you could find cheaper fenders, maybe around $10, though you need to put them on by yourself. If you are rich, you may stand against globalization because you can afford to buy local things by paying more money. Mm, I seem to have reached a conspiracy theory. Globalization occurs to keep poor people poor or poorer. Who control globalization are influential rich people or influential rich corporations, right? So, as long as they make people with lower income happy with globalization, they can keep making things globalized by expanding their business. By writing this, I’m getting confused. It should be stopped here.

Driver's License

To tell the result first, I failed in the written test. Stupid me. I remember I passed the written test and drive test in the same day for one time in the Washington state. I’m sure. Well, it was more than 10 years ago, and my brain might have been softer and more flexible that time.

But I was close. I made up 77%. In order to pass the written test, you have to mark 80% or more. See, I was close, and so what? I failed because I failed.

After I failed – Gee, I don’t want to say “failed” so many times, I asked someone at the counter to give me a guidebook to learn traffic rules and everything. Then, she didn’t hesitate to hide her surprise, almost saying like, “You took a test without preparing?!” Yeah, because I thought it was really easy. Sorry, I will take it more seriously from now on.

Anyhow, I may take a test again as soon as tomorrow, but I don’t think now that getting a driver’s license for my secondary ID because I won’t drive here and it costs me $5 (written test) + $9 (drive test) + $54.50 (license) more. It was around $20 10 years ago, well, it was in the Washington state though. This amount of money is ridiculous to me.

Trampoline

Someone upstairs was making a loud noise in the living room area. It seemed to last forever, so it might not be sex noise. And if it was heard from the bedroom area, it might be sex noise, but it was not. I couldn’t stand that noise, I went to the second floor and was surprised. The curtains were wide open and there were lights inside. So I could see clearly inside. A guy was jumping up and down on a trampoline. Trampolining in a room?! I never understand American senses.
Anyhow, I knocked on the door. As soon as the guy peeped out, I said, “Will you stop jumping up and down.” And the guy apologized and excused, saying like, “I didn’t know I was making noise.” What?! Of course you make noise if you jump up and down in a room. Your mom didn’t tell you when you were a kid?! Well, I never understand American senses.

Black Cat

I’ve become nervous about my boxes because Kuroneko-(Black Cat-)Yamato hasn’t called me since I got a call from them several days ago. They are supposed to call me again after my boxes goes through and before they go to FedEx. So, I sent an email to the Tokyo office asking what’s going on. The worst case would be that my boxes couldn’t go through the customs. Oh, I don’t want to think in the way. But you know, I filled out the forms in a very improper way because I didn’t send drugs or other offensive stuff at all. Come on, my boxes, come to me as soon as possible, otherwise, I’m getting stressed out because I can’t cook properly.

Studio Apartment

DG showed me his apartment which is a studio. It’s actually not a studio, I could say. The room is clearly divided into the living room, the kitchen and the storage and the bathroom. The size and layout are just what I wanted. Yeah, you know, I’m Japanese who is used to live in a small space. I was surprised at the rent, which costs him $625 per month. That’s expensive, and I can’t afford to it. But still, it’s really good.

Saturday Market

There’s a regular farmers’ market every Saturday in downtown. Let’s check out fresh fruits and vegetables. So, I went to downtown. Wow, it’s quite a huge market. You see everything from fruits and vegetables (of course, they are organic, you are in Eugene, you know) to clothing, accessories, drawings and educations stuff. Actually, I bought a small container of raspberry and tasted it. They were really good, tasty. It’s $2.50, and I don’t know if it’s expensive or not. But anyhow, it was as good as I regretted to have a bigger container.

Char

Yes, I call him Char because it’s red (You will understand if you saw “Gundam”).

I checked the craigslist in the morning to search bikes on sale. I found a couple and sent them emails with my phone number. Two of them contacted me. But I missed all of calls. Of course, I called them back, but only one answered. So, I saw him to see the bike with my own eyes and try it. Thank Buddha, he lives close to my apartment. He is a kind of bike geek and stores numerous bike junks in his house. He shares the house with 25 people, artistic people, eccentric people in a sense, hippie people in another sense.

Anyhow, he showed me three bikes: two are mountain bikes and one is a sun cruiser. The sun cruiser was not good at all. The handles were rusted, the seat was ripped, and more than anything the brakes were back brakes which I’m not familiar with. So, it went out of my choice. One of the mountain bikes he had looked really good, but he offered me $95. Gee, I can’t afford to pay $95 for a secondhand bike. The last one was just in-between: not so good but not so bad. I think only problem is the brakes, which make creaky noise each time you brake. He tried to fix it, but it didn’t work very much. It still creaks. I asked him to have the bike equipped with mud covers over tires and a bike lock as giveaways. He went back to the house and looked for them, but he couldn’t find suitable ones. He only got a broken fender and cable without a lock. They won’t work. OK, now it’s negotiation time. I asked him discount on the grounds that the brakes creak, but he never compromised, saying he spent a lot of energy on it. OK, kiddo, I’m quite new here and don’t know how to negotiate. And I paid $40. I don’t know if I did expensive shopping or not, but I will learn how to shop some time.

0 to 2000-soomething

Phew, I walked a lot, the most since I came here. I took a bus to the main station first. That’s not a big deal at all. I thought there’re bus services to get where I wanted to go from that bus station, but there’s not. So, I decided to walk. I didn’t have other choices, why not? On the way there, it didn’t feel like far because the street was new to me and it was fun to look around. Actually, I walked about only half an hour or so. But the street number counted from 0 to 2000-smoething, wow.

The problem is, the way back. It was like hell. I felt 30 minutes would last forever. Then, I made up my mind to buy a bike. Not a brand-new bike but a second-hand one, of course.

Newspapers

I’ve missed newspapers a lot. Yeah, I know I’m an analog kind of person. So, to read newspapers for fee, I went to the library and looked for newspapers at the “current periodicals” section. There are only old, not “current,” newspapers. I asked a librarian where I could read them because I thought I was at the wrong place. Her answer surprised me. What?! Do I have to check out newspapers?! How rare, valuable and vulnerable newspapers are?! Gee, I understand a part of the reason why newspapers are declining.

Town Festival

For three days from today, there’s the annual town festival here. DG kindly asked me to join him, I joined him. It’s a tiny, little festival but fun with live music, a variety of food and drinks everywhere. DG ironically said it was the most crowded scene he’d ever seen here. Right, normally here is not crowded at all. Say, to express how crowded it was tonight in an easy way to understand (for only Osakans), it was like the Shinsaibashi arcade during weekdays. That means, it was not crowded at all for Tokyoites.

DG seems to like indie music, well, he’s definitely younger than me. We went to a concert which three different bands joined. We only saw two bands, and they sounded good. I’m not indie kind of person, and I prefer classical music, Spanish or reggae. Anyhow, it was a good entertainment because I don’t have any kind of entertainment here, especially at home.

Oh, yeah, I remember. I asked DG about movies, and he said there’s no cine-complex in town. So if I want to see a movie, I have to take a bust to a shopping mall somewhere far. Mm, I miss Cardiff now. There was everything in walking distance.

It’s funny DG’s pronunciation reminded me of Cardiff because his sounded like British. It may be because he’s from the East Coast.

Wait

I learned something today. That is to “wait.” Since I obtained my student ID yesterday, it has become fun for me to ride on bus. So, I decided to go shopping at thrift stores far from my apartment. Thank A-M, I learned how fun to shop at thrift stores in the U.K.

I went to the main station to change buses first and looked for a route which I should take. And I waited, waited, waited … until the bus came. OK, I got on the bus and asked the driver where I wanted to take. The driver was nice and friendly enough to say he would tell me where I should get off. Good. I took a seat and waited, waited, waited until the bus started.

OK, I came to where I wanted to drop off, I dropped off. I enjoyed shopping at thrift stores, buying a desk lamp, table cloth and sheet for the sofa. Let’s go home! I went to the nearest bus stop and waited, waited, waited. And finally the bus came and took me to the main station. At the main station, I waited for another bus to my apartment. I waited, waited, waited …

Yeah, I learned waiting is what I have to learn here. I’m definitely not in Tokyo anymore.

Internet

I went to the computing center to seek advice from computer guys from the university about the Internet at home. It’s unbelievable inconvenient if you don’t have Internet connections at home, well especially you are an optical-fiber-spoiled-Japanese as me. Though I asked my neighbors to borrow their wifi, they didn’t like to share. I have no choice except to have my own Internet.

The computer guys said Comcast was the best option as my neighbors did. OK. I called Comcast and asked about their services. They says only Internet service (without cable TV or telephone) costs $52.95 per month. Are they kidding?! It’s not optical-fiber or 100Mbps at all, but it costs $53!!! That’s ridiculous (for Japanese at least). But they are doing sales promotion right now, and it’s gonna be $32 for the first six months, but they will charge me $49 for installation (this is also discount, and it normally costs ridiculously $99). Wait a minute. If you are in Japan, you would have two-month free Internet at least with free installation fee. Though I felt the Internet gap in the U.K. a couple years ago, here is worse. Gee, I’m in an Internet-developing country now.

Recovery from Bus-Phobia

I came to say hi to PH the secretary of School of Journalism. She was there. Oh, she is much older than I imagined, but as nice as I imagined. Actually, she helped me to have a student ID, new PAC number and campus wifi. But in order to have all of them, I walked from east to west, from south to north, in campus because they are dealt by different departments which scatter around! I can tell the campus is quite big if you are on foot.

Anyway, I have my student ID. That’s a big thing. Buses are free now, hooray! And access to the university wifi is another big thing. I have free Internet now, hooray!

Wow, the bus system here is quite convenient, and drivers are friendly. That’s good, very good. I was kind of bus-phobia in Japan because I always worry if I’m on the right bus. Normally, Japanese bus drivers don’t talk, and a sign on each bus says, “Don’t talk to the driver.” But here, you can tell drivers where you want to go and drop and ask them to let you know when the bus comes close to where you get off.

As my first experience, I got on EmX. Cool, I came to the main station in a moment without labor. And from the main station, I took another bus to my apartment. I found that there are bus stops close to my apartments, so I can take a bus near my apartment at least to the main station. Great!

Shorted-Out Microwave

P the good person worried about me and gave me a microwave because my apartment is not equipped with a microwave. It was not his microwave. He just kept it for me when his previous tenant left it in case I don’t have a microwave. Great. What a thoughtful person he is!

So, I bought a ready meal for the microwave, put it in and turned on the microwave. Then, too bright light flashed with loud clap sounds. Though the microwave kept working, it didn’t make my food warm at all. It might short out. Gee. As you imagine, I put my ready meal in the conventional oven and had to wait for 40 minutes for it to be ready to eat. If the microwave works, it would take only 5 minutes. Microwave, what a convenience in the modern world.

Moving in

I moved in the apartment which I signed yesterday. Wow, that’s fast. I was worrying that finding and moving in an apartment would take a lot of time because almost all ads of real estate agencies threaten applicants to wait for a week or so to go through the procedure. What procedure is this?!

Anyhow, I was surprised that I could move in so fast. And thanks to P, my moving went quite smoothly. After moving, he took me shopping at Dollar Tree, which is a shop sells everything for $1 and the same as 100-yen Shops in Japan, and Wal-Mart. Thank P, I can sleep on my bed with brand-new beddings!

Opening a Bank Account

Huh! It was really easy. I succeeded in opening a bank account in a day and now have American one. The system is totally different from British one. Oh, I don’t want to remember, but the British retail banking was awful. You have to wait for a month to open it. It’s ridiculous. Mind you, the U.K. is one of finance centers in the world.

Here at the bank also, P supported me a lot. The bank is doing sales promotion or something and gave us $25 each. Wow, America loves easy money.

Multiple Colors

Yes, indeed, this is a hippie town. While having a breakfast at Glenwood Restaurant, which was Hazelnut French Toasts as a waitperson suggested incidentally, I was looking out of the window. People were coming and going on the street … and I saw hippie people, or at least people who looked like hippies, wearing a psychedelic T-shirt, having thick beard, smoking something (I cannot tell), carrying large dirty bags and such. Wow, I thought hippies are things of the past, but they are not. Now the town seems very liberal to me.

Brown

My first mission here is apartment-hunting. I have to find a place to live as soon as possible, otherwise, I will be homeless because the place where I'm staying does not allow me to extend my stay.

So, I took off to walk around the town, looking for vacancies. My apartment should be preferably close to the campus. If it's furnished and equipped with washer/dryer and the Internet and the rent includes all utilities would be perfect. The rent, of course, must be reasonable. Maybe around $450 or so? Nope, the rent would be $500, but it's OK as long as it includes utilities.

I went up and down the streets and found a few vacancies. A flier of one of them said the rent is $575 including all utilities and the unit has washer/dryer. It sounded good though the rent was expensive. I peeped in the empty unit ... Yeah, it has washer/dryer. That's good. Without lights, it looked bleak and uncomfortable. It's not furnished. It's on the first floor just next to the stairs, and that means it would be noisy because people climb up and down the stairs. And the first floor doesn't seem safe. OK, move on.

Unfortunately, today is a national holiday, and almost all business including real estate agencies are closed. Tired of walking ... I realized the town is quite big if you walk around ... I decided to walk back to the place where I'm staying before I fall apart.

On the way home, I saw a "Rent Now" banner on the wall of a brown apartment. Let's check this out. There was the general manager and the on-site manager working. The GM said there were three vacancies on the first floor and showed me all. The rooms were old, actually 24 years old, but looked clean. $550 is quite expensive for me, but it includes water, sewer and garbage. No electric?! Damn, electric must be the most expensive utility. The good thing of this apartment is it's furnished.

Thinking back, I might have been too exhausted to recall my conditions to rent an apartment. I signed the paper on the spot. Oh, well, now I'm praying my decision wouldn't be wrong.

I-20, Red, White and Blues

Oh man, I didn't want to come. I wanted to stay at my parents' place, well, not exactly at my parents' place but in Japan. But the plane took me to San Francisco on the way to my final destination first against my melancholic feeling.

Anyway, the first crisis attacked me in San Francisco, at the passport control. I forgot to take my I-20 paper with me! I explained him that the paper was in my suitcase. As the officer told me, "Have it next time" or something like that, I thought he would pass me. But no! He ordered me to go to the "secondary inspection" office beside the passport control. Damn! I've never passed the passport control smoothly in the States.

I was surprised government workers regardless of countries never smile or respect customers. Yes, I was a customer of them. As soon as I moved in the "secondary inspection" office, I started explaining my situation. Can you imagine what an officer did? Just clicked on the shelf on the counter, indicating me to leave my passport there, of course without smile. Respect customers! I paid $200 for my student visa!

Anyhow, I was kept on hold for a while. I couldn't wait that long because I had a plane to catch. So, I asked another officer who looked working hard than the other one. My guess was correct. He was good though he didn't smile at all. He listened to my explanation, called United Airlines to collect my baggage in order to have my I-20 paper and asked me to take a seat. I waited, waited, waited ... Well, I'm a Japanese who is supposed to be nice and polite with smile all the time, but I couldn't wait, you know. I had a plane to catch. Otherwise, I couldn't make it. Again, I asked the same officer to do something and even volunteered to go and get my baggage (I knew he wouldn't allow me to do so). He called United again and asked me to take a seat again. I told him I couldn't wait any more, and he replied saying like, "It's not your fault. It's United. United is always like that. They don't care their customers." Damn, I've been a frequent flyer of them for long, but I didn't know they are that bad.

Unable to do anything but waiting, I waited, waited, waited ... And finally, a lady from United showed up! I asked her to hurry to collect my baggage, otherwise, I would miss the plane. She soothed me saying, "I'm trying," with a big smile. Yes, she is from the service industry.

I was kept waiting another 10 minutes, but she made it on time. I showed my I-20 paper to the inspection officer, and he stamped on it and my passport. That's it. It was really easy. At the end, the officer reminded me that I have to carry my I-20 paper whenever leaving and entering the States from now on by saying, "You learned the hard way." Yes, I learned the hard way.

Green

Anyhow, I arrived in my final destination safely and finally after the hassle in San Francisco.

Thank Buddha, the airport is tiny, and it was easy to find P who came to pick me up. Mind you, he has been really, really, helpful and supportive, doing my favors and giving me information via email. On top of that, he offered me pick-up. How kind, thoughtful and heartful he is! He is the first great, nice person in my adventure this time.

P took me where I stay for a week first. As it is very close to the campus, he took me a campus tour. The university is smaller than I expected. But it is green, greener than I imagined. Not only the university, I think, but also the town is wrapped up with green. It is funny that everything is behind trees. For example, if you ask directions, you may have answers like, "Well, the school of journalism is behind the trees," "You see 7-11 behind the trees" or something like that. So, "green" is the word to express this town in a word.