I first met Keiko-sensei after my first semester at University of Pittsburgh. As I walked through the office door, my first impression was that she seemed a little confused about how to use a Mac computer. A very strange first impression, I know, but it has lasted me two years. I am currently in Kobe, Japan, right now; a place I could not possibly be in without her help in writing my recommendation letters for both the program and the numerous scholarships I applied for. By requesting to have Keiko-sensei write my recommendation letters, I had to take her Samurai Films class in order for her to judge me both as a student and as a Japanese major. I agreed, only to find that the class was full. Keiko-sensei, since it was her class, managed to slip me in by overriding the “Full” label during my registration. Though Westerns and Samurai films are by no means my favorite genres of film, and barring the fact I am much more adept at analyzing works of modern art than moving pictures, I found that I enjoyed the class to a great extent. In retrospect, it may have been the reward candy that she constantly brought in her little suitcase to class. Or the interesting ways she tried to scare people out of the class. For example, her explanation of a cheetah picture chasing a jeep (or was it a rabbit?) was that she was the cheetah, we were the jeep-rabbits, and she would catch us if we left class early. Chasing us until we, the weak little beings, were overpowered by her marathon skills, and upon being caught by the scruff returned to class. I never had the privilege of witnessing this phenomenon, but I sincerely wish I could have. Even with the numerous times I dropped in on her unannounced, I never saw her angry, let alone annoyed, at anyone or anything. But she always, always, looked puzzled as she clicked around on that Mac computer, a cheetah subdued by its own method of prowling about the prey’s academic records. Needless to say, I will regret not being able to walk into that office one last time and suppress a giggle at the sight. I wish I could be there for the funeral, but seeing as Keiko-sensei put me over here in Kobe in the first place, I think I would honor her memory more by just continuing what I am doing: studying Japanese.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Keiko-sensei
So, my sensei back at Pitt, Keiko McDonald, died on the 14th of September. Obviously, since I spent a lot of time with her, I was quite sad. Paula, the secretary of the East Asian Languages department, asked me to write a blurb for the scrapbook they were going to give to Mr. McDonald. This is what I wrote:
Friday, September 12, 2008
Classes and Baseball!
Time for yet another update from yours truly, the insane japanophile.
This week we took a placement test to see where we fit into the Konan University Japanese class system. In America, I am a third year student out of a book called Japanese the Spoken Language, which evidently no other schools use. Therefore, the test came into play. It was a two day affair, with listening, reading, writing and vocal portions. I tested into C-level, out of A-E (A being basic, E being extremely advanced and mostly for those who know Kanji to an abnormal degree). C level is rather...well, let's just say I learned all the grammar and most of the vocab but don't know the Kanji to save my life. 興味？？日付変更線？？？？？？ Just what are these little guys trying to say. I am seriously considering moving up to D class, just because this current one is too easy for a study abroad, however I may want to get tutoring in C-level kanji, to make sure I can keep up with the readings. I just can't handle 50 of these guys a day, it's a little excessive.
My other classes are pretty awesome. I am taking Japanese History with a Russian woman straight out of James Bond, and Japanese Linguistics with a self-loathing Japanese man. Interesting, huh? My other class is called Joint Seminar, which is where I can practice my Japanese debating popular issues with other Japanese students! Today I worked with Naoko and Sawa, and they were really cool, though they couldn't really speak English...Therefore, Japanese all the way! Thomas (the non-English speaking Frenchman) said that I speak Japanese very well, why am I not in E class? Simple: I can talk to my peers, but when it comes to teachers that is a big HELL NO.
I bought a phone. It is awesome. Very very awesome. Period. End side note and moving on to BASEBALL.
For those who don't know, YES Japan has baseball, and YES, they enjoy watching it on TV (unlike most Americans who find it boring with too many commercials). However, the real fun comes in at the ballparks. Jason was fortunate enough to score us some tickets to the sold out match between the Hanshin Tigers and the Hiroshima Cubs (I think they we
re the cubs, I didn't care though. I was rooting for the Tigers). I went with Jason, Thomas and the 2 Korean girls that also live at Jason's host family's place.
Walking into the stadium, I was overwhelmed but the mass of yellow and black, in addition to the vast amounts of food that the stadium was offering. I ate gyoza and a mango crepe, both of which were delicious. Jason somehow found a KFC, and woofed down a 4 piece basket. The others got yakisoba. The
beer of choice of the stadium appeared to be Asahi Super Dry, which I a
m not a huge fan of but when in Rome, drink like them. Which is not much because they have absolutely no tolderance for alcohol. Asahi Super Dry is....well, dry. As the name implies.
A little backstory on the Hanshin Tigers: They are not the best, but they have a very strong fan following. When the win, the sports bars in Osaka and Kobe offer beer rounds at 10 yen a pint. Yes. 10 YEN, less than 10 American cents!! However, tonight the team lost and many a sports pub goer found themselves reaching for the more expensive brews. There was a point in the festivities, right before 7th inning, where everyone in the stadium began to blow up these very strangely shaped balloons. To my surprise, Yuna handed a pack of these odd items to Jason, Thomas and myself, and said to release them when the girl on the bigscreen said so. That is to say, once the commercials on the big screen stopped playing. COMMERCIALS. In a stadium with posters and marketing ploys everywhere. It was too much, me thinks, but I digress.
I began to blow my little balloon friend up, and then realized what the shape reminded me of: A condom. I will not censor this because everyone agreed. Eventually, the whole stadium was full of people waving these condoms, and children were jumping a
ll over the ones that had a Tiger on the uppermost part. I sat there waving my orange one awkwardly, for I had no where else to put it but in my lap, which lead to some very interesting comments from the gaijin I was hanging out with, but not from the Japanese who seem to not have thought that inflating a condom could be a great joke. College humor. It never fails. See: Louis Archilla and his Rilakuma Condoms.
Looking out over the sea of condoms from Condomania (it's a real store, I have been to 3 branches in order to get a good
laugh and by interesting gifts for my more twisted friends), I finally saw the girl pop up on the screen to start the countdown. The balloons were released, and it was one of the more epic moments of my life.
Getting home was an event, for the Limited Express trains were so crowded that people were literally shoved on by conductors, much like the morning rush hour in Tokyo. To me, it was not so bad, but to the others, it was the most wretched thing imaginable. I am also sure my butt made contact with a little Japanese child's face, however I blame the parents for that because I was pushed like a ragdoll to and fro with no control over my feet and their direction. Luckily, Uozaki was the third stop and that is where my host family's house is located. I walked home, still sweating from the heat of the train. My host mother laughed at the sweat pouring from my body, but then again she doesn't go to baseball games and avoids using trains, so sweat is an unknown thing, apparently.
Tomorrow I will finally go to Umeda!! I am so excited, really. Yodobashi Camera is the most amazing electronic store chain in the world, I could spend hours there floating about, and I think I will. Jason said he will come with me, and so did Zoe and Christy. I only hope to find them in the monsterous black hole known as Umeda Station...Until then, signing off.
This week we took a placement test to see where we fit into the Konan University Japanese class system. In America, I am a third year student out of a book called Japanese the Spoken Language, which evidently no other schools use. Therefore, the test came into play. It was a two day affair, with listening, reading, writing and vocal portions. I tested into C-level, out of A-E (A being basic, E being extremely advanced and mostly for those who know Kanji to an abnormal degree). C level is rather...well, let's just say I learned all the grammar and most of the vocab but don't know the Kanji to save my life. 興味？？日付変更線？？？？？？ Just what are these little guys trying to say. I am seriously considering moving up to D class, just because this current one is too easy for a study abroad, however I may want to get tutoring in C-level kanji, to make sure I can keep up with the readings. I just can't handle 50 of these guys a day, it's a little excessive.
My other classes are pretty awesome. I am taking Japanese History with a Russian woman straight out of James Bond, and Japanese Linguistics with a self-loathing Japanese man. Interesting, huh? My other class is called Joint Seminar, which is where I can practice my Japanese debating popular issues with other Japanese students! Today I worked with Naoko and Sawa, and they were really cool, though they couldn't really speak English...Therefore, Japanese all the way! Thomas (the non-English speaking Frenchman) said that I speak Japanese very well, why am I not in E class? Simple: I can talk to my peers, but when it comes to teachers that is a big HELL NO.
I bought a phone. It is awesome. Very very awesome. Period. End side note and moving on to BASEBALL.
For those who don't know, YES Japan has baseball, and YES, they enjoy watching it on TV (unlike most Americans who find it boring with too many commercials). However, the real fun comes in at the ballparks. Jason was fortunate enough to score us some tickets to the sold out match between the Hanshin Tigers and the Hiroshima Cubs (I think they we
re the cubs, I didn't care though. I was rooting for the Tigers). I went with Jason, Thomas and the 2 Korean girls that also live at Jason's host family's place.Walking into the stadium, I was overwhelmed but the mass of yellow and black, in addition to the vast amounts of food that the stadium was offering. I ate gyoza and a mango crepe, both of which were delicious. Jason somehow found a KFC, and woofed down a 4 piece basket. The others got yakisoba. The
beer of choice of the stadium appeared to be Asahi Super Dry, which I a
m not a huge fan of but when in Rome, drink like them. Which is not much because they have absolutely no tolderance for alcohol. Asahi Super Dry is....well, dry. As the name implies.A little backstory on the Hanshin Tigers: They are not the best, but they have a very strong fan following. When the win, the sports bars in Osaka and Kobe offer beer rounds at 10 yen a pint. Yes. 10 YEN, less than 10 American cents!! However, tonight the team lost and many a sports pub goer found themselves reaching for the more expensive brews. There was a point in the festivities, right before 7th inning, where everyone in the stadium began to blow up these very strangely shaped balloons. To my surprise, Yuna handed a pack of these odd items to Jason, Thomas and myself, and said to release them when the girl on the bigscreen said so. That is to say, once the commercials on the big screen stopped playing. COMMERCIALS. In a stadium with posters and marketing ploys everywhere. It was too much, me thinks, but I digress.
I began to blow my little balloon friend up, and then realized what the shape reminded me of: A condom. I will not censor this because everyone agreed. Eventually, the whole stadium was full of people waving these condoms, and children were jumping a
ll over the ones that had a Tiger on the uppermost part. I sat there waving my orange one awkwardly, for I had no where else to put it but in my lap, which lead to some very interesting comments from the gaijin I was hanging out with, but not from the Japanese who seem to not have thought that inflating a condom could be a great joke. College humor. It never fails. See: Louis Archilla and his Rilakuma Condoms.Looking out over the sea of condoms from Condomania (it's a real store, I have been to 3 branches in order to get a good
laugh and by interesting gifts for my more twisted friends), I finally saw the girl pop up on the screen to start the countdown. The balloons were released, and it was one of the more epic moments of my life.Getting home was an event, for the Limited Express trains were so crowded that people were literally shoved on by conductors, much like the morning rush hour in Tokyo. To me, it was not so bad, but to the others, it was the most wretched thing imaginable. I am also sure my butt made contact with a little Japanese child's face, however I blame the parents for that because I was pushed like a ragdoll to and fro with no control over my feet and their direction. Luckily, Uozaki was the third stop and that is where my host family's house is located. I walked home, still sweating from the heat of the train. My host mother laughed at the sweat pouring from my body, but then again she doesn't go to baseball games and avoids using trains, so sweat is an unknown thing, apparently.
Tomorrow I will finally go to Umeda!! I am so excited, really. Yodobashi Camera is the most amazing electronic store chain in the world, I could spend hours there floating about, and I think I will. Jason said he will come with me, and so did Zoe and Christy. I only hope to find them in the monsterous black hole known as Umeda Station...Until then, signing off.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Friday, September 5, 2008
Here I am!
And so it all begins, for I have finally arrived in Japan and have very nearly finished orientation.
This week began with some insanity at the airport, namely that Cole and I would have to stay overnight in a hotel near the airport in order to make the flight to Japan that would depart from San Fransisco. This actually turned into our advantage, for we met up with several other study abroad participants while bumming around the airport looking as fabulous as we can at 5 am. After a scare with a plane delay out of O'Hare, it was relatively smooth sailing, minus my ADD on these long flights. And also the flight steward thinking that Cole and I were married and creating a joke that will last the duration of this study abroad.
We had free time when we got to the hotel, and since I had spotted my favorite restaurant chain, Saizeria, in the hotel lobby, I gathered a group to go and eat for cheap there. The program gave us about 65 dollars worth of yen to get us through the week, and that it did. I still have some left over on this fine, fine, insanely hot and humid Saturday. That night I collapsed in a heap in my hotel room, and decided to stay up and meet the other two girls that I would be rooming with for the next few days. One was a British girl from Leeds, Yorkshire, and the other a Buffalo native that happens to be studying in Hawaii at Manoa. They were both nice, and so we eventually fell asleep since jetlag was overwhelming us at that time.
The next day, according to our schedule, we were to have breakfast at 6:30am. An insanely early hour, you say? Nay, for jetlag wakes us up at 5am and then left us with nothing to do for an hour and a half. Wednesday was to be the campus orientation, and with that comes hours of lectures and seemingly needless information thrust upon us. However, there was a light at the end of the tunnel, we just didn't know it at the time...
After the boring orientations, we were placed into groups of 3 ryugakusei (study abroad students) and 3 regular Konan students for the campus tour. My group really sucked, to be honest. They didn't talk and didn't seem to understand the point of taking the dumb ass gaijin around their precious campus. After this horrible showing, we, the dumb ass gaijin, were to witness a showing of 3 clubs the school offered. First was Kendo, pretty cool. Second was the Kenpo club, and I really paid attention to this one because the guy talking about his club was really cute and he knew English. Hayley has since tagged him as my Baby's Daddy, which is a lie, but she was right in that I have 9 months here and that is just enough time to make one. But little does she know I, unlike Japanese women, have birth control! Bwahaha. After this was the rock n roll club, which was insane in that they tried to mosh pit with only 5 people. After this, there was a dance off between these same rockers and the ryugakusei males. At first, it was merely a who is more macho pose off, but it slowly degraded into a pants off dance off of epic porportions. I daresay I saw a bit too much of the bassist at one point. There was also some epic, Braveheart-esque mooning going on, which always leads to a good time.
Second day was much better than the first, mostly because I was starting to get over my jetlag by this point. We scared several kiddies in the train station with our bizarrely blonde hair and pale skins. Today was the day we would get a downtown tour of Kobe with a DIFFERENT group of Konan students. I was pretty lucky, one member of my group was actually a penpal the school assigned me before I arrived here. Her name is Saya, and she is chill in my book. I also hung out with a guy named Hiroshi (also a chill guy), and a girl named Atsuko (so adroable!). They were without a doubt the chillest people I have met thus far here (besides stripper band, of couse). Of course I got their numbers, and I may go to a concert with Hiroshi soon, since we like the same bands.
Friday was the day we met our host families. As if to make us even more nervous than before, they made us wait several hours before they arrived in addition to a ceremony where we were all announced to the group. After this was a luncheon, at which some interesting things happened. One was that I met my friend's dorm support, who promptly threw my friend out of the way to come over and talk to me. I was laughing pretty hard by this point, only to have it happen 3 more times with three entirely different people. Oh well, I guess I walked into that one.
My host family is....much more preppy than I, though quite rich. I have my own floor in the house to myself, my own shower and everything, in addition to being about 20 minutes from the school by foot. Thus far they have been nice to me, but I am sure in some ways I drive them crazy since I am a bit picky and also desperately needed a cellphone, only to have immense confusion when they drove me out to the store and not buy one... Ooops. I met their nephew today, whose name is unfortunately the same as my ex. How ironic.
That is my life in a nutshell thus far, I will post some pictures later!
This week began with some insanity at the airport, namely that Cole and I would have to stay overnight in a hotel near the airport in order to make the flight to Japan that would depart from San Fransisco. This actually turned into our advantage, for we met up with several other study abroad participants while bumming around the airport looking as fabulous as we can at 5 am. After a scare with a plane delay out of O'Hare, it was relatively smooth sailing, minus my ADD on these long flights. And also the flight steward thinking that Cole and I were married and creating a joke that will last the duration of this study abroad.
We had free time when we got to the hotel, and since I had spotted my favorite restaurant chain, Saizeria, in the hotel lobby, I gathered a group to go and eat for cheap there. The program gave us about 65 dollars worth of yen to get us through the week, and that it did. I still have some left over on this fine, fine, insanely hot and humid Saturday. That night I collapsed in a heap in my hotel room, and decided to stay up and meet the other two girls that I would be rooming with for the next few days. One was a British girl from Leeds, Yorkshire, and the other a Buffalo native that happens to be studying in Hawaii at Manoa. They were both nice, and so we eventually fell asleep since jetlag was overwhelming us at that time.
The next day, according to our schedule, we were to have breakfast at 6:30am. An insanely early hour, you say? Nay, for jetlag wakes us up at 5am and then left us with nothing to do for an hour and a half. Wednesday was to be the campus orientation, and with that comes hours of lectures and seemingly needless information thrust upon us. However, there was a light at the end of the tunnel, we just didn't know it at the time...
After the boring orientations, we were placed into groups of 3 ryugakusei (study abroad students) and 3 regular Konan students for the campus tour. My group really sucked, to be honest. They didn't talk and didn't seem to understand the point of taking the dumb ass gaijin around their precious campus. After this horrible showing, we, the dumb ass gaijin, were to witness a showing of 3 clubs the school offered. First was Kendo, pretty cool. Second was the Kenpo club, and I really paid attention to this one because the guy talking about his club was really cute and he knew English. Hayley has since tagged him as my Baby's Daddy, which is a lie, but she was right in that I have 9 months here and that is just enough time to make one. But little does she know I, unlike Japanese women, have birth control! Bwahaha. After this was the rock n roll club, which was insane in that they tried to mosh pit with only 5 people. After this, there was a dance off between these same rockers and the ryugakusei males. At first, it was merely a who is more macho pose off, but it slowly degraded into a pants off dance off of epic porportions. I daresay I saw a bit too much of the bassist at one point. There was also some epic, Braveheart-esque mooning going on, which always leads to a good time.
Second day was much better than the first, mostly because I was starting to get over my jetlag by this point. We scared several kiddies in the train station with our bizarrely blonde hair and pale skins. Today was the day we would get a downtown tour of Kobe with a DIFFERENT group of Konan students. I was pretty lucky, one member of my group was actually a penpal the school assigned me before I arrived here. Her name is Saya, and she is chill in my book. I also hung out with a guy named Hiroshi (also a chill guy), and a girl named Atsuko (so adroable!). They were without a doubt the chillest people I have met thus far here (besides stripper band, of couse). Of course I got their numbers, and I may go to a concert with Hiroshi soon, since we like the same bands.
Friday was the day we met our host families. As if to make us even more nervous than before, they made us wait several hours before they arrived in addition to a ceremony where we were all announced to the group. After this was a luncheon, at which some interesting things happened. One was that I met my friend's dorm support, who promptly threw my friend out of the way to come over and talk to me. I was laughing pretty hard by this point, only to have it happen 3 more times with three entirely different people. Oh well, I guess I walked into that one.
My host family is....much more preppy than I, though quite rich. I have my own floor in the house to myself, my own shower and everything, in addition to being about 20 minutes from the school by foot. Thus far they have been nice to me, but I am sure in some ways I drive them crazy since I am a bit picky and also desperately needed a cellphone, only to have immense confusion when they drove me out to the store and not buy one... Ooops. I met their nephew today, whose name is unfortunately the same as my ex. How ironic.
That is my life in a nutshell thus far, I will post some pictures later!
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