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[Nov. 24th, 2007|01:41 am] |
So, back at home for Thanksgiving... Until Sunday, that is. It's been fantastic to be home (it's been since September, which, if you exclude the 11 months in Japan, is a really long time for me not to come home), and I even got to do it early: vacation started after classes were over on Tuesday, but I got super sick on Friday and was miserable all weekend- achy, feverish, suffering from chills and a sore throat that left me unable to sleep... So I called my mom on Sunday to ask what kind of medicine to send my roommate for (I had devastated our stock of Advil, decided the Midol we had left wouldn't help, and was clinging to a friend's bottle of liquid Tylenol that tasted like mint and evil), and she insisted I come home early. It was a good decision; I was out of commission the next two days and would have been worthless in class anyway. I just can't skip anymore this semester...
Thanksgiving was fantastic; a ton of food, as usual. Two kinds of everything, for the most part- gravy, pie, bread, potatoes... Being at home definitely spoils me, as I eat fairly simply at school. There will be extensive pantry-pilfering when it comes time to drive me back. And we put up our tree after dinner; my first year of college, my schedule was so busy I couldn't help decorate the tree, so now we put it up on Thanksgiving. It's a fake one, and my mother, who is normally a rational person, is ridiculous about it. It's 12 feet tall, but she's very unhappy with it; she wants a 16 foot one (we have a 20 foot ceiling in our living room) and it has to be in the window so the neighbors can see it. It's the kind of fixation that should by all means accompany her desperately trying to compensate for something, but I have no idea what it is; Christmas has always been wonderful at our house, all thanks to her, and her meticulously decorated trees (there's usually 5 or 6) look like they come from a catalog. It's almost farcical, and this year I'm going to get to the bottom of it. I don't know how she'd even decorate a 16 footer; at 5'2" (yeah, that's where I get it from) she can barely reach the top of this one with our biggest ladder.
Hung out with Bethany, Elliot, and Jason at the Edgewood Dennys tonight. It is so eerie, the Edgewood one looks exactly like the Fallston one before it was cruelly torn from us. Same set up, same claw machine, even the same bad kids corner. It was so much fun hanging out with them too, even though we were not able to pull off an abduction of a certain haughty boy. Looking forward to seeing you guys tomorrow! |
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[Oct. 29th, 2007|12:58 am] |
So, uhh... It's been a while?
Some of you may not have known this, since not everyone came to see me, but I got back from Japan okay. I never thought I'd have to adjust to life in my own home country, but 11 months away, particularly so many thousands of miles away in a radically different culture, will do that to you. It only took a few weeks, but I want to go back everyday; I made so many friends from around the world and now we're scattered apart, and life in general was pretty sweet, after you get over the language/culture/'my family and friends are in a different continent and if I start to bleed internally there's a very real possibility I won't be able to communicate that to the doctor' bump.
I decided to update this journal because I realize it's my college/international friends that use Facebook, and that doesn't include a lot of the people on this list. So, I'm not only doing okay, I'm doing great, surprisingly. I'm living in an apartment near campus with Tami; apartment life, real apartment life (not school-run apartments, which we actually applied for first) is so much better than living in the dorms or at home, despite the occasional acts of dickishness on the part of the apartment managers. I've got a lot of friends living in the building too, including my new boyfriend, who came as a total surprise to me. I dated around in Japan (mostly Japanese guys), and was all revved up for doing it here, when I was introduced to him by mutual friends. They wanted to the two of us to date, but I was skeptical, thinking that we'd go out once or twice and then just be friends, but it certainly didn't turn out that way. That was two months ago; we dated for a month and then declared it official a month ago. He's seriously amazing; cute, funny, a real intellectual but also seriously enamored with Guinness, baseball, and the Simpsons. Also, to use the words of the friends who wanted to set us up, he's a genuinely good person, and the best of the straight guys this school has to offer. I'm very lucky : )
School is interesting; I'm looking at graduating in December '08, which made me really happy; it's only a semester behind when I should graduate, and considering I spent a year abroad doing very little but studying a language (and really, more drinking, sightseeing, and hanging out with a lot ridiculously cool people), and the two minors, it's great. I'm taking 6 classes this semester, the max; I need to take 7 more to graduate, with another Japanese class, and four more Spanish classes; my Spanish minor would be finished at the end of the spring semester, but I'm aiming for a translation certificate.
That's pretty much it, I think. I'm busy pretty much every weekend (this weekend was a date, a friend's aria competition, a party, homework, and a "mini-date"), but if anyone wants to come visit, I'll definitely push things aside. How are all of you? |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 15th, 2006|06:28 pm] |
I'm in Japan! All entries will be in my travel journal, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ikou_yo, until August 2007, unless something I don't want my parents reading about happens : ) Jaa, mata ne! |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 26th, 2006|11:02 pm] |
Less than 20 days to go : ) Ordered my electronic translator, and my parents offered a work-new iPod exchange program, since mine is dying, and they got Ryan a really nice new one when his died (we both had 40Gig regular ones, and they bought him an 80Gig iPod Video). This job is no sinecure, however, since it involves cleaning out the massive storage space in the basement, the space that had the option of becoming a home theater, exercise room, and bathroom. There are so many boxes...
I've been saying goodbye to people recently; I went out to lunch with Jason and Billy last week and won't see either of them again, and a few days ago spent two hours at Pizza Hut with Sandi, Kasey, and Carrie (and then an hour at a snow-cone stand); I can try to see Carrie and Kasey again, since they go to a local university, but I won't see Sandi until next August, maybe. It doesn't help that some of the boxes I went through today had high school souvenirs in them. I'm saying goodbye to everything I've known and really loved for a span of time that seems so massive. I suppose now is a good time to remind people that my lj for my trip will be ikou_yo, which means "Let's go!", informally. Given how sporadically I'm updating this one, and how I plan to cease activity in this journal for the year (except for communities and my friends list), it's quite probable I won't update this journal again until next August.
Camp-san is also in International House II, and is also getting in to Kyoto on the 14th, about 2.5 hours after me. Though it means a bit of a wait (which will probably be brutal after a 6 hour flight and a 13 hour flight), I think we're going to share a taxi to the house. I get into KIX (Kansai International Airport) at 4, and she gets in at 6:30. If we schedule the taxi for 7:30 (to allow time for her to go through customs and get her luggage), we won't get to the house until 10PM or so, at which point I shall be the walking dead, incapable of saying anything but "Hajimemashite" and "Braaainnnsss" and maybe twitching. Sounds fun! |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 17th, 2006|10:59 pm] |
Finally got my visa, which means that paperwork preparations are mostly done with. It allows for multiple re-entries, so I'll get to do some travelling, and hopefully visit some friends of a friend in Hong Kong. I'd also love to hit some other Asian countries, and maybe Australia, but that I'll have to see about. When I arrive, I have to get an Alien Registration Card though; Japan is obsessed with keeping tabs on foreigners (the prime minister is proposing mandatory ID cards for foreigners that would be fitted with GPS chips), which I'm a bit worried about, mostly because I have to have it on me at all times and I'm afraid I'll lose it. As for things left to do, I mostly have to hire a taxi service for when I arrive, buy regional gifts, look into cell phone services, and sort through every article of clothing I own, so my mom will know what to send when the weather changes. Harder than all that will be deciding which books to bring. I own about 1600+ books and love them all : ( All I know is I'm definitely bringing Wilde's complete works, both because he's my favorite and for personal protection. I'm pretty sure I could knock someone out with it with a minimum of effort.
Saw Ryan off to college a few days ago; I miss him greatly, because he is my little brother and as mom says, we are thicker than thieves. When he's in West Virginia, he can't make fun of me for saying that the characters in 'Oblivion' should be nicer to me because I'm the Hero of Kvatch, and I can't make fun of him for...anything and everything. He also did a lot of the manual labor around the house, which is now relegated to me. I don't mind manual labor, but my parents want me to mow the lawn, and I'm terrified of lawn mowers: more specifically, their spinning blades. It's a riding mower too, so I'm either going to end up trapped underneath it as it saws off my leg, or I'm going to end up driving it into a house and probably killing a family of four. I'm really freaked out by it. Aside from that, I do really wish he'd come back; it's a bit lonely around the house and the dog is not exactly scintillating intellectually. I'm spending a lot of time knitting, as my family has comissioned three scarves and a hat with kitty ears from me before I go, and wondering if there was a safe way to place myself into a coma for a week or two. Medical science says "no", but that's never stopped me. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 8th, 2006|01:12 am] |
So, a few days ago I got my housing assignment, and the certificate I need to get my visa. Aside from the Japanese language classes and the classes in English I can take, there are cultural classes, optional and taught all in Japanese, which you can take. This semester it's Japanese ceramics (you make cups and plates and things, and at the end of the class you use tea cups you've made in a tea ceremony), calligraphy, and a tea ceremony class; in the spring it's flower arranging, Japanese confectionary, and shamisen, a traditional guitar/banjo type of instrument. I think I'll take them all : ) I'm in International House II, which is more expensive, but the room comes with a private refrigerator, a balcony, and a private toilet/sink. The showers/baths are shared, but unlike in International House I, there are shower cubicles. It's across from the Utano Youth Hostel, and down the street from Utano Hospital, and I pass two or three temples on the way to school. My mom teared up when we got the packet; she said the housing assignment made it real for her. I was touched and a little uncomfortable (I made my mom cry...), but I think it'll be okay, barring a Mediterranean mourning type thing (she is Sicilian) at the airport.
Had a wonderful time tonight at FCT practice. I think the show's going to be amazing this year; I was really, really impressed with what I saw, and of course it was lovely hanging out with everyone. Bethany, Allison, Jenny and I spent two hours at Dennys hanging out, just like the old days (except they didn't sit us in the naughty children's corner). And of course I am looking forward to seeing many more people tomorrow.
Ayumi might be in Kyoto when I come. I would give my left testicle (well, someone else's left testicle, since I am without them) for that to be true. As psyched as I am to go to Japan, I have a feeling the first few days might include hysterical crying jags, and having a friend nearby would be nice. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 6th, 2006|01:18 am] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | "Ambition" -Izabel Varosa | ] |
Aside from the air conditioning being out (the air conditioning for the bedrooms still works, but it's much weaker- for example, while it got up to 88 degrees in the house a few days about, it was only 80 or so in the bedrooms), it's been a good past couple of days. Had lunch with my lovely ebullient Kasey on Thursday, and found out that her aunt owns a Coton who is as gay as Kody is (possibly more- while Kody is only carrying on an affair with Jake, the Yorkie next door, her aunt's dog rode in a gay pride parade with Hedwig) and tonight accompanied Bethany to see the new Will Ferrell movie, which is easily the funniest thing I've seen for years. During the "fire" scene I hurt from laughing so much. I highly recommend it (and to those of you who would decree my taste as "plebeian"- well, fuck you), and those who do go to see it should take note that the character "Borat", whose new movie you'll probably see a preview for, is the same guy as Jean Girard.
The dog's broken. I took him out last night when Ryan was walking back up to the house from saying goodbye to his girlfriend, and of course Kody starts barking at him, as he is prone to do with any moving object in a three mile radius, particularly at night. All of a sudden Ryan starts running at him at full speed; Kody didn't know it was him and looked panicked for a moment, and then ran towards me and cowered behind my legs. It was hilarious, and though I was worried about the implications it had (I thought it was supposed to be the dog protecting me, not the other way around), I laughed for ages, but since then, Kody's been extra-jumpy and impossibly, even more loud. We already had a dog trainer tell us that Kody is loud because he thinks he's in charge of the family and barking is his way of dealing with the stress of "managing" us. All in all, it really lowers my opinion of Madgascar- they've got the freaking Coton on their postage stamp, and for years only royalty was allowed to own them. What the fuck were they thinking? Kody is spazzy as all get out, and would only let me paint the nails on two of his paws in a lovely hot magenta (to match mine, nonetheless). Also, he is very ungracious about getting in his little sweater sets, and we dressed him up like a shark last Halloween he spent most of his time trying to get the head of his costume off. In conclusion, I would give the Coton de Tulear a C+; while cute, their nervous energy and habit of putting your whole wrist in their mouth as a greeting makes them unsuitable for anything but working at the world's most adorable kinetic energy factory.
Waiting on my housing assignment, and the accompanying certificate of eligibility that will enable me to get my visa. Of course, for that I need my passport, which should be here soon as well. I leave on September 13th, with a stopover in San Francisco before landing at Kansai International on the 14th (my mom's birthday- sorry, mom). When does everyone go back to school? I want to see as many people as possible before that happens. Also, visits are a convenient excuse to put off studying kanji, which are hard, particularly when I think it's acceptable to be the stupid foreigner who needs everyone to read kanji to them. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 24th, 2006|09:41 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | "Season's Call" -Hyde | ] |
So, last weekend was eventful. It was my brother's orientation at Shepherd, so the whole family went: my parents and my brother to suffer through said Orientation, my sister to visit our grandmother, who lives nearby, and I to visit the lovely Bethany. We drove around in her "harvest gold" car, went to lunch with her friends, and got massively drunk (at least, I did), thanks to her friend's bartending skills and his self-named drink, the "Original Dana Carpenter"- it had Bailey's, kahlua, butterscotch schnapps, and some other things in it and was both delicious and seemingly innocuous- no alcohol taste- to the point where I didn't realize I was drunk until I was weaving around the apartment and engaging in a heated discussion with two of Bethany's friends about Crash Bandicoot (the heat was all on my side- I asked what species of rodent he was and when they told me he was a Bandicoot, I proclaimed this impossible and told them that Crash could not hide his "shrew ways" from me).
There were two highlights, seeing Bethany being one; the other was when we met up with my brother, who told us his roommate was doing cocaine in their room. Before Orientation, I told Ryan he was probably going to get housed for the evening with a serial masturbator, and when we met his roommate, a monolithic, slope browed, rather bearish guy who was at least 6'2" and outweighed Ryan by probably 80 lbs, I leaned over to Ryan and whispered "I was right". It was much worse than that though; Ryan revealed to Bethany and I that he and his roommate had gone back to the room, where his roommate asked him if he smoked marijuana, because a kid down the hall had been busted for it an hour before, and then asked for a bill. Ryan didn't have one, but this didn't stop his roommate from spreading his cocaine out on the desk, cutting it with the keycard they gave him at the desk, and snorting it, all while Ryan was two feet away. I panicked, worried for his safety, and when Ryan refused to turn his roommate in or sleep somewhere else, I shrieked at him in increasingly high-pitched tones until I called my parents, against his protests. They left the decision up to him and he decided to stay, at which point I yelled at him some more and then gave up. Apparently when they both got back to the room that night the kid again referenced the earlier drug bust and then said, "You know man, there's a time and a place for everything". It was almost cinematic in its irony, and had I not been freaking out about my brother's safety, I would have found it hilarious.
Japan preparations are rolling along nicely; I applied for my new passport today, and should have it two weeks before my trip. As notes were unneccessary in Japanese class, I'm going through my textbooks and writing down everything in a notebook which will accompany me, and we're looking at electronic translators, Skype, and cellphone plans right now. I'm a little worried at how much will be done during Orientation, things like getting health insurance, a bike, and a Japanese bank account, but it does alleviate some stress now. At the moment I'm actually worried about finding suitable gifts; small gifts are a big part of courtesy and it was suggested in the information packet that they be representative of your state or country. I don't know what to get, as Baltimore related presents revolve around crabs, snowglobes of the Johns Hopkins dome, and possible keychains that say "Baltimore: Not America's murder capital anymore, but we're close!" Everyone I know should expect tearful calls saying goodbye closer to September; I know the scene at the airport when I have to say goodbye to my family will be Meditterranean, to say the least, and I have a feeling that most of the breastbeating will be on my side, to the point where they'll ask me to take off my shoes at the security checkpoint and I'll probably start sobbing. I'm excited, but I'm going to miss you all, ya know? |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 9th, 2006|01:31 am] |
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| | "Smiley Skeleton" -Pierrot | ] |
I have come to realize, from the sheer amount of "daddy didn't love me" lonely that comes off the phone sex commercials they show at midnight, if you could harness that, you could control the world. The common whore is, well, common, and if you could find some way to give them a father figure they would follow and then throw in military training, in a short time you'd have a sizeable army willing to fight for male approval. Freud could have done it, had he not lived in a time of social mores, female repression, and chastity belts. I think such an army could be easily accomplished by assigning six or seven women to one older man, who takes on the role of parent and drill sargeant, securing their affection and loyalty; the man's loyalty to the head of the army because now he has six or seven easy women hanging on his every word. Unfortunately, just as militarization of the Rhineland led to World War 2 (with, you know, all the other stuff) militarization of streetwalkers might end simliarly. Of course, this experiment could be adapted to fit men; simply take every basement-dwelling card-collecting nerd and have women dressed as Arwen or Princess Leia or Seven of Nine train them. Anyway, I'm overthinking this, but damnit, I want a dork army!
Anyway, not much exciting going on (hence the above paragraph), aside from embroidering a Christmas ornament for my mom (she got a bit teary when she realized I wasn't going to be here this Christmas, so I don't know how I'm going to give it to her), babysitting on Monday, telling the dog there's a solution to his problems (it's called Methadone), and making fun of my mom for buying an ugly cloth purse (despite my protestations) and then squirming when she saw a 65 year old woman in a pink plaid pantsuit with the same purse. In 8 hours or so (it being 2AM right now) my father and I are hopefully going to bike 20 miles; we almost did it last weekend, but my headphones got caught in the gears of my bike at the 9.5 mile mark (and again on the way back), so we just turned around then and only did 19 miles. Finally, I forgot to call Billy on his birthday, and feel hideous about it, and then my phone died, so I haven't been able to find his number and call to apologize. Billy, if you're reading this, I'm really, really, sorry, and I'll buy you coffee next time we hang out?
Jason, if you are currently present, when are Peter Pan rehearsals? I'm pretty sure I want to crash them and yell things about green tights and Tinkerbell being too big, and also to make highly impractical suggestions for flying apparatuses (apparati?), in the great tradition of FCT. If you let me come, I promise these suggestions will include dubious physics, unsafe structures, and possibly drawing on "the magic of the audience" to propel Peter Pan eight feet into the air. Also, maybe a catapult. Actually, I will give you eight dollars (count it, $8) if the entire production is nothing but cast members being catapulted across the stage. Please? |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 28th, 2006|03:58 pm] |
Though I'm excited about Japan like nothing else (leaving on September 13th!!), it's been giving me nightmares ever since I got the word that I was in. Every night it's a variation on a theme; a nightmare that I couldn't read the signs and died a horrible death, a nightmare that my dog got run over because he didn't recognize me after I came back and wouldn't heed my calls not to run in the street, even a nightmare that Mexico was throwing rocks at me because it was mad I was abandoning Spanish. It's really getting to me; during the day I'm anxious and ecstatic every time I think about the trip, and at night I toss and turn, and wake up feeling discomfited and upset. I don't know what to do, but it's affecting me a lot, since I'll sleep for 7-10 hours and wake up exhausted. Any suggestions? They would be much appreciated...
One day, two classes more of summer school. I have to finish up this essay for my 5:30 class (just adding quotes, thankfully), and then I get to go back to the room, pack up, and study for what will undoubtedly be a grueling psych exam. This is the second day in a row where 4PM rolls around and I haven't gotten a chance to eat yet; hopefully it'll be the last for a while (I'm hungry!). |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 23rd, 2006|11:15 pm] |
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| | "Missed Me" -The Dresden Dolls | ] |
Last night it stormed so hard that it knocked out the cable for a few hours (in the middle of South Park...) and set off a fire alarm in an adjacent building. Even if it had been my building, I wouldn't have left; it was really wet, and I live on the ground floor, so conceivably I could wait until I see flames and then kick out the screen and take the important things, like my iPod and my fish (don't freak, I value the fish more than the iPod, though it's reeeal close). But really, the Napoleon complex tells me things like 'you could stare down a fire' and 'take France, they'll never expect it', and 'let's write whiny love letters to a nearly indifferent woman, accusing her of being fully indifferent, it's sure to win her over!', and I fully believe it.
Miss Straussington came down to stay with me on Wednesday and stayed until Thursday morning. It was quite lovely, though due to my classes we had some difficulties, and the couch we stole from the lounge got stuck between my doorway and the opposite wall and would have blocked traffic, had there been any. It took us a good ten minutes to get the thing inside my room, and the next morning when we returned it to the lounge we interrupted an admissions interview that was going on there, which I felt bad about. We discussed a great many things (some of them scandalous!), and it was lovely having a friend on campus, ever since the regular school year ended and my treacherous college friends decided that they were going to go "home", to "friends" and "family" and "jobs". |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 22nd, 2006|07:01 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | "Gyakkou ~Kono Saka no Mukou ni~ -Klaha | ] |
Today I was sifting through one of my old notebooks and found a note, in my handwriting, that said "You do know there is a difference between Kerouac and a man in paper bag pants who tells you that wind is made by tigers, right?" I'm a little weirded out, not only by the subject matter, but because I honestly cannot remember discussing Kerouac (through notes, no less) and making this comparison, or anything that could provide any clue as to why I wrote it. Bizarre.
I did set up a travel journal at ikou_yo, so friend away there if you like. I'll post there maybe once or twice this summer, but when I get to Japan in mid September, I'll switch over completely for the year. I'm thinking of flying out September 16th or 17th, and then will be in Japan until July 2007. I got the packet from the school (or rather my parents did; I haven't seen it yet), which is apparently 60% in Japanese and very official looking. The school isn't taking care of the visa completely, but they'll send me a certificate in August that will enable me to get a student visa, and along with an acceptance letter sent housing forms, a glossy brochure about Kyoto, and detailed instructions on how to get from Kansai airport to the school. Apparently the dorms are less dorms and more big converted houses, run by a couple. Cool. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 19th, 2006|01:51 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  chipper | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | "Mindstalking (Felix Meow's Call Out Mix) - Lunascape | ] |
Thank you to everyone for their many kind words- I'm still really, really psyched, but it still feels a bit unreal- I don't think it will sink in until I'm at Kyoto Airport, confused, tired, and probably wailing. My mother is happy to hear that the three others from AU that got in are men, two of whom were in my Japanese classes; she's got this strange notion that I need to be protected, which is b.s. Currently waiting to hear if Camp-san got in as well; she did the smart thing and transferred to another college (Pitt) just so she could go to Ritsumeikan and not pay AU's exorbitant tuition. I think she's a genius, especially as she will never set foot on the Pitt campus, and will transfer back to AU once she's done at Ritsumeikan.
First up on the things to do list: renew my passport (the old one is from when I'm 15, and to be quite honest, the fat cheeks I had back then make me cringe), apply for a visa (part of the terms of the visa and attending the school is agreeing not to do any adult-themed work :( There goes my brothel dreams), and actually finding out when I have to be there, as the packet with all the information hasn't gotten to the house yet. That will be followed with plane tickets, housing applications, saying goodbye to everything I've known for the past 20 years, and oh yes, studying Japanese. I'll also be starting a travel journal- I want my parents to be able to read about what I'm doing, but you know, not reading four years of back entries in this journal and finding out how much I hated them at various points in my angry teenage years. I'll still use this journal for my friends page and comments, though. Once it's all set up, I'll let everyone know.
It is freshman orientation here at AU, and all the widdle incoming froshies have been conveniently branded with a green tag, so we upper classmen can pick on them or laugh at them or just avoid them, as they are forced to travel in groups and congest the hallways. Completely randomly, I ran into Ravenna, who some of you may remember from FCT last year. She's upset, because there's a conference for HIV support groups she wanted to go to (she doesn't have HIV, but runs a support group), but they won't let her go because she, like all others, must suffer through the pain of orientation like everyone else. Ravenna is very sweet, but she scares the hell out of me- she's so smart and connected and is honestly a much better person than me. Still, I'd love to hang out with her, but will be sadly unable to, due to the whole 'I'll be thousands of miles away for your freshman year' thing.
Summer school ends next Thursday for me, and I shall be home for good. I shall be visiting you all at least once, so you know, gird your loins for it and what not. |
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| I got in!!! |
[Jun. 17th, 2006|01:05 pm] |
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I got into the Study in Kyoto program! I'm going to be in Japan for the next school year! Oh God, I can't wait! |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 12th, 2006|06:50 pm] |
Just finished filling a blue book with an essay on why the Orientalist view of Muslim women is completely wrong (fun fact: Muslim women in the 6th century had more property, inheritance, and marriage rights than most Western women in the 19th century). Obviously on a break now, but I have to go back at 7:15...
Had a lovely weekend- picnic on Saturday with Maggie, Danielle, Jason, Carrie, and Nicole, which was wonderful, and the family and I had a generally good time. My dad and I biked 13 miles on Sunday, which is a record (before we would only bike 10-12), and at lunch my brother regaled us with stories of him telling his classmates strange things, like that we have a brother we never talk about because he's in the hospital for mental problems (not true), and that he and I are black (also not true- someone told him that the Moors invaded Sicily and that Sicilians are generally about an eighth Moor. My mother's family is Sicilian, so he interpreted he and I being half Sicilian as being 1/16th Moor, and therefore black. The real irony is that our features are kind of Italian, but we got our coloring from my dad's family, who is German and English. So you have this blond, pale-skinned, blue eyed boy going around telling people he's black. According to him, quite a few people believed him). He also told us that some people in his class won't talk to him because he told them that if they go to Pen Island.net, they can get a free pen, and they believed him. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 29th, 2006|01:15 am] |
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So, they put me in a handicapped room in Centennial, which is fine, except for my brother making some very mean jokes about me when he found out. There are bars around the toilet, which is low to the ground, and the shower has a flip-up seat and the peephole is at my chest level (which means it's about four feet from the ground), but the room's nice, overlooks a quiet terrace in the very back, and is most importantly, private. As much as I appreciate this, I'm rather lonely, and have been tearing through books as a result. Class takes up about 16 hours a week, and the rest is more or less free. It's really not as nice as I thought it would be. I'll soldier on the best I can, as I really have no other choice, but it's boring and I much rather would have worked this summer, which is made impossible by these classes. At least they're interesting; my psych professor did a lovely, solo reenactment of the mating process of the lab rat, and a big chunk of the Arab Studies class is movies. Still... |
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[May. 20th, 2006|04:15 pm] |
Still alive. Have spent the past week playing "Oblivion", which, despite not being as guild-oriented as "Morrowind" (which is the one game I would take to a desert island, to be fair), still rocks my face clean off. Except for the part where you have to buy "gamer points" at Best Buy and then spend them to get access to horse armor, or the locked tower in the Arcane University, but that's an XBox 360 thing mostly, I think. In exchange for me being in Ryan's room until 2AM when he has school tomorrow (I told him to move the XBox out of his room, but he said no), I have helped him rack up medals in "The Condemned", a game which I excel at, mostly because it's got a touch of survival-horror in it (and I loves me some survival-horror), and also because you get to hit these belligerent junkies in the face with things like wrenches and locker doors. Honest to God locker doors.
I have also been doing Fallstonian things, like going to the old alma mater's orchestra/chorus concert; my brother was playing piano to accompany the orchestra (some animal related piece by Saint-Saens). My dad promised we'd leave after he was done (he was on second), but he reneged on it because he wanted to hear Ryan's girlfriend sing (she had a solo, singing part of "Yesterday"), and we sat for two hours, listening to the godawful music. The products of our high school's music program are technically competent, yes, but that doesn't necessarily make them pleasant to listen to, and when we finally left it was during a break in the performances, not at the end. It doesn't help that I had full run of that theater for four years as a tech crew member, and I'd see shadows move on the catwalk and wonder if our names were still written in the dust up there, next to the names of the tech crew from 1985, or if the new tech crew was slacking off just as badly as we used to, or if Schwirian still sleeps on the couch in the tech room and keeps his Aquaman treatises on the computer in there. It was nostalgic, but in an uncomfortable, sharp way, and I was glad when we left.
I'm going back to school tomorrow; summer school starts on Monday, and I need these classes or I won't get to go abroad. I'm taking "The Contemporary Arab World" and "Psychology as a Natural Science", both gen eds. It turns out that there will be FIVE other people in each class with me. Five, in classes that would normally hold forty. Each class is 2 to 2.5 hours long, and my dreams of playing Sudoku during class is rapidly dying. I don't know what to do; this means I'll not only have to interact with the teacher and the rest of the class, I'm going to have to actually pay attention. This is quite unpleasant, and I'm unprepared for it - for example, during Vic Lit this semester I've been doing homework or helping Roth-san with Japanese homework, and during Art History I've been reading or translating Shakira lyrics. Also, AU takes on a creepy aspect when people leave; it's supposed to be full of life, and when it's not it's bizarre and a little unsettling. It'll be interesting to see how the next six weeks unfold, I suppose.
In miscellaneous news, I got my hair cut (it's above shoulder-length, the shortest it's been since 9th grade), my dad and I biked 12 miles today (I wanted to turn around at the 4 mile mark, but he persuaded me to keep going), and I owe phonecalls to quite a few people (I've been sick, forgive me!). I also haven't been keeping up with my friends' list, so expect comments on old entries. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 2nd, 2006|02:19 am] |
Still here, I suppose... I spilled Diet Coke on my main laptop and am now using the back-up, the one that I replaced because last year it crashed, taking with it three years worth of work. I think it'll be okay, but I'm worried about the other laptop, but can't get it repaired until I go home, which will be anywhere from the 8th to the 13th.
I had a very good birthday. I hung out with friends all day, and on Sunday my family came up to celebrate (and to meet Scott). I had a really good time, and now have several useful presents, including money for Japan, an external hard drive, and a fantastic tiara. I also have yarn to make Jayne hats; started the first one today. It's looking good so far.
My fair Straussington, I need to thank you in particular- I got your card on Thursday. It was wonderful, and it made me smile quite a lot. Thank you so much!
It is looking definite that I'll be studying at Ritsumeikan this fall. They've apparently never rejected anyone, and their only reasons for doing so would be if the Japanese in your essay was too poor or if your Japanese teacher expressed concerns about you. I had Ayumi help with me with my essay, and I really doubt Aoshima-sensei would do something like that, so I think I'll be okay. I'm just worried now about 1) not getting in the particular program I want (one is much more language-oriented, and that's the one I want) and 2) being the first AU person to ever be rejected. I did meet with Heidi, the program advisor though, and she assuaged my fears about the latter coming to pass, so I think I'll be okay. She also told me that she once freaked out in a Japanese super market because they didn't have pepperjack cheese (at the time we were discussing the 10 stages of culture shock, and when she freaked out she was in stage 5, anger/depression). She also told me that people have an attention span of five minutes at most when you tell them about your abroad experiences, so I have to be ready to condense a year of my life into that span of time :)
Exams start on the...4th, I believe. I have 15 pages of Spanish vocabulary to memorize (though it's not as bad as it sounds; the packet is double-spaced) and about 100 kanji that I once knew but have forgotten because they're hard and involve 10+ strokes. A microeconomics exam, a 10-12 paper for Vic Lit, and an art history exam (oh, that one's going to hurt- for the midterm I had to memorize the name, decade, artist, and movement for about 60 paintings, and me duele tanto), and that's it! I shall be back here, of course, for summer school, starting the 22nd, but I'll have a room to myself, and possibly a suite- they stuck me in one half of a suite and one of my friends says that sometimes they just don't bother putting anyone on the other side. Saying "suite" makes it sound much nicer than it it, but I'd have two fairly large rooms to myself, plus a bathroom. If that happens, everyone has to come visit, and if it doesn't, everyone has to come visit anyway! |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 24th, 2006|01:18 am] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | "Mars of Chicken" and "Funk China Doll" -Cube Juice | ] |
Yo estoy llena de dudas al momento, y que lastima, since last night was so lovely, salvo por, quizas, el fin. It's usually been a good night when you get home so late that you wonder if the plum-colored light that shines up from the horizon is the dawn or just pollution, y ahora no puedo pensar en lo sin encogerme interna. Como siempre, no se la manera a sonorizar mis temores. El no me llama, o me abandona por un poco tiempo para una otra nina (pero ya es demasiado largo), y yo siempre sospecho que soy culpable (no soy una mentirosa, el defecto es probablemente mio). No lo se, pero quiero saber. De todas maneras, I didn't get back until 4am; I watched something like six hours of Firefly with my friends Sara, Dana, Mike and Chris in some guy's apartment (I don't remember his name, but he was a friend of Dana's) and then left to go hang out with Scott, and to a lesser (and somewhat unwanted extent) his roommate, who drinks so much he probably sweats vodka, and his roommate's date, who seemed quite lovely (despite her attraction to the roommate). I didn't do much of worth today, aside from cleaning a little and hanging out with Tami for a while. As the Spanish indicates, I'm not feeling so great right now, and it's really distracting. Part of me just really wants to go home, where everything lines up cleanly and I can remember who I used to be (and cringe) and where all my books and my pets are and problems are so small that my mother is able to listen to them and present me with a ready solution in less than a minute. I really miss the stars, you know, and you can't see them here, which drags so heavily on me. But I can't go home, and I have to stay and be an adult about this (20 in two days, it's getting closer) and hopefully I won't do anything irreparable or scarring. Gah, that's it for that for now, as I need to emo out just as much as I need to drill a hole in my head with my electric screwdriver Charlotte (though I will say that trepanation is an established procedure that dates back to 3000 BC and when you Google it the first entry is the story of some punk who had it done by some friends of his and then wrote about it on the Internet, and he seems happy with the results).
Found a cute looking yarn shop in Alexandria that's fairly close to the Metro. I think I'll check it out on Wednesday, because I need some yarn, for I have decided to make the hat Jayne's mother makes him in the episode "The Message", the yellow and orange and red one with the flaps and the pom-pom. Apparently they're easy to make (4 or so hours), and it should be a breeze, since I've knitted a beanie. My plan is turn everyone I know on to Firefly (it's not hard, being a fantastic show) and then making them Jayne hats for Christmas/birthdays, as it eliminates a lot of shopping around. Whenever the first one gets made I promise to post pictures of it, possibly while it's on my dog's head, as Cody is a lot like Jayne (They're both boys with girl's names for one, since Cody's full name is "Dakota") and his "mother" (my mother) is also fond of dressing him in ridiculous clothes.
In Spanish on Friday we had to write an essay on what would make us happy. I wrote that it would make me happy if my aunt Barbara stopped with the incredibly conservative Catholicism, put on a pair of damn pants and started talking to my family again, and also if my uncle Steve stopped being such a redneck (though I was forced to use the word for hick, "pueblerino" or something like that, because my dictionary didn't have "redneck"). And then I ran out of time and hurriedly wrote that it would make me happy if something bad (I made sure to put "una cosita mala", instead of "una cosa mala") happened to the people who were mean to me in high school. I've already seen some of that come to pass; Joe Antinozzi is working in a second rate snowball stand in a gas station parking lot (though there are not enough bad things in the world that can happen to him, considering he bullied and insulted his high school girlfriend into an eating disorder, and punched another girl); I saw him there when I went home for Easter, and he already looks broken, that stupid bastard. I thought about why I wrote that I wanted bad things to happen to those people for a while (aside from sheer spite, and having been pressed for time), and wasn't sure I liked the reasons I came up with. After more pondering, I came to conclusion that I'm willing to forgive most of it, as with a lot of the meaness I encountered there was a brand of piggish stupidity that insures that those people will never go far. I don't know about everyone else, though. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 19th, 2006|11:43 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  morose | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" -Tears for Fears | ] |
So, there were a bunch of old people on campus today, in the quad and on my floor and in our bathrooms, and as I was thinking "Damn prospies and their parents", and it made me realize that I should be kinder to the parents at least (not the prospies; they're annoying little shits) because they are old, and soon, on Tuesday, I will be old too. Okay, it may seem like being 20 is only really old in, I don't know, cat years, or during the era of the Bubonic Plague, but it feels like such a big deal- I mean, I will enter the decade in which I'll leave college, get a real job, and probably get married and pop out a few kids; in other words, adult stuff. It will begin to look stranger and stranger for me to enjoy the culture that has defined my life for the past 19 years, things like boybands or old Nick shows or gluing rhinestones on things. I know I'm not expressing this very well, but for so many years I've been clamoring for recognition as an adult, reading adult books and watching adult shows and making jokes about doing coke lines off of strippers, and it was easy, because I wasn't going to get it and I didn't have to give up anything to get it. Now I am going to receive what I've been yearning for all these years, and I'm not sure I'm ready, I'm not sure I'm ready for the challenges and sacrifices and basic duties that the age I'm about to turn requires. It's just a very odd feeling, and I seem to be quite alone in it. Ah well. Tuesday will come and I will turn 20 and it will be a quiet affair, because birthdays are only a big deal for children, and I will cope with it and when I turn 21 I won't be having these issues, because I will be looking forward to getting drunk off my ass (legally).
Now for less depressing matters. Today I sat around in the sun and then went to Tenleytown with my darling Tami, and then I hung out with my lovely Sara and watched "America's Next Top Model", and then I spent some time with Scott. Campbell-san, a Hawaiian guy in my Japanese class who also applied to Ritsumeikan, said that he has family in Tokyo (they own a yakitori shop- oishii!), and that he'll introduce Dundon-san (the other guy from my class who applied) and I to them if we all go. That's something to (potentially, I must remind myself) look forward to, especially as I wanted to go to Tokyo to visit Ayumi and I'd need someone who knew the subway there, because it is terrifying, as you can see here: http://www.bento.com/subtop5.html Ayumi lives on one of the blue lines. Which one of the four, I don't know, but that map gives me nervous seizures just looking at it. |
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