01/25/10 room, evening (post dinner)- I ate pretty fast. I have to study for my shiken (test) tomorrow. Oi. I will try to include as much detail as I can though before I have to stop. I took the subway and then train to Kōzōji Eki (Kozoji Train station). I called my host mom and told her I was at the station now and she could come and get me. I only waited for ten minutes and then we headed home. I ate and showered and put my hair back to normalcy in under 40 minutes. And was ready to talk on skype at 11pm. (I was meeting with the group I am involved with from the U of R again). We wound up talking for a pretty long time and I didn’t get to bed until 1:56am. That’s very late for me. It isn’t even a finals time and I am staying up that late, yikes.
I feel as though I am not yet used to my new and different lifestyle. The commute is new and the school and class system is different. I want to try everything but I also have to eat breakfast and dinner at a certain time and shower at a certain time. I have to work to not only my host mom’s schedule, but the bus’s, train’s, and subway’s schedule on top of my class schedule. Needless to say, I am not bangin’ on all cylinders when it comes to being on top of my life right now. Not that I am usually this efficiency machine or anything but I am usually better than this. I am getting by with studying but I am going to bed too late. My adjustment period is taking longer than I thought and I need to get on the stick. During freshman orientation I went to a session given by the dean of something or other about how to manage your time effectively in college and do well in classes. She used a train simile. She said your classes or semester is like a train that is about to leave the station. If you do not get on the train at the beginning of the semester you will chase it for the rest of the semester. “So,” she concluded, “begin as you intend to continue.” I intend to beat this semester into submission…but, so far I feel like I am the one getting whipped. It could be much worse but it could be way better too.
I remembered that session and that simile because I have been timid with the literal trains on my commute so far. I can’t tell you how many times I have not gotten on a train because I couldn’t determine fast enough whether it was the one I wanted or not. As far as I understand it, some trains are “rapid”, some are “homeliners”, some are “local” and some are one of those but don’t go all the way to the end of the line but stop at a certain station. The two rapids don’t cost extra but one stops at my station and one does not. The homeliners are extra money and they stop at Ozone but some do not stop at Kōzōji. The locals stop at all stations in-between their starting and stopping points but sometimes the stopping point is before my station. So all that is in my head when I look at trains. Sometimes it is really obvious if it’s the right train but sometimes it isn’t. I usually figure it out after the train has left that it would have taken me where I needed to go. The next one isn’t usually more than 10 minutes behind but I should be better at this by now. When Kai san is with me I try to watch her but she seems to not even look around, it’s so easy for her. The simile the dean gave is simple. Life is more complex. But one thing is sure; I need to master my classes and schedule (and my commute). If I don’t what am I doing here anyway? I promised my parents I could do this. More importantly, I promised myself.
So went to bed and I woke up at 6:30. Put my clothes on and went down to eat at 6:45. I left at 7:20 and waited at the bus stop for several minutes. I got to train station and waited for Kai san. We got to the classroom and I waited for class to start. Hurry up, wait, hurry up, wait… Sometimes the section twos are in a different classroom from the very start of class. Today was such a day, so I parted with Kai san right off the bat. I haven’t seen our head instructer since the third day of class. We are taught by the two assistant instructors. It’s fine; they’re great. But what does Machida sensei do? In class today, one of the instructors used Michael Jackson as an example to lead a grammar exercise. When he died last June I was in Rennes and no body talked about anything else the rest of my time there. I didn’t realize he had such international appeal. The exercise was listing reasons why something is something. Tatoebe (for example): Michael Jackson is a good singer and a good dancer and so he is a super star. (No kidding, that was an example.) Erin and I were both so tempted to say “shinda”, he’s dead. But we didn’t. Actually “shinda” is “died”. I think dead would be something like “shindeiru”, which is like to continue to be in a state of having died. Um, never-mind.
After class I checked my mail at CJS and asked where my Sadou (tea ceremony) class was. It was in a different location this time and I didn’t know what the kanji indicating the location meant. (not knowing what kanji mean is the story of my life write now) I was directed to the right building. It is in the Curry House building but on the first floor. I went to one of the cafeterias to eat my bento (lunch). My host mom got me a Tora (tiger) lunch bag that is yellow when she went to the temple. I like it. It is the year of the tiger and my host mom was going to a temple for the first time this year. Apparently there was lots of cool stuff to buy, including food (wish I could have gone). My host mom bought sweets too. :d more on those later. I went to a cafeteria hoping to spot people I know. Sure enough I found Tana, Amanda, and Adam. Adam and I both have tea ceremony at 1:30. At 12:30 we were done eating and Adam suggested we go to the computer lab building and go online until it was time. I checked and wrote emails. I was going to write a short entry but it took me longer than I thought to write the emails. The keyboards are a little different here. The most annoying thing was having to press the space bar with my left thumb, which I never do. In fact, my left thumb does nothing when I type. It just floats there while the other nine do all the work. Not today though. My left thumb (and probably the right side of my brain) got the workout of it’s life b/c I couldn’t reach the space bar with my right. But I was proud of myself for writing down my password the last time and being able to log on this time. Adam got on his facebook page and asked if I was on facebook and I said no. A lot of the people I know have tried to convince me to get a facebook. But all their urging just makes me dig my heels in deeper. I can be very stubborn.
I have to stop now. It is almost shower time and I need to study. I can’t promise I’ll get to write another entry tonight but I will try to catch up to that elusive present tomorrow. (20:02)
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