Random days (no, I can't think of a better title)
Not a terribly exciting day, but it did start off a bit...nerve-wracking. In need of a third letter of recommendation and desiring that it come from this side of the Pacific, we e-mailed our former Japanese professor to see if he couldn't do us the favor. Thankfully he agreed, so we headed over to his office this morning. It was something of a trial trying to find his office; the building where it used to be is currently being renovated so it's no longer where it used to be, which is rather unfortunate because it was easy to find. After a few wrong turns (and the decision to have a go at it by heading outside and entering through a different door), we finally found it.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the meeting began as we both feared: in Japanese. I know some of you will think we're crazy for being nervous about it; after all, we've just come back from living in Japan for five years. But the truth of the matter is that I'm far weaker at spoken Japanese than I would be if I'd really taken the time to practice. Indeed, I used Japanese everyday, but I only became good at the everyday sort of things you need to say when you're at the convenience store or at the train station or getting help locating a section of a department store. None of these things are helpful when you're talking to your old professor. Thankfully, however, the conversation found it's way to English and we had quite a nice discussion thereafter, mostly about how the department is doing (the numbers for second year, while holding steady, are almost always lower than what is preferred by the university, apparently this has the Spanish department absolutely salivating), how he's teaching Chinese this semester, what our general plans are, where we lived, and that apparently he and his wife were in Kagawa this summer (spots they stopped at: Konpira, Zentsuuji, Ritsurin, among others and they ate udon as much as possible). I do wish we'd gotten in contact with him earlier as it'd have certainly been surreal to meet up with them.
We were there for around fifty minutes and by the time it was over I felt rather relieved. In "serious" situations Jamie and I, when we're together, tend to....we have a pattern that we haven't managed to break. We're fine when we're apart, but for whatever reason we tend to play off each other in a way that probably comes off as slightly immature and flustered. I'm not really sure why this happens and we have yet to find a way to remedy it, but I think we managed to keep it together rather well. I was nervous and expected...not the *worst*, but imagined it would go per usual. Jamie, on the other hand, wasn't particularly nervous going in, but came out of it a bit flustered. She made one or two verbal slip-ups (neither of which has any real validity, in my opinion) and felt it could've gone better. He seemed completely relaxed and unperturbed, so I'm calling it a victory. Afterward we walked home, instead of waiting to be picked up by mom, and for a moment I could imagine that at least some of the people out on the quad were actually mistaking us for university students. Not that I'd go back to my university days had I the choice, but at my age there looms a whole new decade in my future and sometimes I can't help feeling envy at the kids who've just entered the one I'm almost finished with.
In the afternoon we did the very boring job of trying sanding down one of the last remaining storm windows we had to work on, and got as far as priming it. We still have two coats of brown paint to put on, and it's dad's job to see that the caulking is done. We'd better get it completed soon; tomorrow it's supposed to be nearly 70 degrees, by Friday, only 50. Thereafter we decided to take a walk along the Constitution Trail (for walking/jogging/biking/skating), enjoying the absolutely lovely fall colors of the trees that line it and on our way back we met up with my mom in downtown Normal to pick up dinner (subs from Jimmy Johns). Rather tired from our hour's walk, we hitched a ride home with mom in the car.
Over dinner Jamie and I finally sat down to watch "Persuasion". Leslie gave it to me, but I think perhaps she said it belonged to mom. It took me quite a long time to read the original book, despite how much I love "Pride & Prejudice" and "Emma" (I'm not terribly excited about "Mansfield Park" the book, though I enjoy the movie, and "Sense & Sensibility" is...ok. I haven't read it, but they recently did a new movie version of it that I liked rather well)...and I must admit that it was only due to the influence of "The Lake House". In the American version of the Korean movie "Il Mare", Sandra Bullock's character has a particular affinity for it and it plays a small but important roll in bringing the characters together. There's an absolutely lovely quote from it that, in short, beautifully states how perfect Anne and Captain Wentworth are for each other. An abbreviated version is used in the movie, but it's because of it that I finally decided to give the book a real go. I'd attempted it before, but couldn't quite get the feel of it and gave up. Finally I read it with real comprehension and found that I quite liked it. It's far more somber than "Pride & Prejudice" and "Emma" and I think perhaps that, if I had to choose an order for those books of Jane Austen that have a more melancholy edge it would probably go something like "Sense & Sensibility", "Persuasion", and "Mansfield Park". I haven't read "Northanger Abbey", so I can't say where on the spectrum that one sits. The only difficult thing about "Persuasion" is that Anne is so much more docile than Eizabeth or Emma; she's a little like Elenor, but far more like Fanny (whom I actually can't stand at all, at least in book form). She has an incredibly generous heart, but allows people to walk all over her and, indeed, to influence her away from that which would make her happiest.
Er...so anyway, we were watching this version of "Persuasion" from '95 and it wasn't all that bad. I quite liked the actress playing Anne and thought she was quite a good fit, but I was a bit thrown by the choice of Ciaran Hinds for Captain Wenthworth. I quite like him-he played Edward Rochester in a version of "Jane Eyre" and also appeared in "Mrs. Pettigrew Lives for Day", but perhaps I was too poisoned by the more recent version of "Persuasion" that I'd seen. That actor was just...picture perfect to me and it was impossible for me to like anyone else in the role with such fervor, much like trying to see anyone play Darcy but Colin Firth: I'll pass. Still, it really is a rather good version and is faithful to the story, for all I know it, and you really wouldn't be ill served by either version....I just had difficulty with a new Wentworth. ;p
And though I haven't mentioned it here, yet, my new passport came, yay! It came quite a lot sooner than I anticipated, so I only hope that I'll be using it in the very near future to go visit Angelina. I know, monetarily speaking, I probably shouldn't, but I miss her terribly. I realize that in all likelihood we're going to be apart more than we're together for the rest of our lives, but when you're used to seeing someone nearly every week for nearly four years, you come to feel their absence keenly. Besides, I'm dying to visit Canada...it's become somewhat mysterious and legendary for me since becoming such good friends with her. Loathe as I am to admit it, I didn't give it much thought until I met her (not grossly uncommon in Americans, I think, in general), not even when I was friends with Sarah and Dillon. But ever since we became true friends (Angelina and I decided that while we were friendly with each other before, you know you're *truly* friends with someone after you've spent the night spooning them to keep warm whilst sandwiched between two inadequate sleeping bags, one of which is the only padding between you and a plywood floor) I've become more and more interested in it. She never missed the opportunity to tell me how Wonderful and Amazing it is and I can't wait for the opportunity to see if her
country can back up her claims.