The Lusty Month of...April?
My new roommate has The Great Gatsby and Earthsea Quartet on his bookshelf, and Simon and Garfunkel and the Indigo Girls on his iPod.
I think we are going to get along really well. Without my having to try too hard, which is the plan.
My most pressing goals are to get him into Dar Williams and Tori Amos. Where to start? "Winter?" "Silent All These Years?" "Famous Blue Raincoat" cover?
Ideas, anyone?
Yesterday I was sitting outside on campus reading my Classical Hebrew textbook when a guy came up beside me on his bike. He was a tall, thin Japanese man, probably in his mid-50's, with big glasses that made his eyes look huge and a handkerchief around his neck. He actually looked sort of Chinese.
He asked me in English if I was a freshman, to which I replied that I was an OYR. He said, "ah, so a freshman?" I told him that, like most OYRs, I am a third year.
At this point I got the feeling that he was not from ICU. Although he said he was. Also, he said that he works with electronic engineering, and spends most of his time commuting between India and the United States, and he stops by universities in Japan every now and then to give lectures and interact with the Japanese students, as he put it, to "stimulate and be stimulated."
Did I mention that I am extremely suspicious of talkative strangers with interesting life stories?
I kept trying to get away from him, but he got out of me that I was studying linguistics. He said "ah, yes, it's easy for you to study the linguistics of language, but you should be studying the linguistics of molecules."
I quickly suppressed the "WTF?" expression that threatened to take over my countenance.
He then talked for about a half-hour, non-stop, in a mixture of Japanese and English, about a whole bunch of topics that he seemed to have developed a passing familiarity with. I got away as soon as I saw two people that I knew.
I talked with those two friends for a little while, then I headed back in the direction of the dorms to find a quiet reading place. Once again, the guy just happened to appear next to me on his bicycle. He resumed his conversation, and then started handing me piles and piles of "notes" that he had taken on nationalism in the Soviet Union and China. The notes seemed to consist of phrases copied out of various textbooks and pasted together into sentences without any regard for their meaning. People I knew kept passing by me, and unfortunately they did not come over when I greeted them enthusiastically and a little desperately.
I really didn't want to just tell the guy to bugger off, on the off chance that he actually was a professor with numerous books published at MIT and Harvard (although he neglected to mention the titles of those books). I also didn't want to walk to close to the dorms lest he get an idea of where I live (Tokyo is safe, but there are crazy people in every city). I sent toshimalfoy a quick email saying there was a weird guy following me around; she got the idea, and called me almost immediately after to interrupt the conversation/make plans. When I still couldn't get away, she came to rescue me, at which point we left without saying goodbye to the man.
Hmm. I hope I don't see him again.
I think we are going to get along really well. Without my having to try too hard, which is the plan.
My most pressing goals are to get him into Dar Williams and Tori Amos. Where to start? "Winter?" "Silent All These Years?" "Famous Blue Raincoat" cover?
Ideas, anyone?
Yesterday I was sitting outside on campus reading my Classical Hebrew textbook when a guy came up beside me on his bike. He was a tall, thin Japanese man, probably in his mid-50's, with big glasses that made his eyes look huge and a handkerchief around his neck. He actually looked sort of Chinese.
He asked me in English if I was a freshman, to which I replied that I was an OYR. He said, "ah, so a freshman?" I told him that, like most OYRs, I am a third year.
At this point I got the feeling that he was not from ICU. Although he said he was. Also, he said that he works with electronic engineering, and spends most of his time commuting between India and the United States, and he stops by universities in Japan every now and then to give lectures and interact with the Japanese students, as he put it, to "stimulate and be stimulated."
Did I mention that I am extremely suspicious of talkative strangers with interesting life stories?
I kept trying to get away from him, but he got out of me that I was studying linguistics. He said "ah, yes, it's easy for you to study the linguistics of language, but you should be studying the linguistics of molecules."
I quickly suppressed the "WTF?" expression that threatened to take over my countenance.
He then talked for about a half-hour, non-stop, in a mixture of Japanese and English, about a whole bunch of topics that he seemed to have developed a passing familiarity with. I got away as soon as I saw two people that I knew.
I talked with those two friends for a little while, then I headed back in the direction of the dorms to find a quiet reading place. Once again, the guy just happened to appear next to me on his bicycle. He resumed his conversation, and then started handing me piles and piles of "notes" that he had taken on nationalism in the Soviet Union and China. The notes seemed to consist of phrases copied out of various textbooks and pasted together into sentences without any regard for their meaning. People I knew kept passing by me, and unfortunately they did not come over when I greeted them enthusiastically and a little desperately.
I really didn't want to just tell the guy to bugger off, on the off chance that he actually was a professor with numerous books published at MIT and Harvard (although he neglected to mention the titles of those books). I also didn't want to walk to close to the dorms lest he get an idea of where I live (Tokyo is safe, but there are crazy people in every city). I sent toshimalfoy a quick email saying there was a weird guy following me around; she got the idea, and called me almost immediately after to interrupt the conversation/make plans. When I still couldn't get away, she came to rescue me, at which point we left without saying goodbye to the man.
Hmm. I hope I don't see him again.