(no subject)
So, Life!
I dropped a course, a first year level history course that I technically need for my minor (I'm short an introductory/survey course of whatever kind), but that doesn't concern me that much. I'll make it up somewhere or another.
My name is in print! In the acknowledgments, but it's in print and published! Book is mad expensive, $50 for paperback, $95 for hardcover. But that's the hardcore academia market for you.
日本語のクラスがいいですよ。かんじはむずかしいですが、とてもおもしろいです。 I'm way too distracted to bother saying anything more complex. It can be best summed up in: a brush pen has become a permanent fixture alongside the pen I keep refilling.
Researching views of Japan in the 1980s says: America has become bitter and paranoid since our Japan Inc. days, and we're seeing 1980s Japan in 2000s China, though 2000s China is really 1970s Japan, and we'll just get crazier in the 2010s. I expect things will settle by 2030.
My birthday came and passed with hardly a whimper, I feel old at 23, and I'm going to feel older when I don't finish my bachelor's until 25, but that's study abroad and double majoring for you. My East Asian Studies advisor has basically set down "Come back to graduate, get the fuck out as quickly as possible and go straight back. Line up a job while you're over there if you can, spend as little time in the US as possible," etc etc. Which is an interesting dilemma for someone like me who's rather rooted. But I'll have to see how the year in Japan itself goes.
Packing is absurd, and yes I've already started. Books, so many books, so much sorting to do.
Finally got a response after a month of silence from Fiona/Jing (the name debate is a weird one -- the Chinese students all pick English pseudonyms, but to EAS majors their Chinese names aren't exactly moonrunes, so it's a weird thought train a how to address them in my head...), which wasn't that odd given that her laptop was sent to Guangzhou for repairs. None the less squealed like nekomimi festooned fangirl. Turns out Chinese college students don't know how/hate cooking more than American ones -- I get a bit of shock that I cook a lot from scratch with US colleagues, but it was very "OMG WOW" with Fiona, followed by demands for pictures of something I cook almost every week (baozi, Chinese steamed buns). Also, pictures of a dramatic haircut before/after but no comment about it in the email -- does this mean anything and if so what? This communication stuff is stupid and crazy.
She's telling me I should learn Mandarin as well, this sounds like suicide but I'm seriously considering it. Still far more scared of being invited to China during winter/spring break -- ending up in Zhuhai would be weird, but there would be Hamline students, and the usual college like madness. It's Nanjing that scares me dead. Family scares me on principle, for arguably no rational reason. Besides the whole "Specializes in Japanese and this is Nanjing and a family with serious Nanjing history." Yeah.
Anyway, that's my crazed ranting, back to NYT articles from the 1980s.
I dropped a course, a first year level history course that I technically need for my minor (I'm short an introductory/survey course of whatever kind), but that doesn't concern me that much. I'll make it up somewhere or another.
My name is in print! In the acknowledgments, but it's in print and published! Book is mad expensive, $50 for paperback, $95 for hardcover. But that's the hardcore academia market for you.
日本語のクラスがいいですよ。かんじはむずかしいですが、とてもおもしろいです。 I'm way too distracted to bother saying anything more complex. It can be best summed up in: a brush pen has become a permanent fixture alongside the pen I keep refilling.
Researching views of Japan in the 1980s says: America has become bitter and paranoid since our Japan Inc. days, and we're seeing 1980s Japan in 2000s China, though 2000s China is really 1970s Japan, and we'll just get crazier in the 2010s. I expect things will settle by 2030.
My birthday came and passed with hardly a whimper, I feel old at 23, and I'm going to feel older when I don't finish my bachelor's until 25, but that's study abroad and double majoring for you. My East Asian Studies advisor has basically set down "Come back to graduate, get the fuck out as quickly as possible and go straight back. Line up a job while you're over there if you can, spend as little time in the US as possible," etc etc. Which is an interesting dilemma for someone like me who's rather rooted. But I'll have to see how the year in Japan itself goes.
Packing is absurd, and yes I've already started. Books, so many books, so much sorting to do.
Finally got a response after a month of silence from Fiona/Jing (the name debate is a weird one -- the Chinese students all pick English pseudonyms, but to EAS majors their Chinese names aren't exactly moonrunes, so it's a weird thought train a how to address them in my head...), which wasn't that odd given that her laptop was sent to Guangzhou for repairs. None the less squealed like nekomimi festooned fangirl. Turns out Chinese college students don't know how/hate cooking more than American ones -- I get a bit of shock that I cook a lot from scratch with US colleagues, but it was very "OMG WOW" with Fiona, followed by demands for pictures of something I cook almost every week (baozi, Chinese steamed buns). Also, pictures of a dramatic haircut before/after but no comment about it in the email -- does this mean anything and if so what? This communication stuff is stupid and crazy.
She's telling me I should learn Mandarin as well, this sounds like suicide but I'm seriously considering it. Still far more scared of being invited to China during winter/spring break -- ending up in Zhuhai would be weird, but there would be Hamline students, and the usual college like madness. It's Nanjing that scares me dead. Family scares me on principle, for arguably no rational reason. Besides the whole "Specializes in Japanese and this is Nanjing and a family with serious Nanjing history." Yeah.
Anyway, that's my crazed ranting, back to NYT articles from the 1980s.