Thoughts
Today is my birthday. おめでとう。　昨日の夜はHeavenへ行きました。 Heaven was bit different than what I expected, but it wasn't bad. It was quite small and run by a sexy Japanese man. We only stayed for three hours, but had a good talk with Simon and The Bitter Baron while we had vegetables and drinks. It was also darker than I thought it would be; the sexy Japanese man also piped in Jazz music. I can't say I minded the Jazz music. We had a humorous discussion about the conversations that are shared amongst high school students here. I could only participate in brief because I've only taught at one high school, and only two times at that. I must say it was a great experience for my ego though. There isn't quite anything like walking into a classroom full of high school girls, who all eeeeeeeeeeee at the sight of you; then after you give a short introduction have them ask questions like, "What foods do you like," or "What are your hobbies?" I certainly enjoyed watching them tally the "correct" answers given. "I like yakisoba." Chorus of "Yes!"es. "I have a few hobbies, I enjoy Kung Fu and Tai Chi." The Japanese teacher turns to me, "They want you to show them some." Short demonstration later and it is over. I had two of the girls blushing and apparently making plans, or at least developing a crush after mentioning I liked "Cowboy Bebop" and "Trigun." Chalk one up to the ego. Regardless, I have heard these conversations that they spoke of, but not to the extent The Wife and The Bitter Baron have. Conversations that sound like this,

"It's cold isn't it."
"Yes it is cold, don't you think its cold?"
"Yes, I think is cold. I like your lap blanket."
"Thank you, it is cold. Your lap blanket is also nice."
"It is cold."
Yes it is true, conversations do occur, and more commonly than one would imagine.

I'm planning on going to see Last Samurai with 西田先生。　The Bitter Baron may be writing a review of the movie for me, but his plate is full with other projects he is currently working on. Nishida is my Japanese instructor and Japanese mother, as she says. It has been really great knowing her because she has a very in depth knowledge of her own culture and is interested in sharing it, as well as learn about other people. She is one of the most traveled people I know. She's trying to head to Michigan this coming August, since she has not, to this point, been to America. She has traveled extensively in Europe and Asia, and something else, when she was in college she hitch hiked all around Japan. Anyway, I'm studying the た　form of verbs right now, and she says I'm gaining confidence in my speaking, which is true. Here is the Japanese class homepage.

My final exams are coming up, so I suppose I should probably study. I'm actually quite impressed with how studious I have been in these classes, but I did have a professor e-mail me and ask me why I was taking his class after he assigned the homework and I had turned it 20 minutes after it had been assigned. It was meant to be a two-week project. He He He. The reason I'm taking the class: it was listed as Advanced Fundamentals of Programming, and no tag line either. It had the word Advanced in it! Also, I needed it in order to get a student loan to pay for the summer semester. It looks like next year I'll be getting some grant funding. I going to be helping one of my professors do some research on Data Pump algorithms. A Data Pump is a critical tool for distributed computing as it pumps data in a platform independent way to all computers participating in the computing. The professor's specialty is distributed computing and security, so I'm guessing it will be with some aspect of secure Data Pump communication. I haven't received the details yet, but I hoping to get them shortly, probably in time for next semester's classes. 終りました。 Out (I'm hoping that is the correct kanji).