Thoughts

By 5 am this coming morning, Mi Amor will be finally finished with the graduate school rite of passage--comprehensive exams. It has consumed him for the last ten days, and both of us can shift our mode of frame reference from "When the exams are done..." to "When applications for PhD programs are finally in."

My goal for today involved completing my essay to my top school. I have written three drafts, only one of which is remotely decent, if 300 words too long. I am horrified that this school does not want writing samples--do they think they will get a good sample of that from 700 words? Do they think they will actually read the horrible crap I scribbled down for the GRE? Anyway, suffice it to say, "I have not made my goal today." We finally got our water bill--bimonthly and they come a month late--, and I spent two hours trying to figure out where to pay it by the deadline (today.) Then on the advice of my love, I took a nap--I have been fighting a bad cold and some other weird condition, and I think he wasn't amused when I said, "I think I will follow in the footsteps of my ancestors... and only go the doctor if things get worse."

This weekend had a lot of firsts for me. I have spent my time in Japan trying not to make scenes, trying to blend in to the background as much as humanly possible... That ended last night as I went out with my coworkers in costume. We got stares, laughter, and some people even managed to ignore us successfully. On a dare, I marched up to some college students and told them that tomorrow was Halloween, and if they said "Trick or treat" to me in English, I would give them candy. They did, and they got candy. Miyuki got that one on video.

Oh yeah. And we were all married women. I have never had so much fun in a group like that, maybe that is the first such group I have ever been a part of! I laughed until I had tears running down my cheeks, I watched a little old Japanese lady say "Eh!?" in surprise when she found out that my coworker/boss dressed as Fat Superman was actually female, I drank guava juice, I ate tacos, I sang Strawberry Chips with limited success, I listened to the yakiniku yodeling song done with amazing skill. I am empowered by this group of strong women. It is really exhilarating.

Do you like to sing?

The Wife and I were wandering around Hikone. The Wife is looking for opportunities to sing, and we happened upon what was billed as a music school. Upon reading their pamphlet of information and observing a class that was being taught we deduced what sort of music school it was: A Karaoke school. People pay money to go to this school to learn Karaoke songs. The class we happened to watch was the Enka class. It was a bit puzzling.

Thoughts

I like Thursday nights, because I am alone. Tonight I hit up the CMU website, and Security Husband's enthusiasm for their CS department is now nearly matched by mine for their history department. I have my official second choice. >^_^< So, in haze of pu-erh caffeine high and flying on this new wave of positivity, I hit up Amazon and ordered Graduate Admissions Essays: Write Your Way into the Graduate School of Your Choice by Donald Asher. I got to page through a copy belonging to someone currently USING it, and I was very impressed, after skimming all of her highlighted sections.

On impulse, I also bought a Bob the Builder video. It was only 832 yen, used!!! I suspect it will be popular with my chibis. It... it is the first children's video I have ever purchased. ... I am a crappy aunt.

A note for all parents... NOW is the time to educate your kids in foreign languages. The younger they are, the more spongelike their brains are, and they just absorb and absorb. Videos don't do it. You have to do it yourself. If they go to a class, you have to work with them at home. Languages are like keys to unlock the world. Start them preschool, kindergarten... before they acquire that peculiarly adult form of panic that comes when they hear words they don't understand.

A Bullet List of Recent Events and Unmentioned Previousnesses

* GRE taken Monday. Verbal 680, Math 580. Lesson learned: borrow others' premade study materials. (Thank you, Cat.)
* A little over a month since I became a legal worker. Visa status: Specialist in Humanities/Other. I find this amusing.
* Postman apologized in person to husband for mail being slightly wet from rain.
* Participated in country-wide census October 1st. YEAH, BABY. We contribute officially to Japan's foreigner population. Nod to D from Maibara: "You light up my ceeeeensuuuuus!!"
* Imotsuki--"potato moon,"-- this month's version of a harvest moon. Perfect skies. * SecHus plans to start Aikido and Iaido on Saturday.
* Still trying to find times on naginata class. Thought the one at the budoukan (a FIVE MINUTE walk from us) was smack in the middle of my Saturday class. Sorely disappointed. SecHus visited, nobody there. Perhaps the judo teacher was mistaken? Soft tummy says, "EXERCISE ME!!!"
* I have Halloween all week. I love my job. I get to carve a pumpkin every single day.
* We have acquired a second mama-chari, from M-chan, my coworker. For free. Now SecHus and I BOTH got wheels... VROOM.
* I honestly thought my boss left obscene drawings in the menu at Coco's. I thought we would never be allowed back there again. Found it in my wallet last night. Phew...??
* Finally updated sidebar. WE ARE SO ORGANIZED. AND WE NEVER, EVER PROCRASTINATE...

This is security husband for a change

But I'm a bit at a loss of what to say. There are personal updates: I'm still doing course work, I'm working on my thesis, and I'm applying to PhD programs. The Wife alluded to some difficulties we were having upon my return to Japan, and we've been trying to find time together. The difficulty with this plan is that if we spend time together at the apartment, it usually involves very little communication. An example, **type type type type type type type type type type type** "Do you want some tea?" "No, can't have caffeine or I won't be able to sleep." **type type type type type type type type type type** This isn't so much anyone's fault, but representative of how busy we've become and an example of how the mudanity of life can destroy the excitement of learning about other people or other things. I expressed to my friend Daniel Hengeveld that I feel that I'm shrinking as a person the more I focus on my "specialty." It isn't so much that I don't enjoy what I'm doing, because I do, immensely. I have the joy of discovery, but feel that I have little time for discovery outside my school work.

However, sitting here, thinking about it, I know that isn't true. I've started playing my guitar again, I've been reading a fair amount of things outside of what I'm studying (though much of it pertains to what I want to study). I've also been spending a fair amount of time wandering around Hikone. Hikone is a pretty sweet city. There is so much culture here. The Wife is looking for a Hikone history scholar she can talk with about it. Anyway, I've got to get back to my work.

There is so much to tell

里帰り
We returned for the first time last weekend to 水口, our Japanese hometown. I realized then for the first time that the irritable displacedness I had been experiencing was... homesickness. We went back to meet 西田さん for lunch, and each step through the rice fields and familiar train stops was soothing. Handouzan (反道山）the mountain with which I have had this running rivalry for three years (I am not sure it cares one way or the other, I suspect it is indifferent), listened to me once again assure it that it has not won by virtue of my not having ascended it yet. IT WILL HAPPEN. We also met up with R, and talked for hours... good conversation is hard to find, and it made me realize how completely desperate I was for it.

The next day I ended up going to the Kuch yet again, this time in order to switch bank accounts. Which in the end, I could not do. But while I waited in the bank, there was a tap on my shoulder. "Didn't you used to live next door? The people living in your old apartment had some mail come for you, and they gave it to me. It's in my car. Want me to go get it??" Shock. My former neighbor. (Conversation transliterated for ease of understanding.) She handed me two publications belonging to Security Husband, mostly stuff from the ACM. Fortuitous!! I met a friend from school for dinner... she is ditching the system!! WOOHOO!! ...unfortunately it is because the system is destroying her. Hopefully the months to come will see her free and happy.

Work has been more and more interesting for me. I still feel largely inept about things like classroom discipline, but I am fast acquiring funny stories to share. I cannot fathom how my coworkers maintain such positivity and energy, but it is a trait I am trying to share. Uninhibited enthusiasm and boldness strike me as things I would like to generate like nuclear power. Maybe it comes from the children themselves, who seem to generate energy and heat like nothing I have ever experienced before.

I signed up for the GRE. At last. I am teaching myself how to do math again. SecHus and I are rather concerned about getting applications for grad school together. I have applications I have to get going... particularly those personal statements. I am severely torn... everything I read on my chosen disclipline seems to resonate, and on the other hand, I feel like I have finally begun a job where every one of my talents is utilized.

B (no longer from Nara) is staying with us for a few days, and it has been nice to have someone else around to have good conversation with. She also is a FREAKING AWESOME cook, and just apologized to me for forgetting to make chocolate chip cookies. (!!!!) On Sunday she and I went to a woodblock exhibition of Japan and Thailand at the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art. I know my time limit on art. Any museum, really. About an hour. Maybe less. But we saw woodblock, lithograph, silkscreen and a number of -graphs I had never even heard of. It was really exciting, as I have had no exposure to that sort of art before. I also saw a few pieces (the award-winning one made me giddy) that really inspired me, and made me think about things like material culture and folklore communicated in art and what makes art folk art and not... questions I may do further reading on at some point... even though I don't consider material culture one of those things I am really interested in. ...Oh yeah, and like looking at most good art does for me... it made me despair of my feeble sketchbooks, and wonder if trying a different medium would make me brilliant. (Suuuure it would.) Though, in a lot of ways, I had to wonder about the communicative element of art... (Obviously this is something I haven't thought about very much. Or I want to think about it... or... something.)

Today and yesterday mark the first real "autumnal" days here. Cool, rainy weather. (Perfect for biking to work in. >_<;) At lunch today, I put on the headphones (hoorah for Security Husband bringing back a portable music player from the States), and ambled about the neighborhood around the school. It still makes me giddy to listen to music while I walk around... like I have my own personal soundtrack playing to the world, and nobody knows it but me. I can't help but smile at people, and stifle dancing in the streets. I still have held off on the "listening to music while biking," as I depend on every sense I possess to stay alive to and from work.