Keep Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

Japanese Lesson #2:

1) Mama-chari: Granny-bike

In Kyoto, everyone rides a bike.

Not the bikes you (rarely) see in NYC or the ones I have seen in London, which are mostly mountain bikes. I'm talking about the mama-chari.

It's a stereotypical label, used as such because old grannies use these bikes. But rather, in Kyoto, everyone uses these bikes. They have a bell, a basket in the front, and a light. Sometimes there is a basket in the back, or a rack. Even better, there is this accesory that holds up your umbrella which attaches to the handlebars so you don't have to ride one-handed, and little kids get to ride in a bike version of a carseat. Sometimes there are two, one in the front, one in the back. I told you everyone rides a bike.

When you get a bike, you need to register it with the city. There isn't any real place to parl bikes and the police (reportedly) like to ave fun impounding your bike. So you have to go to the bike pound, pay 2000 yen and then you get your bike back. However, on Sundays, they don't impound bikes.

Another good thing is that everyone rides on the sidewalk. So that means people don't sign death wishes when they ride a bike. Another thing I notices is that the chain links on the biks are covered, so unlike London, you don't need to tie your pants up.

Today I got a bike. I (still) don't know how to drive, so in essense, this is my first real set of wheels. I got it brand new from a shop on Imadegawa Street that I saw yesterday with Deena. I was on the fence on getting a bike today, but I dreaded the thought of carrying alot of groceries (something I did too often in London, as I do not know the art of buying what you need for the day, I buy for the week) so I trekked on over. Plus, it was on sale. mama-charis can get expensive, so I was told to get used - however, I saw a used bike for 6000yen so that wasn't worth it. Better for me to get a new one so that it won't break on me and when it comes time to get rid of it, it has good resale value. So with registration, I got it for 8400yen (about $80). Not bad at all.

I was a little unsteady at first (the last time I rode a bike was what, 14?) but I got my bearings. And the saleslady helped me raise the seat, as I have longer legs than most people around here. The 26" wheel was too big for me. And the 26" bike was in black. I wanted yellow.

Why yellow? People would argue that black is more utilitarian. It sure as hell looks nice on the same model of bike that I got.

Here is the thing:

I don't drive. Why? I still don't know how. Before the world gasps in horror, I will explain. I live(d) in NEW YORK. There is a bus a block from my house. Granted, it is annoying when I go out late, to have someone pick me up that is, but that will be (finally!) recitified when I come back in 3/2008. And besides, my sister is thisclose to getting her license.

However, I do have a car. But in theory, not in practice. My dad bought a 1990 4-door Volvo (aka "The Tank") from his cousin for $500 specifically for the reason of me and my sister learning how to drive. My mom is very protective of her baby (a 1988 navy blue 4-door toyota camry that is suffering from the car versions of arthritis and Parkinson's) so if my sister and I crashed the Volvo as we learn to drive, its not like we trashed a car that is brand new, or has strong emotional attachment.

I always said that when I get a car (preferably an Audi TT 4-door convertible, a girl can dream) I want it to be in bright yellow, the kind of yellow that they have for SUVs (best shade of SUV yellow that I've seen is on a Nissan Pathfinder) or on a Ferrari. I have also seen it on a Mercedes convertible. That's why I got the bike in yellow. With the black basket and details, it's become my SUV:

Udon, Udon

On her last day in Japan, Deena and I went to Osaka.

We namely wanted to see Osaka Castle. I wanted to go to the observation deck of the Umeda Sky building, but Deena is afraid of heights so we didn't go.

Had green tea (or matcha) ice cream! And it was soft serve...yum yum. I need to get matcha powder, so I can mix it with my dad's vanilla ice cream from the Mister Softee truck.

But to Osaka. Given that we didn't spend alot of time there, we didn;t had a good map and we were still tired, we didn't get to do much. However, at Osaka castle, we ran into a high school kendo match:



I think one of the high schoolers tried to talk to me. Deena does blend in a bit, but I stick out like a sore thumb.

Osaka Castle is a reproduction of the fortress that Hideyoshi Toyotomi built. So it's really a museum.

Afterwards, we walked around for a bit. Tried to get to Den-Den Town (eletronics district) but decided to go back to Kyoto - Deena wanted some souveniers, and I wanted to go back to Muji to get some more plastic boxes.

Had udon twice today. Lunch was tempura udon at Osaka castle and dinner was at this little cheap fast-food ish place where you put your money in a vending machine, get a ticket then sit anywhere. Had beef udon for only 390 yen! So cheap. and it was good. My tummy is happy.

Mi Kasa, Es Su Kasa

Rain.

I think it rains here in the past 4 days then it ever did when I was in London. And that was 8 months (subtracting the two months I went home for school holidays).

One thing that I have noticed is that Japanese take their umbrellas seriously.

Very seriously. Hence the pun in the title. "Kasa" is Japanese for "umbrella."

When I went to Takashimaya in search of Muji, I went to the umbrella section. They have an UMBRELLA section in the accesories department.

Needless to say, they have gorgeous umbrellas. I wanted to get one, but they are a bit expensive. Maybe towards the end of my stay. Get a big one, a medium one and a small one. Contrary to New York, you see more big ones than small ones.

Which is why it was so hard for me to find a decently priced small one. I have seen big ones for like 600 yen, 390 yen, but the small ones even in the conbini's go for like 1990 yen (about $18-$20). What the hell! I wanted a small one to carry around with me so that I don't get wet, and because I didn't want to carry a big one.

Another way I can tell that Japanese take their umbrellas seriously is that outside restuarants, post offices, ward offices, combini and some of hte smaller shops, they have umbrella stands. Mainly for the larger umbrellas, but you usually see more umbrellas than people, so many people have probrably fogotten their umbrellas. Hence the large number of the clear, 300 yen plastic umbrellas amongst the Japanese (mainly Kyoto, as far as I have seen) populace.

The Count

Asian Squat Toilets vs. Maria - 3 to 6 (I win!)
Temples and Shrines: 2
Geisha: Probably will never know
Drunken Salarymen: 1

Getting a good laugh when you are exhausted: Priceless.

After the lecture, Deena and I went to Gion. We wanted real Japanese food, and since it was the evening, it was the best time to check out "The Floating World."

No Japanese food to be had - or rather, I am still too chicken sh*t to walk into a "real Japanese restuarant." We ate at a Japanese diner-ish place, with the plastic food in the window (as 90% of the restaurants do) and "Western-style food" but I can manage with the menu. I told Deena that this is Japanese food in a wierd way. Ha ha. I just had a small chef salad (though the waitress said it was big) since I wasn't that hungry - tonkatsu kept me full still.

We walked around before we ate, in oru search for Japanese food. Instead, we got to see alot of traditional architecture and little old ladies in kimono, but no geisha. Hmm. There are not too many anymore and maiko (apprentice geisha) are even rarer stil. What's more, these women that we saw weren't wearing the makeup so it's not that I didn't see any geisha or maiko, it's that I can't tell. I do plan to go to the geisha dances, however.

After dinner, while we were walking to the bus stop, we came across a group of salarymen. It was a Friday night, so everyone was out in full force. Amongst the horde of black suits, I noticed a trio of men. Or rather, two men trying to hold up someone who was so far gone. Deena and I got caught up in the mix - the trio was in front of us, while other guys were in back of us, and the drunk guy was turning his head and yelling something along the lines of "Yareru? Yareru?" (Can you do it? [Something like that]) and when he got the answer he wanted, he went bonkers. Then he collapsed to the ground in front of him.

I held it in, but when we walked away from the salarymen, I began to laugh. I then said to Deena, "It's a good thing he didn't throw up. Then it would have been gross instead of funny."

"It's Like the Gates, But Better"

So said Deena when we walked through Fushimi Inari Taisha.

But I have bad news. My ID card does say kenkyuusei.

Dammit, dammit, dammit. It was so small that I didn't even notice. The clerk at AU (cell phone shop) pointed it out to me. However, I can peel off the laminate that covers my ID card, so I have to find a way to cover it upto get the student discount.

Anyways.

After the AU disaster, Deena and I trekked on over to Fushimi Inari Taisha. It was quite funny to try and get the one-day pass at the subway station - I was trying in vain to read the Kanji and figure out which one was the best card to get. Luckily, this nice guy helped us out.

So we went to the shrine - it was rather surreal with all the torii, one right after the other:



I never say The Gates in Central Park. because that was when I was in London. The closest thing that I came to seeing The Gates was a piece of fabric that Mel cut off one of the gates.

We didn't go through the whole thing because we had other things to see as well. On the way back down, I got a few Shinto charms: one for Cat because I promised her a Shinto charm to hang from her rearview mirror (and incidentally, I got her the one to protect her while she is driving), one for my sister to help her in her schoolwork, and two for me - the same one for my sister, and one to protect me while I ride my bike (when I get it) to get to school. I also got a cell phone charm as well; since I don't have a cell yet, I put it on my camera.

We had to get back to Kyoto Station to go to Kinkakuji, so we walked around a bit and had lunch. Went to a tonkatsu (breaded cutlet) restaurant. Yum! For about $13, I had pork cutlet, cabbage, rice and miso soup with the free tea that restaurants always have. And, you get free refills of the cabbage, miso and rice - but seriously, I get full now ever since I came here, so I don't eat so much.

So off to Kinkakuji, or the Golden Pavillion.



Talk about a retirement home. It was built by one of the shoguns (I know I should know this, so apologies to Profs L and M), but a shogun before the Tokugawa period, as his retreat when he was done with his duties as a shogun. (If I am getting this wrong, please correct!)

Apparently, sometime this fall they are going to open the pavillion to the public - it's only done once every three years in order to preserve the items that are housed inside.

We went back to my house so I can get the location of the lecture on gas lamps. So that I do not bore you, let's just say that on a broader thematic element (namely bumei kaika, or civilization and englihtenment) it was a pretty good idea of me to go to that lecture. It did the job - I got rid of my writer's block that I had all summer since I felt like I was being too wishy-washy on my project. Also, I met up with Professor Smith, whom I met at Columbia and spoke to him last year about grad schools and whatnot. I thought I saw Professor Duus (he is from Stanford, I think) because I heard his name being called and I heard someone respond to it, but I have never seen his picture so I wasn't sure what he looked like. Professor Smith was nice enough to invite me to dinner with other people (he pointed out to a student of his that was at the lecture as well), but I didn't want to leave Deena behind, or drag her to another thing. So we trekked onto Gion.

If it Isn't a Heated Toilet Seat...

…then it’s the squat toilet.

I hate those things. So awkward! I am a girl. I envy the guys.

No Japanese lesson for now. Need to backtrack.

After much broo-haha and a bit of confusion, I finally got to the guest house. I saw why my landlady wanted to meet me at the conbini and direct the driver – there is no road in front of the house. No paved road at least. There are old, somewhat uneven stone stairs. I looked at those stairs in such dread – I hate stairs. And I have pretty shoes. So much for that.

Paid my deposit and my first month’s rent. I don’t have a picture of my room yet but here is a description:

It’s HUGE. For 6 tatami mats, it’s great. It’s bigger than my little sister’s room back home. I have the garden room, so it opens up on two sides to the garden. There is a little walkway right outside the shoji screens, so I can hang my laundry there. (Note – need to get some form of laundry rack – I don't want my housemates to see my laundry.) It came with a low table, small bookshelf and small dresser, so yes! I don’t need to buy a desk. What I did need to get was those plastic drawer containers, as I have no closet. Here is a picture of my room from the house’s website (until I finish decorating, this is all you get):



I sleep on the floor with a futon. For some strange reason, my back has been bothering me since before I left; given that sleeping on the floor is purported to be a good thing, this futon thing isn't as bad as I thought.

Finally met up with Deena! So good to see her and it’s really freaky in a way how we are meeting up in a different country 6000 miles away from home. So we went to this little coffee shop that had a lunch special, and with my halting katakana, we were able to order the teriyaki burger lunch special and a chocolate ice cream parfait. I HATE katakana, but now my appreciation for it is increasing, as I can read all of the stuff that’s in katakana, but not kanji. As for the kanji, its coming back – and so is my speaking ability. I am surviving. I can ask people for help. I can order lunch. I can get my Alien Registration Card – and use the correct term for it.

After lunch, Deena and I went to the Sakyo Ward office. Met up with Ingram and a girl from Spain named Judith and got the AR card process rolling (until it’s ready, I have to carry my passport, since it has the temporary AR form in it) and health insurance. Have to pay a premium of about $18 a month.

After, we went to Kyodai to register. Here is the great thing now:

1) I have a library card. I thought I would have to apply for it, but they got it for me already.
2) My ID doesn’t say kenkyuusei! WOO-HOO! This means I can get my student discount on the cell phone (50% off the bill!) since my visa says college student on it. Fulbrighters have had problems getting the student discount because their ID’s say kenkyuusei. Judith said that others who came to Kyoto on the Monbusho in April said they got their cell phones with the discount using that ID. Yes!

After Kyodai, Deena and I left Ingram because I wanted to go to Muji and Seria, a 100-yen shop. I couldn’t find Muji at first, so we went to Takashimaya to ask. I like Takashimaya for three reasons: 1-the information counter ladies were really nice and helpful, 2-I can exchange currency there at a good rate and commission free (so if you visit me, only take enough yen to get you through the first day, I’ll take you to Takashimaya for the rest) and 3-they have cute tote bags for 500 yen. However, I hate Takashimaya as well. Why?

They have those damn Asian squat toilets.

At the coffee shop, I needed to go to the bathroom. It was a squat toilet. The public bathroom was a squat toilet. I’ll bet the toilet at the Sakyo Ward office was a squat toilet as well. Thank god the toilets at the house are new, clean and not squat.

However, the toilet at Takashimaya isn’t that bad. It’s clean. The bathroom is nice. And there is a pole on the wall to help keep your balance. Live and learn. And then try not to fall into the toilet.

So with the help of the Takishimaya ladies, Deena and I found Muji. But first, we went to Seria.

Seria is great. It's a 100-yen shop. Rather, everything is 105 yen since there is tax. But it’s great. I got RITZ CRACKERS for a buck! I got English breakfast tea, green tea, a teapot, slippers, small bulletin board, letter tray and some storage boxes for my school supplies, and thumbtacks and a bunch of other little goodies. They have school supplies there too so I will be going there for notebooks and stuff. You can’t say no when its just a dollar!

Afterwards, we went to Muji. A bit on the expensive side, but it’s nice and has the clear plastic stackable drawers that I wanted for about 1400 yen, and I got the big ones. Need to get two more of those, and a smaller one. I have no closets so everything (even my jackets) go in the drawers. Pretty much because I want my room to be kept neat. I was able to get one of the guys at Muji to help me get my futon stuff – so that’s another indicator that my Japanese is pretty decent.

Took a bus back from the Shijo-Kawaramachi shopping area, which is an awesome place. I saw a bowling alley. Don't care much for pachinko – what is the point of that anyway? Deena and I were tired and hot. You would not believe the humidity in OCTOBER. You try carrying a futon mattress, two plastic drawers and a bag full of 100 yen stuff a very long way.

Since it was so humid and we were so tired, we actually found a Starbucks. No Venti! Just short, tall and grande. Fine by me. Venti seems to be too much anyways. No air conditioners though, seemed that the whole city decided to be humid yesterday. Even in the buildings.

On our way back, we dropped by the Family Mart conbini to get a few things to eat. I always keep forgetting to put the money to pay for things in the tray; I always give the money directly to the person. Practically collapsed when we got to my house, but I needed to unpack and start putting everything away.

In the Land of...Many Rice Paddies*

Japanese Lesson 1:
1) Inaka 田舎= countryside
2) Sou desu ne! そうですね！ = I see/Really!
3) Kenkyuusei 研究生　= research student
4) Conbini コンビニ = convenience store (think 7-11, but way better)
5) Keitai denwa 携帯電話 = Cell phone

Rice paddies. Lots and lots of rice paddies.

My friend Byron is in Miyazaki, Kyushu as a Coordinator for International Relations (CIR) for the JET program. He left for Japan in July; during a conversation, he sent me a picture of the Kyushu countryside.

Me: “Wow…its gorgeous! The grass is so green!”

Byron: “Actually, those are rice paddies.”

So, my reaction when we finally began our descent into Narita Airport at Tokyo was the following:

“Rice paddies? In Tokyo?”

Ok, so my Japanese geography isn’t that great yet. I was expecting something along the lines of what I usually see when I fly into Newark or JFK: lights. Lots and lots of lights. Instead, I got a sneak peak of the inaka.

Oh. Holy. Crap. I. Am. In. JAPAN.

Who would have thought this would have happened?

When Greeks in Astoria go to Greece for the summer, we usually fly Olympic Airways (crappy as it is) via JFK. Olympic is at Terminal 1. In 2002, while my mom, sister and I were checking our bags, I noticed across from the Olympic Airways check-in was the JAL check-in. I turn around to my mother and I tell her this:

“You see the JAL check-in? I am going to go to Japan and with that airline.”

In a entertainingly creepy (but a good form of creepy) way, it’s interesting to see how things turned out. I said that to my mom before I even started college.

Me and Ingram (aforementioned Monbusho student) began to prepare to practically bum-rush the other passengers so we can get off the plane. We had to make a connecting flight to Itami Airport in Osaka, and were worried that we wouldn't have enough time since we had to collect our baggage, go through customs and recheck our baggage.

Getting the baggage was easy. My suitcases have the buckles so that you can buckle one to the other, and then just pull one. My carry-on was hell though; I packed my laptop and it was a shoulder duffel so it put a bit of a strain.

So we get off the plane and go to baggage claim. “Go” is not the precise word for it; it was more like “run.” And we were the only two running so it must have been a hilarious sight.

Got the bags, go to customs. Some of the customs officers were actually opening suitcases, and the guy in front of us was patted down. Ingram gives the customs officer his passport, and got some sort of hesitation with the visa. Like, the customs officer really wasn’t sure what to do with him. When I gave him my passport, the customs officer actually looked at my visa and said “College student?”

I felt like I needed to correct him.

“Monbusho no kenkyuusei.”

He looks up at me, then back at Ingram. “The both of you?” he said in Japanese. “Sou desu ne!” Compared to Ingram, I was practically rushed right through.

There was a bit of turbulence on the flight to Osaka. The landing was an amazing sight – exactly what I expected, in terms of lights. From the bird’s eye view, Osaka sort of reminds me of Las Vegas – all sprawled out, but with clusters of high buildings here and there and lots of colorful lights. The best was seeing Osaka Castle. When we landed, we see that there are more kids for the Monbusho, but all different categories, and from different countries.

There was another girl my age – Elisa – and she is renting an apartment in a building for all girls. When she found out I was in the guesthouse, she offered to check with her landlord to see if she could have a roommate, namely me. Would be cool, provided that there is enough space for the both of us. I just told her that it would probably be in November, since the minimum stay in the guesthouse is a month.

Which leads me to where I am right now. I am actually not at the house, contrary to what I was told my the international students advisor at Rits. The people from JASSO did pick us up, but they took us to a hotel. Tomorrow, we go back to the airport, get on a bus and go to Kyoto Station. From there, we each go our merry way via taxi. I called Kim (the woman that runs the house) and apologized for the mix-up (not my fault, really!) and she told me to take a taxi to a corner near the house and call her mobile before I leave Kyoto Station. She will meet me at the conbini at then come into the taxi with me to direct the taxi to the house. I called Deena and reset our meeting time due to the JASSO fracas, and I told her that I have sort of drag her along while I get my Alien Registration Card, health insurance, postal bank account and register at Kyodai. Luckily, all of that can be done within a three-block radius. Then depending on how my room is in terms of storage, it’s off to the shopping area and maybe 100-yen shops to get some things to put my room in order. Given the developments in the housing situation, I don't think I will get furniture for the next month, or maybe two. To be quite honest, I need a keitai more than a desk at the moment.

This Saturday, Deena and I plan to spend the day in Osaka. Friday is the “gas lamps” lecture. I’ll explain that after the lecture. But for now, all I can say is that there is a method to my madness, as gas lamps are pretty important for my research, in terms of a broader, thematic element.

So now, I need to go back to sleep. It’s now 3am Japan time.

(*Did you really think I was going to say "Land of the Rising Sun?)

Up, Up and Away

It’s 6:33pm EST on October 3, and I am writing this in Microsoft Word. Figured that I can pass the time by writing a very long entry, and regale you all with the tales of my travels thus far.

I think from now on, I need to provide a glossary at the beginning of each entry after this one. I think out of the 30 people or so that I gave the link to this blog to, only 3 will automatically understand the Japanese terms that I litter throughout this and future entries. However, when my writing gets good enough to attempt to write a whole entry in Japanese, nothing much I can do there, short of a translation. If anyone has noticed, my entries can get rather long, so it’s doubtful. I need the writing practice.

But first, an announcement. There has been much speculation and understanding that there was only one Monbusho Scholarship given in the United States in the Research Student category that I am in. Turns out that was wrong. My apologies. There is more than one Kenkyusei Shougakuin (Research Student Scholarship) given out each year across the U.S.

You are probably scratching your heads. How does Maria know this? She hasn’t even landed yet! She is still in the plane! She doesn’t know anybody!

I know because my seatmate is also a Monbusho student. I saw him studying the Japan Times Intermediate Japanese text (the ones that second year students at SOAS use in the fall term). So when the opportunity presented itself, I asked if a) he is studying Japanese (duh, but how else can I start?) and b) what he is doing going to Japan. My guess was since the Fulbrighters and the JETs are in Japan already, study abroad kids have started in September because that’s when the American school year starts, there has to be something that's left. Maybe another English-teaching program, or a different scholarship?

What’s even more coincidental is that a) we are both going to Kyoto, b) we have the same flight to Osaka and c) we are both going to Kyodai (Kyoto University) However, he is going straight into classes and research, while I do the 6-month academic lockdown (as I call it) in Japanese language classes. So, while I got accepted into Rits (Ritsumeikan University’s nickname) he got accepted into Kyodai.

We compared notes on the interview (both of us are from NY so we had the same people) and our projects. We also compared passports and showed our visas to one another – he graduated in 2005 so he did a master’s degree in IPE at LSE in England, so it was interesting to talk about London. It seems that things are turning for the better – at least I won’t be wandering around Narita in a panic, trying to get my luggage and run to the connecting flight. I wonder if there are other Monbusho people on the plane.

The in-flight lunch was good. I had shrimp with ginger and some spicy sauce with rice, salad, cake and this thing called “Japanese Delicacies.” It looked like vegetables, but I swear that one of the things reminded me of the animals and the forest scenes in Princess Mononoke. I should have taken a picture. I figured that I would see stranger edibles in Japan, so I pour the soy sauce on it (in the cutest little squeeze bottle) and down the hatch! It didn't make me gag so I guess I survived my first round of “Japanese Delicacies.”

Right before I boarded, I went to the bathroom in the Sakura Lounge. When I turned around, I burst out laughing. Why? The bathroom has those heated toilet seats that clean you, just like the ones in Japan. I did not press any of the buttons, since I had no clue what they would do. Just before we ate lunch, the stewardesses handed out the hot washcloths to the passengers, just as if you were in a Japanese restaurant. I haven’t even left the North American continent, and already I am in Japan.

Here We Go!!!

I am in the first class "Sakura Lounge," courtesy of Japan Airlines. As in right now - 12:33pm EST.

Free food, free booze, and free internet.

This place would make a FCLC-er sooooooo happy.

Doesn't mean that I am flying first class though. Oh well. You can't have everything.

Finished packing last night - have two suitcases, one large and one small. Packing wasn't that bad, I was able to stuff everything into the two suitcases, and I have Mel's Tumi duffel as a carryon so it wasn't that bad.

What was bad was that my TSA-Certified padlock jammed while I was trying to put the code in, and I couldn't get it to close. so I had to buy a new TSA-Certified lock. Paranoid 'Merikins. I wasn't even able to bring my travel size liquids and gels, since they weren't in a stupid ziploc bag, but a security guard provided me one.

Other than that, not much news to report. Went to Chelsea Piers bowling on Friday with Mel, Kerri and Mel's friends, a pub afterwards, and Kerri wanted to take me to Coyote Ugly, so we went after the pub. Ugly wasn't even the word for it, more like unhygenic, with all the bras plastered to the wall, just like the movie. The one in Vegas might be better, but alas, I was not 21 when I went to Vegas so I missed out. Proceeded to drink a wee bit too much wine at the pub so Kerri had to help me down the stairs a bit. This was not because I was tipsy - well partially - but my fear of stairs was made worse due to the wine. Let's just say I fall down the stairs even when I am sober. I have a scar on my left forearm to prove it.

On Saturday, I went with Mel and our mothers to check out Bridgewaters for the wedding reception. It was nice, the price was amazing for Manhattan, but the entryway did smell a bit of fish (It's on the third floor of the now/soon to be defunct Fulton Fish Market). The view was great, but the floors were dark and it smelled of fish, and it's by South Street so there would be too much traffic and hardly any parking.

So on Sunday, we went back to the original choice - Palm House @ Brooklyn Botanic Garden. It's 12 minutes from my house via the BQE, so long as that damn highway doesn't have a) construction or b) traffic. It was rainy, but still very pretty. They were setting up for a wedding so we were able to see how it was. We still have one more place to check out. But, BBG does look like a winner.

As for the dress search, my mom and I found dresses that we both like by Melissa Sweet. The fun part is, they have the designer at Bergdorf Goodman, in addition to Saks and Kleinfeld, but I would want to go to Bergdorf just for kicks. When would I have a perfectly justifiable reason to walk in there again?

The Fordham Invasion, Part 3

One thing that I forgot to mention:

"The Bachelor" is starting a new season, this time in Roma. (Roll the "R" please!)

To go along with the Italian theme, they chose a bachelor who is incidentally, and Italian prince.

You know that will kick up the ratings - a royal! (Even if Italy doesn't have much royalty anymore it still counts. Just like how one of the princesses from the exiled Greek royal family lives on the Upper East Side.)

One other thing - he graduated from Fordham with his MBA.

When will the madness end?!?!?

The Fordham Invasion, Part 2

And so the wedding reception hunt begins.

This past Saturday, Mel, my mother, his mother and I went to the New York Botanical Garden up in the Bronx to check out their wedding facilities and prices. Well, we already had a clue what the prices were since it was in the email that Mel received, but we still wanted to check.

Two-hundred and fifty one dollars a person the NYBG does not make. The carpets were old, the mirrors a bit grimy, the linens looked cheap (didn't help much that the color chosen for the wedding that afternoon was peach) and the place where they had the cocktail hour wasn't very garden-looking. You weren't even in the garden. The tent was dirty, too. The chairs for the cocktail tables were this hideous green. It just looked so blah. If it wasn't $251, we might have thought on it a bit more, since you can change the linens and the chairs and such, but you can't, only for an "extra charge" so money wise it was a waste. No wonder there was a wedding that afternoon - it was a hundred dollars cheaper a person.

Fordham is right next to NYBG and my mom kept on pestering me, saying that "Oh wouldn't it be so nice to take pictures on the Fordham campus?" (Only alumni can get married at the chapel there and take pictures, provided that at least the bride or the groom is an alum.)This was said in hopes that we would choose the NYBG, and before all 4 of us came to the conclusion before our appointment that it just sucked. I kept saying pretty much "Hell no - I never set foot on that campus for more than 20 minutes at a time and the longest time I ever spent there was at graduation." Not my school. Simple as that.

During our appointment, the bride for that afternoon's wedding came in from the "bridal suite" to look at everything and she was happy with it. To each her own.

After the bride left to "go get herself married," my mother turns to the sales representative that we were talking to and asked, "Is the ceremony at the garden?"

The sales representative turns around and goes, "Oh, not this time. They are getting married at the chapel at Fordham University. It's right next door and I hear it's very pretty."

I stand corrected. I am surrounded.

Who is Scared?

Oh holy crap.

I am shaking.

Seriously.

Why?

I am leaving in a week and a half.

I am TERRIFIED. I am sh*t-scared (pardon the phrase). I seriously don't know why. When I went to London I was actually thrilled to bounce the country. I have my Japanese guidebooks, got maps, will be getting suitcases on Friday, someone will pick me up, no problems, right?

WRONG.

DEAD WRONG.

I cried for two nights in a row.

Yeah this is bad. I am writing this in a moment of sheer panic, and my hands are still shaking.

I think it's because the stakes are a bit higher now, and I learned some really important lessons from London.

And - I have a bit of an impediment. Just a "small" one.

I freeze when I speak Japanese. Dead serious.

Impediment, that!

I finally got in contact with the international house that I will be staying at to confirm my date and I haven't gotten an email back yet. Granted that it took almost a month for the lady over there to respond to my email last time, I (naturally) started to panic. What does Maria do when she panics?

Off to google we go! I love that site.

I found a wrong number for the house, and then this evening - bam! I got the right number and after three tries I got through. Told them that I sent an email about my arrival. However, this conversation showed to me that I am terrified about going.

Did I mention that I almost pulled the plug two weeks ago?

The Fordham Invasion

I like the college that I went to. Granted, it did not quite have the specific program that I wanted, but I knew from the start what I did want, so I compensated.

This past Sunday, Mel and I went to the NY Aquarium. Having been there three times before the age of 5, I totally forgot what it was like. It was a lot smaller than I remembered, and a lot less crowded. Then I have Mel on the side of me, providing his schtick on how the aquarium in QLD is much bigger and has these jellyfish called "irakanjee" (don't ask me to spell it) that can kill you with one jolt, futhering providing me with ample reason to never set foot in the Australian water, and how the aquariums have this buge tube you can walk in so it's like you are in the water.

Well, obviously! QLD has the Great Barrier Reef. That said, QLD has alot more space. This is New York. You can't build out - only up. And most of those aquariums with the fancy tube - I think the Camden, NJ has it and I am sure there is one in Georgia with it - are new. NY Aquarium is over 100 years old.

While I listen to Mel scare the pants off me about jellyfish (there are ones small enough to pass through the nets that cordon off swimming areas at Aussie beaches and can kill you!) I notice a familar face. Or rather, a familiar backside.

"Eliza?"

"Maria! I thought you were in Japan already!"

Former classmate of mine. And she was with two other Fordham people.

And at all places, we run into one another in the Alien Stingers exhibit (the jellyfish) at the NY Aquarium in Coney Island.

This, coupled with the recent surge of FCLC '06 grads infiltrating Astoria and treating it as the most wonderful place in the world, finally proves to me that New York is overrun with Fordham people.

Granted, that is myself included. What I think is really hilarious (in a sarcastic, cynical, NY way) is that when I run into classmates, who just moved or moved recently to Astoria, and find out that I live there too, they go all bonkers.

Classmate: "OMG! You live in Astoria? The Greek places are amazing? You're Greek right? Have you gone to Zodiac (or any other Greek cafe) When did you move there?"

Me: "I was born there. And I have been going to the Greek cafes (mostly Zodiac, not often, but recently I have been going more) since I was in junior high school (mostly for family occasions, but it still counts)."

Classmate: "...."

Get my point?

One Hoop, Two Hoop, Three Hoop, No Hoop!

No hoops today.

Got my visa from the consulate - took less than two minutes.

On a wry note, "Oh my! The Japanese are efficient, ne?"

Jumping Through Hoops

When I applied for my British visa circa summer 2004 before I went to London for study abroad, I had to jump through alot of hoops:

1) $65 application fee.
2) Proof that I am going to London - i.e. acceptance letter to SOAS.
3) Proof that Fordham is letting me go to London.
4) Proof that I can travel - i.e. current passport.
5) Two passport photos.
6) Ten page application - that I had to do twice b/c I messed it up.
7) Proof that I had financial support.

And I had to wait on a line for about a half hour. Of course, the waiting time for a visa varies from consulate to consulate.

When I went to the Japanese Consulate last Thursday, I was a bit wary - all I needed was two one-page application forms filled out in duplicate with two photos glued to the top (had to use KrazyGlue as I didn't have a gluestick and almost proceeded to glue my fingers together in the process) and a current, unexpired passport. The passport part was easy - it expires in 2014, got it renewed for London - and the photos were easy, as I had a bunch lying around from a previous passport photo-taking process. And after some initial questions that were answered back in March, the application was easy peasy. A child can fill it out.

But wait - I read on the consulate's site that I need a Certificate of Eligibilty?

1) WTF is that?
2) The Consulate DID NOT tell me anything regarding to it when they sent me the application for the visa! So I have no clue what MOFA is talking about.

That was my reaction to the visa lady at the consulate. And I said that YOU - YEAH YOU, the consulate people - only sent me the application with the instructions to fill it out and return it with my passport and two photos. So there!

I still don't know what that Certificate of Eligibility is. I have heard of it but I have no clue.

So the woman says to sit down and wait, takes my application and passport and returns to the window with a Japanese guy. They pore over my application and another form with a blue highlighter and I go back up to the window - turns out that they were filling out this form in Japanese to specify what visa I need (Ryuu-gakusei, study abroad student) and for how long (2-nen, two years).

So I surmised the following - either I didn't need that stupid certificate, or that either MOFA or MEXT had it ready for me when I got the Monbusho - the woman told me that I had to write a letter to Tokyo! In the words of Cher Horowitz: "As if!" You didn't tell me I had to do it in the first place, so that's your issue and not mine.

I don't have to pay for the visa, which is a good thing. Visas are expensive. However, there is a teeny little catch: my visa says that it is multiple re-entry, meaning I can go out of the country. My British visa said that too, so I had no problem going back in and out. Right?

WRONG!

According to a helpful and informative member of my forum, the "multiple re-entry" qualification does not mean that I can go in and out as I please. It means that I have PERMISSION to go in an out as I please. If I want to leave Japan, I need to get a "re-entry permit" on top of the visa. If I don't have that sticker on my visa, I have to give in my AR card at the airport and have to go through the visa process from scratch.

And this is where they get you with the fees - it is 30,000 yen (about $30) - for a single re-entry permit and 60,000 yen (about $60) for a multiple re-entry permit (which is valid for 6 months).

Sneaky, sneaky. In my opinion, I would rather prefer the way the British do it - make me jump through the hoops in my home country where I know what the heck I am doing, rather than jump through hoops in another country, where I am paranoid about making a mistake.

Let's hope the forms have an English version.

I pick up my passport tomorrow.

Dum, dum dum...DUM!!!

I got my ticket today.

OH MY GOD. I AM REALLY LEAVING.

When, you ask?

October 3 - JFK to Narita, departing at 1:30 pm EST. Arrive in Narita October 4 at 4:20, have a connecting flight to Itami Airport near Osaka at 6:15, arrive 7:30pm Japan time. Someone from JASSO (Japan Student Services Organization) will meet me at Itami.

In a way, I am in shock. Because I knew that this was coming all summer, and to have it in your face - or rather, on your computer screen in the form of a e-ticket on PDF - is a bit daunting. I was expecting for JAL To contact me sometime like next week, but the first (full) week of September! Damn! They are prompt. I don't even have my visa yet, which will be rectified tomorrow. Must. Go. To. Japanese. Consulate. TOMORROW. AT. 9:30. AM.

I have to get two suitcases. My other one broke falling down an escalator at the Heathrow tube station in London and I don't want to go through the nightmare of carrying a 35 kilo duffel bag with no wheels again. I almost broke my wrist. And I don't like this thing of a 20 kilo limit...I am a GIRL. And a girl has shoes. With coordinating sweaters.

Not that I have like 20 pairs of shoes (HA!) but I do have a few pairs that I need/want/must bring with me.

Then again, I think I do have 20 pairs of shoes. Not like I wear all of them.

My mom is all depressed now. She KNOWS that I am leaving. Like, for REAL now. She berated my sister and I (again) on how she does not like this "traveling business" (Leah, like me, will study abroad in her junior year in Italy, then wants to do a Fulbright in Greece). I told her its not our fault that we chose fields that require travel. Hell, I am going to Japan on (practically) a free ride. Does she have to worry about paying a $2283 plane ticket that is one-way to Japan? I think not. But again, she is a mommy and when I was going to London it was her in the end that was telling me to go and my dad getting all depressed. Before, it was my dad ready to pack my bags - he was the one asking me at 13 why I wasn't going to Manhattan by myself yet (I still wasn't allowed to go to the main shopping drag that was walking distance from our old house at 13).

Going along the theme of foreboding-ness that is permeating this evening, along with anxiousness and excitement - did I mention that I SKIPPED down the hallway in the law school this evening when I finally got my ticket? That was me in my "OoOoO!" phase - which lasted a minute. Now I am thinking of all the crap I have to do before I leave - Mel and I went to Philadelphia this Labor Day weekend and we came back in two whole pieces (each of us counting as a piece). Ernesto was pouring buckets of rain on the city of brotherly love, so Philly was a bit deserted. I wanted to go to Antique Row (bought a lovely cameo bracelet that is probably from the 40s) so we took the SEPTA line that goes north and south.

Now then, I have taken the NYC subway by myself at 3 in the morning and gone through the South Bronx on the 6 train. Of course, there are dangerous spots that a girl wouldn't go to - the N train at 3 in the morning from 34th street is quite safe. When a father in an admissions tour asked me if the trains were safe, I was honest - I told him it depends on which line and which time of day and said my 3am anecdote and he blew up on me saying that the trains are never safe. Ignorant little person. Anyways, I was never nervous taking the subway on my own at 3am (granted that was only one time). However, I DO NOT LIKE the SEPTA. Never had a never been more terrified in my life - and Mel was a bit shaken up too. I turned my ring on the inside - and I NEVER have to do that in NYC. The SEPTA platform was deserted, had a disgusting smell and you really couldn't tell who was a homeless person. Mel said that it should be really called "SEPTIC." The smell was worse than 34th street (remember the 9 Circles of Hell?) on a 100-degree, 100% humidity day. My mother used to take me to 34th street every Wednesday when I was younger - dad and grandma used to work in the Garment District, so we would have lunch at Macy's - so I know that station pretty well. SEPTA was much worse.

I did get my deferral letter from UPenn when we first arrived. It was a very "happy" deferral letter, saying congratulations and "we wish you well" and whatnot. According to the secretary, I should be contacted soon by the department about the Ph.D. program - but in EALC, not history. When I said that I will most likely apply for the Ph.D. the secretary replied "No problem, I will just transfer your file there and reactivate your application so that you don't have to pay the fee again." Score! I just saved myself $90. Phew. UPenn is nice - Mel and I each got tshirts, although his is from Wharton (the "dream" business school) and mine is regular UPenn. I can see myself going to school there, University City is nice. But Harvard isn't that bad either. I think those are my top two now.

I was a bit disappointed by the Philly Museum of Art - it looked like there was going to be this HUGE museum like the Met, but it was very small compared to it. However - and I thank Cat for this - there was an actual Japanese teahouse in one of the Asian galleries, which I really enjoyed. Here is a kicker though - in a video on the side of the gallery, they presented a Japanese tea ceremony, and had koto music playing in the background. I actually recognized the tune - I have it on my iPod. My mouth just dropped, what a coincidence! And it was my favorite one too - I only have 4 but hey, I do have a favorite. Koto music puts me to sleep.

Speaking of sleep, I have to go sleep. Or try to. Every since I got that ticket, I can't help but feel a bit more excited.

Fortune Cookies

Confucius say:

"You will move to a wonderful new place within the year."


Well, not exactly.


It was the fortune I got in my fortune cookie at dinner this evening. Mel, his brothers, sister, cousin from Germany and I had dinner at Ollies, which is a Chinese restaurant chain that has a branch near school.

I sort of believe in fortune cookies. I have not been eating much Chinese food lately (kind of makes me gag, and the only thing I can really bank on is lo mein), but when I do I often eat the fortune cookie. It is tasty. And, of course, I read the fortune and say it out loud to anyone, usually Mel. I really don't believe in the superstition of trading fortunes within the cookie with your dining partner, or that if you say it out loud, the fortune won't come true. You get the cookie, crack eat open, and hopefully enjoy what the mass-produced pieces of paper have to say.

I have a few saved fortunes from previous cookies. But I really enjoyed this one tonight because I am really hoping that I have a good time when I leave for Kyoto. I am a bit nervous because of my experience in London; had a good time with the school part - I knew I made a good decision with that - but had a hard time with the outside-of-school part. Adjustment, making friends, trying to fit in, trying to have fun and be able to afford it, etc.

But that information, most people know anyway. Time for some new information:

1) Going to Philadelphia this Friday for three days! Finally, a vacation away from the city with Mel. I am really looking forward to it, as I have looked on the Philadelphia tourism site and they have a plethora of usefull information. I don't even need to buy a guide book. And, unlike D.C., the touristy/historical stuff is pretty much confined in one area. Unfortunately, its going to be a bit rainy on Friday and raining on Saturday, according to the weather forecast. I am kind of worried, as there is a free jazz show at Penn's landing at 7:30 pm this Friday for free. Free is good. I still have that student mentality. If worse comes to worse, Mel's coworkers who are from Philly say that there are alot of good museums there. Need to make an itinerary tomorrow.

2) While in Philadelphia, making a pitt stop to UPenn. I was accepted for the master's degree in East Asian Studies, and requested a 2-year deferral, like I did (and got) for Uni Michigan. I still have not recieved the letter and after a summer of mild bugging, I finally find out today that it's really the overall grad school's fault that I haven't got the letter, not the actual department - they don't have as much autonomy from the overall school as some other grad schools do. So, I told the coordinator at the EA Studies office that I will be in Philly this Friday, and is it ok if I drop by to pick it up? No problem! GOOD - I want my letter. Not that I will actually go for a master's degree when I have done (with what money?) but they told me that they will reactivate my application for the Ph.d prog (I told them that I would most likely not enter the master's but reapply for a Ph.d) and I don't have to pay the application fee. Hell, its 90 bucks! I save where I can, and I think that my file was already copied for the history dept. since I made a mention of applying there anyway.

3) Macbook! Finally got my laptop this Sunday. Got a free printer (all in one with a scanner so that means I can photocopy my research docs onto the comp to take with me as opposed to carrying alot of paper) and my sister got the iPod video for her birthday (comes with the Mac via rebate) - I didn't want the iPod since I have no use for a iPod that plays video. They don't have Grey's Anatomy on iTunes yet so frankly I see no point.

4) I am published - again! Or rather, forthcoming. My abstract was selected for the East Asian Architectural History Conference at Kyoto this December and will be "published in the conference proceedings". Have to edit my paper down to 10 A4 pages but after formatting its at 17.

Not much else to report.

Published!

Everyone,

head on over to the following:

www.newpaltz.edu/asianstudies/nycas/

I am PUBLISHED!*

There is a Midwest Conference on Asian Studies and I am going to submit my thesis for that one just to see. Again, can't go to the conference, but if I am selected, this time the paper will be published in an actual, hard-copy, physical journal of undergraduate research.

No word yet on the Kyoto Architectual History Conference. I should probably e-mail that professor in Australia, since I got all my questions answered through him last time.

*If you count the internet as a means of publication. The link is dead at the moment, so I hope thats fixed soon.

We're Having a Heat Wave...

So the heat wave is over.

And I did not lose power.

Woot!

However, my fridge is still an empty hole - we are still somewhat wary of Con Ed and their plottings, so my family just buys the stuff we need as the day requires it with the exception of non-perishable stuff like Costo-size Special K cereal.

There are still generators all over Astoria; according to the papers there were about 87 of them. They are rather large - there are CAT (Caterpillar) generators the size of small SUVs scattered even in my neck of the woods. However, my mother and I were not able to go to the public hearing.

Nonetheless, Mother Nature's latest leash of fury upon the United States was not very enjoyable. I have a slight propensity to pass out when the mercury tops 95, especially when there is a heat index of 100+, so I have been chugging down the water. However, waiting in the subway stations - the underground ones, not the el - is like sitting in one of Dante's circles of hell. Take your pick. 34th Street - on any platform - should be renamed "Ninth Circle" because it is...hmm, can't even use the word "stifling" because it is much worse than that. If the word "stifling" had a superlative of the nth degree, that would describe 34th street. And that is even on a regular summer day, so imagine when it is 115 with the heat index. Add to the fact that you are underground and I can imagine the little blobs at the end of those old-school thermometers bursting into smithereens Looney-Tunes style.


I'd say there is about a month and a half left of summer (HOLY CRAP). Let's see if the following two things will occur:

1) Con Ed gets rid of all 87 generators that have now populated Astoria like hawks on a carcass and fixes the LIC power grid (Fat chance!)
2) I predict at least 1 more heat wave. For three days. Leading to a brownout in Astoria - where else? Pah, 65% of the city's power plants are in the LIC electrical grid and we are the ones that get the blackout from hell.

Yeah, I still hate Con Ed (what New Yorker doesn't?) and am still mad over the blackout.

As Robin Williams Satirized: "I Won!"

It's not that I am making fun of something. I just like the tone of voice that Robin Williams used when he said that as he made fun of something or other (I forgot) in his "Live on Broadway" show that aired on HBO in 2002. Mel has the DVD, so once in a while I watch it. In a very twisted way it's a great piece of archival work - he makes fun of everything and anything that happened between 2000 and 2002 so if one wants to learn about the first few years of the 21st century and have a laugh, I highly recommend the DVD. Watch it first, make a list of the topics he mentioned, look them up, have a think and watch it again.

It was kinda like that sound when one goes "OoOoO!!!" in a somewhat high-pitched tone. I sorta go like that when I get excited, especially when I got something that I had no clue I would get.

Case in point: when I got the Monbusho, I was in my school's library checking my email for the millionth time that day. So it pops up, I read it and start hyperventillating (in a quiet tone because its the library, SHH!!!) and practically run out into the lobby of Lowenstein. I think it was my professor back in London who I called. So, in the midst up jumping up and down (I literally did that) in the middle of the art gallery on the main floor with passersby looking at me strangely, I practically shrieked into his voicemail. I then ambush Deena, who is always more mellower than me, but her friend Jon shared in my excitement (after I explained what the Monbusho was) by giving me a high-five and jumping with me. Now he is pretty tall so it must have been a funny sight.

I know I act like an idiot. But I worked my butt off and had to act so professional at times its just good to let loose. Especially when it is the first big, REAL fellowship that I get. Always best to go cuckoo when you get the thing.

So yesterday I check my email in the evening and I see this email entitles "2006 NYCAS Marleigh Grayer Ryan Prize." It doesn't jog my memory so I open it and "OoOoO!"

Turns out I won first place (one of two prizes) in the New York Council of Asian Studies essay competition in the undergrad division. I get $100 but that was not the reason I sent my essay in; it was more for recognition and to see if I can build up my CV for grad school.

There is a interesting back-story to this: A few years ago (when I was a sophomore?) I signed I for the H:Japan List-Serv which is an email service for people who are in the Asian Studies field and specifically in Japan. I get things in the mail about topics of discussion, postings related to Japan and to Asia in general and about fellowships. I got the email about this contest back in 2004 for Fall 2005 but I think I forgot about it and didn't think that my thesis was good for it. So I saved it in my Gmail account and waited till the next year (2006).

Wrote the deadline in my organizer, which truly proved to be my lifeline: the deadline was June 1, and I totally forgot about the whole thing. I flip through my organizer on June 1 while at work and I see the notation: "NYCAS Essay Comp. Due (40 pgs.)".

O CRAP.

I had totally forgotten about it till the last minute!

Luckily, I had my USB stick with me at the time so I popped it into the computer, made the necessary additions/cover page and emailed it at the verylastminute. I didn't get a confirmation email or a "Thank you for submitting email," so I thought I didn't make it in time.

So I was surprised. Unfortunately, I cannot attend the conference. It's on October 6 & 7, and that is when I am going to be in Japan.

Doggie Days

Every year, people usually make a list of things to do during the dog days of summer.

For example: go to the beach and get a tan. Go on vacation. Read alot of books. Take the kids to the park. Keep the kids occupied so you don't go crazy. If all else fails, some parents send their kids to summer camp - sleepaway are day is dependent on parental preferences and location. In New York, parents CAN keep their kids occupied without sending them to sleepaway camp.

I for one have never been to summer camp. My summers were filled with chilling with my childhood group of friends and our mothers while the dads were at work (most of our moms by the time we were in the tweenie years worked for the public schools, so when we were off, they were off) - mostly running amok in my old neighborhood every day during the summer from about 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Our mom's would collectively gather in front of my apartment building and the one next door (because 3 families were concentrated between those two buildings so it became a focal point). One mom would make frappe - Greek iced coffee - the others would sit and chill and make sure that none of us got hurt. When you put together the kids that lived on my block plus the "fringes" (lived in the neighborhood, not on the block but came most of the time) there were about 20 of us, ranging from 18 to the age of 3 by the mid-1990s. And we made ALOT of noise. Today, my old block is quiet. Everyone got older, my family and two other families moved away from the block, and there isn't a new generation of kids to take our places. It's a bit sad in a way because my old block had such a reputation for being kid-central in the summer. We got creative; we would play manhunt or hide-and-seek. One time, one of hte older kids hid my little sister in a trash can. We would ride our bikes around the block till we were red in the face.

Sometimes, however, our summers were spent in Greece as opposed to the front stoop. In Astoria, Greek parents ship their kids off to Greece to stay with grandparents or other relatives. For the entire summer. Some of my family friends have gone to Greece the day after th public schools finished (around June 25) and don't come back till Labor Day weekend or the day before school starts (first Thursday after Labor Day weekend). If you have a sharp memory, recall that my parents did that to me in 1995 as a "graduation gift" from elementary school. For the entire summer. Yep, I did the "whole summer in Greece" thing.

I have done it twice actually; first in 1995 and the second time in 2002. Both times I stayed with family and had to deal with relatives that I have never met before (like a third cousin from my dad's uncle's side[?]). However, in 2002 it was a bit more fun; although I lived in the village outside of Sparta with dear ol'grannie, my mom and my sister for about 5/6 of the summer, mom sister and I did go into Athens and Thessaloniki and visited the other grannie in Florina (way up north, about 18km from the Greek-Yugoslavia border. We actually went to the border; it was a bit of a highlight). but when we were back in Sparta, my yiayia would take us around the other villages in the mountains and other little towns - one was a beach town called Yitheio, another time, we took the ferry with my mom's cousin to a small island for the day called Elafoniso. Whenever the old biddies from the village would come to call, my mom sister and I would make fun of them afterwards or in hushed voices - but in English of course.

And now, the dog days of summer are here upon us again and the summers of 2-month+ vacations away from home are long gone. For now at least. In the future, I plan to go a month here, a month there and I know I can drag Mel along at least because if we do something like that in Europe there is internet connection. Plus the time difference is such that if I fulfill my dream of renting a house in Tuscany for a month, Mel works during the mesimeri/siesta/naptime.

My other future summer goal is to go to Greece, pretend I don't speak Greek and island-hop like a tourist for a month or two. I told that to my dad - he took one look at me and started laughing. He said I still had to visit yiayia ALL THE WAY UP in Florina. It's an eight-hour bus ride between Florina and Athens.

But this summer, I have academic pursuits to accomplish. All of which revolve around Japanese:
1) Get up to 1000 Kanji
2) Get through "Le Petite Prince" (in Japanese)
3) Get through my "Breaking into Japanese Literature" reader
4) Review all my grammar
5) Record vocabulary and put onto iPod

and other little things. In June I did nothing at all - I needed a little bit of a break from school, especially after this past semester. I was exhausted. I also have other little miscellaneous things that I want to complete:
1) London scrapbook
2) Small vacation with Mel
3) And yes...get a tan. I am a pasty freak. Not to the point of leather but a nice little glow.
4) Get DVD's for Japan (when I was in London I only had like 5 movies which bored me to tears after watching them twice when I had the flu. This time I am going to be prepared, although there is a DVD rental store in Kyoto that is bilingual.)

and other things I forgot at the moment.

I'm Cookin', Yes Indeed I'm Cookin'...

Yesterday I tried to cook. Again.

"Tried" being the operative word here.

Mind you, I do know how to use a microwave and make (some) stuff on a stovetop. And pop in ready-made chicken legs and salmon fillets in the oven. That's what I did in London for a year, but I gained 15 pounds because of it. Not healthy.

I can steam vegetables so thats healthy. And heat up soup.

Har-har. I am a horrible cook.

When I cook, I need to follow a recipe. I can't just know a recipe off by heart. Apparently, my mother tells me I am a horrible cook so that just makes me more nervous. And Mel is the golden child of the kitchen (thanks to his mother who is an amazing cook) so he just laughs at me. Not very constructive here! My mom hates cooking and she told me that, so I did not learn much from her in that particular department in my formative years, being high school (ha ha). So what did I do in my senior year?

Signed up for cooking class as an elective. My high school has a Culinary Arts program that gets students into the CIA (Culinary Institute of America, not the Central Intelligence Agency) and to positions at Le Cirque. I wanted to learn the basics and a few recipes. I learned how to cut an onion properly, and that a recipe is a really good thing to have.

So what did I make yesterday?

Chicken, baked with olive oil and lemon juice. I was afraid that the chicken was undercooked so I overcooked the chicken and made it a bit dry. I remedied that with some more lemon juice. Made Rice-a-Roni (the San Francisco treat!) to go with it - herb flavor - and it was a bit salty for me (Mel quite liked it) so I added lemon juice to cut the salty flavor.

I think that will be my cooking mantra - when in doubt, use lemon juice.

And for dessert, apple pie with vanilla ice cream: apple pie a la mode. I did not make the pie from scratch, are you kidding me? That's a weekend job. Stole some Mr. Softee ice cream from my freezer upstairs and took it into Mel's apartment in the basement downstairs.

So I am cooking in the downstairs apartment and I used like a million knives because unlike Mel - who had etiquette courses and knows which knife cuts which - I don't know a paring knife from a steak knife. I used a butcher knife to "butterfly" the chicken cutlets; at least I know how to do THAT. It's a really good butcher knife, Mel got it from IKEA and even his mother liked it and she knows knives. His mom makes EVERYTHING from scratch. I need to learn how to make her chicken adobo, that is one Philippino dish I like.

That's another thing to add: when in doubt, use a butcher knife.

My mother decides to visit me and see how I am doing:

"Lower the flame, ALWAYS keep a low flame."
"What's that burning smell? MARIA! You forgot to take out the broiler pan!!!! ALWAYS CHECK THE ENTIRE STOVE!!!"

I get NERVOUS when I have people watching over me! I didn't burn down the dorm in London so I am quite fine thank you! Geez, having my mother watch me cook is like when my father stands over my mother's shoulder when she is at the stove. Whenever he does that to either of us, we tell him that he is not in the Army anymore and no longer a captain and we are NOT your underlings so quit it.

He was the commander of a paratrooper group so he had to watch everything. As I mentioned previously, he is a slob but has good manners and is neat when the time [i.e. being in a military bunker, but that was the 70s] call for it - he had to take etiquette classes during officer's training; they stuck books under his armpits and he had to hold it in place so he can learn how to hold a knife and fork properly. So every so often we have to remind him to stop looking over our shoulders like he is going to give us a citation for dusty boots.

Which means that I have two men who have more etiquette than my mother, me and my maternal grandmother put together (And mind you, my maternal grandmother is mostly all about following Emily Post's etiquette book, the Greek edition [if there was one]. She is always telling me to "Sit straight and be a lady."). Mel even once suggested that I take etiquette courses at the Harvrd Club, but I wasn't 21 at the time so I couldn't partake due to the wine portion of it.

So I forgot to take out the broiler pan which led to a burst of smoke from the stove. Bah. I like the broiler. I can make a kick-arse strip steak (with Montreal steak seasonings of course) with a broiler.

This is what I can do - nominally. I can make pasta, chicken and steak. I think the toughest part will be fish. And I have to learn fish and learn it fast.

Either that or I will be eating a real college student's diet: ramen.

Let Yourself Go, Let Myself Go

During the summer, it is not impossible to lose track of the days and the weeks. When I went to Greece back in 2002, I had to ask someone every few days what the date was. This goes to show when people (maybe just me?) are out of their "native habitat" shall we say, we just tend to let everything go. Even the day of the week - unless you wear a watch that tells the date. I do not wear a watch - like most people my age, I rely on my cell phone to tell the time. However, I would like to get a watch soon. I am tired of relying on my cell phone, sometimes I just want to throw it out a window. But I can't. The world these days wants everyone tied to a tether of some sort or another and most of the time that leash is invisible.

Sometimes, a cell can be useful, especially when you are down in the Bowery and you need someone to be a backup for a concert when the person your with doesn't have proper ID even with a student ID. I called about 5 people before I found someone(s) to be a backup. Needless to say, my friend was able to get in and the someones as well. The security guard was actually nice.
Nonetheless, I really do wish that I did not have to rely on it so much.

I had recently established a pattern for the week:

Count for 4.5 days and that is I when I do not go to work. Count for 2.5 and that is when I do.

Given that I am only on some sort of schedule for half of the week, and that my mother is not on vacation yet so she can remind me to clean my room and tell me what day of the week it is, I have been quite out of character for the past few weeks. Even to the point of being slovenly. Granted, me being slovenly only amounts to not making my bed in the morning and having a few random things strewn across my desk because I like to switch my bag in accordance with my outfit or my mood and hence, I have to empty the previous bag and leave a few things out if the bag isn't big enough. (I cannot carry my iPod, cell phone, wallet, various little miscellany that a girl always carries, a book to read AND my humongous planner in my green bag).

In short, I like bags. I like to carry stuff in my bags. I like to feel that I have what I need (band-aids, gum, bottle of water, tylenol, etc. etc.) in case I come across an ailment as I pound the pavement in my inter-borough travels. My pencilcase is a microcosm of my theory of bags: highlighters, colored pens, pencils, mini-stapler, you name it I have it. In high school, my nickname was "Staples" for very good reason.

So me being a mess. In London, my room was pristine with a very big P. My flatmates and friends were aghast at the organization. My textbooks were in order according to size and category. I do the same thing with my closet - organize by type, then style, color, and fabric. It helps keep my sweaters in order.

But recently?

My desk has been an utter disaster. Seriously. More so than usual; during finals time my room does lapse, especially my desk. Sometimes I will just stack my papers and journal articles neatly and just deal with it after finals. Every semester, when my mom starts to look in my room - she usually doesn't, as she knows that my room is a mess only when I don't have time to clean it due to schoolwork - I have to remind her of the deal we made back in freshman year: Leave me and my room alone during the second week of December and the second week of May and there will be no harm done to either party and I will tidy and reorganize in the third week of December and May when the madness is done. That is all I ask for.

As you can probably surmise, my mother is a neat freak. It has rubbed off on me (ALOT, I can be really anal-retentive when it comes to ordering my textbooks in size order. My 3rd-grade teacher told my mother at Parent-Teacher Conference that I had the neatest desk in the class because of my ordering the textbooks on one side, workbooks and notebooks on the other in accordance to size and category). But my dad is an utter slob so I have a bit of that too.

However, being really organized does pay off, given the profession that I want to go into. I like tidy offices. I also like tidy offices that look really nice and have character. My favorite professor's office was my Global Inequalities professor back in Fall '05 - not only did she have everything organized - even binders in accordance with the class she was teaching to keep materials in check - but she even had a side table with a cute little lamp next to the chair that students sit next to. And she even had a bulletin board! Those rock. I'm going to try and get myself one of those (or even the bits of cork) in my room in Kyoto.

But back to my disaster of a desk. Little papers and receipts strewn over the desk, 600-page novels stacked upon my laptop (obviously not a good idea, but this is the laptop that I am ready to chuck and the novels are in paperback so it's not an issue). iPod and cell phone chargers, cell phone headset and other miscellaneous wires for my digital camera, Mel's dad's digital photo printer, etc. I should take a photo of my desk and put it on Flickr with notes, just like how people take photos of what's in their bag and post it on Flickr. Everything tells a story, so long as you have a narrator to tell it.

I feel like I have just woken out of a reverie - or maybe a mental vacation? - and I finally tidied up my desk before I went to the Cat Empire concert on Tuesday down at the Bowery.

So I have been working on getting my act together. I am an "adult" now, so I have to keep track of the days - both the date and the day of the week.

That means I have to put the twenty-odd textbooks that are totally irrelevant on Half.com for sale.

And empty out my desk.

Those "little things" certainly do pile up.

I Fought the Law and the Law Won

If I ever express the desire to go into law school, someone take a gun and shoot me.

Seriously.

I have been working here at the law school for almost a year. What did I learn?

1) How to waste my time on the Internet.
2) How to use audio/visual equipment. Which was really fun.
3) Bettered my skills with "smart" podiums - a good thing, since I will be the sort of presenter in the future that is NOT clueless.
4) How do deal with office politics and deal with lecturer's arrogant crap.

And most importantly...

5) That most law students are cocky arrogant idiots and that it gets worse the higher you go up in US News and World Report's rankings.

Fordham is ranked I believe in the top 30 (?) and dealing with them for programs already piss me off. Since I was one of the "children" next door, I was supposed to be pre-programmed to hate the "precious law students." As a former admissions tour guide, I actually said that "Yes, the law school is right next door, its a really great program, we have a 3-3 program for undergrads and as undergrads we can use their facilities, but none of us ever do because the law students are rather terriorial." I never got reprimanded for it because like a proper tour guide, I told the truth and the "reality that is FCLC" that the prospectives student wanted to hear, with the shine and sparkle that admissions officers and parents wanted to hear.

The Law school is the jewel in Fordham's crown, hence they are treated like spoilt princes and princesses. And some of them milk it. I do know a few of the law students that I met personally and for programs and some are very nice. There are, unfortunately that think they are gods because they are going to have a law degree after 3 years. Might I just add that most people who go for law degrees never actually become lawyers, because they fail to pass the bar or are just "burnt out"?

They are the ones that get a library that has WINDOWS and pretty chairs - you know, the ergonomical ones that cost about $1000 a pop? I actually commited the travesty that is entering-the-law-school library and sat in one of them. But this was after their finals, so I didn't have to suffer from the dirty looks that are across their faces if I dropped a pen on the floor. Quinn Library - the one for FCLC, GBA, GED, GSS and FCLS (everyone else that is) looks like a factory and has wierd lighting. New, really cute furniture, but no bloody windows. The "rest of us" will not have a library with windows until the incoming FCLC class of 2039 crosses Columbus Avenue for the first time.

My job is fun, but there are some times that I want to take that gavel and smash it into someone's head.

What was the breaking point for me was working for a PMBR Bar Exam law review in McNally a few weeks ago. Personally, its rather ludicrous to pay "all this money" for this degree and then you need to take MORE classes just to pass the bar exam because apparently, whatever you learned in law school isn't enough to pass the bar exam to become a "real" lawyer!

So they had a three day course, two days of which I had to run. The lecturer was like a law student on LSD although she was a former prosecutor in Philly. She made me run around like crazy - asking for extension cords (can't do it - fire hazard but then I see 10 of them within 15 minutes), portable podiums (after I told her I can't move the main one and that I can't take the one out of the classrooms - she took TWO out) and wanting a table (I told her I would get it for her but me getting it down will make noise, the "precious law students" were taking a test so is it ok if I can do it after the break? NO, she made me drag a table down that I am not supposed to! A heavy table, weak arms and a fear of stairs is not a good combination.).

Earlier, my coworker told me that one of the law students unfolded a table in the back to plug in her laptop since it was uncharged. She told the student that she couldn't do that because its a fire hazard, but the student didn't care! Gave my coworker a dirty look. Fine, and when you unfolded that table I wished you broke your leg. It would have served her right, although she would have probably sued the law school. They think they could break the rules just because they pay 40 grand a year. Unfortuantely, most of American college students think that they cn get away with murder and get whatever they want (even that A grade) because they pay "so much money" for it. I do come from a selfish generation.

I feel sooooo bad for my boss and any future coworkers. This fall they are changing the Atrium - where we hold luncheons and registration for events - into a student lounge with couches because the law students don't have a "proper lounge." Boo hoo to them. So now they have to move the furniture every time there is an event and try to keep the law students from stealing the food - it's ok to do it after the event when there are leftovers, but not before. It's going to make the school look bad. All for the sake of pacifying the royalty.

So the law school wins. They are even going to be the first ones to get a new building in the re-development plan of the campus. Frankly, I think they should add one of the 35-story towers first because it makes more space for the other schools as a whole. But no, the law school come first, because it is a "cash cow."

But on a lighter note, I decided to post a new picture of my future toy:

It is the Apple MacBook. I am going to make the conversion from PC to Mac. Strike up the choir, I am going to leave the world of Windows behind!

I say future because it is a belated graduation gift. In high school I got the Sony VAIO R505, one of the first "skinny laptops" and apprently, one of the most popular computers in 2001-2002. I got it simply because it looked pretty and I didn't know any better. After countless reboots, a crashed hard drive and subsequent replacement, overseas travel clocking in at over 30,000 miles (Greece: 2 plane rides, London: 6 plane rides) a broken cd-burner and over 1500 songs on iTunes, not to mention 4 years worth of college papers, outlines, and bumps and scratches, eating dinner as I type my papers and watching Sex and the City DVD's on it, its time to throw in the motherboard.

It looks like its been through WW3. The keyboard has faded where the heels of my palms rested, the A and S keys are almost gone, the screen is always dusty and it really ,really, battered - like there are nicks in it. And did I mention that the battery went kaput? Like it decided to not work anymore, so may laptop is nothing more now than a tiny PC since it awlays has to be plugged in. Microsoft Word freezes, and slowly my other programs are freezing on me as well.

Still, it WAS a purple laptop. I didn't want a standard, gray or black IBM/Dell.

The black Apple is really shiny, as Cat would put it, but its not worth it price wise to spend another $200 for a black casing. I'm getting the white (2.0 gHz), and using that $200 to upgrade the memory to 2GB.

Now if only there were cute laptop cases to go with it. I never used my old laptop case because it was this ugly office-looking industrial black. I would like kelly green. Or black, but with polka dots.

Yeah, I am very picky.

The Janus Effect

There is a greek god (or entity, something like that, my knowledge of Greek mythology has lapsed somewhat, which is a personal embarrassment) called Janus. He has two faces: one looking foward and one looking back.

This summer looks like it is going to have that dual-quality.

In the wake of graduation, I have been particularly moody and happy at the same time. Moody because I GRADUATED. I am DONE, FINISHED, FINITO, TELIOSA, OWARI.

Comprende?

According to Mel, I am somewhat depressed and bitchy precisely because I have graduated. There is no looking back, unless you look back on what happened in the past four years. Mel can relate, because he went through the same process last year, combined with the anxiety of going on more than ten interviews for a job in the finance world and getting rejected every time. He gave himself 6 months to get the "dream job."

The lucky stiff. He got the job that all of his classmates covet (as well as the bankers at Citibank and Chase). Without having to go through the hell known as the MBA (though he might do it in the future, but not for management - he thinks its a load of bull___. He likes to play with the real thing, hence the reason why he uses four computer screens at work to track the stock market. He gets to play in the dirt).

As for me, I have to go through six or seven more years of school to get that shiny Ph.d, maybe a post-doc somewhere and try and pray to get a job as a professor at a decent school in the NY-Metro /Tristate area. My top choices: Fordham, NYU and Columbia. I obviously do not need to explain myself why.

Not that I mind going to school - the routine of it is so ingrained in me that I like it. I am a geek, though I do not wear thick glasses and pocket protectors. I do dress like a prep though.

However, the Ph.d field seems highly overpopulated with equally amibtious people which is why I need to work extra hard to stand out so I can get that job. I want to make sure that I get a turn to play in the sandbox, too.

For example, applying to that East Asian Urban/Architectual History Conference in Kyoto this coming December - if I get selected, then my paper (the joy and bane that is my thesis) will get edited and PUBLISHED. I WILL BE 22 YEARS OLD. Mega cool. (I have a good chance at being selected - I corresponded with one of the people in the commitee and I sent him the thesis, and he was floored. I have the emails to prove it - to the point that he is trying to recruit me to study with him for my Ph.d at the University of Sydney. Mum is the word - my priority is to come back home.)

Mel was originally not too happy at the situation that I have presented/am presenting to him:

1) a year in London
2) 1.5 years in Japan
3) The prospect of 4-5 years in a city outside NYC for grad school. (However, my top three are Harvard, UPenn and Princeton, so that's not too bad. If I go to either of the latter two, Mel would probably come with me, as it is east to commute via car to his job in Jersey City, aka "Wall Street-West" (after 9/11, most of the financial big-wigs jumped ship and crossed the Hudson into presumably safer territory. Goldman-Sachs built a whole new building for themselves along the Newport/Pavonia waterfront).

My friend Cat told me that UPenn has off-campus housing in these old converted mansions in the historic-college town part and that just makes me drool. It's my dream to live in a townhouse in the historic part of Brooklyn and have an office with those bookcases built into the walls.

You can imagine it was rather difficult to part, especially when I left for London. However, Mel does understand that I have to do what I have to do in order to get "my dream job."

I am babbling. There is a lot of fog in my head.

There is this social stigma that says "after you graduate from college you will enter the 'real world'." What is the "real world" per se? I was told once by a classmate (who was an older student, already tried and tested in the "real world") that I am never entering "the real world" because I am going into academia and in a way its still like staying in college. Cat (who also wants to go into academia as much as I do) and I cheer to the prospect of a 12-hour workweek, never having a 9-5 job, getting paid to read books in a library, etc. etc. but it is still going to be a JOB. Just not a "conventional" one. Which I do not mind at all - I have worked part-time in offices since i was 15 and I hate it. The only thing I learned was how to waste my time using the Internet.

Facebook now has this new feature for our profiles called "Work" - where you write where you are working, for what organization and what your job is. I actually filled it out, because in essence, my fellowship is a job. I have to be accountable for the quality of my research and the quality of my language study - if I don't reach a certain level within the 6-month language study period, I get kicked out. Talk about quality control and employee review.

It may be called a "stipend" but it is still a salary. When I go to Japan, I have to pay rent, pay my cell phone bill, my credit card bill (I'm thinking of cutting it up actually, but all 'necessary' graduation miscellania is complete so I can return my AMEX to its hiding place) buy my own groceries, budget, make sure that my student loan is paid (I know I can defer it because technically I am still a student, but I choose not to, I want that sucker paid off) and make sure that I have some fun so that my time in Japan is not going to be like my time in London.

This little rant is the result of looking back over the past four years everytime someone asks me what I want to do for a living and they look at me strangely. So WHAT if I don't want to have a job that is in a shiny "office" (because I will have one at the university) in a the corporate sense. So sterile. You can decorate your cubicle, but I will be able to go teach class in hot-pink rainboots if I want to when the skies decide to open up and flood the NY subway system (my commute was HORRIBLE this past Friday). And I can wear jeans. Everyday. With sneakers (Or J.Crew ballet flats - I have grown up shall we say, I don't like to wear sneakers anymore). So WHAT if I don't want to run out and get a so-called "real job" right after college.

People have told me that they are envious of me - I get to live in Japan almost for free for 18 months! To them, I have this to say: I busted my ASS to get to where I am. I am the one who took 6 classes EVERY semester since freshman year so that I can take Japanese and graduate on time (except for junior year because that was London, but I sat in on the grad class with over 150+ page readings of really hard stuff plus over 5 hours of prep for it and the 3 hours+ Japanese I did every day so I can catch up and do well on the final) and got sick almost every semester for it, while working part-time so that I can support myself nominally so that I was not a burden to my parents, making sure that $3500 lasted for 7 months in London because my dad does not run the ice cream truck in the winter and they couldn't support me, handing over my paycheck to my parents in the winter of sophomore year because my dad was unemployed so that we could have groceries and pay the mortgage, paying for my Japanese classes every semester and in the summers (except for senior year, because Fordham helped me and for that I am eternally grateful) making sure my thesis was as good as it can be and fearing that I would get an F on it because it was still missing so much (although if I had more time I think it could have been better), running around and trying to get new jobs ASAP so that I can save money and yes, I did have to worry too about what I was going to do after college! Why do you think I took the GRE twice and almost applied to 10 grad schools and studied every spare moment I had (on the train, on the bus, in the 15 minutes between classes, even sneaking the readings in my desk at my old job) so that I can keep up my GPA?

When I explain to people this, they tell me I overreact and worry too much, and me getting sick proves it. First, college is a breeding den of germs. Every fall, everyone gets sick at my school because we have to become immune to the freshmen. Secondly, I had mono a few years ago and that whacked up my immune system from here to kingdom come. This past semester, I got laryngitis, lost my voice completely, hurt my back had a fever, couch, cold and allegies that are still bothering me. It's not that I overreact. It's not that I worry too much. Yes, I can be a bit hard on myself. But that is how I am. I do know when to stop or slow down a bit at least - as Mary says, "take it easy." Which is why I am seriously chilling out this summer. No classes, just work and yoga. And alot of sleeping and reading, for fun, with some studying so that my brain doesn't go to sleep entirely. Japanese is tough.

I am ranting - and I will admit to that. But this is my way of coping with the fact that I have graduated: I rant and be moody, which is not entirely constructive. Others are in denial, mellow about it, try ever-so-hard to stay in the city, go out and party (and get trashed doing it), etc. etc. Everyone has their own method. At least I get it out here. But I will make this perfectly clear: what I have now was not handed to me on a silver platter.

In my high school, I was a minority (demographically speaking, not that it says much, but my high school was zoned for the projects) and in my freshman year, there were 1000 kids. By the time I graduated, there were only 400. The college counselor struggled to make sure that every one of us at least applied for a CUNY and forced us to apply to two. Not many of us were amibtious; my fellow classmate who went to Fordham with me told me in conversation a few months ago "We are different, that's why no one liked us [in high school]."

By senior year, I was ostracized for two reasons: 1) my ex-best friend liked my now-fiance and turned agsinst me for it because she couldnt "have" him and 2) because I actually cared about school and wasn't satisfied with just going to CUNY. Not to knock it, but I wanted something more than that. I was tired of my 3500+ student high school and I wanted classes that were not 41 students because of overcrowding. When I told classmates my freshman year that size of my high school, they were floored. Kids in my high school didn't go to schools like Fordham, Columbia or Cornell (3, 1 and 2 went respectively in my senior class. The college counselor posted our acceptance letters and our financial aid packages because they were such huge firsts - 1 who went to Fordham and the student who went to Columbia went through HEOP).

It was a total fluke that I applied to Fordham, I wanted Columbia so badly. I just saw the brochure with the application that came in the mail because of the SAT release score program, my mom said it was pretty decent and I applied. Never visited, never went on the website - I was ready to give the application to a friend instead. I still remember the day I got my financial aid package - it practically covered 95% of my tuition, and only one (subsidized) loan. I got the letter in the mail and my mom was going down the stairs in the front porch to go to a friend's house. I stopped her and showed her the letter. She called the relatives, because I was the first one in my family to go to a private school, as opposed to SUNY or CUNY. Because of the financial aid, I was able to study abroad. Like I told Mary, when she asked me to sum up my financial need to determine if I qualified for some fellowships - "If I didn't get the financial aid that I got, I wouldn't be sitting here."

Nor would I be going where I am going now. I got rejected by Columbia twice in the same day; nonetheless, I am happy I went to good ol' Ram-land. In the beginning I was considering to transfer, but I never regretted not doing it. Things would have turned out very differently, mywself included.

One thing that will never change: the fact that I am a horrble - but fast- typer. I have to reread my entries twice to get the typing mistakes (Although, this time it was three times. But don't bother giving me typing lessons as a gift. This is why they have spell-check. I am a good speller - I won my class spelling bee in the 7th grade.).

Looking back is a good thing, even though it can be painful (refer to the rant above) at times. But then, you also remember the happy and the crazy times, as well. Working on my London scrapbook showed me that although I hated the city I still loved it. I miss the little squares and the bookshops where I got tons of books cheaply. I miss the cold sandwiches cut along the diagonal and filled with interesting combinations of filling. I do regret not having photos of me by the fountain in Russell Square, or exploring Islington more. I do have a photo of me at the Round Pond in Kensington Gardens. But going back to Russell Square and having a mocha in the little cafe is a reason for me to go back to London. But in September or May, that's when London is at its best. When I was watching "The Da Vinci Code" in the movie theatre last week, I actually sighed when the story shifted from Paris to London. Never got to see the Templar Church, either.

So I think I am done looking back. I can' t be bitchy any longer because I do have something (or many things really) to look foward to. At times, the whole Japan thing is very scary - I am practically moving to another country and have no relatives there at all or anyone else, but I hope I will manage. My biggest fear is that I get depressed like I did between Janaury and March 2005 and not appreciate my time in Kyoto. However, there are opportunities for suprises, and you can even shock yourself at what you find yourself doing, especially when its fun and not something you would not do under normal circumstances at home.

Like the time I figured I was able to survive getting a needle, then a scalpel down my throat due to an abscessed tonsil in August 2004 (yes, I have now grossed you out, but it is the truth, I was the "textbook case" so all the residents and interns saw me BEFORE the ENT doctor came to the ER) so I got my tragus pierced in London. I always thought of getting something pierced, but I never had the guts to do it. Something in London - combined with the tonsil fiasco - gave me the balls to do it. There is that stereotype that college students do crazy stuff, especially when you study abroad. So instead of puking my guts out after a hangover (something I am proud of never having to do) I chose get a piercing.

Being me, of course I still asked my mother for permission via AIM first though.