Daily Minutiae

Today was busy, busy, busy nonstop. I got up a little before 9 for my 10AM class because they were calling for rain, and that always makes the ride to school take a little longer than usual. The other day I bought a bike basket cover, so now I no longer rely on Kroger bags to keep my things dry while I bike in the rain. It was very convenient.

Speaking class today went well; I've kinda learned who tries and who doesn't care, and I try to position myself in a seat so I don't get paired with a slacker for the dialogue practice. Now that I've got that trick figured out, I enjoy the class a lot more.

Then at 11 I went and had an early lunch of curry rice and udon. I had never had curry before coming to Japan, but I've discovered that I love it. It reminds me of the really delicious Paramount tamales, before they shut down the Louisville plant and they got gross. Also during my lunch break, I bought a Kansai Gaidai t-shirt. It's light blue with navy, reading "Kansai Gaikokugo Daigaku" in Japanese. I'm using it as a pajama shirt, because my only other casual tee is starting to get kinda gross.

At noon was reading/writing, where we got our lesson tests back. The class average was an 84%; I got a 96%. Yay! I've really been working hard to remember all my kanji lately, and it's been paying off.

In Asian Psychologies we split ourselves up into three groups for our midterm project. We got to pick from Yoga, Buddhism, and Taoism as a belief system to briefly defend in a class debate and paper. It was kinda funny, though, how the devisions fell. No one wanted to be on the Yoga team; I don't think I was the only one who totally didn't understand that whole topic. Everyone seemed to love Buddhism, though, and about half the class wanted to be in that group. Luckily, I had my heart set on Taoism, which was only moderately popular, so I got a Taoist slot with no problem. I think they're going to have to janken to see who gets the remaining coveted Buddhist positions and who gets stuck with the Yogis.

Really, I think all the Taoist stuff is quite easy, once you grasp the idea that nothing is absolute. The answer to everything is either "it depends on the circumstances," "maybe," or "both at once." It's like the standard grade school Catholic religion class responses of "Love, care, share" and "Paschal Mystery"! I love plug-and-chug answers, especially when I can apply them to intricate, millennia-old belief systems that offer hope and a coherent worldview for billions of people.

On Saturday I'll be going on a field trip with that class to Kyoto to visit various places where there are traditional Japanese practices of self-cultivation. We're going to see some kyūdō, we'll do some zazen sitting, and visit a temple where practicioners stand naked under a waterfall for purification. I'm pretty excited.

Then was my fourth and final class of the day, Japan in Western Film and Lit, thank goodness. With the cool, dreary weather, I was really having a hard time keeping my energy up, but that's always a low-key class. We watched The Cheat, which I explained yesterday. The music in it was really, really good, actually, and I enjoyed it much more than the other silent films I've seen. Probably because I had done a good deal of reading on it beforehand, so I was able to pick up on a lot of the visual cues that would have gone over my head because I'm so used to talkie motifs.

The film, I thought, was very visually interesting, but the plot just drove me absolutely nuts. Edith, the main character, was the most shallow, ridiculous, unthinking person imaginable. She lives beyond her means, embezzles from the Red Cross, emotionally cheats on her husband, attempts to prostitute herself, renegs on a contract, shoots a man, and encourages perjury. Yet at the end of the film she gets off completely free from criminal prosecution, with the full moral support of the other characters, to the intended relief of the audience. It was ridiculous. I wasn't really bothered by the fact that the "villian" was a horribly stereotyped Japanese man, but more the fact that Edith, as a wealthy white woman, could get away with all that. It was disgusting.

After rolling my eyes repeatedly at Edith's outrageous behavior, I went to the language lab and did some homework, then grabbed some food from McDonald's for an early supper. It was still rainy and cold.

At 5:30 I watched a showing of the most recent presidential debate. No commentary on it for the moment; it didn't strike me as particularly opinion-inducing. Maybe later. While I was watching, I did some kanji practice, so that was nice multitasking.

I checked my mail before leaving campus, and what I thought was my absentee ballot came from home! But when I opened it, it turns out it's the legal stuff I have to sign promising that, yes, I'm really out of the country, so please government send me my ballot. I'm afraid now that my vote won't be counted, because I have to mail this back to Kentucky, and then they have to mail my the actual ballot, which I have to send back a week before the election or it won't be accepted. Eep! I'm cutting it really close. I'm still not sure how post offices work here, either, or what size envolope to use, or even where to get stamps. What a mess! I'll try to get that all cleared up ASAP. At least I have all my candidates picked out except for two or three judicial races, which I still need to research.

Um, then I rode home in the rain, which had lessened but was still coming down. And I showered did some homework, and here I am.

One thing I should mention: When I get back to the States, I think I'm really going to be bothered by American customore service. It's amazing how polite all the store personnel are here. Even at the campus McDonald's, even at Big Wave Karaoke where they have to clean up after drunk foreigners all the time, employees are attentive, respectful, and quick to serve. They always smile. It's amazing. I have not had one bad customer service experience here. No long waits, no sighs of frustration, no eye rolls when you ask for extra ketchup. It's great! It bothered me enough before to go to a fast food place and have bad service, but now I'm sure it'll absolutely kill me.