Tuesday, October 18th
When staying in a new place for the first night, it is often difficult to fall asleep with the thousands of thoughts running through your mind all the while attempting to acclimate yourself to the sounds of the new environment. Luckily I had fallen in to a deep sleep just as I was woken by a loud blaring noise coming from my kitchen. Falling out of bed (literally) and feeling my way through my apartment I realized that it was not 11:30 PM when I had gone to bed, but somehow 7:30 in the morning and a man in a suit was at my door. I immediately knew that the gods of luggage had found me when the Kuroneko delivery man said he had my gigantic piece of luggage, and would I come out and get it because it is too large. Oh yes, my suitcase was too large for this gargantuan of a man to handle.
Not even minutes after I happily trotted back to my bedroom with my delivery prize I heard another screaming buzzer noise, this time knowing that it was my apartment’s phone. Moments later I had two kind Yukawa delivery men assembling Ikea-style furniture in my building’s hallway. It was certainly a sight to see before 8 AM! I screamed with delight as my apartment turned from a vacant lot where bugs came to die in to a posh, metropolitan’s dream. Leather couch, glass coffee table and art-nouveau shelving units later I was in fact an apartment owner…with furniture! I was so excited to tell my girlfriends of the news as I hurriedly sped off to class, not realizing me it had taken 4 hours to organize all my doodads and dollar store finds to make my apartment feel like home.
Now I am a self-proclaimed political science geek. Obsessed, passionate, whatever you want to call it, politics and finding a way to improve the society that surrounds us is the name of the game for me. That is why when my beloved disheveled Technical Japanese professor came to class today raring to talk about Japan’s recent election, he looked as though he was going to burst through his flannel button down shirt.
Unfortunately at 1 in the afternoon, when a class is more interested in what they ate for lunch than who won the election, it’s a beautiful day outside with birds chirping amidst the shining sun, and for some of us it is the only time we see our friends, it makes things a little more difficult. Even more so when our professor started his powerpoint presentation with a picture of Koizumi and one of the students asked, “who’s that dude?”
Yes folks, politics 101 is an introductory class in any college, but when you’re working with a bunch of foreign students who are only taking your class because it’s in English, you’re job is much more difficult. Combine this with the fact that Yamada-san tries so desperately to come across as an expert, or at least one that would know more than we do about the subject, it makes his tireless efforts that much more adorable. While attempting to ignore the chitty chat banter of the girls behind me and the sighs of boredom from students staring out the window, Yamada sensei immediately drew the class’s attention when we heard a loud slap! I wasn’t sure if I was the only one that had noticed at first, considering I was quite possibly the only student standing at attention, but our teacher had physically left a red-mark the size of a peach on his head. Trying to say “privatization” with a thick Nara accent, which makes these Eastern Kansai residents say “l” instead of “r,” and combine that with the fact that even the most highly verbose person stumbles on the five-syllable “privatization,” it was a recipe for disaster.
“Plilatisation” was what most of us heard, and amidst stifled howls of laughter, my now favorite professor trooped on with the discussion like a sergeant leading his troops into battle. With his hand towel he constantly dabbed at the beads of sweat running down his face, and he proceeded to inflict self-wrought pain with his palm every time he incorrectly pronounced “privatization.” Considering our entire discussion was surrounding Prime Minister Koizumi’s policy to privatize the post office in Japan, this made for an extremely long and dangerous class period that left me thankful for national health insurance and for the fact that Yamada-san was my professor.
When staying in a new place for the first night, it is often difficult to fall asleep with the thousands of thoughts running through your mind all the while attempting to acclimate yourself to the sounds of the new environment. Luckily I had fallen in to a deep sleep just as I was woken by a loud blaring noise coming from my kitchen. Falling out of bed (literally) and feeling my way through my apartment I realized that it was not 11:30 PM when I had gone to bed, but somehow 7:30 in the morning and a man in a suit was at my door. I immediately knew that the gods of luggage had found me when the Kuroneko delivery man said he had my gigantic piece of luggage, and would I come out and get it because it is too large. Oh yes, my suitcase was too large for this gargantuan of a man to handle.
Not even minutes after I happily trotted back to my bedroom with my delivery prize I heard another screaming buzzer noise, this time knowing that it was my apartment’s phone. Moments later I had two kind Yukawa delivery men assembling Ikea-style furniture in my building’s hallway. It was certainly a sight to see before 8 AM! I screamed with delight as my apartment turned from a vacant lot where bugs came to die in to a posh, metropolitan’s dream. Leather couch, glass coffee table and art-nouveau shelving units later I was in fact an apartment owner…with furniture! I was so excited to tell my girlfriends of the news as I hurriedly sped off to class, not realizing me it had taken 4 hours to organize all my doodads and dollar store finds to make my apartment feel like home.
Now I am a self-proclaimed political science geek. Obsessed, passionate, whatever you want to call it, politics and finding a way to improve the society that surrounds us is the name of the game for me. That is why when my beloved disheveled Technical Japanese professor came to class today raring to talk about Japan’s recent election, he looked as though he was going to burst through his flannel button down shirt.
Unfortunately at 1 in the afternoon, when a class is more interested in what they ate for lunch than who won the election, it’s a beautiful day outside with birds chirping amidst the shining sun, and for some of us it is the only time we see our friends, it makes things a little more difficult. Even more so when our professor started his powerpoint presentation with a picture of Koizumi and one of the students asked, “who’s that dude?”
Yes folks, politics 101 is an introductory class in any college, but when you’re working with a bunch of foreign students who are only taking your class because it’s in English, you’re job is much more difficult. Combine this with the fact that Yamada-san tries so desperately to come across as an expert, or at least one that would know more than we do about the subject, it makes his tireless efforts that much more adorable. While attempting to ignore the chitty chat banter of the girls behind me and the sighs of boredom from students staring out the window, Yamada sensei immediately drew the class’s attention when we heard a loud slap! I wasn’t sure if I was the only one that had noticed at first, considering I was quite possibly the only student standing at attention, but our teacher had physically left a red-mark the size of a peach on his head. Trying to say “privatization” with a thick Nara accent, which makes these Eastern Kansai residents say “l” instead of “r,” and combine that with the fact that even the most highly verbose person stumbles on the five-syllable “privatization,” it was a recipe for disaster.
“Plilatisation” was what most of us heard, and amidst stifled howls of laughter, my now favorite professor trooped on with the discussion like a sergeant leading his troops into battle. With his hand towel he constantly dabbed at the beads of sweat running down his face, and he proceeded to inflict self-wrought pain with his palm every time he incorrectly pronounced “privatization.” Considering our entire discussion was surrounding Prime Minister Koizumi’s policy to privatize the post office in Japan, this made for an extremely long and dangerous class period that left me thankful for national health insurance and for the fact that Yamada-san was my professor.
posted by Kristin at 3:27 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home