That is the word of the day. We are now down to the last week of classes and I am still no more motivated than while I was looking for jobs. Now that I have decided on Andersen, I didn't really have any revelation or great sigh of relief. Life is still life and I am still just squeaking by.
I was really productive yesterday morning. I had a group meeting at 9am, so I got up early to prepare some work for that (figuring depreciation for tax basis for an imaginary company-fun assignment). Then the afternoon set-in. After I called Andersen with my official acceptance of their offer, I lounged around a bit thinking about future plans. Before I knew it, it was 4:30-time to go to the Japanese conversation table.
I showed up a little early, because Fukada-sensei, the woman who taught me almost all of the Japanese I know, was going to be there. I had her for a TA for four semesters of Japanese class here at UofI. However, I hadn't seen her in a long time. She is still working on her PhD in linguistics and plans to go to Japan next year to collect data. Anyway, it was good to talk to her after a long while.
Despite the cold weather, about 25 people showed up, a little less than usual. That group really is a unique one. Lots of interesting people who don't necessarily know each other, yet get together for a few hours of talk in Japanese or about Japanese every friday. I have made some good friends there, though I still have trouble remembering all of their names. After nearly four hours of sipping coffee, we decided to go to Perkins for dinner (9pm). A dozen of us made our way down to the local family restaurant.
I think we made a bit of a scene at Perkins- a mixed group of Japanese, Korean, Filipinos, and Americans sitting around a big table speaking in poor Japanese/English. We had a good waiter though. He was patient as we all tried to figure out what all of the dishes were. One person got the Hibachi Chicken just to see what it actually was.
I think all of the other customers thought that we were a little strange. I often look at groups of students on campus speaking in some foreign language. I wonder, why did they come to America if... But then again, I could often be seen speaking to American friends in Japan. We didn't speak to each other in Japanese. It seems like these groups look weird from the outside, but as I sat there at the table chatting about random topics until nearly midnight, I thought it was perfectly natural.
My no-study mode did not end there. Gene and I met up at midnight for the special showing of Clockwork Orange at the local multiplex. There are a lot of these cult classics that I still haven't seen; I feel like it is my duty as a college student to finish my culture-ation(?) before I graduate. Anyway, this movie was certainly an experience. I must say that I prefer Kubrik's 2001, but there were some similarities there. Lots of violence. No guns though. Plus, it wasn't violence just as entertainment, but more about making fun of violence as entertainment. Sort of like Natural Born Killers. Anyway, if you are not in the mood for this king of movie (ever seen Blue Velvet?) then don't go for it. If you are just procrastinating away the time until the end of the semester, then a midnight showing of this twisted flick might be good. I better get back to my homework.