Countdown

I haven't felt like posting in the past couple days, though a few minorly exciting things happened. I think I'm becoming a little...blah as it gets closer to the time to leave. On one hand I really want to go home, but on the other, I just don't want to leave, since I know it'll be a while before I come back. (Probably two years, unless I can squeeze a second study abroad out of UMass, which I kind of doubt.)

I know how I'm getting to the airport now, and it's not by taxi, which is what I originally was planning. I talked to OIS about my worries, and the woman I spoke with said she's made airport bus reservations from Miyako Hotel for several students in the past, and that she can do that for me if I would like, or I could do it myself. She also had the schedule for the buses, and we figure I would need to get the 6:10 or 6:40am bus, which means catching a taxi from the dorm at five-something in the morning. Not fun. What was I thinking when I made the flight reservations? I'm not happy about that one bit. But that aside, Dr. Cleveland is a moron. I don't trust any information he gives us, because he never seems to know what he's talking about, or he just doesn't tell us everything we need to know. The people working in OIS are so much more helpful. It's a little amusing, actually, how I haven't heard a single person (besides the faculty/staff) speak well of him. And although I never had him as a professor, the way he handles dealing with study abroad students seems kind of sad. For instance, for someone who has supposedly lived in Japan for 17 years, he certainly doesn't know how to pronounce any Japanese places/words properly. It's painful hearing him say "haraajuku" and "jew-gohka" all the time, and when he tells us stories (meant to be funny, I think) of dumb gaijin things he's done--like open a bottle of soda on the train and then spill it--most of us wonder how stupid he really is.

That aside, I experienced my first earthquake the other day. And most of you already know this, but I wanted to record it here. It was a really short (probably less than ten seconds), gentle quake, but it was enough that Emily and I stopped talking at the same time and stared at each other and then around the room as the windows, table and beds rattled. If it hadn't lasted so long, though, I never would have noticed it. I would have thought it was someone upstairs falling off of a bed or knocking over a chair--since that happens a lot upstairs. After it stopped, I IMed some of the other people in the dorm to ask if they had felt it, and although Brittany and her roommate hadn't felt it, Marina had, and Ty had, as well. I thought the earthquake was very exciting, lol. Emily and I had gone, "Woooohhhh!" when the room was shaking, and then afterward we kept laughing every once in a while.

I'm on my last classes now. I only have one more Japanese Art class, and one more Drawing classe plus the art exhibition, and three more Japanese classes and Practical Asian Society/Culture classes. Last day of classes is the 14th, which is also the day of the reception for my art exhibition.

Oh, in drawing yesterday, we were doing the second half of our two-session model drawing, and because I draw really quickly, I finished my drawing in the first twenty minutes of class, so I started on a second, fun drawing of the model, using only strokes going from the upper right to bottom left, and it turned out really cool. Akimoto-sensei asked me if I'd done it before, and I told her no, I just felt like doing that, so I was trying it out. Then, I finished that one and started on a third piece with one of those fancy pens Sarah left me when she moved out. I made the vine hanging from the ceiling very loopy and fine, and made a very linear drawing of the model, which I liked. I kind of wish my teacher hadn't gone, "That's your third one, right?" so loudly, though, because several people on the other side of the room were like, "She's on her third drawing?!" whereas they were still working to finish their first ones in time for the end of class. I felt really embarrassed about it. I've gotten into the habit of responding, "It's just because I draw really quickly," when they ask me how I do it, because it's not like I know. The whole thing about art with me is that it only works when I shut my brain off. It's a very unintelligent hobby of mine. And if I try to force myself to do something particular and really think about it, whatever I'm trying turns out crappy. That's also why I never do very creative things when we're doing assignments, because if I'm told to do something, I have a very difficult time staying away from the rules. But when I'm just doing my own thing for fun, that's when I make art that feels like it's my own.