So last Friday, I had my first meeting for the International Advisory program, and I was really hoping that my university wouldn't get merged with another since there were so many participants. Luckily, when the director called out my school's name, he then read off my name and one other person named Miki (she's a Japanese student going to my university). I'm so happy to have one partner who is going to my university rather than several just going to America!
After the the opening meeting, Miki and I went to a cafe to eat. She had to choose because I don't know any good places near the school, and it turned out to be pretty great. The whole menu was Italian food. Yum! As we were talking and I was telling her about my university, I noticed a professor who lives near Seminar House 1 walk in. A few minutes later, one of the most awkward things that can happen to a student happened to me. I looked behind Miki and saw my Intercultural Communications professor chatting away with the first professor...oh dear... Now, this normally wouldn't be an awkward situation back home, but the fact that he was my Intercultural Communications professor and the fact that he kept looking at me to make sure I was "communicating effectively with a person from a culture very different from my own" made it awkward. I informed Miki, and she thought it was funny...but it wasn't funny for me...actually it was...it was just uncomfortable. XP
It was worse when Miki bowed her head to say thanks for the meal, and I copied her. But in the middle of copying her, I remembered I needed to pray for the meal so I prayed, and it looked like I thought she was praying so I mistakenly chose to pray too. I hope my professor didn't see. Luckily, he didn't say anything to me in class yesterday.
Overall, the meeting with my International Advisory partner went well, and over the semester, I'll be telling her all about UNI.
Btw, I really love Amazon Japan. Japanese and Korean CDs: they're all mine!!! XD
The other day, I heard something quite sad in the "girls' kitchen" in Seminar House 1. Some girls were talking about marriage and how people leave their spouses because their "needs" aren't met, and one girl commented on how being married for six years is a long time. What the poop?! No, it's not! 20+ is a long time. Gee Willikers, 'till death do us part' doesn't mean anything anymore, does it? And as their conversation went on, I was reminded about how shallow people can be in relationships. No thank you!
On a positve note, in my International Communications class yesterday, a Korean boy (I'm not sure what his name is) was sharing his International Advisory experience. He and another Korean boy were talking in Korean about the Japanese girl that was their partner, and they didn't say anything bad, but despite not knowing any Korean, she knew they were talking about her. Japanese girls tend to smile in uncomfortable situations, and that was what she was doing so the Korean guy thought things were ok; however, he saw that her smile dropped until she noticed he was looking at her, then she smiled again. So as the Korean guy explained this misunderstanding to the class, he said that he was worried about the girl's feelings and texted her. She was mad that he had been talking about her, and he apologized, and thus, he handled the misunderstanding well.
I just think it's sweet how he was worried about her feelings considering most guys (that I know) don't think about someone's feelings like that. Anyway, it isn't that big of a deal, but it really caught my attention so I thought I would contrast it with the story before.
Lately, I've been randomly thinking about how I'm going to have to fly all the way back to America and all the way back to China. Yay, I love long flights! *sarcasm* Long flights are perhaps one of the worst things ever. Bleh...XP
I'm looking forward to going to China, but I'm a bit nervous because I'm worried about the teaching part (for fall semester). I'll only be a teacher's aid, but I think it will help me finalize whether I truly want to be a teacher or not. I'm fine with teaching. I just don't know if I could teach continuously for a year and so on. Not to mention that I never wanted to be a teacher ever and then after three weeks of not real teaching, I was like "ok, teaching!" But if I didn't become a teacher, I don't know what I would do.
Along with that, I don't want to teach in America, I would like to teach in Asia, but I don't know where. I like China and Japan, but maybe God will want me somewhere else like Korea... or Taiwan as suggested my my crazy Chinese roommate from Malaysia (how else do I say that? \-o-/): Cally. She told me that the people in Taiwan are crazy so I would fit right in! XD
Anyway, there is me rambling along. I don't know what I want to do for sure, and I'm running out of time. I know one thing that I want to do that will probably never happen though: being an author. We'll see though.
Anyway, now that I've drifted away from talking about Japan... that's all for now...so...er...um...bye! ^.^
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