As many of you know I saw EJ the other day. Classically we went to a bar (which closed @ 2am...stupid LA) and then headed off to watch the art of strip dancing...and by that i mean we drunkenly stumbled into a purple and pink neon looking "titty bar" on Sunset. Great times LA. It was followed by eating ginormous burgers at the famous Mel's drive in...also on sunset. mmm delicious. I had to wake up and go to work the next day which was not as fun. some of you already heard this story. if you are one of those ppl then just skip ahead to the fire story. thanks.
Anyway, i thought you should all know that california is burning down...from LA to San Diego. the fires even officially jumped the freeway in my hometown of Temecula so the valley is covered in ash and ppl will have to evacuate some areas. Right now LA is totally on fire...but its mainly malibu so only the rich are losing their homes...so im not sure then how bad i feel for them. Last night driving from Temecula to LA was insane. Winds were up to 70mph and there was so much dirt and smoke in the air that i could not see 10 ft in front of my car. I thought it was going to blow over. I was in chino though so there was no way in hell i could stop and wait it out. I made it home alive...barely...but it was fucking insane. I hope you are all having fun in your respective cities...write in the blog more losers!!!
love, T
Monday, October 22, 2007
Thursday, October 11, 2007
The Champ is Here
Hey guys,
Sorry for sucking and never writing. I miss yall. Oh, before I move on to another paragraph and forget, Carrie, how's the Latina seminar going? Lot of real women with curves? It sort of makes me think of my relationship with Jennie, bc white as I am, I'm definitely more into Asia than she is, and it seems like you may just become the mamacita I never was nor will be.
Um, so I guess I'm supposed to tell everybody about Japan. Anyway, the nuts & bolts shit first: I'm here at Tokyo University for a year or thereabouts as a "researcher," which just means that I can float around and do nothing, or play in the library and read many things, or audit classes and so on. It's a pretty sweet deal, but I'm trying to audit 3 classes (on Japanese foreign policy, domestic politics, and some other poli science shit TBA later) while I research. I think the deal with this fellowship, like the whole raison d'etre for my trip, is that I'm supposed to eventually TALK to people about the project. There's like a talk next week w/ the Japanese ambassador to Korea, so I might try to nag him into being my friend. To help me on my journey, I have a professor advisor, who's awesome - he studied at Berkeley and is like totally Americanized and slouchy, plus he has a ridiculous office stuffed with books and pictures of monkeys and the Blues Brothers -- and anyway, I also have a "tutor," a UTokyo grad student who's supposed to be like something between a guardian angel and a babysitter. His name's Yuki, and he's tremendously nice and polite, and seems like quite a dork. There's probably little danger of me jumping into a passionate affair with him at present, but if shit gets boring and I do something rash out of desperation, I'll let you guys know.
As for the less academic shit, I'm going to take some dance classes at the gym, probably will take a part time job teaching English to little kindergarten brats, and I'm trying to find some cooking classes. I live in this ugly dorm, located on the 2nd UTokyo campus, so it's like an hr commute to the main one, switching trains 3 times in the mad rush of suit-wearing dudes and girls w/ silly outfits and weird haircuts. The room is so small that they decided to make a bathroom with a swivel sink - so if you're on the toilet it swings right, against the opposite wall, and if you're showering it swings left to cover the toilet and leave you some space to stand. It's ingenious but horrifying at the same time. There's a mini-kitchen in the room with one burner, but I just bought a rice cooker, so my future looks rosy.
I've been going out to do random errands with my friend Dan (the one Taryn and Carrie thought was obsessed with me last year, but was really just on his way out of the closet) almost every night, which works out well, bc we usually stop for drinks, sushi and other crap along the way, so for sight seeing it's worked out really well. I do wish there were more people here I knew -- the other exchange students are mad weird, no surprise -- but we'll see how the situation goes as the year progresses and all that shit.
Hope everybody's well, you're most definitely missed!!!
Love
Teppa Maki
Sorry for sucking and never writing. I miss yall. Oh, before I move on to another paragraph and forget, Carrie, how's the Latina seminar going? Lot of real women with curves? It sort of makes me think of my relationship with Jennie, bc white as I am, I'm definitely more into Asia than she is, and it seems like you may just become the mamacita I never was nor will be.
Um, so I guess I'm supposed to tell everybody about Japan. Anyway, the nuts & bolts shit first: I'm here at Tokyo University for a year or thereabouts as a "researcher," which just means that I can float around and do nothing, or play in the library and read many things, or audit classes and so on. It's a pretty sweet deal, but I'm trying to audit 3 classes (on Japanese foreign policy, domestic politics, and some other poli science shit TBA later) while I research. I think the deal with this fellowship, like the whole raison d'etre for my trip, is that I'm supposed to eventually TALK to people about the project. There's like a talk next week w/ the Japanese ambassador to Korea, so I might try to nag him into being my friend. To help me on my journey, I have a professor advisor, who's awesome - he studied at Berkeley and is like totally Americanized and slouchy, plus he has a ridiculous office stuffed with books and pictures of monkeys and the Blues Brothers -- and anyway, I also have a "tutor," a UTokyo grad student who's supposed to be like something between a guardian angel and a babysitter. His name's Yuki, and he's tremendously nice and polite, and seems like quite a dork. There's probably little danger of me jumping into a passionate affair with him at present, but if shit gets boring and I do something rash out of desperation, I'll let you guys know.
As for the less academic shit, I'm going to take some dance classes at the gym, probably will take a part time job teaching English to little kindergarten brats, and I'm trying to find some cooking classes. I live in this ugly dorm, located on the 2nd UTokyo campus, so it's like an hr commute to the main one, switching trains 3 times in the mad rush of suit-wearing dudes and girls w/ silly outfits and weird haircuts. The room is so small that they decided to make a bathroom with a swivel sink - so if you're on the toilet it swings right, against the opposite wall, and if you're showering it swings left to cover the toilet and leave you some space to stand. It's ingenious but horrifying at the same time. There's a mini-kitchen in the room with one burner, but I just bought a rice cooker, so my future looks rosy.
I've been going out to do random errands with my friend Dan (the one Taryn and Carrie thought was obsessed with me last year, but was really just on his way out of the closet) almost every night, which works out well, bc we usually stop for drinks, sushi and other crap along the way, so for sight seeing it's worked out really well. I do wish there were more people here I knew -- the other exchange students are mad weird, no surprise -- but we'll see how the situation goes as the year progresses and all that shit.
Hope everybody's well, you're most definitely missed!!!
Love
Teppa Maki
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