:: My Urban Eyes ::
All that I see, and then some.
:: Saturday, April 05, 2003 ::
Exciting Stuff
Wah, a lot has happened in the last two days. In reverse order:
Hockey game tonight. A *lot* of people were there, and I sold $450 worth of 50/50 tickets. I would've sold more if I had more time and more tickets... scary thought. Really cool thing--an off-ice offical I know gave me an offical game puck. It's sitting on my desk right now, in front of my monitor. It's a good little friend. In all my 9 years of watching hockey I have never caught a game puck... I don't know if I ever will.
I'm really going to miss the games. Over six months of not seeing my great friends, of not yelling at the ref, of not guaranteeing a winner to every person I sell a 50/50 ticket to. Of not seeing the kids I know, of not seeing the guys.
The look on Raymond Giroux's face as he got off the ice broke my heart.
This morning was nice because I just hung out in bed and did nothing. Soul days are good for me. Not good for the homework that piles up, but good for me.
Last night was the East Asian Studies Department Annual Speech Contest. I was in it for Japanese I.. and I won, somehow. It was really cool. I liked my speech, as boring as it was. (I mean, I can't say that much. It all sounds like a third grader is speaking.) I ended up talking about Duanesburg. (See? Like I said--boring.) My favorite part went like this:
"There is also a skydiving school. Duanesburg skydiving is a little famous. Once in a while someone dies. It doesn't happen often, though."
Something I noticed while listening to the speeches--Japanese has some of the longest set phrases. The "thank you" phrase at the end of the Chinese and Korean speeches was quite short, two or three syllables. In Japanese, though, you say, "Doumo arigatou gozaimasu"--12 syllables if you count the long vowels. Can't be impolite with "arigatou" or "doomo", oh, no.
Every time I use Japanese I feel silly and stupid that I don't know more, that I can't understand more, that I can't say what I want to say. Example--afterwards one of the judges complimented me. Simply, too, nothing over the top. Still, I had to say, "Sumimasen, wakarimasen"; "I'm sorry, I don't understand". It's not a total loss, though--I caught a "Let's go in" and "Would you like some tea?". If anything,
Nihongo ga daisuki desu! ^_^
:: Kazen @ Always Doing 9:43 PM [+] ::
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