Links, links, links

(This post is basically entirely links.  Yay?)

Hey, remember when I submitted an article to The Fulbrighter a million years ago?  Well, it's finally been posted online!  You can now read it in all its glorious snark gloriousness.

In other news, writing continues...slowly...excruciatingly slowly...buh...

In other other news, our Tuesday Japanese classes are now all student-taught (I unfortunately don't get to teach a week, 'cause the typhoon screwed up our schedule), and this week we learned how to make this Taiwanese dish call Oachen (at least, that's how you write it in Japanese, which means it's probably nothing like that in Chinese), which is kind of like...a gelatinous omelet?  Or a wiggly okonomiyaki?  It's tasty, but has SUCH a strange texture.

In final news, I was Googling my name for kicks (which was how I found out that my article was finally online) and found out that there are pictures of me presenting at the Chubu Fulbright meeting.  I basically look like a giant dork while presenting.  What is even happening with my right hand?  I'd also like to note that this is the picture they took of Austin.  He looks like an actually competent human being, who isn't trying to do some sort of firebending.  I am just glad that I have already been accepted to graduate school, because it would be really sad if some grad school was going to accept me, Googled my name, and then was like, "...nope, we want someone who presents with six thousand percent less energy and random hand shapes."

...back to writing now, I guess...

In which I eat even more Dutch food and nearly give myself a heart attack by drinking tea

...so today I managed to overdose on caffeine.  It was really bad.  Apparently my caffeine tolerance is completely shot, because two cups of Earl Grey (with A LOT of milk) was enough to make my heart start racing and my brain feel like it had someone running a whole lot of very scratchy scarves through it.  (I don't know how else to describe it; it was really scary.)  On the upside, while I was busy languishing in caffeine death, Louki and Kim made poffertjes, which are like the world's tiniest pancakes.  You eat them with enough butter and powdered sugar to kill you; if you can't feel your arteries clogging as you eat them, you are probably doing it wrong.  Anyway, they are delicious! Also I am convinced that Dutch people eat pancakes of some kind for dinner every day, but Louki assures me that it's usually only about once a month.  Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

WHICH REMINDS ME, Abbie totally reminded me that you can get stroopwafels at Brown via Rip Van Wafels (which are sold in all the places that sell things...you know what I mean, I hope).  So if you are on College Hill you should go get some stroopwafels RIGHT NOW.  And then you should EAT THEM.

In other news, Louki is Pinkie Pie and you will never be able to convince me otherwise because last night she randomly emerged from her room with a bunch of streamers and balloons and proceeded to turn our room into a party room.  I will not be surprised if she starts sneezing confetti.

In other other news, remember when I wrote that article for The Fulbrighter a million years ago?  Well, I FINALLY got my copy of the magazine (only two months late!), and hopefully the electronic version will be posted online sometime soon so I can link to it.  I wrote the most ridiculous article by far--everyone else wrote about their FEELINGS and How They Had Grown as People and The Magical Fulbright Experience, and I wrote about the dangers of being bludgeoned by mochi.  OH WELL.

Otherwise, nothing too exciting going on.  On Friday I went to a lecture at the Nanzan Institute for Religious Studies about Agonshu's use of satellite broadcasting, which was really good.  It was given in English too, which was nice, although I didn't have trouble following the discussion (in Japanese) afterwards.  I'm frustrated at the library for not having the books written by the lecturer, though.  GUH.
Otherwise I've just been bumming around and reading stuff for class.  It was pretty hard to read this afternoon while I was busy being overdosed on caffeine, which means that I should get back to reading now that I can focus my eyes without feeling like my head will explode.

Recap: Life after the S-As' departure

Last time traveling post for now, so might as well enjoy it while it lasts!*

Some stuff that has happened since Nick left for home:

1. My new suitemate came.  Her name is Louki, she is Dutch, and she cleans things when she is bored.  Needless to say, we get along well.  Also, our suite is significantly cleaner and sometimes I don't have to wash a sink full of dishes every time I want to make dinner.

2. The semester ended.  Our Monday and Tuesday classes were definitely not parties.  I could see how an outside observer might think they were parties, but that outside observer would be wrong.  Definitely very serious classes.

3. Tuesday-sensei apparently knows someone who wants an English conversation partner, so he said he'll put us in touch.

4. I finished my graduate school applications.

5. I wrote an article for The Fulbrighter.
5a. I found out my article is going to be published.

6. I set up an interview with a priest at Ueno Tenmanguu for next Tuesday.  Hopefully it will go well.  I'm trying to type up and revise my interview questions so that I make sure to hit all the important points in a single sitting.

7. I was told that I must have been Japanese in a previous life.  (This is the standard response when people can't figure out why the heck I would be interested in Japan.  Never mind that it's interesting or anything.  I MUST have been Japanese in a previous life.)

8. I read Religious Violence in Contemporary Japan, which convinced me
A. I really don't want to join a millenarian movement
and
B. I really don't want to engage in any research where my research subjects are likely to try to murder me.

9. I tried Dutch licorice.  It is...really odd.

10. Itou-san invited me (and my roommates, so Louki is coming with me) to a Thing at Nagoya University tomorrow.  It involves mochi and foreign students aaaaaaaaaaaaand that's pretty much all I know.  But it should be fun!

11. I had penmanship class and somehow managed to screw up the kanji in my calligraphy name as well as the stroke order for pretty much every kanji ever.  MY SHAME IS UNBEARABLE.
It got to the point that Nakano-san would be chatting to the other ladies, and it would sound like, "Oh, did you hear that Suzuki-san is STROKE ORDER, DANA-CHAN moving to Hokkaido?"
11a. On the upside, Nakano-san gave me two children's books that are published by a publishing company that is associated with a shrine.  Needless to say, they're supposed to teach kids about Shinto.  The one I'm currently reading is about a hinoki (Japanese cypress) tree growing up in a forest.  Thus far in the story, the wind has taught the hinoki about the kami and how everyone has a meaning in life and the hinoki's best friend (a dung beetle) dropped dead from the cold.  It...is kind of morbid yet happy?

12. I bought a tea pot!  So now I can drink SO MUCH TEA.

13. I developed a minor addiction to kinkan, which my dictionary tells me means "kumquat" but is definitely not a kumquat.  Or at least what we think of in the states as a kumquat.  It's about twice as big and DELICIOUS.  I would eat a million of them every day if fruit wasn't so darned expensive.

14. I found out that the Fulbright mid-year conference is going to be on March 22, so I will be in Tokyo March 18-23 at the very least.  Might be there longer, depending on whether some other things pan out.  I'm definitely going to try to hit the Ghibli Museum and Washinomiya Shrine (the Lucky Star Shrine) while I am there, though.
14a. I found out that at the conference I have to give a presentation on my research...that is 3-5 minutes long.  I AM GOING TO GO INSANE.  How can I say anything worthwhile in that space?  lskjskhekrhaea
14b. I'm going on a tour of Nikko, sponsored by the Tokyo Fulbright Alumni Association, March 18-20.  It should be cool.

15. I apparently caught Steven's post office curse**, because when I went to the post office to get a customs declaration form so I could send (really late) Christmas presents home, they were convinced I actually wanted a box.
"I need the form you have to write the contents of the box on." 
"You mean a box?" 
"No, it is paper. If you put noodles in the box, you write 'noodles' on the form." 
"You mean a box?" 
"NO, it is a FORM for WRITING WHAT IS IN THE BOX. You post it on the box when you send things out of the country." 
 "You mean a box?"
PLEASE LISTEN TO THE WORDS COMING OUT OF MY MOUTH.

So, yeah.  It hasn't been all that crazy exciting, but I've had some time to sit and read and do all the things I wasn't doing while I was traipsing all over Japan.  Tomorrow I've got the mystery mochi thing in the evening, and then Friday through Sunday is the fieldtrip to Izumo Taisha.  Updates will come...when updates come.

*I totally had this stuck in my head about a week ago, so now I will INFLICT IT UPON YOU MWAHAHAHA.

**Every time Steven goes to the post office, it inevitably ends in disaster and suffering.  Last time he went, their ATM malfunctioned.  Clearly the post office curse is contagious.