Oh, the places you'll go
Two posts in one day is a lot for me, I know, but that last one was kind of an update on getting to Japan and my stay in Kyoto. I would have posted about it earlier, but I am too cheap to pay for internet access and so waited until I could use the facilities in my dorms. I'm based in Seminar House 3 for orientation week, after which I'll move into Sem 4, which I know from last semester's orientation week (It's a classy prospect, believe me). Sem 3 is constructed slightly differently to the other dorms, as it's organised around flat-type areas where 8 people share a kitchen and showers. For some reason, the university demands you pay more if you stay here, although as you're allocated to dorms randomly, it seems a bit of a rip. Flats are only worth paying more for if you have some control over who you're living with, and at Kansai Gaidai, whether you're in dorms or homestay, it's all out of your hands, chum. Witness the people in my flat. Granted, quite a few haven't arrived yet, but those that have aren't really the kind of people I'd want to rub up against for a whole semester. Just as well I'm moving out, really.
The other thing is, all the seminar houses have an impersonal modern design. Each floor looks very much like another. As long as you can remember which number your room is, you'll be alright. I was wandering back from a trip to another floor, and breezed into the flat. My roommate was at the table, tapping away at his laptop, next to a group of girls who I hadn't seen before. They all looked up and said hello, and I believe I said something cool, as befits a globe-trotting man of mystery such as myself (hem hem), as I carried on into my room.
It took a few seconds of looking at the shelf where I was going to put the umbrella I was carrying before I realised that my personal possessions were missing from the shelf. And the surrounding shelves. And the desk below it. It was then I remembered that walking through the room, I hadn't noticed anything of mine or my flatmate's. I walked back out and announced that I was in the wrong flat to the girls, who promptly burst out laughing.
(Acknowledgements to the Fake Doctor for both the post title and a somewhat related story. Visit his blog, right after you bask in the warm glow of my humiliation.)
(9:55pm Japan time)
The other thing is, all the seminar houses have an impersonal modern design. Each floor looks very much like another. As long as you can remember which number your room is, you'll be alright. I was wandering back from a trip to another floor, and breezed into the flat. My roommate was at the table, tapping away at his laptop, next to a group of girls who I hadn't seen before. They all looked up and said hello, and I believe I said something cool, as befits a globe-trotting man of mystery such as myself (hem hem), as I carried on into my room.
It took a few seconds of looking at the shelf where I was going to put the umbrella I was carrying before I realised that my personal possessions were missing from the shelf. And the surrounding shelves. And the desk below it. It was then I remembered that walking through the room, I hadn't noticed anything of mine or my flatmate's. I walked back out and announced that I was in the wrong flat to the girls, who promptly burst out laughing.
(Acknowledgements to the Fake Doctor for both the post title and a somewhat related story. Visit his blog, right after you bask in the warm glow of my humiliation.)
(9:55pm Japan time)
posted by Jim @ 12:55 pm
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