I'm sorry about that last entry.
I still have to wait until early November to be online properly, so apologies to anyone who is delayed in receiving email from me. But this will end when I'm connected to Be internet, and that's just one month a few weeks.
The past few days, since the update, a lot has happened. Going into it would probably cause trouble, as a lot of it is personal to me and the people it involves. Let's say that one day I do come back and read all my entries, perhaps this is an episode I can remember perfectly well by myself.
But aside from a few disruptions, the weeks has been good. It's been a preparation for the seminal Fresher Fair, where we make all the new friends for next year from all the first year students. We had a kind of mini fair on Tuesday, which is just for international students. That was pretty fun, and I met quite a few new people that way. It looks like the JCS already has some cool new members. The big pulling point is the Japanese lessons, which has been promoted to the number one spot on the promotional postcard we have created (which I created today). So with a television and name tags and lots of people to help, we should be ready to pull crowds on Friday.
One thing I have an issue with is the layout of people. On Tuesday I raised the issue of Kaori and Mizuki sitting next to each other, and Carlos and I sitting next to each other, and I said that it would be a clear divide and promote segregation. My idea was dismissed, with Carlos needing to be near Mizuki as he is vice president, but for the actual reason that Mizuki and Kaori wanted to sit next to each other and talk Japanese. Fair enough, they want to talk, but exactly as I predicted, Japanese speaking people went to the right hand side of the table, English speaking came usually to the left. As far as I know, I'm still Public Relations officer of the society, and that means I care about appearances. To me, that appeared to be monocultural, not multicultural. And this exact feeling is perverting many circles in my life now. Increasingly, I am feeling extradited from groups as I am not Japanese, and not for the reason that I do not speak the language. While it would be foolish of me to put this down to one cause, I can say a contributing factor is the presence of Katou, who as you know is living in the house. He is in England, despite very little conviction to learn the language, and seemingly no desire to do anything but spend time watching Japanese television and speaking Japanese to Japanese people. Fine. He can do what he likes. But he's created a huge divide in the house, which, despite Mizuki's best efforts, has been ever present through his intimate relationship with Kaori. The segregation leads to a mini-Japan, excluding all gaijin directly, as their omnipresence makes them practically expendable. The actions taken by some have been highly offensive. It's an ongoing cry, "I want to make English friends," but clearly the desire is superficial to the ease and convenience of having Japanese friends. I'm usually not one to speak ill of people who do not tend towards evil, but I cannot wait for Katou to go home so I can get my friends back. Personally, I didn't mind him moving in, and I didn't object. But as has been raised, I wasn't asked if I objected. I found out afterwards.
Perhaps that was a digression based on my frustration at how flakey some people can be, and how it's perhaps a result of nationalism, which I thoroughly detest. Can I let people know now that I do not believe my country is the greatest country simply because I was born here. I think that assertion is ridiculous, and the notion of patriotism is one that can only lead to prejudice.
Oh, and also, today I made tacos.
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