RIAP Tohoku Students

It's past midnight and I'm still up, which is partially because of my sister using the computer for so long, us getting back home latish and the long list of emails that needed attending to in my inbox (all since about midday today). Thus begins the endurance of 30+ emails a day again. Sigh.

I went in to uni today, not for classes, but to bank a cheque (yay for funds!) to track down my Honours coordinator (unsuccessful as I didn't know where his room was) and to attend a free lunch.

The Honours situation is frustrating me no end. Among the long list of emails I received this evening, was one from the school office telling me my class time. Nice. No one else has bothered to tell me. I had to go and ask for it before they deigned to let me know. With that at least partially sorted, I now have to go and talk to my supervisor which I had hoped to do a few weeks ago, and apply for use of microscopes and goodness knows what else. I had a brief glance at the website and felt a headache in the future. Funny how these things can make you prescient.

Well, I went off to the free lunch, which was actually a welcome barbecue for a group of Japanese students from Tohoku University who are taking part in a program to learn English at the Centre of English Teaching at the university, run by the Research Institute of Asia Pacific. Some of us locals have volunteered to help them in their discussion sessions about Australian culture - not unlike my role in Australian Discussion Groups - many volunteers of whom I were familiar with, surprisingly.

It was really warm today and probably some of the students were melting. I know I was, and I hadn't just arrived from a long flight from a cold climate. The food was really good - not the usual sausage on a slice of bread, but with kebabs and a variety of salads. Got to talking with a bunch of students, who I still feel are rather young. One of them asked me about some native orchids that grow underground. I'll have to come back that some time. A weird plant my lecturer talked about a few years ago.

We went on a tour of the campus after that. Our tour guide was amusing, mixing up his plain form and keigo, but everyone seemed to take it all in good heart. At the end, the girls rushed off to the beach, while the bunch of guys hung around until we decided to go to get a drink from Manning Bar. Some of them are actually underage in Japan, but hey, we're in Australia. I don' t think they have a bar or drink alcohol on campus (or during the day) in Japan, so it was interesting. We took over the room adjoining the bar and got a bunch of beer jugs. They got to playing a Japanese drinking game, there was arm-wrestling and bonding over talk about video/computer/console games. My sister and I were the only females in the room, so it was interesting to say the least.

Afterwards, my sister and I went to Broadway Shopping Centre to make a few purchases for an event on the weekend. Had some dinner, at which we saw some of our new Japanese friends, and then headed to the first St John Ambulance Sydney University Divisional Meeting of the year. We walked in a little late, coinciding with the showing of a picture of me and a few others at the Big Day Out duty a couple of years ago. We did a bit of practice with lifting and moving with the stretchers, which I dislike, to say the truth. It plays havoc with my dodgy knee. The knee almost gave way at the train station on the way home, which is never good.

All in all, a very tiring and event-filled day. I anticipate many more to come, so I need to catch up on some sleep before I experience any more.