Well hello there. Sorry for the time off, but its been a great holiday weekend and I’m finally all back caught up with the regular schedule. A quick update for family and friends. Let’s go!
So classes have started again in earnest. Our schedule is pretty much non-stop until December 15th. This ending session will be different as we will have three finals in a row, a departure from our previous staggered schedule of classes. We are also beginning what I feel to be the most challenging module of the curriculum thusfar, International Finance. Spot rates and exchange market futures are all fun. Just as I am submitting tuition to Waseda in Japanese Yen, I learn precisely how that transaction actually works – quite interesting.
This past week marked an entrance into traditional Americana cuisine experience, my first Thanksgiving turkey. I had the assistance and leadership of my lovely girlfriend and her father’s excellent brined-turkey recipe to guide me through the experience. With a couple of friends, we managed to put the turkey down along with some friends for what made a great evening. Earlier in the day, I was also able to teleconference up to my family in the North, to enjoy a spot of turkey with them remotely. It just wasn’t the same over the blocky H.264 encoded transmission though.
Two days of this week were dedicated to hunting down the much coveted Nintendo Wii. Alex and I were up bright and early at 3:30am on Friday morning to wait outside of Toys R Us, only to learn that they didn’t have any. The following 2 hours were series of disappointments (being just one and two slots short of the line at Gamestop). Alex did manage to get a Wii later in the weekend as he tackled Best Buy into submission.
The remainder of the week was spend with Linda traveling up to Charlotte, checking out the Discovery Place museum and science center, going to some fancy dinners, relaxing, and catching up on some Nintendo DS Lite titles. It was nice to finally spend some time with her. I truly feel like we have settled into the dynamic of our relationship and it feels great, even with the overseas distance of studying abroad. I’m lucky to have found someone who understands me so well.
So, after all the excitement, I’m left with a sore throat, feeling a bit under the weather but hopeful I’ll recover soon, and overall satisfied – satisfied that this stage of graduate school will soon be over, I shall soon be heading back up north for a nice work week and the holidays, soon to head over to Europe for a nice vacation, dedicating time to the study of Japanese, and soon to take a much needed long night of rest.
Mata ne!
