A Touching Experience
As I've said a couple times here, I'm living on campus now. This, of course, is a pretty odd experience, considering the fact that the only other time I've ever even spent a night in a dorm room was at my induction week as a freshman in 1991.
Anyway, that's a little off topic. The thing about living on campus that I've found most awkward is that I now share a living space with strangers, convivial strangers, but strangers nonetheless. What this means is that I will invariably have the most disappointing discussions with people who I normally wouldn't talk with (not because I'm better than them, mind you, but because we don't have anything in common).
For example, over the last month of so there has been a Japanese woman who is here as part of her sabbatical from her Japanese university. Her English isn't very good, but, I must admit, it's a damn site better than my Japanese, the extent of which is one phrase that wouldn't make a very good impression in mixed company. She and I chat about the weather, which is pretty much what any two people who don't have much in common talk about, but she also talks about her fondness for a white duck that lives close to the dorm. She has taken a real liking to this duck, even going so far as to feed and comfort it as it was nesting with a clutch of eggs.
The other day, apparently, the duck's eggs hatched. She was now the proud mother duck to a group of little ducklings. I, of course, had no idea, since I don't really care much for duck, even of the a l'orange* variety, but I learned of the arrival of these ducklings from my suite-mate. The conversation started much as most of our other discussions had, namely, her saying hello, me saying hello back, and then me looking furiously for a way out of the kitchen (which would have been pretty awkward since I was in the middle of cooking my meal). She started talking about the white duck again, at which point I really started thinking about leaving my food as if that's what I had intended to do from the beginning, and then the most touching thing happened. She invited me to go and look at the baby ducks. Not, I should mention, with her...it wasn't like she said, "Hey, I've got a great idea...let's go check out some ducks." Rather than that, she simply said that the ducks had been hatched, and that I should go and check them out sometime.
Maybe it was something about the way she said it, almost as if she were looking for someone with whom she could share the most fantastic experience she's had while away from Japan. Maybe it was just the limitations of her English, and what she really meant was "hey, go see them, or don't...no big whoop," but she really seemed to be wanting to make a human connection with me and all she had to offer was a fondness for ducks.
I went and saw the ducks...
I'd like to say that it was amazing, but really, they're just ducks. Nothing I haven't seen hundreds of times before on various animal planet shows. The fact remains, however, the ducks are what I will always remember of this woman, and that's a pleasant thought.
*just kidding, I actually love duck a l'orange.
As I've said a couple times here, I'm living on campus now. This, of course, is a pretty odd experience, considering the fact that the only other time I've ever even spent a night in a dorm room was at my induction week as a freshman in 1991.
Anyway, that's a little off topic. The thing about living on campus that I've found most awkward is that I now share a living space with strangers, convivial strangers, but strangers nonetheless. What this means is that I will invariably have the most disappointing discussions with people who I normally wouldn't talk with (not because I'm better than them, mind you, but because we don't have anything in common).
For example, over the last month of so there has been a Japanese woman who is here as part of her sabbatical from her Japanese university. Her English isn't very good, but, I must admit, it's a damn site better than my Japanese, the extent of which is one phrase that wouldn't make a very good impression in mixed company. She and I chat about the weather, which is pretty much what any two people who don't have much in common talk about, but she also talks about her fondness for a white duck that lives close to the dorm. She has taken a real liking to this duck, even going so far as to feed and comfort it as it was nesting with a clutch of eggs.
The other day, apparently, the duck's eggs hatched. She was now the proud mother duck to a group of little ducklings. I, of course, had no idea, since I don't really care much for duck, even of the a l'orange* variety, but I learned of the arrival of these ducklings from my suite-mate. The conversation started much as most of our other discussions had, namely, her saying hello, me saying hello back, and then me looking furiously for a way out of the kitchen (which would have been pretty awkward since I was in the middle of cooking my meal). She started talking about the white duck again, at which point I really started thinking about leaving my food as if that's what I had intended to do from the beginning, and then the most touching thing happened. She invited me to go and look at the baby ducks. Not, I should mention, with her...it wasn't like she said, "Hey, I've got a great idea...let's go check out some ducks." Rather than that, she simply said that the ducks had been hatched, and that I should go and check them out sometime.
Maybe it was something about the way she said it, almost as if she were looking for someone with whom she could share the most fantastic experience she's had while away from Japan. Maybe it was just the limitations of her English, and what she really meant was "hey, go see them, or don't...no big whoop," but she really seemed to be wanting to make a human connection with me and all she had to offer was a fondness for ducks.
I went and saw the ducks...
I'd like to say that it was amazing, but really, they're just ducks. Nothing I haven't seen hundreds of times before on various animal planet shows. The fact remains, however, the ducks are what I will always remember of this woman, and that's a pleasant thought.
*just kidding, I actually love duck a l'orange.
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