student festival!

I had such an amazing time today at the student festival! Apparently, most schools (not just universities) have a yearly student festival. For my university, all the student groups set up booths all over campus and sell mostly food, though some sell other things as well. The performing groups perform around campus on various stages too. I didn't think it would be that exciting, but I went today and actually had a great time!

I got to see my university's "beat street" dance group perform. As you might guess from their name, they are a hip hop / breakdance / street dance group. They were really, really good, and their collaboration routine with the cheerleaders was probably better than any routine I've seen at Harvard, and I've lit/watched a good number of dance shows! Of course, the cheerleaders had their plastic smiles the whole time while doing the hip hop moves, which made them look very cute--but no disputing, they were good. Much cleaner and more together than college groups I've seen in the US. I felt a little bit...hmm...nostalgic? when I heard all the hip hop/rap music. It made mt want to dance! And, a part of me really doubts that the dancers know what "crunk" means, but you never know. At their show, the front row was filled with cute little Japanese kids. Good thing you can't be corrupted by lyrics you don't understand!

There was also tons of great food. Many of the international students set up booths next to each other on the second floor of the dining hall. I got to sample some thai food, vietnamese food (yay pho!), taiwanese food...and I will return tomorrow for Korean and Nepali food. I got too full to eat it today. After asking around, I discovered that there aren't really any Vietnamese restaurants nearby. Bummer. I'll have to go without pho for awhile.

AND, I waited in like for more than half an hour to get in to a haunted house. I was having doubts as many of the people in line were high school students (could tell by their uniforms), and as the wait turned out to be much longer than I thought, I figured it wouldn't be worth it. But it was fun!! They did a great job of jumping out at you at unexpected times. Ahh...I haven't done a haunted house since grade school. A bit late for Halloween, but that's okay. I've made up for missing it.

I think, though, that besides the cool performances and good food, one of the things that really made me happy was seeing everybody and saying hi. As I walked around, I saw many of my host dad's students and said hi to everybody...then at the international food fair I knew a lot of people too, from orientation together. Then I met some new people (through people I knew before). There was one guy who is a linguistics grad student, specializing in generative grammar. He explained to me that he really loved grammar, and especially English grammar, and is always looking for someone to speak English to. I have to say, his English is probably the best I've heard so far. So I hung out with him and his two buddies (whom I knew from before) for quite awhile. Through them, I met a bunch of other linguistics students, as well as a Nepali student studying American literature (!), specifically Theodore Dreiser. Amazing. And then, through my friend the German international student Janina, I met a Japanese-English translator (she's Japanese), and two ALT's at a local high school, who were from London. Annd, on my own, I met some people from Malaysia who sold me amaaaazing crepes with curry. Everybody was so friendly and eager to talk and say hello. I'm ridiculously proud of myself, being social all day loL. Even the guys I was with were surprised, saying "you know a lot of people!" which is so ironic considering my generally introverted and loner nature. But today I really felt...connected. That's saying a lot. Maybe it's because I have low expectations--I've never expected people I know only slightly to say hi to me randomly and start talking and joking. I rarely said hi to people at Harvard, figuring they didn't know or remember who I was, and perhaps as a result of that people rarely stopped on the street to say hi to me. But here, being an international student is sort of an instant bond. And since I know only a few Japanese people here (well, few people in general) whenever I see them I make sure to say hello, even if I don't remember their names, as is often the case since Japanese people have complicated names, and I suck at names in general. (They can't have forgotten meeting the American!)

It occurs to me that I have never had so much fun at a Harvard's Yardfest, and that we didn't have anything similar to this matsuri. Perhaps ARTS FIRST is the closest thing I can think of, since all the performers all over campus are student groups. But the organizers are still "adults," and they run the food and the show and program and stuff. Here, there is a lot of "ownership" I suppose. The students run the festival. Student volunteers clean up after everything. There are student volunteers at every trash station, waiting to help you properly sort and throw away your trash. I find that to be amazing! Who in the US would volunteer for such a job? I don't think I've ever seen a janitor here. Well, they must exist, I just don't know about them. It seems to me that the students do a lot of things. At my office campus the other day, I saw 2nd and 3rd graders weeding the planters on campus! That would never happen in the US.

I forgot to bring my camera today, but tomorrow I'll go back and perhaps take some pictures. I saw a guy dressed as Batman, running around. Well, "dressed" would be an overstatement. Let's say, the only thing he was wearing was underwear (not even shoes!) and he was painted from head to toe! Painted black all over, with the Batman logo on his chest. Oh well, I guess he was also wearing a black garbage bag as a cape. He had some buddies too, one of them painted as Doraemon and the other two I don't know what, probably other characters I don't recognize. Mmmm...yeah. Those painted dudes beat out even the guys dressed in drag, some of whom even made pretty convincing and halfway attractive girls.