Samurais Are Funny

A day in my life:

Monday.

I started my day by waking up at 8:00AM. Feeling disoriented, I managed to shut off my alarm and even open my eyes a bit in the process. It was still dark outside and having slept for only three hours, I felt too tired to go to the 10AM class, which would have been ethnography. I closed my eyes and allowed myself to lull towards sleep once more. I was interrupted by my mother, asking when my classes would start. She had planned on catching the same bus as I on her way to checking out local flea markets. I muttered I would go to university by noon to let her know I was going to skip the first class and then went back to sleep.

I woke up around 9:30AM even though my alarm was set to 10AM. I cursed the fact that I had woken up but my bladder demanded access to the bathroom. I complied. Mom was still home, preparing to leave and I asked her to let me know if the roads were slippery so I’d know whether I should bother with my winter shoes or not. She thought this was unnecessary and informed me it had been raining for hours so there wouldn't be any ice left. I disagreed on the possibility but putting on my winter shoes is always a hassle compared to my sneakers so I was hopeful enough for slush free streets to accept what she said as truth.

After I got out of the bathroom I turned on my laptop and spent my time browsing Tumblr and Our Pants until 11AM, at which point I had to get dressed. I threw on my brown suede jacket and slipped my feet into my sneakers, happily leaving the winter shoes behind. Walking down the stairs of our apartment building I ran into some men who were discussing something in a rather loud fashion, I do not remember ever seeing them before but, yet again, I don’t tend to look at people. I can only recognize one of our neighbors and I've been living in the building for four years. I walked past them and once I got outside I discovered it was raining. I let out a deep sigh, cursing the fact that I hadn't noticed this before leaving the apartment. I didn't have a rain coat or an umbrella with me and I didn't have the time to go get them either. My suede jacket would have to endure. Again.

On my way to the bus stop I found myself staring at the burned wall of an apartment building again. Few weeks ago two cars parked next to it caught fire, bad, and burned some of the paint and plaster off from the wall. I wondered how I had missed the emergency vehicles, we had heard no sirens when it had happened. I managed to stroll over to the bus stop on time. Even had to wait for a while, which wasn't so nice when the rain drumming on my shoulders constantly reminded of the fact that my suede jacket was suffering. I love this jacket. It was my mother’s, I think it’s about as old as I am, and I've used it for years.

I was at the university slightly earlier than I had expected, which I was pretty happy about. It meant I could stroll over to the lecture hall instead of acting like I was a speed walking race participant and everyone who got in my way deserved an elbow in the face. Outside the lecture hall I met with my friend (Let’s call her Pete) who provided me with the handouts from the ethnography class. He informed me that on Thursday our class would go visit the local Provincial Archives -  they hold records of government authorities and private individuals in the area. We tend to use them for research. Pete and I wandered into the class room and took our usual seats, discussing the fact that we needed to find a place to do out ethnography project. We are going to study social interaction occurring in teacher’s lounges, which means we need to go spend a day observing people in a teacher‘s lounge. We had already gotten turned down by one school and another school hadn't responded to us yet though we were starting to run out of time. We planned on emailing a third school our ethnography lecturer had suggested and I said I would email the principal of the second school too if he hadn't responded to us by the end of the day.

We then moved on to discussing other, more entertaining matters. Like the fact that “London Bridge Is Falling Down” has been stuck in my head all morning because our other friend (let’s call her Carol) started to sign it when we went to have Chinese food together on Saturday. We then wondered how late Carol would be for the class. Pete bet 5 minutes, I bet 5-10 minutes. She entered the room the second Pete made his guess. She asked why he looked so disappointed and I explained that he lost a bet on how late she would be. He cheered up visibly when he realized I lost too. Then our class began. It was a course called The Samurai - Myths And Reality In The History of Japan. This course has been fairly entertaining and it has given me many ideas for amusing short comics. When the lecturer mentioned how particular samurais were about looking good so that the enemy wouldn't mock how ugly they were if they happened to get their heads chopped off, we all chuckled. Trimming nose hairs was mentioned for comedic effect. I leaned over to Pete and whispered “why the hell is it that every time I attend these classes samurais keep getting funnier?”, he grinned and nodded as a response. I then focused on listening to the lecturer again but after a while I heard Carol quietly talk to Pete about something. When I looked over I realized what she was doing: She was busy making homoerotic fan fiction of the comic on the cover of her notebook and explaining it to Pete, who is not a fan of slash fiction. I grinned at them, happy she managed to corner him to tell him about her notebook cover theories. She had cracked me up by suddenly springing them on me at the end of another class few weeks earlier.

After the class we talked about video games and some topical news stories for a bit but then I got all antsy about making it to the next class, The Intellectual History of The United States. There are a lot of participants and it can be hard to find a seat after a certain point so I wanted to get there early. Carol rubbed in the fact that she didn't have a class to attend and that she could go home and take a nap or browse the internet. Pete fake-punched her with his backpack and when we left for the class, he told her not to have fun.

In the class room we found a fellow archaeology student (let’s call her Nina), who motioned us to sit with her: “We archaeology students need to gang up in the middle of all these history majors.” I laughed. “Yes, we must establish a territory and defend it.” We chatted about thesis matters for a moment - she had been suggested she would make hers about certain kinds of bone-carved spoons (which I would be 3D scanning, actually) - and then we talked about the class and how confusing it was. Mainly because the lecturer kept jumping from one subject to another and had the tendency to assume we were familiar with a lot of things we really weren't familiar with.  I've come to the conclusion that this course on the intellectual history of the US might just be the most difficult course I've attended in university so far. I've also concluded that Jefferson was kind of a nice guy, maybe. Okay, maybe not that nice. But sort of? And now I won’t be completely confused if some American makes the mistake of listing John Locke as one of the Founding Fathers. When the class was over Nina sighed that the spoons were starting to seem nice after that lecture.

Pete, Nina and I parted ways and I went to wait for the bus. It was still raining and I cursed my lack of umbrella again. I luckily didn't have to wait around for too long. I had planned on going down town to shop for new winter shoes, ones that I could just quickly pull on. Simple boots with no laces. Unfortunately I wasn't sure what the route of the bus I was on would be down town. I was hoping it would take me close to the super market I had planned on visiting but, of course, it didn't  Instead it turned the other way and I ended up further away from the super market than I had hoped. If only I had gotten off at an earlier stop. The rain had become heavier too and I was pretty sure it was ruining my jacket but I briskly walked on, trying to ignore the fact that it was rush hour too.

Eventually I got to the super market and I headed straight for the shoe section. The selection for standard winter boots was terrible. There were these horrible pink boots that had a metallic shine to their fabric and the boot had a collar of black fake fur (I think there may have been other colors too but I was blinded by the horrible pink). I couldn't help but to stand there for a while, wondering who the hell would wear them. I then shifted my attention to the regular boots next to them. These boots were expensive, which is usual for a valued Finnish brand. I looked around for other boots but there really weren't any of the kind that I was looking for. Except for the expensive ones in front of me. I tried a couple of pairs on and settled on boots that were only ankle-high. I had trouble with the longer ones not being able to accommodate my calves. Regardless, I was pretty happy to have finally accomplished my mission of finding new winter shoes. I then stopped by at the super market next door to the one I bought my shoes from. I was getting ridiculously hungry at this point and they had a Subway. I was surprised by how quickly the line moved, they had several sandwich artists working at the same time, I don’t think I've seen so many of them behind the same counter before. After I got my sub, I went to wait for the bus, the rain briefly turned into wet snow.

I checked my phone and saw that mom had texted me, asking me to get kibble for the cat. As I got on the bus, I weighed whether I should pretend I didn't see the message. I was tired, wet and hungry, I didn't particularly feel like going to the grocery store too, I just wanted to go home. After a while I decided that despite my annoyance, I would get the kibble and some other stuff. The store I went to is going to be closing for good soon so they are running out of products. To my dismay they were almost completely out of cat kibble. “Of course,” I thought and grabbed one of the bags that were still left. It was some fancier brand and didn't seem to be too plentiful but it would do. Then finally, around 6PM, I headed home.

At home, I took a warm shower and returned to the comfort of the Internet. I checked my email and noticed that the second school had finally replied to us about the possibility of spending the day at their teacher’s lounge. To my humongous relief, the principal said that most of the teachers had been okay with the idea so the answer is yes. I do not need to email other schools and this is now one thing less to worry about! I proceeded to do other internet things and after discussing with a fellow archaeology student, I decided to give Viking knitting a try. I will just have to find the time to go shop for supplies. I should have worked on my thesis too but by the time I got home, I was too tired.