Views of Belfast

I lament that I wasn't able to blog when I lived in Papua New Guinea or Belfast. However the recent trip back to defend the dissertation did give me the opportunity to take some pictures so I can at least show off the city I called home for over 3 years.

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Home - I lived in this flat in the "Holylands" area of Belfast. It is really a great place by student standards with lots of character. It's hard to believe now that I shared the place (and its one bathroom and kitchen) with 4 others and lived in a tiny bedroom! I don't want to do that again anytime soon. But it did serve its purpose and allowed me to save money so I could travel Europe and beyond. My flatmates were some great people and I still keep in touch with one, Cathal, who I met up with in Dublin just before returning to Tokyo.
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Work - I worked at the David Keir Building on campus. It's a nice, old, red-brick building with some character including its strange shape from straddling Stranmillis and Malone Roads which diverge at an angle. Unfortunately, the building had absolutely horrible insulation and windows so it was often cold and drafty. Plus it was not heated on weekends, so working then during much of the year was uncomfortable.
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Botanic Gardens - On my 5-10 minute walk between home and work, is the beautiful Botanic Gardens. The old, glass conservatory, the beautifully tended flowers, and immaculate, green lawn made for a wonderful commute.
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Lanyon Building - When the Botanic Gardens were closed, my commute took me through this gorgeous and majestic building which is the literal and figurative center of campus. It also adorns the back of one (of the four!) sets of currency.
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Queen's Film Theatre (QFT) - Apart from home and work, this is where I spent the most time in Belfast. I watched at least two films per week at this small art-house movie theater which was conveniently a 5-minute walk from my flat. The films were a mix of foreign, independent, and documentaries. That was another who education unto itself and I really miss it.
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City Centre - The center of Belfast was only about a 20-minute walk from my flat and I probably went down there about twice a month to shop or for other miscellaneous reasons. The City Hall is another wonderful Belfast landmark. I also loved seeing "Samson and Delilah;" the two huge Harlan & Wolfe cranes where the Titanic was built. Other notable points of interest include the Victorian Grand Opera House where I volunteered behind the scenes on two shows (Guys and Dolls and Oklahoma), the Europa Hotel (the most bombed hotel in Europe -- the joke goes "it could use one more bombing"), and the Crown Saloon.
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Fog of Travel

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Well I'm back in Yokohama and still in a bit of a fog.  It's been a wild 3 weeks. Today was my first day back at work and it was nice even if I was exhausted. The kids seemed happy to see me which was a good feeling.

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There's still so much I want to say about the last 3 weeks, but if I keep waiting for time to write it all, I'll never write anything.  So I'll take a modest bite and discuss my affection for Belfast and how great it was to be back.

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I really had a great 3+ years in Belfast: University life, Queen's Film Theatre (art-house cinema), Botanic Gardens, Belfast Festival at Queen's, weekly soccer (er, football) matches, daily tea breaks, Pugwash, lectures and courses for fun (French, Philosophy, Religion, etc.), and of course travel all over Europe and beyond (Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, England, Spain, France, Morocco, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, Greece, Israel, and Japan!).

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It was amazing how familiar everything seemed to me when I returned.  I had been away for 2 1/2 years but it seemed like it had only been a month.  Sure there were some new buildings and restaurants but it is fundamentally the same.  More later...

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P.S. Happy Birthday, Yumi!  :-)

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Luck of the Irish

To make a very long story, very short - I passed! Now I have corrections to make to the dissertation and I will finally, finally be done. It really hasn't sunk in yet. In the coming days and weeks, I'll post more details.

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Belfast Bound

This will likely be my last post for 2 weeks or so, as tomorrow I am off to Belfast to prepare for and participate in my Ph.D. defense. So check back in early May and I will give the thumbs up or thumbs down. Either way I will be happy and relieved to have it over with (although significantly happier if I pass!). It's approaching 6 years since I started (Aug. 2002) and I've been wrestling with the dissertation (off and on) for 2 1/2 years (Nov. 2005).

Where to Begin?

I've been procrastinating starting this blog for some time and now find myself with a huge backlog of topics to discuss: Japan, the Phd, my job, things with Yumi, upcoming trip to Thailand...

I'll just post a summary now and write more specifics on each topic later, as I find time.

Japan
This is the 4th country I've lived in (counting the U.S.) and the 20th or so country I've visited and I find it among the most difficult in many ways. The good part is that it is a developed (over-developed?) country with all of the modern amenities (and then some!) and a great public transportation system. The difficult part is not only not knowing the language but not even being able to read most signs. Learning Japanese is important and in fact one of the explicit reasons for moving here but had largely been on hold while the PhD was under way. I have learned one of the 3 (yes 3!) alphabets (hiragana, not katakana or kanji yet). It's really infantilizing to find myself mute; pantomiming everything. Hopefully I'll make headway on the language next year.

So far, my favorite "learning Japanese" story is the following. Shortly after arriving, Yumi and I were shopping for our air conditioner/heater (apartments here come with NOTHING). Obviously, Yumi was doing all of the talking and I was largely there for the ride and the occasional opinion. We were at one of the stores and Yumi was talking to the salesman, so I was left to my own devices. I was looking around the store for words in the hiragana alphabet to practice. I came across: くる くる (kuru kuru = rotates) but to my untrained eyes it looked like くそ くそ. Easy mistake right? Well as I was pronouncing it out loud (kuso kuso), Yumi swung around with a deer-in-the-headlights / horrified look on her face because I was saying "Shit! Shit!" We've had a few good laughs about it since.

PhD
The long, hard slog is almost over but there is still significant work to be done. I did manage (barely) to get my dissertation submitted on the deadline of November 1st. Because it was done under the gun and thousands of miles away from my professor, significant editing must be done before the viva (defense). Also, I must prepare for the viva. I will be examined by one of the world's most prominent chemists, Christian Reichardt. He literally wrote the book on solvents (Solvents and Solvent Effects in Organic Chemistry to be exact) and the definition of polarity (the official IUPAC definition is by him). Seeing as how my dissertation is on the polarity of a new class of solvents (ionic liquids), that is quite intimidating. The viva will be on April 30 in Belfast. After editing my dissertation, I will reread his book and recent articles and review other major articles on the areas of my research.

Job
I'm really enjoying the job, although when this gig is over, I need a change from teaching. It is fine but I need a new challenge (preferably in public policy/politics). Anyway, I'm teaching 7-12th grade science and essentially tutoring 9-12th grade math. How is that possible? Well we have a total of 16 students in grades 7-12! I teach them in groups: 7-8th grade (7 students), 9-10th grade (5 students) and 11-12th grade (4 students). We use fundamentalist Christian workbooks for all of their subjects. We teach science, history, and English and the rest is self-paced. The science books actually aren't that bad. The content is pretty accurate and the books include many experiments that the kids like. We just skip over the religious stuff.

About half of the kids are international or of mixed background and half are atypical Japanese. Our students include students from Zimbabwe, Kenya, Germany, and Brazil as well as two American/Japanese, and one Dutch/Japanese. Among the Japanese students, all are fluent in English (the language of instruction) and many have lived abroad (the U.S., U.K., Australia) or have special educational needs (one is Asperger or mild-Autistic). The kids are pretty good for the most part and it's really nice to get to know them so well since we spend so much time together. Discipline (my least favorite part of teaching) and grading/paperwork (my second least favorite part) are minimal due to the small numbers. It's really a great job (even the pay is decent) but not exactly the most altruistic or challenging I've ever had. Once my purpose for being here has been fulfilled (learning Japanese and learning about Japanese culture), it will be time to move on (2-3 years, I'd guess).

As for the teachers, they are nice and seem like pretty good instructors. It is a worldly bunch: 3 Yanks (including me), 2 Brits, 1 Kiwi, 2 Aussies, and a Cunuck. Our principal is from Spain. Including him, there are 10 of us. Two are single, 7 are in relationships with Japanese, and one is with an Australian who is of Japanese descent! And best I can tell one of the two single teachers on staff is with many Japanese. The staff is relatively young (all in our 20s and 30s except one teacher and the principal).

Yumi
Things with Yumi are good. We have a nice place in Kawasaki (wedged in between Japan's two largest cities -- Tokyo and Yokohama). We've gotten along well and enjoyed each other's company; no small feat given the stress we were both under with moving, new jobs, the PhD, etc. As for what the future holds, I won't tip my hand. If/when there is news to report, I will.

Thailand
I have 3 weeks off for the Christmas holidays. Yumi and I will be going to visit her family in Hiroshima around New Years but since she doesn't get much time off and I do, I decided to take a 9-day vacation to Thailand. I think it will be my first tourist vacation since I first came to Japan in July, 2005! Hard to believe!

I'm really excited for the trip. I'll probably split the time between Bangkok and environs (Ayuthaya, Phenom Rung, Khao Yi) and the south (Ko Phi Phi, Krabi). I'm excited to hike the rain forests, see the wildlife (elephants, monkeys...), visit the temples, Buddhas, and ruins, and EAT. I LOVE Thai food. Yummmmm....

I have a lot more to say about all of the above topics and more, but I'll end the post here and write more later.