Take the train and park
and come up and see me, I'll
be working, working
But if you come visit,
I'll put down what I'm doing
put a key in a box
Today I thought I'd take a bit of time to talk about the building I work at on Rikkyo University campus. In English it is called the Campus Services building. The building is kind of tucked away in an alley, but it is right next to a building with the school's store (St. Paul's Plaza, using the English name of the institutuion) and a building that has a great cafeteria and a rooftop garden. In addition, my acupuncture place is right next door, which I will be very sad to no longer be so close to. I had my last appointment today after work. We also have some vending machines right out front, naturally, which even sell Rikkyo University branded water. The building is very convenient for getting to lunch spots, shopping or any number of things Ikebukuro has to offer.
Aykut, Simon and I occupy the three rooms on the top floor for our classes, with the rooms on the bottom floor used for meetings and for the past couple of weeks to sell ceremonial outfits for girls to wear. We've all gotten quite used to our routine in the building, saying good morning to the ladies who work in the office when we grab our locker keys. Saying good morning to the cleaning lady. Also, my favourite, placing our keys into a little box at the end of each day. I guess the office ladies realized they'd be gone before us sometimes in the first week of term and got a small box with a lid and wrote a note on top that says "Please put a key in this box." It always makes me think of Dick in a Box. So, my building's convenience and putting my key in the box most nights has led to today's two stanza haiku and the two videos below. The second haiku stretches the syllable count to six in both the first and third line, but tradition hardly seems important when you're quoting a Talking Heads song and riffing on an SNL Digital Short.
I'd also love to share my favourite moment from presentation day yesterday. One of my students, a stylish, dainty girl, who comes infrequently ended up having to do her presentation with just twenty minutes of preparation, because she hadn't known about it beforehand. To her credit, she chose to just buck up and do it, not opting to wait for the next day like other students who were caught off guard did. She wrote out some notes, without using the internet I'll add. She gave her "Show and Tell" presentation on her wallet because she didn't have anything else with her suitable. Part way through, when she was describing the wallet to the class, she very abruptly said "This wallet is dirty, because I am a rough character!" I almost burst out laughing. It was such a great line. I have no idea why she decided to say that in her presentation, off the top of her head no less.
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