The curious case of Nateesh Podolske

A couple of interesting things I saw today. A old guy riding his bike with his dog in the front basket but the dog was big and didn't fit in it and looked really unhappy. Two Domino's delivery drivers but instead of cars they were on scooters, I wanted to rob them, not for money but for pizza. A kid at the grocery store was so...shocked I guess by the way I looked or maybe it was the hair, I don't know but his jaw dropped when he first saw me and then kept walking as he was staring at me and ran into a display case. 

This place trips me out every time I leave my dorm. It's so different here. I was telling you all early on how nice and hospitable Japanese people are and it's refreshing and great but one thing that I think is interesting is, when it comes to foreigners at least, they will bend over backwards to help you even if they don't want to or even if it is inconvenient for them. There's this American girl staying in my building who I guess is really annoying, hard on the eyes and just plain sucks. She did home-stay last term but her host family couldn't tolerate her for another semester so now she's doing the dorm thing. At the university they really encourage the Japanese students to be active and social with international students. So I guess with this girl, they reached out to her and she latched on to them and now they hate her but still include her in things because they feel obligated. Hell no, if this happened anywhere in the states, the girl would get kicked to the curb and no one would bat an eye or lose any sleep over it. 

In Japan, the Japanese students can't stand her but yet they still include her because they don't want to be rude hosts. That's funny to me. I'd be like, see ya! Speaking of international students...I don't know how to say this nicely so I'll just say it, most of the international students here are straight up dorks. Like, I'm not the coolest person on the planet (pretty close though ha!) but I am by no means a dork. I was in high school for a brief while but whatever. These people are just dorks though. I guess a lot of dorks love Japan. There are some cool ones though like my roommates Becca and Maggie and some other random people that I have met but for the most part it's dork fest. 

Speaking of Becca, we went to karaoke earlier this week, which by the way I will have to devote a whole blog about that, anyways when we arrived to meet her friends, she introduced me to them and said, "Nateesh asks a lot of questions, she's very inquisitive." I was worried for a second that I was annoying her and Maggie with all the questions I bombard them with about Japan. She assured me that it's not annoying because it makes her realize how much she has learned. I asked Maggie if I was annoying and she said no and that she likes helping me. Both of these girls are pretty real and upfront so I don't think they were just saying that so that I wouldn't cry my eyes out. well anyways back to being inquisitive...I have always been this way. I used to drive my mom crazy with questions. My middle name is Rose and she would get so annoyed that she gave me the nickname Nosey Rosey (don't you dare call me that now) and I would cry my eyes out and yell to her, "I'm not nosey, I'm just curious!" Well it's true. I ask questions because I want to understand things, how they work and why they work, why people do the things they do blah blah blah. I never asked questions like why is the sky blue followed by why why why, I think my questions have always been thoughtful and genuine. I am a very curious person about life, people and the world around me. I can't help it. One thing that I have learned in my 29 years on this planet is that there aren't always answers for everything and I am okay with this. But for the questions that do have answers, well this is what I live for. I guess it's why I have chosen history as my profession and why I have always been so passionate about the subject. Anyways, enough for tonight. I'll work on getting some more pictures up here soon.