The Uji Chapters
Of all the unread books on my shelf back home, none is more intimidating than Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji. The translation I own, the 1926 translation by Arthur Waley, lands at over a 1000 pages. (The Tale of Genji taking up a large amount of space on my Japanese Literature shelf in Birmingham, AL) Murasaki, a lady of Japan’s Heian court, wrote Genji roughly a thousand years ago, with the novel itself tracing the...
Sending Love from My Happy Place
Hi, my name is Lauren Phillips and for the past 3 months I’ve been studying abroad at Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka, Japan. These last few months have gone by so quickly, and I’ve been having so much fun here that I’ve barely had time to write about my experiences! Now that I’ve found myself in a quiet café with a chai latte and some free time, I can finally reflect on everything that’s happened so far. I’ll start by explaining...
Incredible India
So. Many. People. There are the three words that sum up my biggest realization for my trip so far. With a population of around 1.6 billion people, India boasts an enormous amount of citizens. But even being told this, you don’t truly grasp the concept until you’re surrounded by so many humans. My biggest take away so far is how conceited and naïve I’ve been in my life up to this point. It’s easy to think your life is meant to be some...
Before
I’m currently a week away from the daunting flight that will take me to India. I keep glancing at my luggage, still debating on whether I’ve packed too much or too little. I guess in my next post I’ll be able to update you on that specific question… still not sure which one would be better. As I’m packed and ready to go, I’m thinking about how I got myself involved in a trip all the way to Asia. I would say I just kind of heard of the...
In Retrospect
Exposure is a tricky thing. Exposure to the western world and it’s ideas, products, and way of life has always seemed like a beneficial thing in my eyes. Who wouldn’t want what we have? Who wouldn’t want to have access to everything we do? The healthcare, the free market, the education, the distractions? Seriously, if I didn’t have Game of Thrones I believe I might be lost. I am still convinced that everyone needs to have access to...
UA in China: Visiting a Chinese Family
Our professor instructed my group of four students to be in the lobby of the hotel by 11am for a local family visit. With no information about the family, where we were going, or what we would be doing I anxiously got ready for the day hoping to make a good first impression. The only thing that we knew for certain was that the family spoke very little English. A fact that our professor emphasized when we pressed for details about the...