A Lot Of My Friends Are Going Home Over Summer Vacation

Four of my friends have now left to go home for summer vacation. My friend Paul (from Equador) left today at around 4:30pm, but he left Nagoya to go to Tokyo 2 days before his actual flight, so that he could look around. He went to Tokyo by bus. Normally I would say that a bus is a bad way to travel because it's crowded, slow and doesn't save that much money. But if you leave Nagoya at 10:30 at night by bus, you can sleep in the bus on the way to Tokyo (arrive at Tokyo around 6:00am) and then not have to pay for a hotel (doesn't sound that bad anymore, accept that I cannot sleep in a bus). I think he went to Tokyo a day early so that he could look around (but not spend that much money). It's actually a pretty good idea, but I don't think that I could stand it. Even if I took a shower a couple hours before I got on the bus, I would still have to pass the entire day in Tokyo and a 22 hour plane ride without a shower (I couldn't stand that).


Also, my friend Wyle (from Palestine...Not Palestine, Texas-> Dad or Uncle Rick) is actually leaving at this very moment. I went over to his apartment to say goodbye earlier. Actually, it was only him and his girlfriend there. I was expecting a few more people to stop by and say goodbye. Maybe they already said it earlier that day.


Then there is my friend Undrum (from Mongolia), who left about a week ago for her country. She didn't really give us enough notice to do anything for her going away party (so we didn't do anything). She was really happy to be going home.


Finally, my friend La (from Louste-I know I spelt that wrong) left a few weeks ago (I did an article over it in my blog a while back, so there is no further explanation needed).


In a couple weeks my friend Celso (from Brazil) will make the long flight back to his country. Before coming back to Japan he is going to stop in New York for a week or two. I don't know if he will understand what the people are saying since they talk very fast.


Now, all that aside, it was Celso's birthday party the on the 1st of August. Unfortunately he was away on a trip (that lasted about 2 weeks) and so we had to celebrate it a little late (the picture is below).

Starting from the left and going clockwise around the table there is Vicki (from Hungary); she is also Fausto's girlfriend. Next to Vicki is (of course) Fausto (from Brazil). Moving on in the back left corner (looking way too much like the Joker, played by Jack Nicholson, in Batman) is Marni (from the Philippines). The one with the cell phone is his hand is the birthday boy, Celso (from Brazil). Next to him is his girlfriend, Lay (also from the Philippines). I want to say that I find this couple interesting...Celso is Brazillian, but genetically Japanese (second generation) and Lay is a Filipina, but genetically Chinese. If they were to get married and have children, the children would be Brazillian and Filipina/o (depending on if it's a boy or girl) by nationality, but half Japanese/Chinese genetically. Moving on, there is ME (not looking my best and extremely tired). Sitting next to me is a professor from Chukyo University (whoms name I cannot remember, but it doesn't matter because I will probably never see him again anyways). This professor brought 3 different types of camers, all of which probably cost over a $1000 a peice. He must be a serious photographer. After him is another girl clouded in mystery (I can almost remember her name, but I cannot). She is Japanese and I think she speaks English (she didn't talk to much, so I'm not sure). She is a student in the professors lab (not sure there relation to the party, but Paul brought them with him). Last, and closest to the camera, is Paul (Equador). This is a last minute photo. As soon as it was over, we all rushed down to pay so that Paul could leave to catch his bus to Tokyo (I talked about that above). About the place...Well, it's a all you can eat/all you can drink place (but it's really not). It was all you can drink (alcohol, juice and soft drinks), but the all you can eat is only on Sundays, so we had to order a course of food for all of us. It was pretty fun. I'm not a big fan of drinking, so I really didn't drink much at all.

Other stuff that's going on...I found out that my internship does not start until September and lasts until October 20th (i.e. I will not be able to attend class for the first 3 weeks of the Fall semester). I submitted my graduate applications to the University of North Texas and University of Texas-Houston. I found out the the program that I want entrance into at UT-Houston only allows entrance in the Fall (medical physics). My UNT application is looking up though (I received some incouraging messages from them about Spring admissions). But, what if I get accepted to UNT for the Spring of 2008 and accepted to UT-Houston for the Fall of 2008??? I would have to choose to stay in Japan for another year and wait for the program that I want to enter the most or go to a really good program that I really enjoy (leaving Japan for good this December) that may let me do what I wish in the future (you can become a medical physicist with a PhD in physics, it doesn't have to be a medical physics program). At UNT I would do nuclear and particle physics, but at UT-Houston I would immediately start in medical physics. Well, I don't know. It would be a difficult decision (but it would be nice if I actually turn out to have to make it). Anyways, my semester is over and all I am doing is research at the moment. I have a basketball tournament coming up in a few weeks (of course I will write about that). Other than a lot of my friends are leaving, there's not much going on. I plan on traveling around Japan at the end of this month/beginning of next month (if you have any suggestions of where I should visit, let me know). Of course, there will be lots of pictures. Well, thanks for reading.

The quote of the week has to do with the anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

I read it in Richard Rhodes book "The Making of the Atomic Bomb," several years ago.

(It's from a 10 year old girl whoms mother was trapped under burning debris in Hiroshima on that day.)

"I was determined not to escape without my mother, but the fire was steadily spreading and my cloths were already on fire and I just could not take it any longer, so screaming "mommy, mommy..." I ran into the flames. Not matter how far I ran it was a sea of fire all around and there was no escape, so beside myself I jumped into my families water tank. The water was hot like a bath and the sparks kept flying in, so I put a peice of tin over my head to keep out the fire. Beside me in there were four or five other people, all calling somebody elses name. Eventually, everything became like a dream and I lost consciousness. After I woke up five days later, I learned that mother had died, just as I had left her."

Quote of the week is by President Truman after making the decision to drop the A-bomb:

"What will the people of the future say about us? Will they say what Roger Williams said about some of the Massachusetts indians, that we were wolves with the minds of men? Will they say that we had resigned our humanity? What ever they say, they will have the right."

Sorry to end on that note, but it is the anniversary.

Adios amigos.