Where Is the Love?

 

How was everybody’s Valentine’s?  I know, this greeting’s (?) more than a week too late.

 

Well, Valentine’s was a big day for me.  It was the day of my "entrance interview" for PhD, that’s why.  Kyoto University has this policy that if (1) you’ve earned your master’s in this same university, and (2) you’ve graduated with satisfactory marks, then you’re exempted from taking the entrance exam.  I didn’t get straight A’s during my master’s; my grades weren’t all "good."  But let’s just say that on the average, they were "satisfactory."  So, I was exempted.  The only thing they asked me to do was to give a brief presentation about my past, present, and future research.  Hence, the "entrance interview."

 

People say it’s all a formality.  Something done out of etiquette and decorum.  A convention.  Well, all I can say is, when you’re in one end of a round table, facing more than fifteen grumpy men, half of them old enough to be your great grandfather, it’s hard to get that idea into your head.  To say that I was butchered, roasted, and grilled would be an understatement.  I thought I would never recover from the trauma it caused me.  A couple of days later, however, when I got a post in my mail saying, "You passed.  So we are informing you," I said to myself, "What the heck!  All’s well that ends well."  Right?  I hope so.

 

In other news, the tickets for Yukio Ninagawa’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost (Koi no honeorizon) are gonna be out from 10 A.M. tomorrow.  However, reservations by premium members of various ticket companies have been going on since a couple of weeks ago.  Damn, I hope there are still front row tickets left. 

 

 

 

Obviously, the play has an all-male cast, which makes it very intriguing, in my opinion.  I’m setting my alarm for 9:45 and this laptop’s gonna be put on standby mode for easier access to the internet tomorrow!  A good night to one and all!