My teammates were there in full uniform, as well as my black belt friends and rivals as I was there in adidas sweatpants and a training fleece with a brace around my left hand, wandering around watching every division's poomsae (forms) and sparring matches. Our team fought well, and each of us learned some new things for the long run at the Cornell taekwondo tournament, Sunday. A long-haul car ride in the early morning and in the evening on the way back. Universities from all over the northeastern region came to compete to aim for the top of the division. It was the first time I was at a tournament and didn't compete, which, felt both awkward and frustrating. My teammates from the all-star team expressed their brief sympathy to me.
Our team didn't come home with any medals but there were some great matches. The matches we didn't win were all worth the experience. Sure, losing sucks, but what mattered was the effort the person put in as well as the mistakes we learn from. That's how we got better.
The next day everything resumed to the daily grind. I got up, had some breakfast at the dining hall, studied at the library for a test the next day, and went to class. Monotonous note taking and reading. The usual college student's ritualistic procedure during weekdays, devoid of elation. I'd walk outside campus and see regular students walking their way to class. I'd walk into my next class and sit down in my regular assigned seat, take out my regular pencil, textbook, and notebooks, stare at the regular outside view of campus, and glance at the attractive classmate two rows down. She wasn't a beauty, but exuded an aura and charm that was good enough for my tastes. Seeing that she always came just before class started, and left right after class finished, there was simply no time for me to strike up a small conversation with her. So what were the chances? Very slim, as slim as Virginia Slims, if that made any sense.
After class I'd have lunch with two other people. One, as I mentioned already before in my previous post, was a smoker and the other was a writer. The smoker was a smoker. When he was studying abroad in Japan about a year ago he used to smoke two packs a day. Now he recently cut it down to less than a pack. The latter, the writer, was an international student from Korea, who was also my roommate last year. Now these's two were roommates.
After class I went to the library with a friend. We had a discussion about the recent alteration of the role of the Japanese military. The prime minister allowed the military to serve as allies with countries including the U.S. whenever they needed aid. Japanese citizens were not in agreement with the idea, my friend said, and didn't know if it would positively boost public morale.
After he left for a rendezvous with friends, I flipped through the pages of my textbook and notes to grasp the material for a test. Nothing was exceptionally appealing. Over the course of three hours, I stretched out my legs and arms ten times, gazed into the wall in front of me for an estimate cumulative time of five minutes and twenty-three seconds, yawned sixteen times, downed three glasses of water, and went to the bathroom twice. Around ten in the evening I headed back to the dining hall to satiate my semi-hunger. A plate of white rice, ground beef, chicken, and potatoes. On the side I made myself a salad. Coke on the rocks as the beverage. To stay.
Undifferentiated student chatter and laughter played as the background ambiance as I devoured the rice, which, was good enough to eat. There were no other options as the other dining halls were closed. What else was there? Nothing. I had to resort to eating it.
On my way back the weather became chillier. The day felt shorter, as daylight savings time just recently ended. Humming along 'Till There Was You, I came back to the dorm. All my suitemates were already there, as usual.
I ripped open a bag of gummy bears and read a paperback. During academia season slating a time for casual reading was difficult. Even if I did have time, it was hard to focus on the story since I was inevitably focused on schoolwork and tests and all that jazz. But sometimes, I needed it on order to wind down and get my stressed out mind somewhere else, traveling with reverie amidst characters and antagonists and scenes contrary to the ones I saw now. Meanwhile my suitemates were watching episodes of Yuyu Hakusho in the living room, as usual.
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