Academia

My typical academic workspace. There is much more off-camera. One day I looked up and thought "I really should record this multiplex of academic endeavors." A high-octane mixture of joy and panic for 1,095 days.

A lecture by Shigemi Nakayama on Feb. 25, 2003, in my first semester. Left to right: Dr. Faye Kleeman, my eventual thesis advisor, fellow grad. student Nathen Clerici, SN, Dr. Laurel Rodd, my eventual translation and waka professor, Dr. Stephen Miller, my eventual Japanese Buddhism and Japanese History of Queer Issues professor , and grad student Miyuki Matsumoto, my co-translator for "Blue Yokohama." February 25, 2003

At the two-year point, I had a graduate party in my tiny graduate student apartment. Front to back:Hideko Shimizu, Kimberly Floyd, Megumi Fujio, myself. Couple to the left: Rachel Cochran (and her non-grad. but working husband, Matt), and couple to the right: Marc and Mariko Lowenstein, who lived across the hall from me. May 4, 2004.

In the third year of my graduate life, a party at Sushi Zanmae in Boulder of EALC grad. students from the Chinese and Japanese departments. May 2, 2005. Aside from two major Thanksgiving dinners at my place, and a couple of "let's drink beer and eat pizza" gatherings, that is the sum total of my wild graduate party life. Now you know that the EALC graduate department did NOT contribute to UCB's infamous "Best Party School" reputation. No, no, no. Our fun was of another kind altogether.

Let's put on a LOT of make-up and dance on stage in front of everyone you know. This is Caitlin Selvin, my dance partner for four semesters of weekly practice with the Japanese Ensemble. Our dance and singing instructor, Mamie Keister, is applying the blush. Now, I am practicing with another group in Japan and still performing before crowds, but everyone is moving with us and carousing.

Boulder's winter snowscape. December 10, 2003.

© 2008. Comments to Patricia Yarrow
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