Guests

In my Global Studies class earlier (for the record, it's not a compulsory thing, it's a FREE elective) we played hosts to the 11 visiting students from Yokohama National University. Now, I know I may seem very outgoing, if not noisy, but actually, there are times when I prefer NOT to talk. Such as this afternoon.

CIS Classroom C was an overwhelming sight. Students were milling about, mostly Filipino students who wanted to interact with the Japanese guests - and most of them were from TomoKai and Arirang. Originally, I sat at the back of the classroom, but then the professor-organizer saw me and asked me - no, she sort of gave me no choice, actually - to sit beside one of our guests. And because I didn't want to sit there without knowing her, the girl to my right, I introduced myself.

She said her name was Akiko.

Over the 1.5 hours we spent together, I observed a lot of things about Akiko. I know it's not right to judge based on first impressions - take that further and you could say it's wrong to judge at all - but I thought Akiko was a very driven young woman whose facade gave one the opposite impression. She looks very timid and shy but she had the confidence to speak to a weird looking girl aka me, and she looked very smart. I also loved her outfit - black and white large checkered shirt dress with really thin, dark jeans and Roxy slippers - and yes, they were Roxy.

What bothered me most, however, is that she looked... I dunno. Confident but unconfident. She seems sure of what she can do, but somehow she seems unsure of herself. I can't explain it. But it shows. And I think it's such a shame because Akiko seems like the type of person I would like to be - elegant, smart, sophisticated and friendly. But she doesn't believe in herself.

Sad. I wanted to be friends with her. But our 1.5 hours of acquaintance just wasn't enough for us to reach that level.