Bleeding Fiction

Let me first point out that I've noticed an unusually large number of Ravens here at UW. It's a little intimidating.

That said, amongst my errands for this morning was Registration. It was a battle against bureaucracy almost worthy of Ben. (Speaking of: Ben, do you know what's up with this pdf and your picture being on it?) I visited four different buildings on a journey that covered about two miles of ground (and resulted in me being right back here in my apartment to register online). Thankfully, I won't have to go through any of it next time around.

My classes this quarter are a mostly predictable set. I'm taking Japanese (second year, for now - we'll see if I have to drop down to first year or not once class begins), Introduction to Japanese Studies and Japanese Society. Both of the listed books for that last class are gender studies-type books. As an undergrad, I really hated the way women's studies had taken over all of academia. I hate it no less now. Nothing wrong with women's studies, mind you, just that it's not so much what I wanted to study. Ah, well. I've only got eleven actual classroom hours to clock in a week.

I'm also taking Russian, though I'm doing that unofficially. If I were actually getting credit for the class, I'd have to pay UW an extra $1600. Since those credits wouldn't do anything for me in terms of requirements, I spoke to the professor who said I could just sit in and learn. Woo hoo! I'm going to learn Russian! (at an extra four unofficial classroom hours)

Speaking of things Russian, UW has a Red Square. Here's a picture:

Nowhere near as impressive as the actual one in Moscow. Why, though, does everywhere I go seem to have a Red Square or some other Russian reference? Or is it just that my brain is cued up to notice this sort of thing?