8 (the boss)

Last night, Nori and Ryo took me to a party at the apartment of their friend Julien. We wandered up and down a street at least three times before figuring out which residence was his. I tried to explain the word "suspicious" to Nori. Then I tried "hoodlum."

When we arrive, Julien's wearing a large white and grey sweater which I mistake for a hockey jersey, only serving to complement my knee-jerk realization that his face bore an uncanny resemblance to Cameron from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. He studies Japanese here and through that has some connection to the study abroad thing, CIDEF, so he knows a bunch of the Japanese students and hangs out with them all the time. He has posters of Miyazaki films on the wall. I tried to deduce the English titles from their French counterparts (which are never a direct translation.)

The four of us are still discussing this translation phenomenon when other students start showing up. After 30 minutes, there must be twelve of us in the living room. I try to teach the Cowboy Game to Ryo, which is essentially a rhythmically orientated mock Wild West pistol duel. We played a few times before he started giggling too hard to continue. He taught me the Japanese equivalent which is my game plus Rock, Paper, Scissors and an action which bears a striking resemblance to Goku's Kamayamaya in Dragonball Z. Now I was cracking up.

I notice that one of the girls is staring at me. I begin talking to her and realize she's marveling at my beard. (Asians are often impressed by my rather substantial facial hair.) She asks how long I've been growing it and I speculate a month; She gasps.

I talk to another Japanese girl, Minami. She's tall. Tall asians fascinate the hell out of me. But she's also a little cross-eyed, which makes it hard to focus on what she's saying. I kept thinking about a party in Chicago where Geoff approached a girl and after discovering she was cross-eyed repeatedly forgot, therefore having to make a conscious effort not to look over his shoulder to see what was so interesting behind him.

Minami tells me she spent a year studying in Perth and I tell her about how my sister spent time there as well. I talk about how I prefer the Japanese students here to the Americans because the Americans just speak in English all the time and have horrible accents. She says she doesn't mind them because she likes practicing her English. She notices the song that's playing and says in English "Oh! Jack Johnson! I love him! He's so hot!" This is the point where I realize she has an Australian accent. And not just her English, her French too.

I've given up putting effort into the conversation, I'm just trying to reign in my hysterics while talking to a tall, cross-eyed Japanese girl with an apparent Australian accent who just said that she's having "heaps of fun" at this party. She goes outside for some air and just in time, 'cause I've been holding my breath for a good ten minutes. After I recover, Ryo and Nori teach me how to say "not bad" in Japanese (warukanai) (that might be more than one word) with some help from the girl with the beard thing.

Minami returns and I talk to her and the guy next to me, Ku. Her accent is getting thicker as she gets more drunk. I can barely understand a word she's saying. I keep thinking of her wielding a samurai sword while riding a kangaroo. Ku tells me he's Chinese. I tell him I thought everyone here was Japanese except Julien. We do an ethnic survey of the room and discover (besides me and Julien) there are eight Japanese, one Chinese, one Korean and one Kazahkstani (for good measure.) I'm smiling, fascinated at the strange chain of events which culminated in my present multi-cultural situation. Then The Boss came on the stereo, singing "Born in the USA."