アルバイト Arubaito

German (Probably Danish as well...) speakers (I.E. Elena and Helen (and Sean)) will probably figure out what the title means, for the rest of you, it's the word the Japanese borrowed off them to mean "Part-time Job" (Note to the German speakers: Yes, they borrowed the wrong word... Or rather, not enough of it...).

See, it's not just English they borrow from... Portuguese pops up as well sometimes (パン- pan: bread). Incidentally 天ぷら(Tempura) is actually Latin...

Etymology lesson over. Anyway...

So, Kobe University has been hosting an international "Linguistic Pragmatics" conference this weekend which I've been helping out at as a receptionist/guide/etc. Been pretty fun and best of all I got loads of free food :-) (Most notably those massive Costco muffins you get. I didn't even know they had Costco in Japan...)

Incidentally: Japanese assumption that "Asian= Speaks Japanese/Non-Asian= Doesn't" becomes quite amusing when you have loads of Korean, Chinese and Thai visitors around... (Especially since about 70% of them were American anyway...). Special mention goes out to the Kobe University shop assistant I was talking to who ignored the "Kobe University STAFF" written on my T-shirt in big letters and explained everything I asked her about to the Taiwanese-American woman I was helping who didn't understand a word she was saying...

Oh, and celebratory declaration: Introduction to Earth and Planetary Science has no exam!!!! woo hoo

I've still got 2 months Tuesday left before I leave, but most people are leaving in 3 or 4 weeks and all this talk of going back home is kinda hanging over everything I do... weird feeling...