December 21. 2004 05:27

Of the exchange students

I added a name list of the exchange students to the Photos/Other files folder, so it made me think about writing some more things about them down. I started this entry and somehow it ended up being all about them (well, Dion mostly), so I guess I'll put this up like it is and write more about what's going on otherwise tomorrow ^_^;; By the way, I might add some more files to that Other files folder every now and then without noting them here, so you might want to check it out sometimes even if I don't talk about it... That is, if you're interested in more "technical" details. I just thought how unclear some things might be to everyone else even though I live among them every day, so I thought I'd add some lists that might clear some details out.

General thoughts: I'm really happy I'm keeping this diary. It's a great thing to look back to when several years have passed from now ^_^ But it sure causes me quite a lot of feelings of uneasiness every now and then, because I write about such personal things sometimes... At times I have to force myself to write something even though I feel embarrassed to think of when my friends read about it or when it may hurt someone's feelings or cause unnecessary trouble because of misunderstandings ^_^;; (There haven't been any this far, I think, but I'm afraid it might happen.) But if I write this like it's meant for a big audience, it's no use having it at all. A diary has to be personal... I just kinda hope I could keep some of the things in a "private section" or something, because it gets really hard to write sometimes, when I'm trying to write about things that are really close to my heart and bound to cause trouble if they're let out ^_^;;; (I have to admit, there are some things I should've written about that I haven't... I just can't do it ;_;)

My most recent cause of uneasiness is the thought that what if the other exchange students found this and started reading. I don't have a problem with the people back in Finland reading all this, even though it might be a bit personal sometimes, but the students here... I'm writing about them! It's too close O_o This thought came to me when I visited Dion's website (this) and thought what I'd do if he asked for the address of mine. A link to this diary is right on the front page so I'd be surprised if he didn't even peek into it, and I've talked about him a lot. (Or at least I think I have, I'm not sure, but I see him every day so he's naturally in my thoughts every now and then...) If nothing else, I can remeber how I described him as (goes to check) "cocky" and "kinda snotty" and "not very social" when I first met him. Actually, it makes me laugh to think of his reaction if he read that :D So if he asks for the address, I'll have to tell him sorry, no can do, or at least make him swear he won't take it too bad what I've written about him :P (There's just one problem... I sent Tom an email the other day and my site address was in the signature, so technically, the word could spread from there... ^_^;;)

And who says I've read too much shoujo manga and like to scheme complex relationship problems that are highly unlikely to ever take place in real life? Hah, I kinda like to think and act like a shoujo manga character, it makes life so much more interesting :P It makes me angsty every now and then, but it's a weird sort of fun to sit in a stairway in silence, pursuing a thing that'll just get me into more trouble ^_^ (Don't worry, you shouldn't know what I'm talking about... It partly has nothing to do with my time in Kyoto, and the part that has, I'm not talking about :P) I bet most people don't know half of how strange I actually am.

Anyway, after writing about that first impression of Dion, I started thinking I probably should write a better description of him, like a "3 months impression" ^_^ (And with that I'll make sure I don't want him to read this :P) I love trying to figure out people, how they think and what they feel and why they do the things they do. I think it's one part of why I like shoujo manga so much, and shoujo manga probably also makes me want to figure out people even more. (And at the same time makes me shade them a bit pink and add some sparkly effects ^_^) It'd be fun to write in lenght about all the exchange students, in fact, but it'd take so much time and space. So I'll just concentrate on Dion, because, let's face it, he's my best friend here. In spite of his rather difficult character, I see him 5 days a week so he's become the closest friend I have here, outcluding Heidi. (Yeah, my friends here aren't very close...)

Now, you're probably wondering why I'm not thinking about writing about Heidi... I don't know, I think there aren't as many thoughts about her. With Heidi it clicked right away, not least because we're both Finnish. She's the type I could make friends with in Finland, too, friendly and nice and everything. But maybe I didn't see her often enough to form any "writable" thoughts about her, other than the fact that she makes a great friend. Maybe I'll let it stew a while and write a couple of days later. But Dion, he's a guy I wouldn't end up associating with without some external intervention, so he's very interesting to write about ^_^

The first impression of Dion is that he's nasty. Like I said, cocky and the type that doesn't mix with people. He has a foul mouth and you'll probably hear him dissing something as soon as you get to talking terms ^_^; Personally, I hate people with that kind of attitude, always saying things around them are worthless in some way. But I put up with it. I wonder if those people always mean what they say of if they sometimes say it just out of attitude... Anyway, the other thing you notice right away is that he's good-looking. He's half Japanese, so he's short, but he also has good facial features. (And his arms look good and his body doesn't seem bad either, I've noticed later on, but enough about that ;P) I don't know if he's aware of it, but at least he doesn't depend on it in any way. (Meaning, he doesn't use his charms to get girls or anything :P)

When you get to know him better, his nasty attitude doesn't quaver a bit, but he starts to show other, nicer aspects, too. You just have to learn to filter out all that foul talk and he's allright. He hasn't been acting very serious about school all semester, but he worked hard on the last weeks and got both of the manga done, actually before me. (He did the 7 pages of his wagashi manga in one night, I was really impressed.) He is nice to his friends and he's social, it just takes a while to get to the friendly level. And when he's "tricked into" talking about something he likes or takes seriously, he talks like anyone else, without the usual boldness. I'm sometimes surprised at how "gentlemanly" he acts, like passing a wine glass to me first because I'm a woman, and offering a better seat just because it's a right thing to do. Of this he is aware and does it very conciously, but it's very nice nevertheless.

And, he has a thing for good-looking women. (Well, how is that surprising for a man? :P) He expresses it with the same attitude he notes faults or things he doesn't like: he's not holding back pointing out a pretty girl or commenting on how sexy someone (or something someone does) is. I bet he's worse with this with other men, though, I think he holds it back a bit in my company since I'm a girl. Though unlike with the dissing, I'm kinda amused to be checking out women with a guy ^_^ (I've done it before and it's kinda fun.) But again, as with the dissing, I'm wondering if he's actually as bold as the image he gives... I kinda have the feeling that whatever he says, he wouldn't actually act to it, if it were more than a joke. In fact, he once said it's annoying how the Japanese girls wait for the man to make the first move. And also, he complains about how in America he'd probably get jail if he slapped a girl on the backside, so that's probably holding him back a bit :P

Now that I think of it, that's probably the thing that makes me think he's not exactly what he pretends to be. He acts like he's after women and very open about it, but even though he'd have no problems getting one with his looks, he doesn't. That and the fact that he also seems to be able to talk kindly even though he never does. People that act different from what they are annoy me, it's so difficult to associate with them. I don't know which side I should react to, the one that they show or the one that they are... Or maybe I'm again taking this too seriously and reading too much into this because I've been reading too much shoujo manga. Baeh. Well, people like that do make good characters. But brought to life, fictional characters would usually be pretty difficult to deal with :)

Oh! I just remembered that when I gave the address to the wagashi photos to one of the girls in our manga group, Dion took it too! I hope he's not smart enough to check the domain root from that :P (I know I might, I like to check domains that look interesting just to know the relation of them to the site...) Ah, whatever. Worst I can get is some more dissing from him, and he's already quite fond of trying to make a fool of me :P