But I'm back!

Whew! That was a crazy intense meeting! First of all, I think they pawned me off to their secretary who didn't really know anything about the place because they probably figured I was just gonna grab some brochures and then leave, but then I started asking questions and the poor woman didn't know the answers to anything I was asking, so her first instinct was just to give me more brochures/books, but that didn't really help me at all, so then she went asking other people, and finally she decided she better let me talk to someone higher up on the pyramid, or whatever, and so she passed me off to a Ms. Ruri Kato, the "International Program Officer" working in their research department, who was very very nice and easy to talk to. She was able to answer my questions and everything and it turns out she's going to St. Louis very soon because they work hand in hand with the University of Missouri-St. Louis, so she's going there for some meeting, but she said it was very hard for her to find literature on St. Louis in Japan and I said that wasn't surprising. I told her she could probably find a lot on the internet, and if she ever had any questions she could certainly email me anytime. And I just sent her an email thanking her for everything and telling her again that she could email me with any questions. Anyways, I hope I hear from her because she was really nice.

Completely off-topic now, I forgot to mention that there was a used book fair in the plaza right near where I live yesterday (and maybe today too, because I noticed at night they didn't take the stalls down, they just covered them with tarps). I found the book "Grotesque" by Natsuo Kirino, which I think my mom is reading right now, unless she finished it. But I didn't buy it because I thought that might be a bit too difficult to read. I ended up finding "プラダを着た悪魔" (The Devil Wears Prada) on a 100-yen table so I picked that up because I really liked the movie and thought that might not be too hard to read. And I figured it would be a slightly more productive way of spending my down-time at work, rather than just surfing the internet all day.

Well, speaking of that, I think I'm gonna start reading it right now, since I've got 2 hours until I get off work. Sayonara, folks.