Acceptance

I started this month by going to the Heijo-palace with my Malaysian friend after came back from the church. I saw his improvement in cycling and decided to take him somewhere a little further. I took some good sunset photos.

Sunset

The next weekend I went skiing at Shiga-Kogen at 15-16 February. The first-ever ski in my life. It was snowing but somehow I didn't feel that it was too cold. It was my first time to see snow piling like that. So I went there with 18 members including the big boss, one assoc. Prof and another Prof. from another lab.

I am a newbie at this thing. I watched the basics of skiing from youtube but in practice, it was totally different. So, on the first day, the big boss gave us some basic lessons about skiing; the feet position, how to step, and most importantly how to stop which I failed on the first day. What you can't learn from youtube is where to put your weight.

I failed miserably on the first day. Fell countless times and I gave up because I felt slightly dizzy after lunch. I went back to the hotel, took a bath and went to sleep immediately. On the second day, I went to the top alone and tried several hard courses knowing that I will never be able to clear those without falling. I tried them anyway and failed as expected. After I tried those tracks, I went to the green-line (the easiest route designated for beginners like me), and I only fell once! Once again I tried and I didn't fall at all! And again, and again, and again to understand the control.

Finally, I can ski! I was so happy. :) I think that would be the best 50k yen ever spent. Not cheap, but totally worth the effort and pain. 

The landscape.

It is soft. It is white. It is cold. It melts in your hand. IT IS SNOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!

The cable car

The mesmerizing view of mountains. 

Cloudy on the second day.

21 February. That day some guests from a startup company in Canada visited our lab an I was appointed to give a presentation of our research group. They seemed like nice people, but well I don't know much. Maybe this is the chance?

In the afternoon we had a farewell yakiniku party at Moku (yakiniku-ya near Yamato-Saidaiji sta.) in order to congratulate the M2 students from our group who will graduate this March (currently our group has only 1 Ph.D. student <which I don't know when she will graduate>). I went to the restaurant with my friend using our bicycle. It took 40 mins from campus and on the way back my pedal hit a roadblock and I went over the bars almost fell into the river, luckily no serious injuries and my bike seems fine but the front wheel is a little bent now. :(

28 February. Another farewell party for an intern student from German. This time it was a little unusual since we had oden instead of pizza. After the party, I took a little time to chat with my fella who was lucky enough to be able to continue to Ph.D. Or that's what I thought.

She is a smart girl. Maybe smarter than I am. All the staff (sensei) have a good impression on her and put a great expectation on her. However, after I talked to her, that doesn't seem to be the case now. After a little talk, finally, she said that she is sort of regretting her decision to continue. The reason is that it is not that she dislikes what she is doing, but rather caused by how the task was given to her. In other words, tight deadlines.

The problem worsened by the push from her parents hoping she will continue to Ph.D. Lucky that she has a boyfriend who she can talk to. While I have none of that fancy stuff.

I think that everyone has their share of problems. I have come to a realization that Ph.D might not be the best choice for now, no matter how I like this place. I hope she can decide what's best for her. In whatever we do, wherever we are. I sincerely hope that I can be thankful for everything. It will not lighten the burden or solve the problem, but at least it will change our brain to look for something good in everything and cope with the hurdles.