about my idea for a Queer Resource Center.
I see synergy coming with the roller derby community.
Dropped Matilda and her luggage off at the CIEE center this morning then came back to the Ryokan, put up a DND sign and took a frickin' nap.
Matilda has met her fellow students. They are all a bit shy, but Matilda (much like Cybervixen at the first F2F) is a human icebreaker and she got them talking by the end of day. Matilda typically bonds with the teachers even more than the students and that was no different here as she got on well with Sayako, who had lived 10 years stateside, four in the Bay Area.
In about an hour, Matilda will meet her host family and they will take her home to Osaka where she will spend the weekend. I probably won't see her again before I leave on Monday, but I thought I wouldn't see her after I dropped her off this morning and she forgot her scarf, so I made my way back to the center this afternoon and delivered it and got a big hug from her.
So far my cunning plan to awaken Matilda from her grief torpor seems to be working. The minute we walked into our room at the Ryokan, she put on her Yukata (robe) and sat down at the low table and began to work on her phrasebook.
She has not shown a jot of interest in any academics since JZ was diagnosed so it's heartening to see her engage with learning here.
ION, I just discovered I'm about 4 blocks from Kyoto's best cocktail bar, and that's about two blocks from an otter cafe. I'm just not going to exhaust this neighborhood before I have to leave.