I like living on the beach.
Nov. 14th, 2003 10:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
joiedecombatWednesday I was taken by the urge to eat lunch on the beach, so I drove out to the Boardwalk in Ft. Walton and had a seven-layer burrito, very yummy. Then I felt like a pig, so I went down onto the beach and walked along it where the water packed the sand down enough that I didn't have to waddle. Wound up going all the way past the resorts and the tourist center off midway past one of the dune restoration projects. It was a nice long walk, and when I got down that far, I saw a whole school of rays in the water.
I couldn't tell what they were at first, because there were so many, swimming so close together. I could just see a mass of dark shapes whenever a wave rose up. As I headed back, though, they started swimming right up almost onto the sand; when a wave would break, one would come zooming in on it, and then I could see the tips of their fins flipping up out of the water as they went back out. Because the water in this area is so clear, I could see them perfectly. They looked a lot like this guy.
A few of them jumped - just launched themselves completely out of the water, some four or five feet into the air, like they were trying to fly. It was an amazing sight.
I went back this afternoon, this time with a cheeseburger and some fries. By the time I was done with the burger I didn't really want the french fries, so I wandered down onto the sand to see if I could feed some to the seagulls. I wasn't really sure if they'd take them, but as it turns out, I need not have worried. I tossed a fry to a gull that was wandering a few yards away, and in the next instant I was surrounded by an entire clamoring flock. ZOOM! FEED US!
Greedy little opportunists. They're cute, though. A few of them nearly clipped my head; they'd just hang in the air right in front of my face, watching hopefully until I tossed them something. I got a couple of them to snatch fries right out of my hand.
Next time I'll take something more digestible than french fries. Popcorn, maybe.
When the fries were all gone, a number of the gulls followed me around for a while, just in case I had anything else. The rays were back too, although not as many.
In other news, I'm applying for the 2004 Japanese Exchange and Teaching program. Run, apparently, through the Japanese Consulate, it's a program to send young professionals to Japan to assist in teaching English to junior and senior high school students for a year. Knowledge of the Japanese language not required, although I'm a leg up since I already know "baka gaijin."
The application is hard-core. In addition to several pages of the standard application stuff, they also want a medical self-assessment, copies of all my college transcripts, proof of my undergraduate degree, two letters of reference, and a "statement of purpose" essay. All of this is kind of problematic since the deadline is December 5. Today I Priority Mailed a transcript request form to Montreat, where I spent my disastrous first year of college, since they require a written request. I already have a copy of my MSU transcript - they gave me a free one when I graduated - so I just need to bother the folks at EMCC, and hope the Montreat folks understand what "important that it arrive before Thanksgiving" means.
As for the letters of reference, I'll probably ask Dr. Hill, from whom I took Comm Theory, Nonverbal Communication, and Elements of Persuasion. I think he liked me, and he's done a lot of intercultural studies. He taught Intercultural Comm, but I wasn't able to fit it in with my other requirements, something I'm now really regretting. For the other one I'll probably ask Jacque, one of the professors from the office I worked in my last year of college.
Which just leaves the essay. Ih. Working on that; I've got something vaguely akin to an outline.
I don't know how competetive the applications for the program are, or what my chances are like. I'm trying not to get too worked up about it because, well, the last few times that happened it didn't go so well.
But I am going to apply, and it would be really cool to get to do this.
I couldn't tell what they were at first, because there were so many, swimming so close together. I could just see a mass of dark shapes whenever a wave rose up. As I headed back, though, they started swimming right up almost onto the sand; when a wave would break, one would come zooming in on it, and then I could see the tips of their fins flipping up out of the water as they went back out. Because the water in this area is so clear, I could see them perfectly. They looked a lot like this guy.
A few of them jumped - just launched themselves completely out of the water, some four or five feet into the air, like they were trying to fly. It was an amazing sight.
I went back this afternoon, this time with a cheeseburger and some fries. By the time I was done with the burger I didn't really want the french fries, so I wandered down onto the sand to see if I could feed some to the seagulls. I wasn't really sure if they'd take them, but as it turns out, I need not have worried. I tossed a fry to a gull that was wandering a few yards away, and in the next instant I was surrounded by an entire clamoring flock. ZOOM! FEED US!
Greedy little opportunists. They're cute, though. A few of them nearly clipped my head; they'd just hang in the air right in front of my face, watching hopefully until I tossed them something. I got a couple of them to snatch fries right out of my hand.
Next time I'll take something more digestible than french fries. Popcorn, maybe.
When the fries were all gone, a number of the gulls followed me around for a while, just in case I had anything else. The rays were back too, although not as many.
In other news, I'm applying for the 2004 Japanese Exchange and Teaching program. Run, apparently, through the Japanese Consulate, it's a program to send young professionals to Japan to assist in teaching English to junior and senior high school students for a year. Knowledge of the Japanese language not required, although I'm a leg up since I already know "baka gaijin."
The application is hard-core. In addition to several pages of the standard application stuff, they also want a medical self-assessment, copies of all my college transcripts, proof of my undergraduate degree, two letters of reference, and a "statement of purpose" essay. All of this is kind of problematic since the deadline is December 5. Today I Priority Mailed a transcript request form to Montreat, where I spent my disastrous first year of college, since they require a written request. I already have a copy of my MSU transcript - they gave me a free one when I graduated - so I just need to bother the folks at EMCC, and hope the Montreat folks understand what "important that it arrive before Thanksgiving" means.
As for the letters of reference, I'll probably ask Dr. Hill, from whom I took Comm Theory, Nonverbal Communication, and Elements of Persuasion. I think he liked me, and he's done a lot of intercultural studies. He taught Intercultural Comm, but I wasn't able to fit it in with my other requirements, something I'm now really regretting. For the other one I'll probably ask Jacque, one of the professors from the office I worked in my last year of college.
Which just leaves the essay. Ih. Working on that; I've got something vaguely akin to an outline.
I don't know how competetive the applications for the program are, or what my chances are like. I'm trying not to get too worked up about it because, well, the last few times that happened it didn't go so well.
But I am going to apply, and it would be really cool to get to do this.
