An Essay

What I did this weekend.
An Essay by Daniel Axelson

Awaking early on a Saturday morning has never been my strong suit. Often I procrastinate the process of getting out of bed on the weekend; but this weekend wasn’t like any of the others, for it was my weekend to perform as the Master of Ceremonies, or MC, of a speech contest that was to occur on my campus. I was oh so excited.
The basis of the speech contest was to get people from all over the country to come to our small campus and see what we might have to offer them in regards to a future. It was to be the sixth annual Sapientia Cup English speech competition and Spanish/French Recitation; oh boy, so much fun in one small space! I had no idea what to expect, but I was sure excited.
After getting up bright and early I then prepared myself a small breakfast of cereal and juice; as breakfast is the most important meal of the day and I wouldn’t want to suffer any, and let those that depended on me suffer as well, because I didn’t have enough energy. Upon finishing breakfast I then set to work preparing myself for the duties at hand. I showered myself, applied fragrances, and got dressed in my best Sunday attire. I even brushed my teeth! It was time to go. So I walked one block and set to work helping everyone prepare for the huge event.
After everyone pitched in and got things all settled we were ready to begin. It was at this point that the students began to arrive. As they filed into the room they began to acquaint themselves with their new surroundings. They did this by lining up with about six or seven of them at the front of the room and then they all began speaking. Ouch! This hurt my ears. The whole situation reminded me of when I was in 6th grade and took part in my school’s choir and just before we went on there was a strings section that played and they made everyone cry because mom said that it sounded like they were skinning a cat alive. But at least they were all practicing; and practice makes perfect (authors note: it is for that very reason that Michael Howerter is the king of “Self-Improvement”).
All of the excitement was coming to a head and you could just feel the tension as the time grew near. Finally the judges came into our room and announced that it was time to begin. It was now my time to shine as I stood before a room filled with Japanese high school students, teachers, and parents. I wasn’t nervous at first, because I had practiced my lines. Thing were going smoothly until I went to pronounce one of the judges names and butchered it like a small Chinese puppy…oh no! I was thrown of quickly, but don’t worry, I found my way again and didn’t make another mistake until it was time to pronounce tezukayama, that was a tough one, and I screwed it up really well. But it didn’t matter because the young woman from that school was the last speaker. Speaking of speakers, some of the speaker’s speeches were really interesting. For example there were many speeches on the possibility of the country of Japan raising up an army and renouncing the pacifist qualities of their constitution; mostly because the Prime Minister wants Japan to become permanent members on the UN security counsel. Many of the speakers that spoke about such topics enjoyed bringing up such facts as, “Since we (Japan) are a country that has had two nuclear bombs dropped on us we should be against war.” It was interesting to hear such honest perspective from a 16 year old. I was happy that I did not have to judge the speeches because I do not know what I would have said to them, maybe something like, “good point Jimmy,” or maybe, “sorry about that Jimmy.” I really don’t know. But there were other interesting speeches as well; such as “The Perfect Handbag” the life and times of CoCo Chanel, or “The perfect solution for the aged,” this was a speech about the benefits of the island of Okinawa (which not only boasts being the home of LA maintenance man and Karate Sensei Mr. Miagi but also has the longest life expectancy in the world). In conclusion they were very good and diverse speeches about what interests Japanese youth (which surprisingly was something…they don’t seem to like, or really dislike, anything. They’re a lot like purgatory, “eh…it’s not bad, but it’s not real good. It’s so so (Green, Seth. To Live and Die in the South. Family Guy. Fox Entertainment. 2001.)”
When the contest was over we had a party in the cafeteria. It was fun and we had little sandwiches that tasted like cabbage and fish; which are the two most potent and popular smells/tastes in all of Japan (the whole country would love America’s nursing homes, especially those with a concentration of German-Americans.) When the party was over my Spanish friend Andres and I took fruit and juice back to my room and we made punch. Then we went out and had something to eat and to drink at a local establishment. Then we went home again and drank the punch with some more friends then we watched the ceiling for a while, as it was around 1am and it had begun to spin a little. It was fun.
Sunday morning I didn’t do too much. It was hard to get out of bed. But eventually I crawled out and cleaned my room and began to do some laundry, as I have not done any since arriving here. In conclusion, my weekend was so-so. The speech contest really helped me to gain a better understanding of the Japanese culture and it’s youth (I also know that CoCo Chanel had many lovers and started out as a Dancer…who-da thunk it?)

*Break*
Okay, so anyway. Those that made it this far in the Blog I hope that you have enjoyed my essay. I felt as though I needed to do something a little more “academic” for those intellectuals out there. How was your weekend? Please let me know. If you could either post a comment at the end of this blog (really simple and convenient) or let me know in an e-mail: dbaxelson@yahoo.com…either way would be great as well as appreciated. I like feedback and I would like to know if anyone is actually reading this thing or if I am wasting my non-precious, yet important, time. Ari-got-o-go-zy-mass (thank you very much) now you say, dough-e-dashi-massh-ta (your welcome). Good job!