Akita
International University’s on a fairly small, compact campus; which isn’t at
all unfamiliar to me, being a Beloit College student, but it does mean that I
walk almost the exactly same route to each and every one of my classes. This does provide for getting to know what
that part of campus looks like throughout the day pretty well.
To be
honest, there isn’t all that much of a notable difference. Sure, there’s a few mildly interesting
trends, but nothing to really follow up with some grand insights. There are, however, some curiosities which
can serve as jumping-off-points for other interesting commentaries on bits of
AIU’s culture, so maybe I can get this post a more interesting comments section
that I fear it itself will be.
Let’s
start with the route I take. To get to
classes, I leave through one of the several front exits of the Komachi building
complex (I don’t really have a pattern for which one; even eating in the
cafeteria doesn’t change it), walk in front of most or part of the complex and
past the Student Hall, and into a sort of courtyard from which every class
building can be accessed.
My apologies for my drawing skills |
The first
half of this route is, in terms of daily trends, thoroughly uninteresting;
there’s generally a scattering other students walking to this place or that,
nobody really hanging around, and no real shift in this pattern throughout the
day. The couple of times I’ve walked
this part at night it’s been different, but only on account of a distinct lack
of people. The last part of the walk, in
the area between the classroom buildings, is generally a bit more
interesting. So long as classes are
going on, this area’s always more crowded, both in terms of people walking
through and with some people actually standing around talking or sitting at
picnic tables. On the other hand, when
classes aren’t happening, this area can become remarkably empty, although the
nearby library maintains some through traffic.
This being
said, I’ve not really spent a lot of time in this area personally. Although I do think it’s pretty on sunny
days, I mostly just walk through it to get where I’m going. I have only twice stopped and spent time
there, both times because I was waiting for someone who needed to run into one
building or another to “get something done quick.” But so far as I can tell, that’s true for
everybody; there’s no group or even person who I recognize as “that person
who’s always around the courtyard at noon”.
I do prefer to take the outdoor route because it’s nice to spend some
time outside (or because I didn’t realize that hallway connected to the
classroom buildings), but that hasn’t really managed to translate into spending
time in the area. I guess there isn’t a
whole lot to do most of the time, when there’s often places to be, which is
unfortunate, because it’s really a nice place.
The courtyard, here mostly empty due to rain. |
I suppose I could've skipped all of this if I'd noticed this hallway sooner. Then again, I wouldn't have had a blog post if I did. |
2 comments:
>this divide seems to be more noticeable but less actually distinct than the divide at Beloit College.
I'm curious: How do you perceive the divide at Beloit? I felt like there were a few groups who tended to stick together a lot, but there was still a decent amount of mixing. I knew lots of international students who had many American friends, anyway.
I suppose it's also harder to tell from afar at Beloit because there domestic and international students at Beloit aren't at all visually distinct. I don't know how many Asian international students there are at Akita, but I assume that aside from them, you can mostly tell who's Japanese and who's international by their race.
I'm not sure what the numbers are, but part of the difference might also be there because there are more international students at Beloit who are staying for fours years. I haven't met many international students here who are staying for more than a year, and I think this might make a lot of regular students more hesitant to connect with us.
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