So during my comparatively tranquil work day today, I had the peace of mind to turn my thoughts to other things -- and it was during just such a moment of unclouded thinking that I realized that one of my co-workers is quite beautiful. Her head is topped off with shining black hair, her face is bright and attractive, with large eyes and a smile to melt the coldest of hearts (and she is almost always smiling), and her body is absolutely perfect. She has a slender figure, just out of the range of being too slender -- in addition to the slight thickness of her arms, minimal curves on the Z-axis put her over -- and when she moves, she doesn't float or glide like a nymph or skip airily about like a mere wisp of a girl would, but she goes through the motions like a creature of flesh and blood, like something subject to the simplified laws of a high school Physics course in which air resistance is typically negated.

But she is also interesting -- though what is just as interesting as the content of her speech is my response to her and what she is saying. She started work at the college nearly two months before I left before, so I knew her then as well, and once, as we sat next to each other on the bus, I asked her about her weekend. Her first response was, "It was okay," to which I thought, "Well! That was informative! Clearly she's not in the mood for conversation." But then, after a pause, she proceeded to basically give me an event log of her weekend, and the end of the previous week, and then what she did at the beginning of that week and the previous weekend, prompting me to think, "Good god, woman -- I didn't ask for your autobiography in reverse!" But it was a thought in good humor; the entire time I was quite amused by her rapid switch from one extreme to its opposite, and how my thoughts seemed to supplement that change in turn.

So, as I've noted, the office was fairly quiet today -- the whole place seems to calm down in the absence of my supervisor -- but the phones still rang on occasion, and after taking one phone call, she paused and stared at me. I was looking at the computer screen at the time, keeping up with TAB's comments, but upon feeling her eyes on me I looked up and returned her gaze -- whereupon she exclaimed with both humor and annoyance (but far more of the former), "White people are assholes!"

Yes, that's the sound of a comment whizzing in from left field. Again, however, I noted to myself that my reaction to her words was an interesting one -- quite different from what it would've been if it had been said by just about anyone else in the office. In most cases I would've responded to such a comment with a dirty look or, at best, an ill-humored chuckle and then a disgusted turn, but that is because I would already know the answer to the instinctive question -- "What makes you say that?" -- with which I answer any unexpected remark. But with her, one never can tell what that answer would be, so I went ahead and bit the bullet. She proceeded to tell me that the person on the phone had been very rude to her and had demanded that she speak English, whereupon she insisted with a frustrated laugh, "But I am speaking English!"

She has an accent, you see. She hails from Indonesia; English is not her first language. But -- and I told her this, adding that I didn't at all mean it in a condescending way -- her English is quite good. As I've said, she has an accent, and her speech is also made slightly more difficult to understand by her voice itself -- which sounds as if she is perpetually getting over a sore throat or the common cold -- but I don't think I've ever caught her speaking in broken English or using incorrect grammar. (In that respect, her English is better than most of the students I've met on campus!) Granted, at times it is difficult to understand her -- I sat next to her at a staff luncheon in December and, surrounded by other voices, I had no idea what the hell she was saying to me -- but it has always been apparent to me that she is speaking English. Because, as she said, "This is an American school! Why would I speak to them in another language?!"

In the course of the rant that followed, she went on to explain that if a French person speaks with an accent that is difficult to understand, or if a European's speech includes incorrect grammar, Americans are very forgiving and accommodating and will work to understand what that person is saying. But if a foreigner from Asia or Africa exhibits the same speaking qualities, people get upset with that person and assume that the foreigner is stupid and rudely insist that the person speak English. I neglected to point out that she was also making a similar speech-based judgment in assuming the skin color of the person from the sound of his/her voice, but it wasn't a big deal. She noted that people are sometimes forgiving of foreigners (of certain origins) when it comes to speaking; I am similarly forgiving of foreigners when it comes to certain judgments and assumptions. Besides, at the time I might have interrupted her to make that point, I was more interested in hearing her speak.

She raised a good point, though -- and even I might be guilty of the mistreatment she noted. I am always quite excited to speak to someone with a European accent, and I am more/less indifferent to Asian accents, depending upon the person (hers interests me because she does as well, but with Asian accents -- since I cannot place them with respect to specific countries -- it's more the place that interests me, which I learn later, after asking... and now it occurs to me that perhaps it isn't the European accents proper that interest me, but the speakers' ties to the countries to which their accents correspond), but I absolutely hate the sound of African accents. Maybe it has anything to do with my general impression of Africa, which is not a good one, but people who speak with African accents almost always sound angry or rude to me. And while I have never insisted that they speak English -- if I don't understand someone, I merely ask them to repeat what they've said, though they seem to become irritated if after several repetitions I still haven't the foggiest what the words coming out of their mouths mean -- I take little pleasure in speaking with people whose tongues are branded with their African birthright. To be sure, there have been exceptions -- when the content of the speech is more/less interesting and is obviously intended in a friendly tone -- but few such examples come to mind at present. It's interesting.

Anyway, I could probably ramble on about the girl and this topic, but I'll save any additions I might have made for responses to comments and future posts. I've got to get to bed so I wake up for what, with my supervisor back, promises to be a very hectic and unpleasant day of work! Ja ne, minna-san.