The President comes to Japan.

It was my second time meeting President Faust. My first time was last spring, after she had been named University's President, during her Arts Force campaign dinner (a little bit after Arts First Week). Just like last time, this time as well, I was placed in quite a distance away from her table (it's all very politically sensitive who gets to be close to the President). But the food was as always, delicious, and esp. if it's offered at a steep discount in a fancy hotel! Oh the perks of being one of the only three Harvard undergrads in Japan (the only one in Tokyo) ;-).

The prettiest salmon I have ever eaten. It was a shame to even eat it...

The dinner took place in Okuda hotel, with as many as three hundred something Harvard alumni participating. The chief organizer of the event was Harvard Club of Japan. The Club's President, Carl Kay, in his welcoming note, said: "Frankly speaking I have never seen so many of you at our events combined! Therefore, I would like to take the liberty and introduce small impromptu change to all of our upcoming events and announce that they will, from now on be attended by Harvard's Lincoln Professor of History, Drew Faust."

The seating arrangement was especially amusing to me: All college grads and current undergrads were placed among tables named Annenberg, Sanders Theatre and Wigglesworth (to those unfamiliar, these are notable buildings serving specifically Harvard College). The MBA holders all went to "Morgan Hall", the main Business School unit. It made me almost nostalgic, and realize how attached to Harvard I actually am... But it's ok, this way I can appreciate my next year even better.

President Faust delivered a very nice, well-polished speech, spiked here and there with some apt humour. She updated the few hundreds Harvard alumni about the recent, important changes at Cambridge:

1. the One-Calendar reform ("Of course there were some objections, notably from the Harvard Landscape Services who now have to grow green grass by the end of May instead of June"),
2. the General Ed reform (though I still don't get the difference between that and our old Core requirements)
3. and the move towards "more unified Harvard". In her speech, she noted "what a great advantage it would be for Harvard to combine the strengths of its Law School, its Business School, its Medical School... oh, and since the Dean of Design School is here with me, I guess I should also say the strength of its Design School (laughter)".

She also detailed her trip in Japan, during which she had the head of Resichauer Institute (Harvard's body solely devoted to Japanese-Korean related studies and affairs) as her personal tour guide in both Kyoto and Tokyo. In Tokyo, she mentioned how she put a gruesome task on her tour guide to start the day at 5am with a trip to Tsukiji Fish Market, followed by meetings with the Prime Minister, the Emperor and Her Crown Princess Masako (who btw is also a Harvard alumna) and finally Minister of Education. Here she raised the ever troubling issue of very few Japanese students at Harvard and US universities in general.

"Minister (of Ed) asked me why there were so few Japanese students studying in the US and what should be done to increase that number? I, myself, was asking the same question, though in my mind it was 'How can we increase that number at Harvard' ".

Personally however, my most memorable impressions were those of her amusing little comments during the Q&A session.

Question: "President Faust, as a President of Harvard, what do you think Japan should do to become a better-functioning global economy?"

President Faust: "I think you want to ask that question to my predecessor, not me. Now, if you would like to know some details about the Civil War, then of course ..."

Question from a NHK (Japan TV Corporation) female chief, whom no-one, including the President Faust could understand: "What do you sth sth as a woman sth sth President sth sth Harvard?"

President Faust: "I'm sorry, woman what? But I am guessing you want to know what it is to be the first female Harvard President. To answer that I have an anecdote for you: on the day I was named the President, a group of my female colleagues from the Radcliffe Institute brought in a huge bunch of pink balloons saying 'It's a GIRL!'. (...)

Also, during my visit at Keio Girls High School, I was a bit taken by surprise with a very simple question 'How do you balance career and family?' (laughter) "

She also addressed the Harvard strive and shift in emphasis towards social service and public leadership, mentioning how after the recent economic crisis especially, she hopes the always-success-pursuing Harvard students can finally make one step back and redefine what "success" really meant for them. "Does it really mean Wall Street?", she asked. That was of course, especially pertinent to me.

President Faust gave me an impression of a very strong woman, in contrast to her rather benevolent appearance. I guess, it takes a rather firm hand to guide such an important institution as Harvard, especially over the financial turmoil and 30% shrunken endowment. She is undeniably a talented speaker, brilliantly smart and very direct. Let's hope she's just as talented and capable at making Harvard an even better and greater university than it already is.

A unique Harvard Fan designed especially for President Faust.

W marcu jak w garncu.

There's an old polish proverb, "W marcu jak w garncu", literal translation being "In march like in a pot" (oh the translation sounds terrible). The allegory works like this: in the month of march, like a pot, it's sometimes cold (when the pot is not heated) and sometimes hot (when it's cooked in). In Japanese, they have 三寒四温 (さんかんしおん), literally meaning 3(days) of cold and four (days) of warmth.

How felicitous both of them are of my Japan march-experience. I have been quite restless, since all my travel plans have been scheduled for April, May and June, when the weather will finally turn warm (or so I expect). That in consequence, meant I had to wait over and survive the idleness of March in Tokyo - the iddleness of no classes and being locked in my room during rainy and cold days. Occasional sunny days would not last enough, followed by freezing and gloomy rain. That's actually abit annoying about Japanese break system - it's not cold enough to go skiing again, not warm enough to go "beaching".
But there was one perk:

Olympics figure skating hype.

The end of Feb offered a bit of Olympics related entertainment and of course, no way could I miss out on the big Yuna Kim vs Mao Asada debate. It was quite fun stalking some of my Korean or Korean-American acquaintances on facebook and see:

1. How almost each of them were obsessed with their ice-skating queen. Some had descriptions such as "I wish I could ice-skate" or simply "XYZ is a fan of Yuna Kim" posted all over their profiles.
2. Some where quite nationalistic.

That's an interesting topic I have to admit. Having talked to a very close Korean friend, currently in Korea, I learned that Koreans got very nationalistically heated about the competition between those two. Unnecessarily hostile, he said, bringing up past nationalistic grudges. I find it ironically against the spirit and purpose of Olympics themselves, which was to promote healthy and peaceful competition, not as a background for more nationalistic abuses.

The Japanese public opinion was much better-behaved then, but of course, for Japan as ex-aggressor, it would have been a terrible diplomatic blunder to even try touch nationalistic aspect in this rivalry. They really kept it to the individual's level - it's our Japanese Mao and a foreign rival, could be almost any country (China, or US or Canada), but happened to be Korean. Japanese commentators did not shy away from applauding Kim for her clearly superior performance.

Funnily enough, just a month after the Olympics finals, on March 27th, Mao claimed the gold in the Figure Skating World Championship, Kim getting silver.

But my favourite comment of all, came from Ben (as always) - "Hey, so which of them is Korean and which Japanese? They look EXACTLY the SAME!"


Unfortunately, our Polish figure-skating rep, Anna, was worse than appalling, claiming the very last spot in the short program and leaving all the Poles wondering "Who the heck let her in?". She was also very fat and had a terrible costume, an ado from me as a woman ;).