"USC is full of life; the Irish are not."

I ordered a Yahoo Sports Pass for 1 month for the low, low price of $4.95 and I can now listen to the radio broadcast of the USC-Notre Dame game. It doesn't exactly compare to being in South Bend last year to see SC humiliate the Irish, but considering this is the closest I've gotten to seeing a college football game this season, it's definitely good enough. It's almost like listening to a game on that little gray rectangular radio that my parents have gotten probably about 20 more years of mileage out of than it was meant to handle. And I'm happy to say USC is once again pummeling the Irish, something I'll never get enough of after USC lost the first 13 games they played against ND in my life.

The weather here in Sendai has been beautiful pretty much all week - cold, but clear and sunny. I met my new conversation partner for dinner on Friday night, an engineering senior named Ishiyama Taida. It looks like he's going to work out well - we get along and have a lot to talk about, and I think he's even going to take me to play basketball sometime. Dude's even got a car. Suh-wweeeet. Last night I hung out with a Chinese friend of mine, and she was teaching me some Mandarin with mixed results. Lea, I have new found respect for your Chinese studies.