My presentation went okay. Not great — got a little lost a couple of times. I wasn't really nervous until my dissertation supervisor showed up and sat down in the front row. Anyway, about 15-20 people showed up but the room was super small so there were people standing in the back and I felt good about it. I should have thought a little bit more about how I was going to frame it. Winging the whole thing had gone really well in Bangladesh, but maybe that had something to do with the PowerPoint crutch.
This happened after a meeting with my potential PhD supervisor from Birmingham that was absolutely incredible. We sat out in the sun and talked about metaphors for like eighty minutes. It sounds like getting in Birmingham is likely, very likely, to happen, and she is also going to help me out with my application to the Open University, which is my number one choice. All this good news, very good news.
I have been meeting tons of people that I know from the Internet only. Men who turn out to be women. British people that I thought were American. It's crazy. It also looks like there will be a place for me in Japan for a long time, if I choose to stay here. Although I do feel a bit like a wee nerdling in a crowd of giant nerds, I will keep trying my best.