I'd like to quickly introduce myself to the forum.
So, hello. I've lurked this forum for awhile and found it to be pretty active and pertinent to my interests, so I figured I ought to join. I'm surprised by how polite the people on this forum are, that is rare on the internet, but I suppose this is how a Buddhist forum ought to be.
I'm fairly new to Buddhism, I've only began any serious study of it in the past several months. I had been exposed to Zen/Chan through the study of the Japanese language (as well as Pure Land Buddhism, which I found a little silly), and the Vedas and other Hindu literature through the study of Sanskrit, which lead to Pali, which lead to the Pali canon, and ultimately the convergence of a bunch of originally unrelated interests which ended up leading me into Buddhism.
I was at first the most fond of Zen for its succinctness and and ability to be right to the Point, but in the end, after reading up on Buddhists schools and Buddhist philosophy, I've found Theravada to be what seems to me as the best choice. I could write too much about all that happened to eventually lead me to that, but to be short, Theravada seems to be to-the-point about the Buddha's teaching without sacrificing clarity, and has a well developed canon without over-embellishment, which can also be said for the practice as well. I've found every Buddhist school to have good pieces of insight or a particular flair for a certain method of practice, but overall, I'd take Theravada.
I'm not in the position to join a Sangha really, but I've been gradually taking up the practice on my own, with the help of all the resources I can find. I'm quite happy so far, many of the ideas of Buddhism agree with me very well, but we'll see where it goes.
So anyway, I'm here, and I probably won't post much, but I'll be reading what you say. Keep it up.

