What kind of country is this?

Along with Jada, one of the girls from Singapore, I waited for the bus today for nearly 45 minutes before giving up and returning home. I looked online and discovered that there aren't friggin buses on Sundays. During the week supermarkets all close by 5:30. I wonder how people with full time jobs ever find time to go shopping?

My workload is quite impressive. I've been at it every day and I'm still not ready for Indonesian. I think I'm ok for the rest, but I don't feel terribly strong in anything other than Chinese. We'll see how week 2 goes.

I got this cool composer software for music class so I shall being working on my first symphony today. I'm also shopping for keyboards as I need something to bang on in my free time. I only brought a harmonica.

Last night I watched Twister, SW Episode I (While most people despised J-J, I could never stand that kid and his horrible acting), and Ni Lev(Nine Lives), a 'famous' Norwegian movie about some soldier who has many brushes with death, blindness, amputation and insanity as he is helped on his way to safety. The problem with the plot is that you never have any clue why everybody is helping this guy and why it is so imporant that everybody risks their lives to help him. There are some scenes where the conversation might well have been where the Matrix got lots of its lines from ("Is he the one?", "What if he's not the one?", "We will risk everything because he must be the one.(even though we can't be sure)", etc. Well I guess it was the best Norwegian movie I've ever seen(or will see for that matter).

Swimming in an Endless Sea of Women

Well not really, but we did go to the beach and the female to male ratio was unlike anything I've ever seen outside of Sligo, Ireland. I was invited out to the city with a pre-game session at the beach beginning early last night. Myself and six girls went to Flinders station where I was informed where we had to meet up with a few other friends. Four more girls(denmarkians!, or Danish if you prefer). From there we bought some beer and got on the tram heading towards the beach. On the way there, the only girl at the International House that has managed to truly incur my ire was surprisingly less annoying then the last time I found myself trapped and forced to converse with her. We made it to the beach and this particular girl made a bit of a scene. But enough about pitiful people. We hung out on the beach and I told some of my stories to the seemingly eager crowd and I'm fairly sure I was entertaining. I told of the time when I lived in my car for a few months and became very good at picking up girls at bars and sleeping at their place(water with lemon?). I also told them a few of my more amusing run-ins with the law. Following this we went into this bar called the Espy. It was decent. I hung out for a while, but I didn't drink much more as I had already had my fill. The smoke began to get to me after a short while and I went outside with a couple people. After a bit I headed back to catch the last tram. I wasn't up for taking a cab and I'm glad I got out when I did. I woke up with a few packs of smokes stuck inside my face and lungs. It will take all day just to flush out the worst of it. Blech. Stop smoking all you bastards! You're killing me.

Today's unrelated picture:

Hamilton Applebees - A few days before I left the US. 

Vinyl Shuriken and TITS

So after another night of very little sleep and bizarre dreams I sit in front of my two evil computers offering you yet another wonderful episode of my incessant babbling. It is quite nice to get some of those crazy words outside of my head now and then. I thought I had to reduce my vocab to a humbler level in Thailand, but I am under the distinct impression that people in this country aren't much better off in that category. Although I impressed with how many Australians can speak non-European foreign languages.

As I sit here listening to Peter Gabriel and not working on mastering the conversations that I will need to be fluent in for Indonesian class by Tuesday and Wednesday respectively, I have been attempting to divert my nonproductive mood into a source of shame and amusement that may kick-start me later today. I have decided to put a Google PageRank Checker on my page. Basically you can compare my rank on a scale of 1-10 with any other page. Alright so its not that exciting.

I want - no rather I must attain the final book in Stephen King's Dark Tower series. Aptly titled The Dark Tower, this book has been out far to long for me not to have it. I saw it in a bookstore here for some obscene amount of money and had no trouble not buying it (I didn't have enough!). If only this dog-shaped rock had Amazon!!

暗殺　- (an-satsu) assassination - the first character means dark and the second means to kill. Nice 'eh?

満足する　- (man-zoku) to settle for (something) - man means to be full while zoku in this instance has to do with having enough of something.

理解する　－　(ri-kai suru) to figure out

恐ろしい　－　(oso-roshii) frightening

Languor

I am blasted. I just haven't slept much this week. I managed to fix my laptop after much pain. I haven't gone through anything this maddening since I camped out for around 40 hours to get my Journeyman's Boots in Everquest a number of years back. Of course this wait was considerably less rewarding. It turned out to be some stupid worm virus.

I went to the Japanese consulate today in the city. It was fairly interesting. They had lots of nice books, but sadly only teachers are allowed to borrow the language books. The two Japanese girls that study with me at Deakin joined me at the Japanese Club tonight. It was pretty fun.

Aside from being very tired, I've been sick since Monday. The smokers cough seems to have left me alone for a bit while my sinuses are a faucet of phlegm. I've gone through nearly the entire box of this crappy cold/flu medicine I bought two days ago and I haven't really gotten any better.

I made vegan sushi for the first time last night. I was a bit drunk and I sliced my finger open rather deep. The sushi was good though! I made it again today and it was much tastier without all the blood...

I'm considering dropping one of my classes as I am wondering if its even remotely possible for me to handle the workload of the classes here along with my other studies.

Just two days after I requested some improvements to the gym here and they bought all the things I suggested and fixed 1 of the three broken machines. Thats a good start I'd say.

Time for sleep I think. So much work to do tomorrow.

Class Report - Ill - Language Stuff

Had my first six-hour marathon of classes today. Starting off with one hour of Indonesian. There are cameras setup as the lecture is broadcasted to another campus closer to the ocean as well. There were many problems and interruptions. Hopefully that won't always happen. I didn't learn very much Indonesian today, but heres some basic stuff.

Good morning - Selamat pagi.
How are you? - Apa kabar?
Fine (lit. good news) - Kabar baik.
How (are you?)? - Bagaimana?
Fine - Baik-baik saja.
Where are you going? - Anda mau ke mana?

After Indonesia was my two-hour Arabic lecture. I liked the teacher there. He should be good. I learned a handful of Arabic characters and how to say a few things, but until I know the entire alphabet I won't attempt to type it.

Music class was pretty cool, but I think it will be too much work. I'm a bit too advanced for the lessons, but its kind of nice to have music theory explained to me. I've read quite a bit about it, but have never been formally taught music. The teacher is pretty interesting. Her instructional methods are somewhat similar to my own. I was impressed ;-).

The crappy part of today was that nobody turned on the AC in any of the classes and it was friggin hot! I was a sweaty mess by the time I got home. I think I also managed to come down with the flu. I'm cracked out on painkillers and cold medicine at the moment. Hopefully I'll feel better upon waking.

I'm dying for Zoloft people. Can somebody please send me some? My life is so much easier when I'm taking that stuff. I've been out for nearly 2 weeks and its like I fell into a ditch or something. Zooooloffft!