New Stuff

Kumiko is coming to Melbourne on the 19th. It seems Tokyo is too cold! Perhaps while she is here, I will travel or something? No promises, but I imagine I can score a picture or two.

I have been going into the city nearly everyday and haven't been able to update much lately. I am meeting with another possible student tomorrow. Hopefully, I can scrape up a few more dollars this way.

On another note, I think I slipped and fell in love not so long ago. I guess it didn't last long. Or if its still there, I'm not really sure. But either way, it had me pretty messed up for a while and this part of the reason I haven't written. I thought it best if I didn't complain too much. Nice 'eh? Whatever hole I sank into, I think I'm out. Then again, I haven't seen the girl, so I won't know for sure until I see her again. Sometimes its rough being crazy! Ah, how much better I do when I

My sleeping schedule has been screwed for the most part. I overslept and missed two classes today. I did make it to Chinese class, however and it was suprisingly decent. Perhaps I'll start attending both tutorials?

I've made a few friends. One of which I hung out with for a while tonight. A Korean guy who majored in Japanese. We played some snooker and drank a bit. Nothing too exciting.

I've also met a bunch of Japanese recently. I went to a JACE (Jap/Aus Cultural Exchange) bbq. It started pouring about 20 minutes after I got there. We stood under a footbridge for about an hour. It was fun, albeit very wet. Not sure if any of those will end up as people I hang out with, but we'll see what happens.

There is a Uni in the city which has some supposedly reasonably priced language courses. I'm gonna go check it out soon.

Partially Employed

Yes, its true. I am now employed for 2 hours of each and every week. $20/hour to tutor English. I did the first lesson yesterday. It went quite well I thought. Hopefully, I can find some more students in the near future.

I've been hanging out in the city with my Korean friends quite a bit and I suppose you won't be surprised to learn that they have been spending a lot of time teaching me Korean this week. As with Arabic, not being able to type at a reasonable pace is a huge obstacle in progressing with vocab absorbtion. I'll figure something out eventually.

I went to another Japanese conversation club on Wed as well as tonight. It was at a bar, so I actually got to use my Japanese a bit. I don't think I got any in tonight however.

Not much else of interest going on. Classes are ok. Grades are good. Weather sucks. Pretty mundane.

Thai Festival - Party

Ah, the last few hours of my vacation. I enjoyed it. I spent the day at the Thai festival in the city. It wasn't anything special as far as festivals go, but it was a decent taste of home. The weather was Melbourne at its best: hot, rainy and really cold. I spent most of the day with Lia, one of the Korean girls I've recently befriended. She has given me a decent base of Korean. I can read most of the alphabet after one lesson, though there are a few characters with which I'm still a bit slow or rusty. Learning can be easy if you don't overload your brain with any one particular thing. By jumping around, you can absorb so much!

I picked up my Zoloft prescription today. It was $40 for 30 100mg pills. That should hold me off for a bit.

As for my party on Friday, I made an Indian-style curry/soup, a few rolls of vegan sushi as appetizers, fried mixed vegetables with tofu, and Thai spicy vermicelli salad with fake squid. Anthony made sweet and spicy Thai-style pasta and Will brought some kim chee. I think everything turned out well. Here is a shot of a few of us. We all got sickeningly full. Food is surely evil!

From L to R - Lia, Me, Anthony, Will, Lana.

IM Etiquette - Traina Unveiled

I finished cooking up a storm for today. I'll give you a menu later. In the meantime, I have a message for Mr. Traina. Please wait more than 30 seconds for a reply. As I have a kitchen now, I am often online, but in the other room cooking lots of good vegan stuff. "Doing it with some hot chick" is also possible.


Mr. Traina! 

Zoloft - Gainful Employment? - Gambling

I went to the doctor yesterday and got a 5-time 30/100g dosage prescription. This should cover me well after I leave Australia. This pleases me!

A Korean friend of mine named Will put an ad up for me in the hopes I could find some students to teach English to. I got a call the same day and I met with her yesterday. I'm not certain whether she wants me or not, but I will find out on Monday. It wouldn't be much, but it would help.

While I was on the tram into the city a busload of mostly Asian girls hopped aboard on what appeared some sort of tour. I slid over to increase the chances that some of them would sit with me. It worked of course. One Thai girl, two Japanese and one Turkish. It was nice to speak some Thai here for once (phone calls aside). When I asked them where they were from I was pretty surprised. But I was amused by their reaction to my response that I speak Japanese, Thai and am studying Arabic. Good stuff.

I went to the casino last night after meeting with my student. Nothing big. I won 10 bucks or so. I now have over $50 in $1-coins stacked neatly on my desk. I should have left with a higher profit margin, but I got a little out of control.

I'm having a small party today. I ordered lots of food and I need to go pick up more soon. I'm gonna cook up a bunch of stuff.