So the bogus site was true after all...
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Damn, what a play with the mind. I hoped it wasn´t true, but it was. And now our hearts are broken. Daniel and Kim, we will persevere! We have tried so hard to get to now.
Anyhow I am still in Europe, Portugal that is. And I´m using this very-difficult-to-use keyboard that can type all the symbols of the European language plus it is 2€ per 15 mins and since I have just crossed the 15-minute border after bidding for modules, I might as well use the remaining time to type my money´s worth here.
I´ll be heading for airport very soon and will be back on the 28th afternoon. Yes yes, your presents are with me and will be shortly with you.
I can´t wait to see misty!
7:25 pm
クロサギ
Hola from Spain!
Sunday, December 24, 2006
They say Hola for hello here (pronounced as oh-la). About the only word I know, other than gracias ha. I know, I am pathetic. And most of them can't even speak much English. They keep greeting us by some common Japanese greetings, thinking that we're Japanese heh. All the Asians look the same to them.
Anyhow I've been here for quite some time already, but I still haven't gotten used to the weather. One day it's temperature cold plus sunny hot and another day it's raining cats and dogs and super windy and freezing cold. (And I do mean frostbite cold like today my hands and feet were so cold, they became numb after a while. But no, I didn't see snow, because it wasn't low enough but it sure wasn't high enough to be nice aircon coolness. Like not here not there, so it kind of sucked) Damn, can the weather decide what it wants to be? I feel kinda cheated by the weather reports. Even if they proclaim it'll will sunny without clouds, in Europe, there is still a high possibility that it will turn out to be the opposite like it did today. Grr and Brr.
Well, you can be sure that one thing stays constant: the humidity level, or should I say, the lack of humidity. It's so bloody dry here my skin keeps threatening to crack if I don't be super auntish and apply lots and lots of moisturiser.
Ok let's skip the complaints and go straight into the nice bits ha. The scenery is absolutely fabulous. You can never see the sun set as low, nor the sea as blue, nor plains and plains of grass and plantations over a vast area of land, nor as many cathedrals and basilicas to visit that you wonder if they were actually one and the same thing repeated several times.
Barcelona was an interesting city to visit, although I did expect a little bit more out of it. Don't ask me what but I think TV shows were exaggerating a little when they showcased it repeatedly, or perhaps I just didn't have much time to walk around more so I couldn't enjoy it properly. And you can't really blame this on me because the first day I arrived, I was made to walk several streets in the opposite direction of the square, which I wanted to visit, because my mother wanted to find her LV bags. Grr. Whatever happened to the fountain from which you could drink water from and which symbolised that you will again return to Barcelona next time? Barcelona lost much of its magic there and then for me. Fortunately, this was salvaged by the next day, in which we had more free time to walk the streets. Yet we suffered the horrible experience of having to eat cold dishes out in the cold, and I am quite sure those weren't the best Barcelona cuisine to be tasted. Perhaps that was what made me so vexed.
Madrid was simply beautiful. From what I had heard of it being a metropolitan city with alot of traffic, I really didn't expect it to be much, but I was pleasantly surprised by the number of old buildings which were restored and made into libraries, courts, museums etc. And mind you, these are really old palaces which are really big and spacious, and are still really pretty both on the outside and on the inside. Barcelona had a lot of old buildings are well, but Madrid kept its charm for me there. I can't figure out why still, but I was very sorry to leave Madrid for the next town.
After that, we visited a series of small and little but nice and quaint towns like Cordoba and Granada. I am currently in Torremolinos staying for the night but will be moving off to Gibraltar and Seville and finally to Lisbon in the remaining days. Not to worry guys, I took lots and lots of photos... there will also be a dogs in Spain exhibition here as well because I took many many photos of the dogs there. So just be patient and they will be up pretty soon after I come back ha.
And boy do I miss Misty! I hope she misses us too.
7:02 am
クロサギ
In case I don't get to say goodbye
Thursday, December 14, 2006
It's funny how nobody seems to have the time to blog anymore after the sem's come and gone. The idea of guilt-free blogging just doesn't quite cut it.
These days, I live in a nonstop action-packed world, which began shortly after my last paper only a week ago. A mix of various elements: shopping, Vivocity, alcohol, New Asia bar, sleep, wakeboarding, anime, ktv, more shopping, winter clothing, bbq, Japanese classes, Zouk, more alcohol, Jdramas, packing my suitcase, more sleep, Misty duties and much more to come!
And I'm here blogging now only because Kim got wasted last night at mambo, and she's suffering from the effects of alcohol, so our trip to Vivo was cancelled. I'm partially relieved because it means I can slack the day off, but half of me wants to go crawling back to Vivo and get high over the 2-bucks Japanese Daiso shop and the cute strawberry-themed Japanese store which sells things only for dogs and kids (of which I am neither but I fawn over the things anyway). I so heart Vivo for these two shops! I can't wait to go back and get that cute little pink strawberry dog bed for Misty when I return from Spain and Portugal.
Now now, don't be envious, I just happen to have a mom who loves exclusively Europe, which explains why I'm always going back to the continent without fail each year. Besides Europe is such a big continent, we will never be able to finish visiting all of it, but we try to do so by going by each of the individual countries and cities. Although I also want to visit the rest of Japan and practise the language there, I simply love going back to Europe. Beautiful cities and buildings await. I just love travelling.
The only thing I'm worried about right now is Misty. Kenny and David, please take good care of my baby girl. Kim, Daniel and Aless, please stop by to play with her as much as you can. I'll be really grateful. I'm afraid she'll be lonely and cry about it, she's really such a softie at heart and craves attention and love.
In case I don't get to say goodbye, everyone have a good Christmas ya? I'll be back real soon, don't miss me too much ha.
5:30 pm
クロサギ
Our baby girl takes to the streets for the first time...
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
(a) This string is choking me and I have no idea what it's for.
(b) Wee! I'm off to the roads!
(c) Oh no! Is that a big bad car?
(d) This is like the most reassuring thing so far.
(e) Whimpers... Save me from that big bad dog, I.just.can't.move.
(f) Say goodbye to the road, I just wanna go home.
So begins the adventures of Misty on the road. To be sure, we took half an hour just to walk a stretch of 100m (?? Was it more like 10m?), which will normally take about 2 minutes on human feet.
For a first, she was how reluctant to get out of the house. No matter how much we tugged at her leash, she refused to budge and planted herself firmly at the entrance. My sister had to carry her out of the gate. Apparently she thought something was definitely wrong the way we were trying so hard to get her out where she is normally not allowed. I secretly think that maybe she thought that we wanted to get rid of her or something. Of course the leash was uncomfortable, but initially she happily sat inside the house, not knowing what it was for.
We carried her to the road just outside my house, thinking she will immediately take to it, but she was furtive, frantically trying to smell for any signs of familiarity. So she stood there refusing to walk off with us again. And when we finally got around the bend after like 5 mins or so, the cars passing by frightened her so much that sometimes she just crouched somewhere and tried to hide or try to run away (run away meaning 5 steps forward). We had to coax her and reassure her that everything is alright.
Surprisingly, she took to the camera more than she did to the road. Usually, she hated the camera's flash more than anything, but on the dark road in very dim lights, I think she was grateful for something familiar, so there she is smiling at the camera! At last ha, you have no idea how hard it is to get a picture of her like that. No chance in the house at least, not with her running around nonstop.
When we finally almost neared what I had set as the end of our little walking trip, there is this big bad ugly dog from the house next to the pavement who rushed out to the fence and barked his life's worth. Poor misty just sat there (photo (e)), not knowing what to do, so scared that she actually didn't find the whole thing fun anymore. With fellow dogs, she was this stranger to her own kind. With humans, she was at home. When people passed by, she tried to kiss their feet and say hi, but other dogs scare her.
In the end, we had to half-carry and half-get-her-to-walk back home. I tried the catching game she liked to play but she was so distracted everytime a car passed by that she just wasn't interested anymore. The poor girl... by the time we took her back, she quickly looked for the entrance and joyfully ran to her safe haven.
She didn't even mind when my mother nagged at her for getting her hair all messed up with leaves and all stuck in it, not even when my mother wiped her all over with a wet cloth (which she usually resents from the everyday routine) before tucking her into bed. Misty is such a homely girl who likes very much to be loved.
12:20 am
クロサギ
When resolution is the only stimulant...
Sunday, December 03, 2006
It has happened again in a neverending cycle of work and more work. I am left hungering for the sleep that studying has deprived me of and will always deprive me of, no matter how many times I try to recover from this condition.
How do I keep myself awake when every minute I spend studying, another 3 minutes go into lusting after sleep?
Coffee? Believe or not (I know some people exclusively live off coffee), I have not touched this caffeine drink in years. To start now will be killing all resolution (if any) to study after barely a few hours of drinking it.
Kim recommends
Red Bull, but I haven't brought myself to buy it yet. I've always thought that I should leave it as a last resort, not as a last resort but as an image of a last resort, something I can look forward to while slugging out in the mud. At least I can think: "If all else fails, I still have Red Bull."
Cans after cans of
Coke,
Mug or
Sprite. Of course I get a sugar rush, but only for about an hour or so after drinking, practically useless for pulling an all-nighter.
Watch or read
something totally unrelated to work for a while. Sometimes it helps to pull in the guilt factor. Because after I have spent a considerably large amount of time on something I am not supposed to be doing, the general impulse after that is to study. (Right, I can smell sniggers from you guys,
yeah right.)
Supper? My stomachache has officially become food-intolerant at night, especially in the later part of the night. It's an all-or-nothing phenomenon for me and food at night. Either I eat food and don't sleep so early (roughly about 2 to 3 hours or more after I've eaten) or I don't eat and sleep normally. Besides, food does make me sleepy anyway, which defeats the purpose of keeping me awake.
These days,
resolution is the only stimulant for me... even if it is only so very little. But what is left of my secondary school days is now enough for me to survive on. At least for the next few days. This is the last lap of the long-distance marathon.
What about the next semester? Let's not even go there.
9:56 pm
クロサギ
