Good Times and Bad Times
Wow.
Malaysia was a relaxing time, a Suntory time. We spent three days in Kuala Lumpur, one of which was actually Malaysia's Independence Day. We just kind of wandered around the city, taking it all in instead of trying to go see the "sights", of which there were few anyways. The highlight of Malaysia was the food; I had Malaysian, American, Lebanese, Iraqi, and Japanese, and it was all fantastic (although I think it was the food that made me sick the third day and prevented our day trip to Malacca). Oh, that and the Brazilian-Chinese band that played in a cozy little club one of the nights, which was incredible.
After that Amanda and I flew to Guangzhou, China. Air Asia is old school; it's a budget airlines, and they get their own stupid budget terminal, and then we actually have to go outside to board the plane. But it's cheap. So Guangzhou. Maybe you know it as Canton? (Cantonese language, and Chinatown-style food). We went to a nice park and saw one of the most famous symbols of Guangzhou, a silly statue of 5 rams. And the Guangzhou City Museum. Then we saw a beautiful orchid garden, made better because it was devoid of people. The highlight of this city was, again, the food; we had Cantonese style honey pork and fried rice, and also yum cha (where you sip tea and eat food) and dim sum (little bamboo baskets filled with food, like dumplings). And I didn't get sick!
Only a day and a half in Guangzhou, and then it was off to Beijing for 5 days. It wasn't even strange to be back anymore, it was just normal. As if I had been expected back. Of course, there were a million changes since even last year, let alone 2006. The dumpling place is gone, there's a karaoke place on campus, they're tearing down the classrooms attached to the dorms, and the price of everything - EVERYTHING, no exceptions - has gone up, from taxis to food to clubs. Stupid Olympics. We did a lot of hanging out with China/Japan, going to karaoke and bars and whatnot, and mooching off a few of their trips - the Temple of Heaven and the Great Wall. We also went to see Ditan Park (the Temple of Earth) and the Drum & Bell Towers, where we met an Israeli physician working for the Paralympics. He gave us (which we then gave to Mayumi) a ticket to see Wheelchair Basketball! Actually, on our last day, Amanda and I did manage to see the Paralympics - track and field events in the Bird's Nest Stadium, where an American won a 100 meter dash and a Belgian Princess put the medals on the winners. It was pretty epic, and I'm glad I got to experience such a part of history.
While in Beijing, I got some sucky news; my dog Sheeba of 10 years had died. She had some crazy internal diseases and tumors that just started manifesting over the past month or so. I said a goodbye to her when I left for Asia knowing there was a good chance she wouldn't make it until I got back, and unfortunately I was right. She was an amazing dog, mostly because she was so cute and silly and ridiculous, as dogs tend to be. I'll miss her a lot, and it actually made me feel kind of lonely, knowing she was gone. Partly because she was gone, and partly because it hurt my family so much; I wish I could have been there to say a real goodbye, and to share in my family's pain.
I had a great time in Beijing, but to make things worse, Amanda and I had to go in different directions when it came time to go to Japan. She flew to Kyoto while I went to Tokyo. So now my dog is dead, my family is depressed, I had to leave my girlfriend, and I'm in a huge unforgiving city. It kind of sobered me, and the loneliness just kind of piled on. Not to be emo, but yeah, it's just what happened. I had to drag 80 fricking billion pounds of luggage all over Tokyo too, as I met Kensuke at Tamachi Station to stay the night at his apartment. That made me feel better, though, because I realized that I had friends in this city. I took a shower, we got some drinks (Chu-Hi) and snacks, and just talked, and by the end of the night I wasn't so depressed.
The next day was today, and I lugged my fricking luggage all over Tokyo again, first to go to the Sakura House headquarters in Shinjuku to sign the lease and get my keys, then to Yoyogi (the Kitasando Station) to finally put my stuff down in my salmon-pink apartment, the stuff I had been dragging around Asia for almost 3 weeks. That cheered me up too, to finally settle down and be in the place that I'll be spending the next 6 months in. It's tiny, but there's a big common room and kitchen and I'm looking forward to meeting lots of people; plus it's got a pretty sweet view, and I'm literally only 60 seconds from the subway station that takes me to Shibuya (where my school is) in 6 minutes. So it's a pretty good commute! I met Nina, Eri, and Yusuke at night for dinner at a French/Italian place and drinks at this pretty hip bar. I forgot how cool and trendy Tokyo is.. ganbarimasu, me! Ha
Oh, and I lost my journal and one of my books. I think I may have left it on the airplane, or in the Tokyo airport? I don't know, but I'm really missing them.
Tomorrow is orientation at Aoyama, and meeting my tutor (who may or may not have made sarcastic fun of me in an email, but maybe whatever they said just got lost in translation), and a campus tour, and my placement test. I hope I do well.. business Japanese spring term was a joke, and I didn't practice over the summer, but I'm not feeling too bad about it surprisingly.
I want to see Amanda.
Malaysia was a relaxing time, a Suntory time. We spent three days in Kuala Lumpur, one of which was actually Malaysia's Independence Day. We just kind of wandered around the city, taking it all in instead of trying to go see the "sights", of which there were few anyways. The highlight of Malaysia was the food; I had Malaysian, American, Lebanese, Iraqi, and Japanese, and it was all fantastic (although I think it was the food that made me sick the third day and prevented our day trip to Malacca). Oh, that and the Brazilian-Chinese band that played in a cozy little club one of the nights, which was incredible.
After that Amanda and I flew to Guangzhou, China. Air Asia is old school; it's a budget airlines, and they get their own stupid budget terminal, and then we actually have to go outside to board the plane. But it's cheap. So Guangzhou. Maybe you know it as Canton? (Cantonese language, and Chinatown-style food). We went to a nice park and saw one of the most famous symbols of Guangzhou, a silly statue of 5 rams. And the Guangzhou City Museum. Then we saw a beautiful orchid garden, made better because it was devoid of people. The highlight of this city was, again, the food; we had Cantonese style honey pork and fried rice, and also yum cha (where you sip tea and eat food) and dim sum (little bamboo baskets filled with food, like dumplings). And I didn't get sick!
Only a day and a half in Guangzhou, and then it was off to Beijing for 5 days. It wasn't even strange to be back anymore, it was just normal. As if I had been expected back. Of course, there were a million changes since even last year, let alone 2006. The dumpling place is gone, there's a karaoke place on campus, they're tearing down the classrooms attached to the dorms, and the price of everything - EVERYTHING, no exceptions - has gone up, from taxis to food to clubs. Stupid Olympics. We did a lot of hanging out with China/Japan, going to karaoke and bars and whatnot, and mooching off a few of their trips - the Temple of Heaven and the Great Wall. We also went to see Ditan Park (the Temple of Earth) and the Drum & Bell Towers, where we met an Israeli physician working for the Paralympics. He gave us (which we then gave to Mayumi) a ticket to see Wheelchair Basketball! Actually, on our last day, Amanda and I did manage to see the Paralympics - track and field events in the Bird's Nest Stadium, where an American won a 100 meter dash and a Belgian Princess put the medals on the winners. It was pretty epic, and I'm glad I got to experience such a part of history.
While in Beijing, I got some sucky news; my dog Sheeba of 10 years had died. She had some crazy internal diseases and tumors that just started manifesting over the past month or so. I said a goodbye to her when I left for Asia knowing there was a good chance she wouldn't make it until I got back, and unfortunately I was right. She was an amazing dog, mostly because she was so cute and silly and ridiculous, as dogs tend to be. I'll miss her a lot, and it actually made me feel kind of lonely, knowing she was gone. Partly because she was gone, and partly because it hurt my family so much; I wish I could have been there to say a real goodbye, and to share in my family's pain.
I had a great time in Beijing, but to make things worse, Amanda and I had to go in different directions when it came time to go to Japan. She flew to Kyoto while I went to Tokyo. So now my dog is dead, my family is depressed, I had to leave my girlfriend, and I'm in a huge unforgiving city. It kind of sobered me, and the loneliness just kind of piled on. Not to be emo, but yeah, it's just what happened. I had to drag 80 fricking billion pounds of luggage all over Tokyo too, as I met Kensuke at Tamachi Station to stay the night at his apartment. That made me feel better, though, because I realized that I had friends in this city. I took a shower, we got some drinks (Chu-Hi) and snacks, and just talked, and by the end of the night I wasn't so depressed.
The next day was today, and I lugged my fricking luggage all over Tokyo again, first to go to the Sakura House headquarters in Shinjuku to sign the lease and get my keys, then to Yoyogi (the Kitasando Station) to finally put my stuff down in my salmon-pink apartment, the stuff I had been dragging around Asia for almost 3 weeks. That cheered me up too, to finally settle down and be in the place that I'll be spending the next 6 months in. It's tiny, but there's a big common room and kitchen and I'm looking forward to meeting lots of people; plus it's got a pretty sweet view, and I'm literally only 60 seconds from the subway station that takes me to Shibuya (where my school is) in 6 minutes. So it's a pretty good commute! I met Nina, Eri, and Yusuke at night for dinner at a French/Italian place and drinks at this pretty hip bar. I forgot how cool and trendy Tokyo is.. ganbarimasu, me! Ha
Oh, and I lost my journal and one of my books. I think I may have left it on the airplane, or in the Tokyo airport? I don't know, but I'm really missing them.
Tomorrow is orientation at Aoyama, and meeting my tutor (who may or may not have made sarcastic fun of me in an email, but maybe whatever they said just got lost in translation), and a campus tour, and my placement test. I hope I do well.. business Japanese spring term was a joke, and I didn't practice over the summer, but I'm not feeling too bad about it surprisingly.
I want to see Amanda.