2010-2011

2010 has been an eventful and tumultous year for the world, as well as for all the individuals in it. There were good things, there were bad things, there were crazy things. The global economy was still not in good shape, there were natural disasters, freak weathers, as well as unstable world politics. While the rest of the world celebrate the new year with fireworks and whatever additional festivities each nation can provide, I would assume that many others would prefer avoiding the noise and chaos of it all, and just relax in the comforts of their home in peace and comfortable solitude.

Which was precisely what I had done. We watched the Drama Awards, had a delicious end-of-the-year dinner with champagne (in a country where 20 year-olds can drink legally), baked cupcakes, and spent the night relaxing instead of visiting the Charles bridge area for the New Year fireworks every year. Not only is the weather unusually cold this year, but we've been driving to the bridge area every year since 2005, and by the fifth year nothing was particularly new or exciting about it. It's just become a routine, something that we ought to do because it's the last day of December. It's a little sad, but part of the magic seems to have disappeared from all the familiarity.

At the stroke of midnight, the sound of fireworks started to crackle outside, but nothing around me had changed. I did step out of the house momentarily to admire the occasional glimpse of lights and the echo of fireworks while shivering from the cold, and that was all I needed for festivities.

With the new year comes new responsibilities. As a college junior facing her second semester, I must now (horror of horrors) seriously consider grad school and career options, and need to prep myself for the real world that I am yet so childishly unprepared. I also need to focus more on my studies, continue adjusting into apartment life, and learn how to treat friends, acquaintances, and strangers the right way without sacrifing my sincerity or being a pushover.

Of course, there are still old responsibilities you need to maintain, such as keeping your basic physical/mental health and hygiene in check, behaving like a civilized human being, and calling extended family in the new year.

As dad whips out his mighty Samsung Galaxy and announces "We should say Happy New Year to family in Korea", my brother and I look at each other with mixed emotions.

It's not that I particularly dislike wishing people a Happy New Year. I have nothing in particular against any of my relatives and am largely neutral/positive about them as a whole. Still, you do feel a bit mechanical hearing the same thing over and over again from relatives and you say the same thing repeatedly every year.

Most Relatives say in the following order:

1) How are you?
2) It's good to be home, isn't it?
3) Happy New Year, study hard, stay healthy, don't fight with your brother.

You reply in the following order:

1) I'm fine.
2) Yes.
3) Yes, yes, yes, yes.
4) Oh, and Happy New Year. ("Stay healthy" added for the grandmothers)

As we say our greetings to the primary individuals, my brother and I wish that would be the end... but alas, we must always confront our uncle, my father's oldest brother, on the phone this day every year. He is... interesting, to say it very nicely. And whenever he lectures you, it leaves you cringing, facepalming, or sighing in defeat. Or all three at once. I am sure he is a good person, but the fact remains that his speech is not too much to be desired. (I hope my cousin is not a regular reader of this blog, welp)

Dad dials the numbers. My usually stoic brother is reduced to a giant heap of fear, like a pig in a slaughterhouse waiting to die. I will refrain from transcribing the actual exchange, save for the fact that the first thing he said to me was, "What was your name again?"

...that should be enough to get a glimpse of how the exchange went, as our parents chuckled at their childrens' various silent emotional reactions.

Happy New Year, everybody.

This will probably make me seem like an otaku...

...but I have watched all of Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt.

So far I have not watched another Gainax-made show other than Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, but I do know the concept of a Gainax ending, and although the finale was made of pure "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST DO TO US", once I recovered from the initial reaction of "WHUT", I managed to get a laugh out of the whole thing. It's like a Gainax ending and a parody of next season hooks on American cartoons/television shows after all resolution of conflicts (and mindscrew) rolled into one.

Well played, Gainax. Well fucking played. Oh, you guys.

Also, seeing everyone freak out about how it ruined their Christmas was hilarious.

Jetlag in Roma Diaries 2: Christmas Edition

I am up at 5:30. Again.

Don't blame me! I can't help it if we came back early from our touring and there was nothing else to do!

Friday, Dec 24:

We went to the Vatican.
Needless to say, it was an impressive sight. The inside of the building was probably the biggest Catholic churches I've ever seen. Sculptures and paintings and marbles and carvings were abound in every corner. We also went to an exhibition of what popes of the past have used for masses, ceremonies and the like. Dad commented a little disapprovingly that the Catholics were "too luxurious and gaudy" with their items compared to Buddhists (well, the stuff was all gold and jewels). Mom chided him for being potentially "religiously intolerant". Oh well.

We then went to the museum, which included the Sistine Chapel, and we saw a variety of exhibits including Egyptian items, tapestries, maps, Greek sculptures, and of course, the paintings in the Sistine Chapel.

...and then it rained.
and poured.
and poured.

We thought the rain would subside after having lunch, but the rain was as strong as ever.
We decided to make way to the subway station first and decide what to do with the rest of the day.
The walk in the rain proved that, it sucks, but we should just go back to the hotel, because there was no way anybody could tour in this shower. We'll come out again once it calms down.

It never did calm down the entire evening, and we just ended up having dinner and kinda stranded in the hotel room, where the subway closed at 9PM because it was Christmas Eve.

...welp, Merry Christmas!

We leave for Firenze (Florence) on Christmas day.

The Jet lag in Roma Diaries

I fell asleep at around 8PM-ish after dinner. I woke up at 2. I guess this is what happens when you're slightly jetlagged and you go on a family trip.At least I'm not dropping to the ground at 5 or 6 like last year.

It is a good thing that my brother brought his laptop. It is also a good thing that wireless is free here. It is most good that I know how to hack into my brother's code-locked laptop.

Monday, Dec 20:

Arrived in CZ without any problems and arrived home. We had no tree, but mom had decorated the house with enough lights and Christmas bulbs that it was okay. There was a new sofa in the house.

My brother, who came a day before me, had significantly lost weight and had dropped a shirt size. Well damn, now that XXL Michigan shirt is going to be too big for him. Lucky bastard.

Ate delicious home food in the form of rice, seaweed soup, steamed eggs, chicken, kimchi, and salad. I MISSED HOME FOOD SO MUCH MY COOKING HAS LIMITS BAAAAAAW.

My mother had also become a  JYJ fan while we were away. I don't know whether to be amused or afraid.


Tuesday Dec 21:

The car trip to Italy begins.

...and that's all there is to it, really. We just drove the entire day, stopping occasionally for gas, bathrooms, and eating. We did see the Alps on the way, though, which was neat. Arrived at Verona in the night and found a place to sleep.


Wednesday Dec 22:

Arrived in Rome a little later because my dad was absolutely exhausted. Toured round several tourist spots in Rome in the evening, leaving my dad to rest. Gelato is pretty good here, obviously.


Thursday, Dec 23:

Headed out in the morning to see the Colosseum. Also saw some ruins nearby, as well as other historic buildings (pardon my lack of using names, it's 5:40 AM and my mental state is not at its best.)

What is immediately noticeable is the weather. It is not cold. At all.
Venice? It was freezing. Barcelona? It was kinda chilly.
Rome? It's practically warm. It WAS actually warm during midday, much to my confusion.
The only reason I haven't ditched my winter jacket was for the sole reason that it was effective for blocking the strong winds. Goddamn this is probably the warmest holiday season spent in Europe.


Friday, Dec 24:

I dropped and fell asleep without showering around 8PM.

When I opened my eyes to search for a clock, it said it was a little over 2AM.

Took a shower, watched TV, and now hacked into this laptop for the internet. We're supposed to get up early to go to the Vatican in the morning, anyway, might as well stay up a bit (or take a short nap again, depending). Hooray for jet lag.



More to come soon, I suppose.
And of course, the mandatory (?) facebook pictures after the trip is over.

Snowed In

Well, here I am, still in Ann Arbor, lazying about with a laptop on my lap, wondering how to spend my extra day in a fun, productive manner. I've already watched a show; I guess I should head to the kendo apt at some point to chill and receive cookies.

My flight to Amsterdam was cancelled yesterday due to the MOTHERFUCKING SNOWSTORM that is striking large chunks of the European continent.

My brother, who somehow had been able to go to Frankfurt, is currently stuck in the Frankfurt airport for hours on end. At least he's in a location where, should the worst come to be, my dad can pick him up via car.

Although the Prague airport is been told to be fine, it does make me worry about whether I'll actually get home. Getting stranded in Detroit where I have an apartment to go to is one thing. Getting stranded in JFK with a bunch of strangers is another.

Also, I have to see whether I can procure an extra airbus ticket, though it kinda seems unlikely.

Also, being stupid, I haven't eaten. Sigh.

This winter just decided to mess with me, hasn't it?

Mindscrew

It's Wednesday evening, and I'm slaving away on my final psychology project for PSYCH 303. This extension had better be valid, otherwise I have a legitimate reason to object to any potential grading penalties.

In order to finish this project, I have been slaving away at night, going to bed at ungodly hours for about two days in a row. As a result, my brain has kind of melted, which leads to this sort of visions in my sleep.

1: I dreamt that my family and I were in the airport going to the States, and we had a pet squirrel. The airport guy asked if we were taking the squirrel along.
"It will be xxx dollars", he said, which I don't remember the price, but it was way more than any sane man was willing to pay.
We stared at each other in silence, and I said, "Well, it's just a squirrel. There's plenty of squirrels in the US, too".
Everyone agreed. I let the squirrel loose outside the airport.

"...You're abandoning me? How could you?"

***

2: Unrelated to the first dream, I had somehow gotten myself lost in a huge airport duty free store. Also, horror of horrors, I was stark naked. Somehow I was trying to take a shower in the store for some incomprehensible reason, but the shower room was occupied by some old man, which left me stranded outside. To add to the mortification, Antai found me there.

(oh dear god why.)

As most sane people would react if they were seen by their friend with nothing but their birthday suit IN AN AIRPORT, I panicked, HARD.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH I'M SO SORRY I TRIED TO TAKE A SHOWER AND THEN I GOT STRANDED AND THIS USUALLY DOESN'T HAPPEN TO ME AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH" I wailed. Antai was surprisingly chill about all this. "Aww, don't worry, I'll help you," he said.
He somehow got me some clothes to wear, and he washed my hair. I said "EHHHH?! it's okay I can wash my hair myself NO REALLY", but he did it anyway.

...I have no other explanation than that this is how I generally feel when Antai feels the need to correct my kendo, as I am not as good as I would like to be and generally feel horribly ashamed of myself when something doesn't go right. But you know, it still doesn't stop me from going "WHAT THE FUCK, THAT IS ALL SORTS OF AWKWARD AND WRONG."

***

3: I was in a lecture hall, taking the last lecture of... some class, I'm not sure (ENG 376?), and Robert randomly decided to audit it. The professor walked around the seats to see if we took proper notes, chatting up with the students along the way. I have no idea why. When he came to me and looked at my notes, he remarked that my doodles were nice.
Embarrassed, I muttered "It helps me concentrate". He then wanted to check what sort of makeup I had on. I didn't have any makeup on, and I told him so.

***

4: I dreamt that I kept walking past a yellow rooster; there was a whole story behind this and the yellow rooster was a sort of symbolism, but I no longer remember.

Then I ran towards a yellow suitcase at a parking lot.

Then somehow I was Harry Potter, and the yellow suitcase was mine.

"Hey, Harry, wanna ride the car back home this year? We can take a drive through London!" Ron Weasly said as he pointed to his non-magical black van that he procured from god knows where.
"Well, sure, but you're forgetting that neither of us know how to drive," I said.

 "Yeah, remember that last time?"

 After Ron left, I, for some reason, went inside the car and fiddled with the stick. WHY I WOULD DO THAT AFTER STATING THAT I CAN'T DRIVE IS A COMPLETE MYSTERY. I guess that's how Harry Potter rolls.

I accidentally started the car and it started to move on its own. I tried to stop it, but I failed, and as the car entered the road, I had no choice but to drive it to get it out of the way somehow. I had somehow gotten myself into five consecutive police chases, but by and large came out unscathed. I used magic to make the car invisible and drove on.

Moments later, I had ended up in some downtown area where they were blaring Latin music. I used magic to apparate the car back to the original place, thinking I was safe to walk here.

Oh, was I ever so wrong.

 Not exactly Park Guelle, but the general structure is similar. The dreamscape resembled a downtown area that I passed on the way to Park Guelle.

There seemed to be some sort of festival going on in the area; ladies in colorful dresses were dancing to the music. Other people were dancing to the music, screaming, cheering. The atmosphere was so festive, everyone seemed so cheerful there. Confettis were all around and sprays of red occasionally flew about the air.

That was when I saw piles of dismembered human flesh and organs laid around my feet.
When I looked up, I saw that thin slices of raw meat flew out of nowhere and latched itself onto some people. The people still danced around with meat stuck on their bodies, except with a look of panic and danced frantically, maniacally, as if to get the meat slices off. They stuck onto the bodies as if they were also part of them.

In sight of the meat, dozens of people dived forward, trying to eat off the raw meat. The victims screamed. The crowd cheered. I saw a man with his entire torso eaten, blood shooting out of his body like a fountain, while his legs still twiched and the people, covered in blood, still biting hunks of flesh out of him.

I felt like I was going to throw up, not to mention that, "HOLY FUCK I NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW."

I ran back with all my might, when suddenly a piece of raw meat wrapped itself around my leg. I screamed and kept on running, praying that nobody would notice the meat stuck on my leg, hopelessly trying to tear it off. I ran in a speed I never thought imaginable for me (or me as Harry Potter), and to my greatest relief, the meat came off, and I ran, and I saw nothing but white light ahead of me...

***

... when I was greeted by the green numbers on my alarm clock flashing 10:30 A.M.

I guess this is my brain telling me to sleep at normal hours.
Soon, brain, soon.