Day 115 - Christmas Eve

And there's NOTHING to do outside!

Everything is closed by 6-7pm. Some shops are still open but they're packed! And most of those shops involve spending 20+ euros for a decent meal.

Well, things were a little different in the day. Shops were open as usual, except Tesco. So I had to go to LIDL for my grocery shopping. Not that I had much to buy. Until I saw today's promotion. 50% off all fruits, vegies, some meat products and bread.

WHAT!!??

There wasn't much left though. Housewives doing last minute shopping for tonight's Christmas dinner took almost everything within the first 2 hours. When I got there, the meat section was already empty and half their vegetables were sold out. I ended up getting only carrots, potatoes and garlic. ...What happened to the garlic? CRAP!!!

And for the very first time since coming to Dublin, I actually caught the no. 10 bus just before it leaves. I always had to wait at least 5 minutes for a bus...

As for dinner, I was hoping to go out for a nice hot meal in a Western restaurant. But... the cheap restaurants were all closed, including the bars. I had 2 choices then, the ungodly expensive high class restaurants or McDonalds. And I so did not feel like a burger at the time. So I came back... to find that I really had no intention of cooking. So... pizza. Yeah, McDonalds sounds so much better now, but I really didn't want to go back out into the cold.

Unless it snows. Why the hell isn't it snowing!? I want a white Christmas! That's it! Next year, I'm going to some other country for Christmas!

Well, Christmas Eve sucked for my adventurous side. But at least my otaku side is celebrating Christmas for the very first time! Christmas anime specials all the way! Woohoo! And sweets to boot! I wasn't able to get wine because everything closed early though.

Alright! I'll get drunk from grape juice!

Small Nibbles Of Water (S.N.O.W.)

Okay, the title didn't make much sense, but anyway, it's snowing!

Couldn't take a picture though. But I recorded a video XD I caught one in my hand, and it was like tiny chunks of frost you'd find in your freezer, or like somebody poured ice kacang through a sieve. YAY!!

Darn exam! If it wasn't for that, I'd be running around outside like Tsukimiya Ayu.

Random thought: How I wish I had lots of female otaku friends. I'd cosplay Yuuichi and the rest of them can be the girls from Kanon.

Now, if only it would snow long and heavy enough to accumulate on the floor like a white sheet of blanket! Ahh!

*Winter romance scenes, winter gathering by the fireplace scenes etc playing in head*

Right, study! Hopefully it snows down at the City Centre tonight. It would look so beautiful with the Christmas lights! ...I think.

Another Masterpiece is Born!

I am so an FF-fanboy if I can call it a masterpiece having not yet even played the game. But, I trust in Square-Enix and the Final Fantasy series more than any other company or series (except maybe Atlus, but Eternal Poison and Etrian Odyssey let me down).

Anyway, I am so getting this game regardless of anything. This the last part of my "3-part master plan" I've been mentioning since the start of the year. Phase 3: Get PS3, get FFXIII.

Meanwhile, I'm just gonna pump these two songs into my brain:

Kimi ga Iru Kara - Sayuri Sugawara


My Hands - Leona Lewis


And FYI, Kimi Ga Iru Kara >>>>>>> My Hands as a Final Fantasy theme song. They should have either translated the JP theme song, or changed the lyrics of My Hands. My Hands isn't bad, but the lyrics are just too realistic.

"Go into the shower"? "Put on my makeup"? That's not Final Fantasy at all. It just looks like another way to promote her album. Well, hopefully that's the only difference.

Random Update

Things just get interesting when you have to memorise something like this:

Day 89 - Japanese 3 Finals

It was easy as pie. The difficulty was way below even the Japanese Language Proficiency Test for Level 4 back in Malaysia. I REALLY should have taken Japanese 4. Darn you, Nobuko-sensei for scaring me so much during orientation! I just wasted an elective!

Ah well, I'll be fighting really hard next semester when I take German level 1. I guess European languages should be harder than Asian languages around these parts.

The sad thing is that I won't be seeing my classmates anymore after today, unless Kevin really pulls off that farewell party for the Japanese exchange students.

Then, I joined Jin Yit, Peng Yit and some others to town. The girls really know their grocery shopping. We ran from shop to shop buying stuff extremely cheap. Guess that's JPA Chinese students for ya.

Histology report is still far from complete. And I've only 3.5 days left!! And what about studies!? ARGH!! I hate histology report!

Day 86 - Japanese Speaking Exam

Classes today were canceled or relocated for a nationwide strike, except my Japanese Speaking Exam.

Confident that I could do well, I volunteered to be first. That way, I would be setting the standard for my classmates. I guess I didn't do too bad, though I could be better if I didn't still have that fear of interviews.

We were just supposed to say something for three minutes and then describe a picture in as much detail as possible. Panicking helped me forget lots of words. Thank you, panic. Yes, that was sarcasm!

After that, I just stood by and watched my classmate's nervous faces, glad that I was the first to rid myself of that wrinkle-producing emotion. Samarsa had the most interesting character then, panicking like crazy even though her standard can easily best even most of the level 4 students.

A surprising number of people aren't taking Japanese level 4 next semester for various reasons. Samarsa has hospital placements since she's in a nursing course, the three Chinese girls are going for an exchange programme next semester and Kiaran is already taking two electives this semester. So, I might be meeting them again in Japanese 4 next year.

Or maybe not. I'm thinking of taking Japanese 4 in the 2nd semester of my 2nd year, since I might want to take Psychology or Business during the 1st semester.

Anyway, gotta prepare for my written exam this Saturday and finish up that blasted Histology report! I still have 16 more to go and it's due in a week!

The Sore Feet Song - Ally Kerr

This is the opening theme for the 2005 hit anime "Mushi-Shi". The melody is nice and sounds like a lazy country bumpkin playing a banjo on a cloudy Sunday. But the lyrics are weird. So far, I haven't been able to sing the third verse without laughing. And yes, it's in full English.



Lyrics:

I walked ten thousand miles, ten thousand miles to see you,
And every gasp of breath I grabbed at just to find you,
I climbed up every hill to get, to you,
I wandered ancient lands to hold, just you.

And every single step of the way, I pay...,
Every single night and day,
I searched for you.
Through sandstorms and hazy dawns I reached for you.

I stole ten thousand pounds, ten thousand pounds to see you,
I robbed convenient stores coz I thought they'd make it easier.
I lived off rats and toads, and I starved for you.
I fought off giants bears and I killed them too.

And every single step of the way, I pay...,
Every single night and day,
I searched for you.
Through sandstorms and hazy dawns I reached for you.
I'm tired and I'm weak, but I'm strong for you.
I wanna go home, but my love gets me through.

Lalala....

Day 81 - City Center again x 32

I actually don't remember how many times I've been to the City Center, but it's definitely been more than 25.

It was 20th November 2009, which means last day to pay the electric bill. Yes, I forgot. Good thing I checked the mail this morning and saw the bill among the pile. Alright... time to kill 72 euros.

Yan Shun went with me because he hasn't paid his either. We headed to the bank near the campus side entrance. As I expected, it was a big building with a small area open to the public. Seriously, why are so many buildings, especially government buildings here the same? Even the Garda station was like that.

After slitting my wrist, I mean, pay my bill, Yan Shun asked if I wanted to head down to the City Centre. Why not? I thought. The only thing I had left to do at home was my !@#$% histology report and study.

O'Connell street was our stop once again. We had lunch at Beshoff, a popular restaurant for fish. We actually wanted to eat at Pulau Pinang restaurant but it was closed.

Their special for that day was codfish with chips and salad and monkfish with a complimentary glass of wine. We bought both and split the bill. He got the wine because I just drank last night with the Japanese students. Not much, but I'd rather not drink in the day.

Then we headed to Grafton street to look at clothes. He wanted to get some extra coats and clothing since he's going to be here for 4 more years. I'm thinking of getting a wool sweater too for the winter. And a silk hat like Nattanael's. Because it looks nice. XP

Immediately after Halloween, I had already noticed Christmas decorations being set up everywhere. Most of them had been completed in the past few days and we expected Grafton Street to look really beautiful when it gets dark. We weren't disappointed. When they flicked the switch on, lights illuminated all the way to Suffolk Street. Totally amazing. If only I had my camera then.

I made a joke about bringing dates here after exams, which was a week before Christmas. And he took it seriously. He even threw in a bet. Now, if I don't get a date for that night, I owe him and his date hot chocolate. Somebody help me!! :(

Unfortunately, even though we scoured the whole of Grafton Street, we didn't find anything that wouldn't kill our wallets. Well, I found cheap silk hats, but they were ugly. I think I'll buy it when I go to France since buying in UK won't be any cheaper.

Along O'Connell Street, an old man suddenly stopped me and asked if I was a bishop. I thought he was looking for a shop called "Bee". You wouldn't have immediately thought of bishop, would you? I'm not Christian and I look a little too young anyway. I only got what he meant when he did the Christian Sign of the Cross.

Obviously, my reaction was "WHAT!?" in a less dramatic and loud voice. See, Pikaby? I am changing :) He then pointed to the necklace I was wearing. It's shaped like the D.Gray Man Exorcist Badge. It was my lol of the day. I explained that it was just a necklace with no holy meaning (at least, not in reality) and the man quickly left.

Our last task of the day was grocery shopping. I just did mine on Wednesday at Merrion, so it did not concern me. I just got another 2 loaves of bread and we finally headed back.

It wasn't a bad day until I saw my histology report sitting all comfortable and empty on my desk. Ho...boy. There goes my weekend!

Day 80 - Japanese Language Exchange Programme

Previously, we were arranged a coffee morning with the Japanese transfer students, which I could not attend due to midterms. Luckily, some of the Japanese students wanted another meeting with us, so our kind Head of Applied Languages arranged a night-out for us.

Since we're gonna have a speaking exam next week, I thought it'd be good practice for me if I attended.

First off, we headed to the Ukiyo Bar for dinner. Although nobody else knew, I was the one who suggested the place. And I wasn't even really sure where the place was. Ah well, I managed to find it anyway, after running around for 15 minutes even though it was only a 5-minute walk from the bus stop.

Well, I met a lot of people. Six Japanese 3 and two Japanese 4 students attended, as well as 9 Japanese students. Let's see if I remember their names. Yuka, Chihiro, Hajime, Yumi, Aki, Sakiko, uh... Darn, I forgot the rest.

Dinner was excellent although the food wasn't all that great. And these people really don't know spicy, except the 2 other Malaysians that attended. Hajime and Chihiro were going mad trying to finish their meal. They ordered Korean food. We used English to converse during dinner.

After the meal, I suggested karaoke. Everybody agreed, but apparently, our darn Head of Applied Languages did not book a room for us. And they were fully booked till late at night. So, we settled for going to a pub instead.

Mark led us to one of Dublin's 5 best pubs, O'neill's. Well, it was called one of the 5 best pubs in a tourist guide, but I wouldn't know. The place wasn't all that great. Maybe their food is great, but their alcohol selection looks the same as the others.

I tried a Galway Hooker, a type of pale ale. It was either their best drink or under promotion since all their coasters had the name on them. It sucked. Guinness and Heineken tasted a lot better, although they were bleh too.

Y'all are probably wondering why I'm drinking even though I hate beer. Well, this is Ireland and the only Irish food are potatoes and alcohol. At least, that's what all the Irish I've asked told me. Adrianna was saying that she could never answer that question when people asked.

No, the Irish breakfast is not traditional Irish food. It's just toast, eggs, bacon and Irish sausages, which are called so only because they're made from Irish cattle or pigs.

Anyway, conversation during the pub session was mostly in Japanese. Well, we try. At least I did. I am so much better at listening than speaking. I keep getting tongue-tied when they ask me a question, but I understand everything they say. This is why the Japanese classes should be conducted in Japanese and not English, at least for level 3 and above. Hmm... I'll suggest that in the module survey.

Sigh... Finals draw near and I'm a wee bit depressed at the moment.

Day 76 - Eirtakon 2009 Day 3

Today, I rose from my slumber at 7.30am. I had most definitely not learned my lesson about going there early. Today had a different twist though. Instead of being refused entrance at the door, I didn't even get to leave UCD. Buses only operated after 9am on Sundays, and I was there at 8.30am. Damn the wind.

I bumped into Xinyi, Nabila and Isaac while taking the bus. I guess I looked pretty weird walking around with a huge box.

When I finally arrived at DCU, the event had already started, but there was really nothing much today. The number of attendees had decreased considerably compared to yesterday. Still, it got pretty crowded after 12pm.

There weren't many notable events today. They canceled the cosplay panel because the programme director fell sick. And the other events just didn't interest me, like the Japanese fashion show, AMV competition and the Live Commentary, which is the guest from yesterday commenting on his own voice acting. Stalls also had less variety since they sold a lot yesterday.

I had more free time today and the crowd was smaller, so I got to do more browsing. There were lots of stuff I wanted, but I could get a number of them back home so I resisted. There were some which I couldn't but also restrained myself when I was told the price, like the Urahara hat. 12 euros for a simple hat!? And I couldn't find a Konata plushie :( Instead, I got a Vampire Knight mouse pad. It was only 3 euros. Maybe I should have gotten the Chobits one, but it looked very girly.

The first interesting event was the Maid Cafe. It wasn't really a cafe, just maids passing out cakes, coffee and tea. You didn't even get to sit down. You just take, pay and leave. I spent 2 euros just because I wanted to get a shot of the maids. I later learned that I could have done that during the closing ceremony.

The fashion show was basically girls showing off kimonos, gothic costumes and J-rock costumes. I stayed to watch just because I had nothing better to do. I heard the AMV competition was awesome, but I never really liked AMVs.

Then, there was the cosplay skit. It wasn't a competition. It's just volunteer performance. I saw lots of cosplayers doing out of character things on purpose. Imagine Mellow and Matt from Death Note dancing to constantly-changing music, or a Shinigami from Bleach screaming "Call the Ghostbusters!" and stuff like that. Some were pretty good, the Mellow and Matt team did an awesome dance.

The highlight of the day was the Mad Dash, or as I like to call it, the Freebie Fight. Basically, the committee bring a box filled with random stuff, like plushies, posters, CDs, T-shirts, necklaces, etc etc and throw them into the crowd. I wanted a plushy, but I got a kitty hat instead. I like cats, but that just looks weird on me. Boo... Ah well, at least I know where to stand next year.

Finally, it was the closing ceremony. The boring prize giving and thank you speeches went on forever! They announced that Eirtakon would be moved to a different venue next year, but it will still be in Dublin, so yay! They could always hold it in UCD. Our campus is huge!

Now that the event is over, I just realised something. WHERE WAS THE HARE HARE YUKAI DANCE!!??

Day 75 - Eirtakon 2009 Day 2

It's my turn to join the cosplay fray today as Chrona the Makenshi! I was there an hour early with some other people but the staff wouldn't let us in! The (damn bastards) staff left us outside in the rain while the MC entertained. Sure he was funny. But some people are FREEZING!

I met Nikki again while queuing up to enter. Nikki was one of my teammates for the pub quiz last night. I also met Ray, a 5th-time attendee of Eirtakon who is even so never remembered by the staff, except Shinji.

When they finally let us in, I was overwhelmed with the sight of cosplayers several times more than last night. I'd say nearly 50% of the attendees were cosplayers, and there were like 200+ today? Crazy, man. Yes, I do have to admit that a lot of them were no good, but there were those awesome ones, like a Lelouch in his Zero outfit, with the helmet.

Anyway, there were several stalls selling tons of stuff. Anime, video games, accessories, plushies, T-shirts, posters, bunny/kitty ear hats, figurines etc. I bought myself a D.Gray Man Exorcist Badge necklace. Yes, I'm hoping it will replace the Griever necklace I lost. This one cost me 8 euros. I'm considering buying something else, but I'll see tomorrow. ...Maybe that Konata plushie :D There was also an Artist Alley where people sold their hand-drawn art. A member of GameSoc I knew was there, though I keep forgetting her name. Frankly, her art was only average compared to some of the others.

The first event of the day was a guest panel. They invited a famous voice actor that did some good dubbings. Since I don't watch dubs, and personally think dubs suck except for Pokemon, I did not go and see.

The second event was a cosplay skit. You basically do a performance on stage individually or in a group. I did not enter that one because I had no skit in mind. Heck, only 3 teams signed up. But they weren't any good.

After that, we had some free time while the gamers killed each other in a Super Smash Bros Brawl tournament. I would've entered but they charge for registration. The cosplay competitions had no such fees though. Yay!

I met up with Nikki again after that and hung out with her for quite some time...even though we kept losing each other while browsing through our individual interests. It's amazing how time flies even though I was only browsing through the merchandise and talking to some of the cosplayers.

There was a cosplay photoshoot session at about 3pm. I curse my camera for dying just before this event. SHIT!!

Finally, it was time for the cosplay masquerade. I entered this one. You only needed to pose or do a short performance, much shorter than the skits. I seem to always have bad luck when I'm having fun with groups of people.

Just 10 minutes before the masquerade began, I left Ragnarok leaning on a wall while I did my hair. Then, somehow, it slipped and fell onto the floor. It was solid enough to withstand a fall like that, but because the spikes wouldn't let it fall flat onto the ground, the piece connecting the blade and the hilt cracked a little. It wasn't severe, but I couldn't swing it or even hold it by the handle anymore or the wood might just snap. A sincere thanks to Kakashi who reallocated my turn so I had time to fix Ragnarok. I couldn't fix it, so I needed a new idea.

Since Chrona tends to hug Ragnarok a lot, that's what I did. This time, stage-fright was not a problem. Chrona is generally a fraidy-cat who shivers and stammers a lot, so it was to my advantage instead. My performance was simple.

Chrona walks up stage slowly, sees the whole bunch of people and says, "So many people are looking at me. I don't what to do, Ragnarok. What do I do? K-kill them? Alright... SOUL RESONANCE!! SCREECH ALPHA! KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!" I am amazed how I managed to pull that high pitched "Kya" for so long. But I wanted to say Soul Resonance in Japanese, and Chrona's doesn't shout, except for the "Kya" bit. So that was my bad.

Since I wasted some time fixing my sword, I didn't see a lot of the masquerade. Notable ones were Chi. She had this totally cute voice and kept calling everything "Hideki", just like in the anime. A second Chi had an awesome dress, but all she did was pose. What a waste. There was Enma Ai, but she wasn't scary enough.

There were also group cosplay masquerades. A Phoenix Wright group comprised of Phoenix, Edgeworth and Maya. They were all kids and were very cute when they screamed "Objection!" The biggest group was this crazy-ass Final Fantasy VII group. Cloud, Zack, Cid, Sephiroth, Tifa, Yuffie, Vincent and Aeris. They filled the whole stage. Another group was Ulquiorra and Aizen. They did a funny yaoi scene which I had to admit was pretty good but Akito's back in Ichibanzai 2009 was better.

Following the ending of the cosplay masquerade, the crowd started to disperse. Most people stayed just to watch the Code Geass screening, but most of the cosplayers went into town for some beers, as typical Irishmen and Irishwomen do. I didn't join them because I was worried about Ragnarok.

I immediately sealed Ragnarok (a cooler way of saying "put it back into the box") after that and went playing around with some of the cosplayers that remained. I couldn't find Ray again though. I wonder where he went.

Me and Nikki went to watch the Romeo X Juliet screening. We met Vanessa again at last! I found out Nikki was from Cork, Ireland and Vanessa was from Brazil! I thought she was from France! Neither of them are UCDents. Nikk

At long last, it was closing time. Me and Vanessa took the 19C bus down to City Centre where lots of people had gathered. I think it was Ireland vs France today, so that explains a lot. We then parted ways since she wanted to eat and I needed to get some Super Glue from Tesco. I didn't see her after I got the super glue, but since we were taking different buses anyway, I left first.

Upon arriving at home, I applied the glue and will leave it over night. Still, the glue is damn strong! The moment I applied the glue, the cracked bit stopped moving! I hope it's strong enough to be good as new by tomorrow. Ugh... if it doesn't... I am definitely jinxed in crowded places.

Right... time to upload photos!

Day 74 - Eirtakon 2009 Day 1

Today, I was proven very wrong about the anime culture here. The numbers are VERY small, but finally, I've met people who actually watch anime as much as they breath air. Of course, most of them are the big-wigs of their respective anime clubs.

Anyway, the night started off with anime screenings. And more anime screenings... And more anime screenings... Azumanga Daioh, xxxHolic, Disgaea and Black Cat.

Okay, it was all anime screenings tonight and an anime pub quiz.

It turns out pub quizzes are team games, so entering alone is a big disadvantage unless you're a walking encyclopedia of anime trivia. Good thing somebody offered me a place in their team since they only had 3 members. Still, we were at a huge disadvantage. After all, the Cork Anime Society brought a whole bunch of members (about 10+) since there was no limit to the number of members. The other groups also had similar numbers ranging from 7 to 12. My group was the second smallest. Another group had 3 members.

The pub quiz consisted of 11 rounds, with 10 questions per round. Due to time constraints, I only stayed till Round 9. But from there, I learned that the anime culture isn't so dead after all. They threw out all sorts of anime I've never even heard off, claiming they were good titles of the past. And some of the present (most of which I knew).

Round 1 to 3 were deadly trivia quizzes, constantly spamming anime titles I just happen to miss watching. Gurren Lagann, Hayate no Gotoku, Seto no Hanayome, Genshiken, One Piece etc. Round 4 was a guess-the-anime-from-the-picture quiz. And they were careless/stupid enough to use posters, wallpapers, character art etc that have the titles written in Japanese.

Round 5 was a guess-the-anime-from-the-song quiz. I knew only 1 of them. Round 6 was a guess-the-parody quiz. I got 4 for that one, seeing as how they used Lucky Star and Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi. Round 7 was another round of trivia.

Round 8 was an "I-can't-believe-I-watched-this" quiz that featured all sorts of titles that you'd likely can't and will never watch, except Disgaea. Seriously, why was Disgaea even in there? The epic moment was when they threw out a Bible Black question. BIBLE BLACK!! WHAT THE HELL!? For those who don't know, Bible Black is perhaps the most famous erotic anime ever and it isn't softcore porn.

Round 9 was another guess-the-anime-from-the-song quiz. I got 3 for that one. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei was the first one! Then there was Soul Eater. I left after that. So, all I know was that I was placed 10th out of some 15 teams before I left.

No references to Naruto, Bleach, Pokemon, Inuyasha, Digimon were even mentioned in this quiz. Unless of course, the final 2 rounds were about popular anime/manga.

Now, for the cosplayers. I'd have to say... disappointing except for 2. Winger should be pleased to know that the 2 best ones I saw tonight were the Franziska von Karma and Godot cosplayers. The rest were so-so. A lot of them had their costumes or wigs ruined by the rain. One of the Kurosaki Ichigo's came down flat onto his head. I have a picture of him :)

Alright! My turn to cosplay tomorrow. Shit, I can't find Ragnarok's mouth. Did I sweep them away by accident last week?

Day 73 - MedBall Blues

We finally submitted our group project today, at exactly 3pm, the final deadline. You know what? I don't think the Irish are such good timekeepers after all. Right, moving my hopes onto the Japanese.

Well, Daniel gave me hope that I could attend MedBall. But my hopes were shattered some 3 hours ago when he told me that there was only 1 ticket left. Darn!

So, I'm here watching anime, cartoons and TV soap operas with the Sci-Fi geeks...

...I know none of those soap operas.

You know what? I'm gonna go steal their anime collection.

Let's see....

2 titles I don't have...

Wow...

Oh, one of them only has half the episodes.

...

...

...

Eirtakon better be good!

Day 68, 69 - Late Night Reports

I swear in the name of Larry the leprechaun that I thought of a cooler name for the topic title. But I forgot it the next second. Screw them MIBs!

Anyway, I have nothing much to report except that I stayed home all day for the weekends. Since I spent little energy that night, I stayed up till 4am on both days...

Typing reports. Patient report, site report, health care system reports and slide reports.

I've got lots of reports, don't I? Well, you can call them this week's "test".

Yawn... I'm sleeping early tonight.

Day 67 - Why Am I Not Surprised?

Well, I got my results for all my mid-terms. I got an A for Biochem, B for Musculoskeletal Biology and a C- for Cell-cell. Hah! Exactly as I thought. But even so, cell-cell is just way too low!

But screw my Cell-cell lecturer for not letting us know our marks. The other two at least gave us an idea of how many we got wrong, but this guy didn't. Screw this! So I am to just assume I got about 55%!? ARGH!! 30 questions wrong!

Guess I have to buck up even more for the finals for this one.

Day 65 - Chiang no Go!

The title was a parody of "Hikaru no Go".

I received news from the Irish Go Association that there's a Go meet held every week in Dublin. After confirming the location, I found that it was pretty close to my university and the no. 10 bus stops directly in front of it, although the only way back is by the no. 46A bus.

At the bar (Almost everything is done in a bar in Ireland), I saw some 8 people gathered. 4 of them were playing. I was so thrilled even though ALL of them looked older than me. An old gentleman by the name of Arthur challenged me to a match. Since he was of a much higher level than I was, he gave me a 9-stone advantage. And I still lost due to a mistake.

Then, we had a second match on a smaller board with a 6-stone handicap. I won, but I think 6 stones was a little too much. 4 may have been enough.

During the games, we also had some idle chit-chat, something the other clubs and societies I've joined rarely did with me besides on Halloween night. I learned that the old guy I played against was a lecturer in the UCD School of Computer Sciences and he had been wanting to form a Go Society in UCD for some time. Another guy who was a postgraduate student in UCD opted to help if it was actually formed. I am, of course, interested too!

After the 2nd match, it was already nearing 11pm, so I bade them farewell caught the next bus home. I am SO going there every Monday and/or Wednesday from now on!

Day 64 - End of Midterms.

Why oh why did the Cell-cell Communication test have to be held today at 7pm!? I had to skip Japanese class because of that!

I did fairly well. Definitely not as good as Biochem but not as bad as Musculoskeletal Biology. I should pass. Should.

......

Hmm... Guess I'll say something about last night's Halloween party. The GameSoc could not book a room earlier so they only got to celebrate their Halloween last night. Ah well, seeing as how I skipped the MedSoc party, I might as well show up for GameSoc's.

The party was okay. As usual, no food, just chips and alcohol. They brought out their XBox360 and played Rock Band (again). Nattanael and Lorik definitely had a fun time singing... even though they failed a lot. Oh, it wasn't their voices, it's just the game asking for too much accuracy.

I went as Chrona (obviously). There weren't any cosplayers that night, save for a Vincent Valentine cosplayer who won the Fancy Dress Contest. FYI, not very good. If that's the best they've got, they have A LOT to learn.

Oh, but there was this latecomer who came as the Joker from the Dark Knight movie. Now he was AWESOME. Should have taken a close up shot of his face! It was very well done. But his clothes kinda sucked. Still, awesome hair, awesome face.

Rest In Peace

James Wan Khai Khor, a sad and unexpected tragedy befell upon you. I didn't like how you always teased me on the school bus, but I guess that was your way of making friends. And just so you know, I treasure it even though I still don't really know you.

After you graduated from Form 5 in 2006, we saw very little of each other even though you went to Form 6. But I always believed that we would meet again. But it seems I was wrong.

News of your early departure from this world certainly came as a shock to me. The time we spent on the school bus was enough to tell me that you had a bright future ahead of you and your passing is certainly a loss to many.

I offer my condolences to your family and pray that your soul find peace forever. I am sorry I cannot attend your memorial. Should an afterlife exist, I hope that we will meet again then and become closer friends.

永别了，元凯学哥。祝你登上极乐世界。阿弥陀佛。

Winter Sonata (2009)

I'm talking about the anime, people, not the 2002 original Korean drama which greatly influenced the popularity of K-dramas Asia-wide.

Surprisingly, the anime is in full Korean language with Japanese subtitles. Even the OP and ED were in Korean although the opening "Cheoeumbuteo Jigeumkkaji" has a Japanese version titled, "Saisho kara Ima made". There is also a Chinese version called "Cong Kai Shi Dao Xian Zai". All of which are equally beautiful, although I'd say the Chinese one is the best, and the Japanese one is the worst (!).

Anyway, the first episode doesn't tell you much about the story. I'm not even sure if this is the beginning or the middle of the story (you know how some stories start from the middle or the end then flashbacks to the beginning). There was also very little conversation save for some monologues that indicates lots of back story. But I do have to say this, despite the lack of explanations, you can kind of feel a good story coming along. At least I did. Even though this is a romance anime, I might stick around for it.

I just got the OST of the original drama. But heck, this anime may open a path for me to loving Korean dramas!

Day 58 - Musculoskeletal Biology = MURDER

Damn it. I've been cramming all weekend up to the last minute but I still couldn't remember a single thing. So, I just went in there and let the spotter test screw me like a... uh... screw. It was definitely nowhere near Biochem's easiness. I was actually tempted to black unanswered for pretty much every question.

Agh! Screw this! I'm gonna go play with my sword now!

*Swing* *Crash!* *Swing* *Bonk!* *Swing* *Kaboom!*

*Cough cough*

Well, hopefully I can get tickets to tomorrow night's Halloween Ball. Now, how am I gonna go into town without looking like a madman?

Day 54 - UCD-RCSI Sports Day

Ah yes, it's that time of the year where we get to kick RCSI butt! Uhh... I mean, face off against our esteemed rivals, RCSI in a friendly non-competitive sports event.

To tell you the truth, I forgot it was today (25th October) until Nabila contacted me. I immediately rushed to the Sports Centre, but unfortunately, the men's basketball which I wanted to watch the most was already over. According to the audience, it was a pretty one-sided match though, with the UCD team completely overpowering the RCSI team.

The other sports I missed were badminton, table tennis and futsal. We had 4 losses and 1 victory in badminton, and the reverse for table tennis. We won 2 futsal matches and lost the other. We also lost netball. I heard RCSI imported their entire team from Galway. That ain't fair! But we still beat them twice!

When I arrived, the women's basketball had just begun. It was a surprisingly gripping match, with the RCSI team beating us at first until our sports pro Germaine entered the court. Then it was a pretty even match, with Germaine's speed against the RCSI captain's height. It was pretty obvious that these two were the main powerhouses. Sadly, Germaine can't really shoot, but she did an insanely good job stealing passes and catching loose balls as well as dodging defenders.

It ended with our victory with a 10-point lead after the RCSI team panicked in the last quarter of the game.

After that were two volleyball matches. The men's competition was really tense, especially in the 2nd round when both teams had 24 scores. RCSI won in the end. Our women's team was just a rag-tag group we pulled together at the last minute so we got OWNED hard. 5-15. Unbelievable!

As you can see, both universities won an equal amount of games, BUT each competition had a different weightage. Badminton and table tennis canceled each other out. Futsal and netball also canceled each other out, so it was basketball and volleyball that made all the difference. Basketball was worth 100 points per victory, but volleyball was only worth 80. So, in the end, UCD won overall! AGAIN!!

YEAH!! CONGRATS UCD!!!

Ah, the next day is Bank Holiday, so the athletes can get a good rest before class starts on Tuesday. Well, some actually. We UCDents have another test coming up soon, so Bank Holiday probably wasn't relieving for them either.

Right, goofed off yesterday and spent today watching sports. I'll have to study for Bank Holiday!

Day 53 - Lazy Day 2

I have a 3 day weekend this week. Saturday to Monday. Monday is Ireland's Bank Holiday. I have little idea why our lectures have to be canceled just because all the banks are closed but ah well, more time to study.

That being said, I woke up pretty late today. Nearly 12pm. Gah! Blame the guy who woke me up at 3am. Just because I forgot to turn off my laptop and hence left my MSN on, doesn't mean you can come and send me a noisy message! Joking. But I don't even know who sent me the message or what it was. I only wanted to sleep and just shut my computer down.

Anyway, back on track, I spent the whole day goofing off today. I did some parts of my patient report, but no studying. I just spent the whole day in my room playing my DS until I finished Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. Excellent piece of work, though I would say that they should have just used the Chain of Memories system for this since it kinda hurts your hands during intense battles.

I'm not gonna turn this into a game review post, so I'll just say that Tetsuya Nomura is a GENIUS for having planned every part of the story since Kingdom Hearts 1 in year 2002. 7 years later, he still has so many places where he can dish out plot twists from intentional loopholes. Seriously, I am amazed how KH: 358/2 Days linked so well with the Deep Dive movie from KH1 and the beginning of KH2. Lots of questions behind Organisation XIII have been explained, Deep Dive explained, etc etc

Okay. Full stop on the gaming.

I still have 2 more holidays to go. I definitely have to start studying tomorrow or risk failing my next test. It's still True False MCQ but luck only gets me so far.

Got it memorised?

Day 52 - Results Are Out

I was really tempted to skip lectures in the morning. They were boring lectures, and I just spent last night checking through my Biochem notes to spot possible mistakes. And considering how BORING the Friday morning classes were, I swore I would have skipped it if I wasn't so guilty-conscious. But it's a good thing I didn't. Dr. Philips Newsholme announced that our results were out already! But we would only receive them in the evening. Way to give us pressure.

Then, we had another round of First Aid Practicals from 2 to 6pm. Today we practiced CPR, and covered some facts about hypoxia and stroke. Whoever used the mannequin before me used too much soap to clean the mouth and now I have this minor disgusting taste in the back of my throat!

Oh, and we were introduced to the FAST song. Search for it on Youtube. Depending on your character, you may find the video annoying or funny. I found it somewhere between those two. But it's pretty informative. And after listening to that, you'll never forget how to check for strokes.

F ace
A rms
S peech
T ime to call the ambulance

Got it memorised?

And when I got home, it was the moment I'd been waiting/dreading. Time to check my results. But before that, Bleach and Conan were updated so let's read those first.

...
...
...

NOW I check my results. The class mean was 56.8%. That doesn't sound very good. In fact, that sounds TERRIBLE!! It's way too close to the failing mark!

Oh, I found out from Nabila that Xinyi got 70 and Nabila got 77. Okay... even the studious ones didn't get 80... Aww man! Pressure building. Throat choking. BUT, I MUST KNOW!!!

87.500

Eh? *Rubs eyes*

09108416 87.500

*Rubs harder with glass cleaner*

09108416 ---------------------------------87.500

OH YES!!!!!!!!! I got highest in class!!!!! Along with 2 other people!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!

...But I still got 5 questions wrong. Gotta go find out what I got wrong now. *Checks textbook*

Day 50 and 51 - Double Update

Yeah, I haven't updated in 2 days. Been busy.

Day 50 saw me fighting for my life to grab the 20% of my Molecular Basis of Life module. Sure, 20 is isn't much, but since our passing mark is 40%, at the very least, I want to secure a pass.

My group members were supposed to discuss our group project in the morning, but apparently, everybody skipped class to study. ARGH! We only have until November 12, people! And the project consists of 20% of our CSI module!

In the afternoon, I left campus at about 4pm, around 3 hours before the exam. Why? Because the exam hall is held outside in the Blackrock campus and not the Belfield campus. Thanks to that. I was able to be lazy and catch an infrequent straight to the campus, unlike most of my peers who had to walk 30 minutes down the main road with their heavy textbooks XD.

I arrived at about 5.30pm. Since the exam hall wasn't open, I headed to their library to study more.

At 7pm, the exam commenced. I got my game on and rushed through every question. We only had 60 minutes to answer 60 true/false questions that sounded something like "Black ink is blacker than fresh tar. True or false?"

My god, it was difficult! I could actually count the answers I was sure of with two hands. The rest were either guesses or intuitions. It's not a good idea considering the negative marking system, but it was better than nothing. Correct answers award you 1 mark. Wrong answers are penalised 0.5 marks. Or you can surrender by blackening "Unanswered", where you are neither awarded nor penalised.

Being the egoistical bastard who wasn't going to let hours of studying go to waste by surrendering, I put either True or False for every question, knowing full well that I would probably suffer more than those who were humble enough to admit defeat.

After the test, I went with Yan Shun and Jin Yit to the Student Bar for a post-exam drink. A pint of Guinness and a can of apple cider was what I had that night.

Woo! I finally had a good night's sleep last night. Although my bed still sucks.

----

Day 51

Jargon-spamming classes in the morning. Dr S. Giles is apparently taking over some of our Basic Tissue and Embryology lectures.

In the afternoon, I did some studying for next week's Musculoskeletal Biology. ARGH! There's so much I don't remember!

In the evening, I headed out with Daniel for Yan Shun's birthday party! The party Jean and Rachel had been planning through Facebook. I believe it's the first time we had fine dining since coming to Ireland.

Lots of chattinng and photosnapping went on, especially between the Singaporeans who were the majority of the attendees. Valerie, Xinyi, Nabila and Daniel were the only non-Singaporeans that night.

After that, I went for a pub session with Daniel. Yes, I went again. Yes, I know I will be killed when I get home or you come over, mom. Anyway, he wanted a drink tonight, but he didn't want to go alone, so I offered to accompany him.

Had a pint and returned home for another good night's sleep. Yay for alcohol! Boo for bad taste of beer. Seriously, if only the beers weren't the cheapest liquor there, I'd be buying something else!

Day 49 - History of Anime and Manga

Ugh. The whole morning has been study study study. We had a trial test for our Musculoskeletal Biology today in preperation for next week's test. Since I'd been swamped by this week's Biochem test, I was totally unprepared for this. I got 6 out of 10 questions right. Before you start saying "That's not too bad", remember negative marking. That means I only got 40% which is a fail.

But I didn't care much. After all, I had Biochem to worry about tomorrow. But then, the test made me realise that there were so many things in Musculoskeletal Biology. That means no partying after Biochem! Gotta get home and study AT ONCE!! Which is pretty much what I did today and have been doing for the past week.

Well, 5pm struck and I rushed to my Japanese class, not wanting to miss the week-long anticipated lesson on the history of anime and manga. I won't bore the non-otakus with them and the otakus should already know the history anyway, SO... moving on...

We had 3 exchange students from Japan visiting us today. But it's pretty strange 2 of them spoke fluent English and somewhat mediocre Japanese. Hmm... nervous maybe?

Then we had a quiz about Japan. Damn, I knew nothing, but the only thing I've ever cared about Japan was anime, manga, video games, cosplay etc. Y'know, otaku stuff. So, ah well, not my fault I didn't know that roadside vending machines in Japan sold alcohol.

Finally, I came back and turned on my computer. MSN flicked on and out came 3 messages. WHAT!!!!??? My account has been spamming my contacts!? Aww man! Way to ruin a good day, man! Just when I was in a mood to study harder! Damn all you virus programmers out there!

Day 46 - Bray

The night before, I received a message from Nabila informing me that the trip to Bray was not canceled and we would be leaving by the 9.30am bus and have lunch atop the hill.

So, I got up hell early to make lunch. Egg sandwich and some lemon chicken for extra, just in case someone did not bring food. Then I ran all the way to the bus stop when I thought I was late. I turned out to be wrong. They were later. Today, our own PMCSA Vice President II joined us for the hike. So, we had a professional cameraman with us!

Before we began the hike, we took a stroll along the beach near the hill. The hill lined the sea and was only separated by DART (a type of train) tracks. Apparently, white sandy beaches aren't popular in that area. Although the higher parts of the beach were composed of fine brown sand, the parts closer to the sea were filled with pebbles, like the ones you put in your fish tank.

Our cameraman, I mean, vice president took lots of photos of us. One of which included a photo of me floating slightly above the ground. Strange... I don't remember myself hopping on the beach. My psychic powers must be developing!

The hike was a little bit difficult but nothing really hard. And it wasn't tiring either. The only reason I was breathing hard was because some really steep or slippery parts required lots of caution. A group of senior citizens were hiking the area too. They said something about wanting to cover 15 kilometres today. So... that would be climbing from one side of the hill to another and then rounding back to where they started?

Yeah, Bray Head is a pretty small hill. If it weren't for all the long paths we had to take since some paths were just too risky to take without a hiking stick, I'd say it was only about as high as Strawberry Hill in Penang. It took us an hour to walk up but only 10 minutes to head down. But then we lost our way since we took a different route down and it was filled with forks. I recited the poem "The Road Not Taken" a total of 6 times.

On top of the hill, there was a cross that was supposed to be some landmark. But it was covered with graffiti at the bottom. What kinda landmark is that!? Still, we got a good view of Southern Dublin City. We then hiked up a stony cliff and had our little picnic there. They liked my lemon chicken! Yay! But it was already cold and there was not enough sauce... Ah well...

Finally we headed back to town after 3 hours of walking. Screw the misleading forks in the road. Can you believe that the roads that seemed to lead you down the hill actually makes you walk a big round. We were initially on one side of a HUGE fenced field, and by the time we got down the hill, we were on the other side.

Bought groceries, came home, study, sleep. Settled.

Day 43 - Patient Visit

Man, the morning sucked. I woke up with a completely paralysed right elbow that HURT when I tried to move it. I spent a whole 15 minutes gathering enough strength to lift that arm and myself up from bed. Good thing today was CAL, which means I can be late with little to no consequences.

Immediately after CAL, Sinead met up with me and we both headed off to our assigned patient's home (Refer to Day 36). I felt REALLY REALLY bad today when I had to rely on her completely to find our way to the patient's house.

Due to confidentiality issues, I can only say that the patient and his wife were very nice people. He was a good man whom anyone could spend a long time chatting with. He directed more of his topics at Sinead than me since they were both Irish and could click more. He did show some interest in Malaysia, commenting that his friends had told him it was a nice place and how he would love to visit the place once his condition improves.

Okay, no more info about it! We followed the routine. Active history, past history, medications, allergies, social history, family history. Sinead did most of the talking. I just sat there and let them awe at my ability to write without looking. I don't know why they find it so amazing. Of course, I did throw some of my own questions which Sinead missed.

And then I went shopping for groceries. Little did I know that Nattanael was also in town buying more or less the same groceries. We now have 4 loafs of bread and 16 eggs. Great XD!

I'll have to skip today's archery club (again) since I still can't use much of my right elbow. I hope I didn't damage a nerve or anything. Hah! I see Musculoskeletal Biology is starting to scare me!

Day 42 - Japanese Class Test

Yep, that marks the start of my weekly exam schedule. Good thing the easiest was the first, but it doesn't really help when every week after this will "feature" an ungodly difficult subject.

Oh, have I not said it here?

I have exams/tests every week starting this week until Christmas break. No kidding. The exams/tests comprise of 10-30% of our final grade depending on the subject.

Today's was a mere 10% and was my best subject. Japanese. I pity the poor souls who seemed to be dying during that test.

I did hate the first question of the exam. Who is your favourite celebrity? Do you know how difficult/annoying it is to write those English/Chinese names in katakana!? Searching for Japanese names in my head, I found it was nearly blank. Panic perhaps? But anyway, I don't really follow Japanese celebrities either! So I just whacked the first name I could think of.　倖田来未。 Koda Kumi. Why was that the first? Don't know. Might be because I was listening to 1000 no Kotoba before the test.

Anyway, they also announced some coffee session with Japanese students. We were to meet up with Japanese students and converse with them for 20 minutes. 10 minutes in English and 10 minutes in Japanese. I took up the offer immediately of course. I need the practice before the oral exam on Week 11.

Oh, and next week they'll be having a presentation on...
wait for it......
wait for it.............
wait for it...........................
.
..
...
....
.....
......
.....
....
...
..
.

THE HISTORY OF ANIME AND MANGA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And they're gonna have some games. Better do my research on traditional Japanese games. I hope it's not Shiritori or Dajare. That would KILL US ALL!!!

Sigh... Whatever... Gotta prepare for next week's exams... Ugh.......

Day 38 - PMCSA-UCD Election Day

The Penang Medical College Student Association held its Election Day tonight for the new committee members. Since the 3rd years are going back (and totally dying from weekly exams), fresh new talents were needed to fill in their shoes.

Our elections are held by means of majority voting. One person will nominated a contestant and another person will second that same contestant. The contestant has the right to withdraw from the election though. Lots of whom did, which made the old committee really irritated. Everyone will then vote for their man/woman. Should a tie occur, the old committee president will cast his vote to break the tie. Basically, he will be the only one whom the loser can hate.

First off was the President post. According to AJ, the president has the final say in anything regardless of the opinions of the rest of the committee. Isn't that tyranny? The post can only be held by a 2nd year Med student who will be going back to Malaysia. Only 2 people contested this year. Our former Vice-President II and another 2nd year. The Vice President II won, but I voted for the other guy because he had more experience overall, having been the president and organiser of many more societies and events before.

That same guy won the Vice-President I vote by default though. Every other contestant pulled out. Boo!

For Vice President II, I nominated Daniel Ha to take up the post. Sadly, he lost it to Timothy Caesar thanks to Tim's One Malaysia speech. I have to admit he owned there.

Then, it came to the Secretary and Vice Secretary votings. I actually wanted to contest for Vice-Sec, but they decided to contest both at the same time at the last minute. Highest vote becomes Secretary, 2nd highest is Vice. So... too bad for me. Priya is now Secretary and Nabila is Vice-Sec. I'll contest next year then.

After that were the IT Coordinator, Events Coordinator, Male and Female Sports Rep, and finally 1st and 2nd Med Class Rep. I nominated/seconded Daniel a couple of times, but he lost all of them. I don't understand why. He has good ties with the seniors... Oh well, there's always next year for him.

Oh, more than 10 people pulled out when they were nominated. AJ hates the phrase "pulling out" and "withdraw" with a passion now. I find it annoying too. And the fact that less than 20 out of the 60 1st meds attended was annoying too. I hope my juniors next year won't be such chickens.

Day 37 - Dimmer Than Usual

Hmm... Lots of people were absent today. Ah, right. They're all outside doing some MedDay charity thing. I didn't sign up because I was lazy and I didn't want to miss lectures. Ironic? But I'd rather work my brain than my body.

Sigh............................. They gave us more slides to draw today. Ah well, we have 22 to do in all. We now have 11. Ugh... I haven't even done 1. At least the ones today are a lot easier than before. I can probably finish those over the weekends. I'll still hate the colouring though. Oh, we have to draw skin this week. Now, the PMR leavers should all know that the skin is divided into epidermis, dermis and adipose layers. Here's something new. The epidermis is split into 5 more layers and the dermis has 2. If I listed the names, you'd all die.

I found some 1 month old beans in my fridge today! I thought my housemates already used them up, but turns out they shoved it deep behind all the other stuff. It hasn't been opened yet and it was stored in the fridge, so I guess it's still edible. If it isn't, well, too late anyway. I ate them all. No sense wasting a euro. Which is RM5 by the way. That ain't cheap!

Oh, and if you're wondering about the post title. It's about my light bulb. It seems dimmer than last night. I'd better buy a spare just in case it blows out in the middle of the night like Xinyi's did. Poor girl must have been so scared. Bet she bribed her housemates so they wouldn't leak out that she screamed. I am a bad friend.

Day 36 - CSI Seminar

Ho boy! This is it, folks! Today's the day I finally receive the patient I will be assigned to visit and practice taking history. Due to confidentiality issues, I am not to divulge further information about the patient.

Basically, I have to visit the patient anytime within the next 3 weeks, talk to the patient and write a report based on what I learned from the patient. Very simple, but this is what I will be doing for the next 50 years from now on. Oh, and since we're all novices, we were assigned in pairs. My partner is an Irish girl with a strong Irish accent. I kinda feel bad that I shove the job of calling up the patient to her. But firstly, she's a local. The patient might feel more secure talking to a local. Secondly, my credit's out. And I want to change service providers so I'm not gonna top up until this weekend. Still, best apologise the next time I see her.

Well, that concludes my day. Sigh... anime night cancelled tomorrow.

Oh and related to that, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles has finally ended. With its 233rd chapter out after 6 years, the Journey of the Wings has finally come to an end. When they said the 232nd chapter was the finale, I was almost disappointed because if that was the ending, it was really hanging. What the heck are they gonna do now? And what was the price Shaoran and Watanuki paid? Etc etc.

But then I heard that there was gonna be 1 more chapter and I heaved a sigh of relief. Now, this was satisfying. And they finally let us know what their (Shaoran and Sakura) true names were. Tsubasa Chronicles... haha... nice last twist. To escape from that dimension of nothingness, the main characters of both stories (Tsubasa Chronicles and xxxHolic) paid a price each. And I'd say this last price was truly magnificent. One paid "Remain in a dimension" and the other paid "Continue moving through dimensions". Guess who paid each price?

Ah... Great job, CLAMP. Great job.

Day 35 - R4 Trouble

My first message is to tell any potential DS buyers or R4 (the card that allows you to download games into) buyers to NEVER buy R4 Deluxe. In fact, don't buy R4 at all. Go for M3. It's better. I am speaking from personal experience of course.

I turned on my DS today to find an error message. I immediately plugged the MicroSD card into my computer to check for problems. To my absolute horror, everything inside had been corrupted. How the hell did that happen!? Which means ALL my save files are GONE!! The World Ends With You, Taiko, Advance Wars, Meteos, everything that I or anyone have played and saved! CRAP!!!

To add to my problems, I also learned that Deluxe is not some new R4 brand, but a clone R4. I also learned that no original R4s are being produced anymore. All they do now is provide firmware updates. And with that, I spent hours searching for the correct firmware. I first tried R4 III because I remembered something like that in my R4 before it broke. But it was wrong. I tried for hours various ways of reinstalling the firmware but nothing worked.

Finally, at 8pm last night, I discovered that R4 Deluxe has its own firmware. Another hour flew by when I discovered that the stupid chinese version firmware isn't downloadable and the english version is not compatible. SHIT!! So I spent ANOTHER hour looking for chinese firmware online.

Considering how everyone HATES R4 Deluxe and I didn't know how sucky it was until recently, it took me one hell of a long time before I finally found a working firmware. The good thing was, this version is newer than my previous one and many bugs were fixed. So, yay! Suddenly, lots of games that were unplayable for god knows why on my R4 before it broke became playable.

I guess things worked out okay then? NOT!!! If the firmware requires constant updates and the stupid official site does not update, how the damn am I supposed to play newer games!? Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days just came out. Good thing it works, but I had to spend some time patching due to ROM problems. Sigh..... I hope you don't have these problems, Hime-sama.

Day 33 - I Miss Home

I've been really lax this past month. I just pass each day attending class, sightseeing, attending club activities, reading online comics, watching anime, playing my DS, visiting online forums, chatting through MSN and maybe do some chores when I feel like it. See a pattern? Maybe the kid doing psychology can easily read them, if he even still reads this blog.

So here's my deduction and explanation of my recent self. I'm homesick. Every action I've taken so far except attending lectures is a reenactment of my life from December 2008 to August 2009. The following is a comparison between my life now and then.

Sightseeing in Dublin <=> Sightseeing in Penang
Attending club activities <=> Working at Coral/Hanging out with friends
Online comics, anime, DS <=> Online comics, anime, DS, PS2
Online forums and chatting <=> Online forums and chatting
Chores in apartment in Dublin <=> Chores back home in Penang

See? Everything I've done up to now is loosely based on what I do back home in Penang. Furthermore, my desperate search for otakus in Dublin is so they can be the "Kazuki group" in Dublin. In other words, I'm trying to recreate my Penang life here. Whenever someone asked me how life was in Dublin, I could always reply "Same as Malaysia. Just colder." It's because I've done so many things to keep them the same. And it was all done subconsciously. I was never aware of the motives behind my daily activities until just moments ago.

Having resolved to not look back after leaving, my subconscious sought another way to express my homesickness. I thought it was strange I did not even feel like saying "I miss home" like a lot of my friends did. I thought it was because my resolve was still strong, but I learned that there are only three reasons you don't feel homesick:

1. Your home sucked
2. You're a heartless person who easily forgets your roots
3. You never left home

And mine is a variation of 3. What's to miss if nothing's different? My parents are online often enough to make sure that I see them almost everyday. And I have N5S forums for Pikaby. And I unconsciously erase anything that is different.

But now that I am consciously aware, the homesickness is taking over very fast.

Why am I suddenly aware? Because my mind just discovered a difference that it cannot erase. Studying. I have not touched a teaching material in 9 months. This change is significant and impossible to wipe away from my awareness unless I don't study, but I can't do that now, can I?

Studying has also made me realise something else. The time till the end of this term feels both very short and very long. Looking at my daily life, I feel that summer will come very fast. But when I look at my syllabus, I feel like just this semester will go on for years. So right now, my sense of time is completely messed up. Every time I look at my watch, I get a almost no reaction to the passing of time. Fast? Slow? I don't know anymore.

One last thing about my studies. I'm in trouble. And it's not because I haven't studied. Just by looking at what I have to study, I can already feel that it's impossible for me to repeat the feats I performed for all my previous exams. Even at my best, scoring an 'A' for any of the subjects sounds terribly difficult. In fact, I feel immensely pressured even thinking about it. Frankly, I really regret picking this subject.

But I'm not backing out yet. I should be able to complete this course, just not with flying colours. If you know me well enough, you should know that I'm a perfectionist in exams. I'm happy if I see 'A's, but even when I get an 'A', I still pick on myself for having wrong answers. The only reason I hate this subject now is because I see no chance for me to get an 'A' in anything. That's all.

Don't worry. I will graduate as a doctor. But be prepared to see results only slightly better than my AS exams.

Oh, I haven't said a thing about what I did today. Actually, thinking was all I did today. I was too panicked to do anything until a few minutes before this post. And thinking things out helped me calm down.

Day 32 - Cough!

Hard to say whether the coughing got better or not. It sometimes stops altogether, and then starts acting up again. But I am SO not visiting the campus nurse and pay 10 euros just to listen to her tell me "Drink more water."

Really, I think it's just because of the cold, dry weather here. That's why my throat is irritated but I feel fine. I doubt medicine is necessary.

I spent the afternoon with the GameSoc. I don't know why I keep going. I'm the only Asian guy there and the members don't talk to me a lot because half the time, I don't understand them. Their slang and their unusually deep voices. But at least I get to play some board games, card games etc there.

Returning home, I remembered an assignment that I had to complete by mid-November. DO NOT LAUGH!! What we have to do is observe 22 slides of body tissue given to us online, use textbooks to label them and their components. And then we have to write a short essay on the functional histology of each tissue. The problem is, this isn't your SPM or A-level microscopy sessions, where your teachers guide your every move. This is an entirely self-learning procedure. So we're going in blind, praying that what we've learned is enough.

And for me, it is not. I am dying here. I don't know how to start. I don't know what to draw. I've seen the examples, but they're so good, it just gives you pressure that you need THAT kind of standard. And there are no essays for us to refer to in those examples.

Oh, and the past examples were all done by Malaysian students. Screw you, Irish peeps! We Malaysians are better... in general.

Sigh.......... After this semester, I hope I NEVER have to draw again!

Day 31 - Cough! Cough! Cough!

The title pretty much sums up my whole morning.

We had a dissection practical this week. This time, we were to observe the pectoral region and the axilla, and find the pectoralis major, pectoralis minor, serratimus dorsi, and several other muscles. We were to also differentiate the various branches of the brachial plexus from a prospected specimen. If the words don't make any sense to you, that's fine. I only understand it a little more than y'all do anyway.

At night, I attended the anime movie night since I was better and didn't need anymore extra sleep. They showed Fullmetal Alchemist, Gurren Lagann, S-Cry-ed, Blood+, Death Note and Elfen Lied. They also ordered pizza for each of us. Only 3 euros for a personal 4-slice cheese pizza. They got all the pizza 1/2 priced.

After the show, I went back and got some more rest.

P.S. The coughing never stopped.

Day 30 - SLEEEEEEEEP!!

Scratch Day 29, THIS was the most unfair morning. I woke up every 2 hours or so finding myself in uncomfortable, almost bone-dislocatable positions. Not only that, I keep hurting putting pressure on the swollen finger I hurt yesterday. So, when I woke up, boy was I hell drowsy.

But I had Hospital Visit today. One of the few classes I cannot miss because this lets us view up close what real doctors do. Sure, a lot of them we've seen before when we visited the doctors ourselves (except those healthy freaks who've never seen a doctor), but they don't provide explanations of why they take each procedure.

Yes, I was almost dozing off throughout the entire 2 hours. I swear my consciousness was floating above my head. And I also discovered that my consciousness comprises of 70% of my body mass.

We were lectured on history-taking today. Pretty simple and straightforward. But we probably can't make any use of it until we at least complete our 1st term.

Finally, they let us off. I rushed back to campus, bought lunch, ate half of it and went to sleep. I had intended to wake up at 6pm so I could go get groceries, but I woke at 8. Crap... So, I went jogging around campus for some fresh air. And I forgot my chain of keys. Damn... Good thing Yuan Shi was in.

Then I went back in, ate the remainder of my lunch for dinner (it was a baguette so no worries about it getting cold), took some medication and then slept again. Oh, I turned on the heater tonight too. Hopefully, that'll make me feel better. I am SO not liking the weather here anymore!

Another stick man insanity

The BGM is Fighter's Dream from Naruto. Guess who each character that shows up in the background are. Frankly, I didn't know almost half of them.

Day 27 - Dublin Zoo

I didn't update about this because I felt lazy over the weekend.

At 9am, I and 5 friends gathered at the no. 10 bus stop. This time, we didn't stop at the City Centre but headed straight to Phoenix Park. The scenery was the same as I remembered. Fallen branches and empty patches of dirt on the grass. Seriously, it's a big park, but if the entrance already sucks this bad, who would want to go further in? Even if the deeper parts looked A LOT better.

Tickets cost us 12.50 euros each. Painful but expected. If we didn't have our student cards, it would've cost us 15 euros instead!

Anyway, according to the map, there were 40 main animal exhibits split into several areas. As I recall, there was African Safari, Artic, Planet of the Apes and then some smaller exhibits like reptiles and domestic animals (cows, goats, dogs, cats etc)

I can't say whether the place was big or small. It took us about 5 hours to circle the whole zoo, but that included some resting time and walking into dead ends. Somebody explain to me why there were dead ends!?

The closest exhibit was the Planet of the Apes, where we saw spider monkeys, chimpanzees, gorillas, lemurs and a few others. Xinyi had a weird way of pronouncing lemurs, "ler-mwers". We spent the whole journey joking about it, but frankly, I think it sounds better than "li-mers". I shall write in to the International Department of Animal Name Pronunciations and demand a change. Well, at least we soon learned that she wasn't the only one who pronounced it that way. We passed some French ladies who happened to pronounce it that way too.

Oh, and a chimpanzee was hitting on Xinyi.

Then, we got ourselves some ice-cream, hurting our pockets by another 2 euros. The ice-creams are no different than in Malaysia, except that almost every one of them had chocolate.

And then we saw seals. One of them really reminded us of Germaine. It kept dozing off, lifting its head up again and then dozed off again. I don't know how long it's been doing that, but when we came back from the African Safari (roughly 2 hours), it was STILL doing that. Why can't it just be satisfied with the stone floor and go to sleep!

Oh yeah, the African Safari was HUGE. Not surprising as it houses some of the largest animals on land. Elephants, rhinos, hippos, giraffes etc. There was a whole field dedicated to the various types of herd animals, such as zebras and giraffes. The elephants and rhinos got their own individual space. Well, who would want to put these behemoths near the small thin animals?

And then we saw the reptile house and birdhouse. Nothing much really. The insect farm and bird park back in Malaysia had more exhibits. Although I didn't like the way that owl looked at me. Like it was saying, "Come and get me, sonny boy!" from inside the cage. What did I do!?

And then there were the farm animals. It was feeding time for dogs and cats so we didn't see any. But we saw rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens, ducks, cows, goats, mules, turkeys etc etc. The ponies did not come out today though.

And that concluded our tour. Bye bye, zoo! I might come back again 2 years later to see if anything's changed. Highly unlikely though. But I want my souvenirs!

Day 28 - Nothing. Laundry day, lazy day.

Day 29 - This had to be the most unfair morning since coming here. I slept early the night before. And I woke up with a headache. You have got to be kidding. I have class today. CSI too! I figured it would die down after sometime but it didn't. It got worse. By 10am, I had to keep pressing my eyebrows to keep awake (There's a part of your eyebrow that is hard and very sensitive. Press it with a finger and see for yourself. Got the info from martial arts fiction :P).

But I loved CSI and wasn't going to skip it even if I had to stab myself to keep awake. Also, if you miss a CSI lecture, you'll be pretty darn screwed because this ain't a subject you can improve on by reading notes and textbooks. It's about doctor-patient relationship! Textbooks don't help one bit!

Finally, class was over. I raced back home (uh...well... walked VERY slowly because every step I took hurt my brain). Yan Shun offered to cook dinner for me tonight. I didn't want to trouble him, but he insisted so I took his offer. And I slept from 2 to 6 after taking some medicine.

I ate dinner with Yan Shun and Valerie at 7pm and then left for the GameSoc Video Game Night at 8pm. I know I'm not supposed to, but nothing makes me feel better than good old video games. SSBB again. Don't they have anything else!? But then again, I bet the other party game they have is Mario Kart. NOOOO!!!!

I inquired more about the Go players here but I found out that only MathSoc had Go boards. Alright! I'm so joining them next year! I wonder if Stewart can help me get the Go boards. I don't mind if I have to play alone.

Day 26 - GameSoc Coffee Morning

Even thought they call it coffee "morning", it's actually held from 12pm to 6pm, which means right after my lectures. Of course, I went back to eat first.

Before going to meet the GameSoc, I went to the Student Clinic and finally got my blood taken. They do it a lot faster here, but when I peeled off the bandage, I noticed that they leave a longer scar.

It was a pretty lazy day. Everybody just sat around playing card games. Some were playing Magic the Gathering, while the rest of us who had no decks just played random card games with poker cards.

After a while, two guys suddenly asked me if I brought my DS. OH YEAH! Advance Wars time! Nobody back in college ever wanted to play against me, but now, I was actually being challenged! I immediately accepted the challenge without considering their strength levels. "The higher the better." I thought.

We played a 3 CO map but it was actually very biased. 2 players had access to a single empty island but the 3rd player did not. And of the 2 people, the better one was Plaher 3. He yielded pretty fast, since he was being rammed by 2 stronger forces. And I easily took down Player 2 later, since I had more influence on the independent land. He then cheated by not giving my DS during my turn. But I knew I'd won anyway, so I just let him be.

At night, both my housemates went out, so I cooked instant noodles again. 3 packets left... Better not get lazy about cooking anymore. Hmm... maybe I can get more at the Asian market.

Day 25 - MedSoc 100th Anniversary

It was also Guinness' 250th anniversary. By 7pm, the streets near Temple Bar had been completely packed! Me and Jen Yit had a hard time squeezing through all those people. But we did that regardless and found our way to Break for the Borders.

Just the night before, we received an e-mail from the MedSoc Event manager that MedSoc would be celebrating their 100th anniversary tonight. And they promised that it would be a BIG one with BIG cakes.

Well, the party was officially supposed to start at 10pm, but people only started pouring in at 12am. Ah well, more dancing space for us. I had a Guinness (since Nigel urged me to try the ones here). It was better than Malaysia's, but I still hate it. I finished it regardless. It cost me 4euros! I also got myself some Coca-Cola to increase my hyper-ness.

Lots of jumping and screaming and soon, I felt my energy draining. So, I bought a bottle of Megito, a sweet alcoholic drink. It was only 4% so not that bad. Oh, and it was cheaper than Coke, so why not?

I had lots of fun dancing and watching AJ and Jolin heating up the dance floor. I only quit after my knees ached horribly in protest. And here's where the bad luck starts. It always does when I'm having LOTS of fun.

Firstly, I missed the BIG cake! They cut and ate it all already when I got off the dance floor. And I didn't know until I asked Grace on the way back. Well, it wasn't such a bad thing. The next is worse. Think failing-an-exam-and-having-to-retake-and-fail-again bad.

I LOST MY LIONHEART PENDANT!!!!!!!!!! OF ALL THE GODDAMN BLOODY SHITTY CRAPPY !@#$%^%*&^(&%#$#$!@@! THINGS AND TIME TO LOSE IT, IT HAD TO BE THAT AND IT HAD TO BE TODAY!! THAT HAD A CERTAIN DEGREE OF SENTIMENTAL VALUE!!!

The Lionheart was a strength charm that allowed me to breeze through SPM and A-Levels. It wasn't a lucky charm though. Well, would you consider it a lucky charm when it keeps disappearing, and this time permanently? Sure, I didn't really need it, but it felt really good to be able to grab onto something when you're pushing yourself to do something. And not just anything will do. I'm an FF fan and a Squall Leonhart fan. It was a replica of his pendant and he called it "The strongest Guardian Force". Naturally (as stupid as it sounds), it means a lot more to me than some random lucky charm you find from a Chinese feng shui shop.

Oh, it was also a very precious gift from Hime-sama! I am SOOOOO SORRY, Hime-sama!!! *Bangs head on floor*

BANG!
BANG!!
BANG!!!
BANG!!!!
BANG!!!!!
CRACK!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why do the funnest times have to end with such horrible luck!!!!!!

I am never bringing ANYTHING but 30euros to a bar party again!! SCREW THIS!!

Day 24 - Archery Club

We had the whole day free on Wednesday. No classes, no practicals. So the first thing we did was head to city centre to finally settle our Garda card. We got our ticket at 9am. Our turn came at 1pm. WHAT THE HELL!?

Of course, we knew that would happen, which was why we went walking around town until 12pm. We first took a visit to our hated rival university who claims that they're better than us but we know they're not - Trinity College. Their Fresher's Week only began this week. HAH! Slowpokes!

Since Xinyi and Nabila haven't taken their breakfast, we went to eat at Trinity College's canteen. Their prices were almost insane! Everything was about 25% more expensive than UCD. But oh well, we just picked stuff that cost under 3 euros.

We then went to see then Bank of Ireland building. It was big, but can you believe that they have no restrooms for customer use there!? Once Isaac settled his stuff, we then went to find the kebab store Nabila wanted to try.

They ate, I didn't. I was hoping to go back and finish up all those leftover ingredients in my fridge. They sold some Shawarna which cost 8 euros in a set with chips and a can drink. They also had a 1/4 pounder set at 5 euros with chips and a drink.

We then returned to the Garda building and waited till it was our turn. My turn came at 12.40pm and I got my card at 1pm. Finally, with this Garda card, I don't have to carry my passport around anymore! Then we went grocery shopping and headed home.

At 5pm, I headed to the Sports Centre to look for the Archery Club with Jen Yit. We found them a little early as they haven't even set up yet. The Handball Club was still hogging the field. Some 15 minutes later, the coach came and asked us if it was our turn already. Our President replied that it would be our turn in 1 minute. The coach nodded and ushered his trainees to move aside.

We were split into groups and allowed to shoot. It felt kind of difficult at first, but I got the hang of it pretty quick. My team was the worst with the most scattered shots. The team to our left was the best with EVERY shot striking the bullseye. And they were all newbies and half of them were girls. WHAT!? Well, they definitely had a better teacher. Their teacher was always talking. Ours was always silent.

Anyway, after about 5 rounds (1 person gets 3 shots per round), I finally got the hang of it. I started shooting consistent shots, but for some reason, they just won't hit the bullseye, only the line seperating the bullseye and the red ring. Earlier, I already found a way that suited me very much and it allowed me to continuously hit the bullseye, but apparently "you're not supposed to shoot that way". Boo...

Well, the session ended at 8pm and we went home.

P.S. I started RP-ing on IAntiVirus. Hope you're happy now, Wei Yun! Now, you start being active on N5S Forums too!

Day 23 - Poker Night

Anatomy in the morning (How many times will I repeat this before I don't even bother anymore?). Headache!!

Then, Isaac accompanied me to the Sci-Fi Soc's coffee morning. There, we had biscuits and coffee while chatting about stuff. Geeky stuff. Geeky stuff which I'd rather spend my 3 hours playing Advance Wars than listen to. They were talking about DC and Marvel comics. The only knowledge I have of that is from Cartoon Network Cartoons and Choong Shern's vast knowledge of them (which I couldn't understand either).

After coffee morning, I went back home and then headed out again 1 hour later. I had to go get a document from the Student Desk. And then, Japanese class. A very Japanese-looking girl attended today. She spoke in complete fluent Japanese to the teacher... for 5 seconds. And then her vocabulary and grammar went to cloud nine. Boo...

Once class ended, I went to the Student Centre to check on the GameSoc. YES! They were there tonight! Playing poker though... with REAL money. I watched. I did not play, I swear on it. Until I start working, then I'll play. It's only 5 euros per night (or until you run out of chips). If I get a
job, the minimum wage is 8 euros per hour, or so they say.

I bumped into Nathanael who just left the Sci-Fi Soc's movie night. Some random Sci-Fi flick was on tonight. I didn't bother to go, but I'll likely go tomorrow when they show Star Wars.

Day 22 - Damn you, GameSoc and Sci-Fi Soc!

Morning = Classes. Yay! Chandralal is GONE FOR GOOD!!

In the afternoon, I had Biochemistry lab. Damn, it was difficult. Oh no, the experiment was easy. Writing the damn bloody report was hard! They gave us instructions that served to confuse us more than simplify things. It took me 45 minutes (including waiting time) for me to complete the experiments. It took me 2.5 hours to finish the stupid report! Yes, I was working overtime!

I had to rush back to Belgrove to make dinner then leave for the GameSoc and Sci-Fi Soc meeting. Since Nattanael (I just saw a letter with his name on it, so I know how to spell it now) cooked lunch for me this afternoon, I repaid the favour for dinner. Yuan Shi had already eaten though.

After dinner, I rushed to the Student Centre only to find the room which the GameSoc usually uses occupied by another society. I looked around for a while but couldn't find them. So, either they moved to another building or they cancelled it altogether. Either way, I didn't bother to find out.

I then headed to the Science Center to join the Sci-Fi Soc movie night instead. But they weren't in the room they told us to meet. I asked the reception if there were any other rooms being used by societies. They told me that the Sci-Fi Soc had cancelled at the last minute. WHAT!!??

Ah, darn it!

Day 21 - St Stephen's Park

I once mentioned a park near the City Centre near Dawson Street. I believe I typed the wrong name that time. Anyway, after completing my Sunday morning schedule, I took a bus to revisit St Stephen's Park.

The beauty of the place has somewhat deteriorated since the last time I went, most likely due to the changing of seasons. There were lots of people today, as expected on a Sunday. I saw lots of parents playing with their kids, couples flirting on the grass, weird groups (yes, several) of people doing stunts in the park (e.g. magic tricks, juggling, unicycling, clowning around etc.).

I also found a spot where the swans and ducks like to rest after coming out of the water. It wasn't hidden, though. I saw lots of people going there, but usually in small groups so as not to scare the animals. I got close to a swan and managed to snap a photo of me with it. I would've liked to touch it, but AJ warned me against doing so. I think I'll do it next time when I'm wearing leather gloves and a long sleeved shirt.

I went to take a look at RCSI as well. If I haven't said this before, I laughed at the college. Not only was it tiny, it wasn't even the one shown in the pictures. The pictures of RCSI that PMC showed us illustrated a traditional building that looked like only classy and knowledgeable people go to. But in truth, that was the old building which they hardly use now. The new building looks like any old office building, all squarey and boring. Haha!

Lastly, I took a stroll around streets I have not been to in the City Centre. Nothing much, just more shops selling a variety of things. I finally found a shop that sold anime, but it was just a tiny section in a 3-storey DVD shop. There weren't even many titles and half of them were Studio Ghibli productions.

And that concludes my day.

AWESOME!!

AWESOME!! AWESOME!! AWESOME!!! AWESOME!!!!

That's all I can say about this song! AWESOME!!!!!

Day 19 - Video Game Afternoon

Ah well, the morning was a s horrible as I had expected. Chandralal's terrible teaching skills opted me to just stare blankly into space while pretending to be copying notes. After the 1 hour of total boredom was over, we had a break till 2pm.

The 2pm class was a CAL class. I suppose I have not mentioned a CAL class before but these practicals are by far the fastest classes in our timetable. They put it down as a 2-hour session but in truth we usually only take 15-30 minutes to finish what we were tasked. What a waste of time!

As usual, I settled everything in 30 minutes and raced off to the Student Centre where the GameSoc was holding a video game session for 4 hours.

I found quite a number of time gathered in a room where there were 2 TVs and a projector. They had 2 XBox360s and a Wii at our disposal. They were playing Street Fighter 4 and Call of Duty 4 on the XBox whereas the Wii saw a competition between 4 players in Super Smash Bros Brawl.

I found myself playing Brawl more often than the others. Frankly, Brawl was better, because it showcased much more hilarious moments that would have gotten 10,000 hits in a day if posted on Youtube. Pikaby, you should know this pretty well.

In one match, there was only Kirby and Bowser left on the field standing on opposite sides of a ledge. Imagine those 2 idiots standing there with a considerable distance between each other attempting to attack each other. Kirby was continuously sucking and Bowser was breathing fire. It turned from tension to epic laughter when they kept that position for 3 minutes straight. Bowser then attempted to end the deadlock (?) by jumping over to fight, only to get eaten by the Pink Ribena and spat out of the field. However, the battle did not end there as the 2 of them continued to fight like crazy until Kirby used its Final Smash and successfully hit Bowser. However, Kirby was standing on a loose platform and dropped to its doom first before Bowser flew off the screen. Epic FAIL indeed.

In another match, I had successfully dealt 240% damage to my final opponent, but for some goddamn reason (and the fact that she's a pro that just owned 8 matches using Random), I just couldn't kick her off the field. I swear I was chanting "Getoffthestage!" for 1 whole minute. Imagine, 1 whole minute of being smacked off the battlefield and she can still get back on the field safely. I was using Mr Game and Watch and she was using Marth by the way.

Then, there was this one match which we had to call the Match of the Day. A noob was using Pikachu and got beaten down to 1 life and had already suffered 156% in damage while the others still had 3 lives and suffered only less than 100% damage. Miraculously, the Pikachu survived being used as a paddle ball until the remaining 3 players were down to 1 life. The Pikachu even lived long enough to see the 2 of them die. Me and another guy were screaming, "If Pikachu wins this round, we will laugh... VERY hard!" But, even with over 250% damage, Pikachu actually survived for 5 minutes, continuously running around like an idiot yet still managing to luckily dodge almost every hit or recover from being hit off the stage. In the end, Pikachu made the mistake of attacking on a loose platform which dropped to oblivion, dragging Pikachu along with it. The winner was Sheik, with 1 life and over 150% damage. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!? A NOOB MADE IT THIS FAR!!! And we known she's a noob because even I used her as a paddle ball in the previous 4 rounds.

The day ended pretty fast after that. Just went home, ate dinner and went to bed from the tiredness.

Day 18 - International Student Welcoming Reception

Morning classes were suffocating. The endless use of big words really gave me a headache. Ah well, I survived without falling asleep - something I would very much love to do during Chandralal's class tomorrow. I think it's his final lecture tomorrow. YES!!!!

I also had my first dissection class today. Unlike Hime-sama's dissection, we were doing it on cadavers, real human bodies. Hence, we were not allowed to photograph anything as it would be disrespectful to the kind soul who donated his body to give birth to a new generation of doctors. If any of you thought that sounded like sarcasm, you deserve to be shot.

This was the class I had been waiting for. A chance to fill the thrill Dr Stein (Soul Eater) does when he does his favourite hobby. In fact, I wanted to do the whole dissection myself. Sadly, I accidentally ripped a hole on my glove and I wasn't allowed to touch the body any longer. DAMN!!

After class ended, I returned to my apartment to prepare for the event mentioned in the title. As I had expected, the cheapskates who leeched so much of our money only served us sandwiches. There was also wine so I gulped down 3 glasses to balance it out. Take that, UCD Financial Office!!

But it was pretty boring, so I left in an hour. The Sci-Fi Soc was having an anime night tonight, so I thought, why not? When I got there, they just finished watching Mushi-Shi. Damn, I missed that. After that, they showed Death Note the animation. Then I requested Elfen Lied. Followed by Cowboy Bebop, Bleach and Fullmetal Alchemist. I saw their anime list. It wasn't very impressive. Mostly the famous series and some lesser known ones like Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. Apparently, downloaded anime is legal here. So, damn! I should've brought along my collection! Ah well, I'll start downloading now.

Oh yes, I am very disappointed at the anime culture in UCD. No cosplayers among the anime fans. And I've confirmed, besides myself, only 5 anime fans in UCD. Well, it's pretty obvious anime influence here is at an all-time low when somebody can ask, "What is Death Note?"

Better sleep early tonight. Then again, who cares? Chandralal's class is tomorrow. I'll go finish up Hikaru no Go.

Day 17 - GameSoc Party

No classes today, but I had a few things to do, like grocery shopping and looking at more clubs and socs.

Well, I finished everything I needed to do by 5pm. After relaxing for 1 hour, I headed out for the GameSoc party at the Student Centre.

It came as a surprise to me when I saw Nattenaya there as well. He was playing a war game with some other guys. I watched for a while, but didn't get a clue of they were doing, so I headed downstairs where the party was held.

There, I was introduced to many games I have never even heard of much less seen or played. Out of everything they played, I only knew the Rock Band video game they were playing on their XBox360. I played the drums for a while, but the addition of a foot button really threw my coordination off. I got perfect beats for handwork on Medium (bet I could do Hard), but the extra foot button which I'm not used to sent me to heck.

Soon, the pizza they ordered came. Well, I'd have to admit that they were pretty stupid to think that 2 large pizzas would be enough to fill 30+ stomachs. Good thing I got a piece. Too bad for the others :P.

At about 9pm, me and Nattenaya left since we hadn't much to do there.

I think I'll go join NetSoc and Sci-Fi Soc tomorrow. They're offering some pretty good membership deals now.

Day 16 - Freshers Week Day 2

Ah well, my morning classes start at 11am today, so I got an extra 2 hours of sleep. Or not. I just slept 2 hours later the previous night. :P

Well, anyway, Anatomy and Histology are starting to show their stuff now. I'm getting a brainache but hey, this is proving to be an excellent exercise for my rusty brain. I know just how rusty it is because I could hardly understand what the lecturers were saying. As for the lecturers, they're not horrible like Chandralal, but they sure are boring. It's not their fault though, the subject just contains too many jargons for them to even make a decent joke out of it.

Anyway, I had the whole afternoon free after that. I revisited the Sports Centre, but the Tai Chi Club is apparently dead, so I took off. I went to check out societies again and joined the Psychology Society (PsychSoc) since they seemed interesting. Heck, just to play them, I might throw a few things I learned from Liar Game.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent revising the earlier classes. And then Japanese class at 5pm. Seriously, I'm out of practice after not using it for a year. But my speaking was that bad from the start because no one could practice with me. I think my writing owns everyone else in the class though, except that one Irish girl. Just like me, she's out of practice after not having used the language for 2 years. How good was she, I wonder.

Ah well, everybody was lazy tonight, so we all just cooked instant noodles.

Day 15 - Start of Freshers Week

Today's the day all (well, most) societies and sports club show their stuff. I had been eagerly awaiting this day so I can fill up my oh-so-empty schedule. But first things first, Molecular Basis of Life at 9am followed by Cell-Cell Communication at 10am.

For the record, I dislike my current lecturer for Molecular Basis of Life, Mr. Chandralal. Useless fellar gives us incomplete notes. He says that it's to make sure we pay attention in class. Oh sure, I can understand that. But sir, you talk VERY fast and use an Indian accent. I have to pick between listening to you or copying notes. Frankly, neither helps because I catch only 50% of what you say and you keep changing slides way too fast. Sir, I may just accept your invitation and leave your class until the next lecturer for this subject takes over. I'd be better off spending time reading the textbook, seriously. And 150 other people agree with me.

At 11am, I have a 1 hour break before my next lecture, so I decided to check out the clubs and societies with Isaac. There were lots, but no anime clubs. Boo... The closest was a Sci-Fi club that occasionally watches mecha anime. Not interested. So, I joined MedSoc (that's Medical Student Society) and Games Society. About the latter, they play board games, card games and physical games like Twister, not just video games. And they're the most active society in UCD, with activities everyday except Sunday.

After 1 round, we headed to the Sports Centre to check out the AWESOME "We can kick Trinity College's ass 100 times over without breaking a sweat" sports clubs. There were many, but for some reason the ones I'm interested in keep clashing. So, for now, I joined the Archery Club. I plan to join Tai Chi too, but the booth wasn't open today. If nothing, I'll go join Trampoline Jumping since they have practices on Saturday and Sunday. And maybe I'll go for rifling too. After all, it's just 30 minutes per session and up to 3 sessions per week. But they're on weekdays, so I don't really know.

Anyway, back to class after that. CSI again. Of all the lectures I have this sem, I enjoy this class the most. Our lecturer, Dr Patrick Felle (I think) encourages class participation without forcing people too much, cracks appropriate jokes, delivers information simply and precisely, yadi yadi yaddah... All in all, he is perhaps the best lecturer I've ever listened to. But then again, his class IS about doctor-patient communication. If he sucks, we'd be doomed.

I think I love his class also because it allows freedom of thought. The other lectures are just laying down facts. Your opinions are seldom or not at all involved. This lecture however, you're allowed to express your thoughts and ideas of how things can be done since there is more than one answer. But then, I bet I'll hate it once I get a patient assigned to me.

Oh, funny thing today, when Dr Felle was asking for an example of a situation where moral values may influence the doctor's methods, me and another guy had the same thought at the same time, "Euthanasia!"

Well, the rest of my day was the same as always. There was supposed to be some demonstration by the GameSoc today, but I forgot the location. Oh well, they have one everyday till Friday.

Time to hit the books! (Screw you, Chandralal. Because you suck, I have to study your subject earlier than the rest!)