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。