- todai interview day. thesis due tomorrow...!!! -

currently listening to - Jupiter (Hirahara Ayaka)
mood - headache

phrase of the day:


「くすり」を逆で読むと「リスク」

meaning.. ku-su-ri (medicine), when read backwards, it's ri-su-ku (risk). how true.

after a short vacation (?) in Tokyo, i returned to Osaka. tried to continue my thesis but my head decided to sabotage me. hence i died in the room till this morning.. the headache still plagued me when i woke up for school (listening skills classes..). well it wasn't so bad that i had to take panadol (wait, have i ever taken a panadol when i had a very bad headache...?) ........................

anyhow.

had my late lunch while watching tv. and found out that some high-school girl fell off the balcony and died.. due to the intake of oseltamivir. a kind of strong antiviral drug that's used to treat influenza viruses..? though the usage's legally approved, it's said to cause hallucinations and stuff.. and apparently in japan (since the introduction of the drug) there have been quite a few cases (more than 15?) which middle-school kids died after the intake of this drug.

scary....

*****

so people have been complaining (?) about me abandoning the blog.

no i'm not.

just had some problems posting... the "save as draft" and "post" buttons weren't working. actually they still AREN'T working but i solved the problem by using the "ctrl + d" and "ctrl + s" keys... and i've not been able to use the internet for a few days because i went to Tokyo for some personal, official business...

*****

thought of going to Tokyo on 10th (tuesday) night instead of 13th (wednesday) but i had to attend the sakubun lessons for my thesis's sake.

so i arrived at Shinjuku station, half dead. i didn't know how i did it but i made it to my senpai's apartment by following the instructions she gave me through mail. and died till noon. in fact i wouldn't have wanted to wake up if i hadn't had to go for an interview for the dormitory..

both the interviews for the dormitory (14 feb) and the university (15 feb) were held at TIT, which is at Oookayama (i'm pretty sure i didn't misspell anything accidentally coz it's おおおかやま in hiragana and it's written 大岡山 in kanji), which is near Meguro.. and for 2 days i did nothing except exploring around the campus. flat place, unlike gaidai. and i think it's much more convenient than gaidai since there's a train station, a McD outlet, a super(expensive)market and a (small) shopping street right next to the university.

the interviews were.... weird. the one for the dormitory was short (less than 15 minutes) and it's conducted to all 4 candidates at the same time (group interview). everyone was asked the same question: give a 3-minute speech about yourself and state reasons why do you want to enter the dormitory. actually the reasons are all written on the application form but i guess the invigilators wanted to do so to test our japanese speaking skills? everything went on so-so (all of us fumbled in front of the many 20 "audiences" in the interview room) when suddenly the 1st candidate (the only person who's not from our gaidai) stood up and said, in japanese,

"excuse me may i 1st have a look at the environment of the dormitory? i heard that the dirtiness of the dorm's way beyond imagination."

a few invigilators grinned.

next it was the university interview. there were 3 invigilators (the candidates before me had 5 or more) and each took turns to ask random questions. really RANDOM questions. from "why did you apply to TIT?" to "so, which building in TIT interests you most?" "what's the biggest difference between TIT and your current university?" (hint: i'm majoring in architecture). for the latter 2 questions, i said "the foreign student center, coz unlike the other buildings it looks old - oops - ANTIQUE..." and "my current university has a lot of saka (coz it's in O-saka).." respectively.

and for the "which building in Japan do you like most?" i anyhow answered "the tokyo tower". but i refrained from giving any reasons (they might have sounded lame too).

say, am i the 1st UA student to make invigilators laugh?

actually my mom laughed at me too when i told her about this. damn.

the remaining 2 days i spent my time searching for an apartment (just in case i'm disqualified for the dorm) as well as eating with friends. on friday my host-senpai (not THAT host, i meant host for accommodation) treated me an italian (?) set dinner at Shinagawa, which was fabulous. mmmmm mouth-watering.. man, that was good. by paying 3k yen you can get 2 persons worth of pasta + pizza + cake + drink. and it's not some normal-sized pasta it's BIG. the pizza was slightly thin but the entire meal was freaking filling. don't you just love senpais?

on saturday, before i took the night bus back to Osaka, i ate at a Korean BBQ restaurant with a few friends (2 who came to tokyo for todai interview, a korean friend from Denki Tsuushin University, a japanese friend who's looking for a job in Tokyo, and a Indonesian senpai). the eat-all-you-want yakiniku course. yahoo, there goes my money.... i swear that's the last expensive meal that i'll ever eat before shifting and settling down..

and i felt bad (a bit) for smelling like yakiniku when i planted my ass on the night bus's seat. my mouth must've smelled bad too.

*****

1) sakubun - essay (japanese)
2) saka - slope(s)
3) yakiniku - grilled meat