More money for sustance in Japan!

July 15, 2004

I woke up the morning not feeling fully rested even though I fell asleep at 11.30 last night. I had a mild headache in the morning but that went away after my shower. I decided to carry my map in case I did anymore off road stuff. And today�s bike ride wasn�t as smooth as usual. I had to brake for the �impediments� several times which annoyed me. If you are walking and hear a ringing, you are supposed to look back and register than someone wants to come through. Apparently this logic is lost here. And cars don�t watch for traffic in the sidewalk when they want onto the road. Idiots! I had to swerve to avoid cars getting onto traffic without looking. Granted they were moving pretty slow, but I wouldn�t be affected. They were the ones who would have dings on the bumpers.

When I got to work and hooked on the net, the computer this time worked flawlessly which pleased me greatly. I was very happy to get an email from Sunny which said that she was transferring to Minneapolis�s AI. This means she�s closer and we can see each other more. Because anytime Kevin goes up to Minneapolis and I have time, I can go up to see her. And she is extremely lucky to have Alex because he offered to move there so that they can be together. She gets the one she loves and her friends and family simultaneously. She missed home a lot when she was at Seattle. I also talked to Robi again and I was told that my journals were being scrutinized at home. Hehe. I wonder what�s in my journals to pick apart. Need to talk to mum and dad to see if anything is worrying them because I haven�t done anything illegal. Haha. And he is corresponding with a bong from Kettering. I feel good that he will be in the same country now and I don�t need a visa to visit him. And he isn�t very far away. He has a very interesting phase of life coming up. The boundaries seem limitless but to stay in control, limitations will be needed. He will have to learn to compromise and it�s a good thing that he has a running start from Woodstock. I had to learn from scratch because I have had a relatively sheltered childhood. I learnt from my mistakes and I seem to be doing just fine now.

After Masao got in and my Vit D drink, we discussed the plan of attack for today�s work. He reminded me that I still had to go to the bank. So after extracting the glass cylinders from the carbon cast using a vacuum cleaner and labeling them, I left to go to the bank. I thought about carrying my camera with me if I wanted to take a few pictures of downtown and they realized that this was a quick trip because I had to be back soon. I broke 70 bucks to Yen hoping it would be enough to sustain me for another few days. But I was still worried about needing cash to buy my souvenirs. I hope most of them take credit cards. Otherwise I will have to find an ATM which allows withdrawls from international cards. I think I might end up spending a couple of hundred dollars on stuff for other people and me this weekend. I guess I�ll keep my fingers crossed. I already know what I will be getting for some of my friends. Hehe. One of them might be very surprised because I can just imagine the look on the person�s face. There are so many things here! I have to make tough decisions. I will prefer handicrafts over mass-manufactured stuff.

When I got back, we decided to do a quick lunch so that we could make a glass sample and a couple of precursors. We went to a handimart within the campus and bought a curry filled thing, strawberry milk, and a couple of rice triangles in seaweed. I also took a bag of chocolate chip bread sticks. They looked healthy and good snack food. This total was 680 Y which was a bit more than usual but still pretty cheap. And I bought lunch for myself for a change. Masao got some of his fruits out. I had a peach and a couple of bananas before digging into my lunch. I told him that at my house, we had a couple of mango trees that produced 3000 mangoes in a year and banana trees that gave about 900 bananas. He was amazed because he thought Nigeria had a lot of desert land because it was a major oil producing nations. A common misconception that all oil comes from desert lands.

After the quick 30 min lunch, I checked traffic on my blogs. I saw that I missed Andi again because she came during my lunch but at least she reads my journals and got to see the pictures. It really sucks that I haven�t been able to chat with her since the first time on Monday. I really miss her.. I sent her an email telling her that I was thinking about her. I haven�t gotten any reply from Pat or Deanna yet. They got my email though. Hopefully, I would get some correspondence about the Diplomat thing soon. Traffic on my blog has surged. Some one from Jamaica viewed it which was cool. I have random views all the time now. I also posted up pictures from yesterday too. Doll now agrees that I have been to Japan because these pictures featured me. Hehe. I missed chatting with Doll by a few minutes but it was pretty late there already, so she went to bed. She left a couple of messages which was sweet. I also got some messages from Bul but she had to leave quickly.

We made our second glass sample today. I don�t think we will be doing any of the characteristic testing here since I don�t have much time. I will be carrying these samples back with me. I will also get a letter from Masao giving details about the materials I am carrying in case I am questioned during baggage check. I might keep it in my carry on because I don�t want anyone to open my checked in suit case. I might be deemed a terrorist and a threat to National Security with deadly chemical weapons if I don�t have the necessary official documentation. Actually, that might be a thrill and they�d feel dumb when they realized it was completely harmless. But I don�t want to tempt fate and get delayed in the process.

And on and off, I kept chatting and browsing during the little breathers. I also found out about something really big and I can�t disclose what I found out. If I talked about it, it would make some people very unhappy. I had a heart to heart conversation with Pallavi which started with Abhiram. They have become stead fast friends and their friendship parallels mine and Doll�s. When they were in school, they weren�t good friends but have gotten closer since undergrad. But now they pretty dependent on each other. I am glad to see that some old school ties are still going on and getting stronger as time goes by. Ever since I have been in the US, I have lost touch with some of my best friends from DAV. I have also reached the point of no return after 4 years. I am content keeping in touch with the people who want to stay in contact. I also talked to mammi for a bit and sent her my journals so that she can take it home for them to read because she�s at her parent�s house now. She feels old now and she�s only 23! I couldn�t help but smile. She sent me some of her pictures and I liked the one with her and Robi. I might get a print of that from home if they have it. I might ask Robi to be useful and send me photographs or post them online. I want to see how things went in India. I have seriously been out of the loop with family happenings because I don�t get any news unless my parents tell me or I chat with Mammi. I like these chats I have with Piu now, and it helps that we are on more manageable time zones.

After making today�s glass, I made solutions to make more glasses! I made a couple of precursor solutions to dry overnight. I messed up the first one, so we had to dispose all the chemicals and start over again. Since there is no mixing involved, this takes about 15 minutes compared to the 30 minutes at Coe. I also like the prep room because it is air conditioned and I like being cool and dry! We took a early drink break around 3.30 instead of 5 pm. That was because we had about an hour to kill.

I figured out more stuff with Ben about our upcoming weekend. He will be coming in at 4.10 and I will be picking him up from the Kami-Kumamoto station which is closer to Sojo. We take a taxi to my apartment, ask him to wait and then take us to Sojo so that Ben can see Masao and his lab. And then we have been invited to dinner by Masao�s wife at a restaurant near Kumamoto Castle. And then, the next day we explore Kumamoto Castle with Masao and then he might take us to another tourist spot which is also supposed to be picturesque. And then we leave on Monday morning to Kyoto where we spend an afternoon and then onto Tokyo. We will be at a hotel overnight. I might see some of my friends that night too. Then I will be going to a fish market early in the morning because Ben says that it�s an amazing experience. And then I will leave to get back down to Kumamoto and stay in my apartments over night after packing to leave by train again the next morning. Masao and I figured out our plans after work today. I have to leave Kumamoto at 9 in the morning to reach Kansai International Airport by 3.30 which is 2 hours before I depart for Chicago. So clearly evident, I will be doing a shit load of traveling and sightseeing which easily compensates for the past week. I have train travel for 3 days in a row and then a 12.5 hour flight back to Chicago. I will probably be worn thin by the time I get back to Andi�s and possibly jet lagged since I wasn�t jet lagged when I got into Japan. I do have a lot of time before we both have to get back to Coe. I can relax before I enter next year�s chaos.

I got done with work around much later than usual. I left for the apartment at 7.30 after I got done with the last solution. I had a leisurely ride back with a few gear glitches. I bought a couple of curry filled bread. I took a quick shower and ate my dinner while watching a segment on one of the female Japanese volleyball players. They train hard! They do blind goal keeping with medicine balls! Ouch! I had my other Japanese beer. I like these beers because they are very smooth. I still have to finish the rice liquor. I might do that with Ben because I don�t want to drink that much of alcohol. I also ate up the remains of my cake from last night. And then, I journaled so that you can read about today�s experiences.. It seems like more of a work and internet journal to me. It will be more exciting for me to write about the exploring the country this weekend. I might not get to post the pictures and journal entries till I reach Chicago because I won�t have internet access for long enough to do it in Japan. I�ll try to do some if I get back to Kumamoto early enough. I guess that�s it for today and I am actually done early today. It�s only 10.20. I might read some because I haven�t done any reading here so far. I haven�t been able to make time for it. I am normally tired and need to go to bed by 11 pm. Japan is making me something I am not, an early sleeper..

Just put up more pictures

Make your way to Joy's Odds N' Ends if you want to see some new pictures I took yesterday. Most of these have me in them.

Burning off extra energy!

July 14, 2004

Today�s dream kept me engaged through the ritual 4.30 awakening, so I didn�t even look at my watch to see the time. And I woke up a few minutes before 8 am and waited for the alarm to go off but it never did. I got up to check the computer to see what went wrong. After a few minutes of tinkering around, I noticed that after the time had automatically changed when it was connected to the internet, I forgot to change the AM to PM! So, since the alarm was set to activate at 8 AM, it never went off. I took a leisurely shower in the morning because I knew that I had to stop by the post office and it opened at 9 am. I wanted to lighten my bag and I removed the book I carried everyday that I hoped to read. And I decided to go bright with today�s outer wear. I wore the red San Francisco t-shirt Andi gave me. I think this is the first time I�ve worn it and I liked the way it looked on me. And this time I remembered to get the Nalgene out of the freezer and hooked onto my bag! The ride was much better today with less strain on my back. Still, the laptop�s pretty heavy and not really meant for portability during physical exertion. After a quick stop at the post office, I got to the office at 9.10 instead of my usual 8.50. So, it wasn�t too much of a delay.

This time there was something wrong in the morning because Yahoo! Mail or Google mail wouldn�t open on the laptop. So, after talking to Robi, I restarted the computer in hopes that it would fix whatever was wrong but it didn�t. So, I just posted my journal and checked hotmail. I got a short email from Tara telling me that she was getting back to the US soon and would tell me about the experiences later when she had more time. And then Masao got to work, and I checked my other emails on his computer after he was done. I got an email from mum and dad telling me that they got online but I wasn�t there. Well, I was at lunch unfortunately.. And then they tried calling me at work but simultaneously I was trying to call them from the office downstairs. We just kept crossing each other! What luck!

And then I started work finally! We took our solutions out today morning and after it cooled down, we bottled it. These precipitates are sticking to the Teflon beaker which never happened at Coe. It�s strange.. We did all the work without gloves and I usually had powder adhere to my hand while attempting to scrape out as much of the precursor as possible. After we bottled both the preps, we were done for lunch. I waited while Masao cleaned all the stuff we just used. He won�t let me clean it! Anyway, I just went back hoping that the mail things were working now and there were. Hail Mary (Magdelene or the original?)! If you didn�t get that, Mary Magdelene was Jesus�s alleged �wife� and you know his mum of course. I didn�t get many replies to my ton of emails that went out. Anyway, I know there is usually a week long waiting period except when it comes to Inga who emails me right away. I usually have a reply waiting for me the next day.

We went to eat at noon to the Chinese restaurant to try their other options. We opted for their pork option. We sat at the same table the first time that we went there. When the entr�e got there, I knew that I would be eating the right amount again. This dish has a strong garlic taste to it just like most of the other Chinese stuff I�ve tried. It was very tasty, as Masao puts it. I was much quicker with the chop sticks today because before eating, I watched one of the men use theirs and copied his technique which worked wonders. I am proud of my mimicking skills.. hehe. Now that I think about it, my hand writing is a specimen of mimicked handwriting combinations of some friends in sixth grade. I wanted to change my hand writing because I thought my old handwriting was shabby. And when I perfected my style that was influenced by others, I decided to keep it. And I have been complimented on my hand writing ever since.. Modesty don�t come too easy.. On the way back, Masao took some pictures of me with the hills as a back ground. They came out well and would have been better if the Sun was not over head. I look pretty dark in the shadows of the contours of my face. I like the pix anyway.

We started the process of making our glass for today. The time factor involved in doing research is lax. The only thing they are not lax about is the composition and it�s accuracy to the theoretically predicted values. Masao is a stickler for procedure. We had to make about 20 g of glass and only 6 grams of precursors normally fits in the crucible. But we put it only around 4 g and melted it and then put 4 g in again. We repeated this process 5 times! The reason we do so many steps is to prevent overflow and bubbles in the melt. The addition of the sample was a two person operation with one person switching off the furnace and taking the cover off while the other person removed the ceramic cover off the crucible and then put in more sample in the hot furnace which was still around 800 �C when the addition was going on. I think my hand got burnt quite a few times because the gloves weren�t enough protection against the high temperature. His glass making process is different. His takes about 2.5 hours to make the melt. After we had all the prep in, we waited for 1 hour for it to heat at 1000�C stirring the melt once with a platinum wire. And around 5 pm, the melt was ready to be poured into the carbon mould and kept at 300�C for another hour and then left overnight to cool at 1K/min. So, when I come back tomorrow, it will be ready to be tested.

We took our drink break. This time I bought the drinks. I carried my camera along and I got someone to take a picture with me and Masao on our drink break. The pic came out very well. I also met some English speaking faculty members. It may seem mundane to you but after speaking English only to Masao for a week, this was a refreshing change when I didn�t have to play dumb when Masao spoke to someone in Japanese. I told him that a few of our students were doing NASA research when he mentioned that one of the professors I talked to taught aerospace science. I also told him that Bhavya was doing aeronautical engg in India. He also told me that he would show me and Ben around Kumamoto Castle on Sunday which is good because it would be nice to have a tour guide.

As I was working, I was also chatting with different people. I talked to Eun Hyung because she is back at South Korea and I hadn�t talked to her since she left for home in May. She didn�t know that I was going to Japan so I stunned her when I told her that I had been in Japan for about a week already. I also chatted with Namee after quite some time. I am excited to see her again early September when she comes to Coe to visit her friends. I chatted with mammi and Doll again for a while. This time Doll had a robotics question involving mechanics and mathematics.

Today, I didn�t want to stay at work accessing the internet because I didn�t see a point to wait for people since they never show up. So, I asked Masao for options to do stuff in the evening instead of just staying in my apartment. He told me that there was a lake about 30 mins by bike which was supposed to be picturesque. I might go there tomorrow. For today, he showed me a bike trail that I was supposed to follow. But it joined back to the bike path on the main road. So, I decided to head back home because I felt like running. I felt like running for the first time since I�ve been here. My bike ride at a higher resistance level seemed easy which was weird. When I got back to my apartment, I met my next door neighbour and she could speak English! I talked to her for a few minutes and told her that I might come knocking looking for some conversation later. I introduced myself and told her what I was doing here. Her name�s Kaye and she�s a student at Kumamoto University. I wish I met her earlier, then the evenings might not have been so mundane.

Anyway, I quickly changed into running gear. I traced out a path on the map and then decided to stay on populated roads. I ran for 32 minutes sprinting the last minute. For some odd reason, I felt like I had a lot of energy to use. Must have been all the drinks during the day.. I ran on the sidewalk adjoining 4 lane traffic with a tram service in the middle. And since, I didn�t want a break in my running; I just cut through all the pedestrian lights watching traffic. Usually, cars stopped for me when they saw that I was running. I don�t know how I ran for so long in 100% humidity. I could have run for about 40 minutes if not for the stickiness and moisture. So, I ended up walking 10 minutes when I began intending to run 40 minutes. Anyway, it�s my first run in about 15 days. So I think the 4 miles is good enough in the non-running conditions. So, I had a lot of physical activity today only differing in my inability to do weights since I haven�t found a gym facility yet that I can use.

When I got back, I realized that the place adjacent to the convenience store was a cake shop. So, I quickly went up and got money because I wanted to try some of the cake. I bought one which has wafers on the side, with custard filling and peach toppings. I got a sandwich and a body electrolyte rejuvenator to replenish me after all the sweating and dehydration. I got back upstairs and took a long cold shower after the run to wash away all the dirt from my skin after a full day�s exposure to the humidity and pollution. Now, while writing this journal, I feel immaculately fresh and clean. For another10 hours anyway.. So, I had a small dinner with my dessert being more expensive that the main thing. The dessert was 340 Y which is about $3.25 and the sandwich and drink cost 320 Y. Its 11.15 now and it�s time to let my body rest. I can�t believe that I just ate most of the calories I burnt while running.. Maybe I didn�t gain all that I lost.. Hope lingers. I am here to enjoy and I can watch calories later. I also need to make a pit stop at the bank to break more USD into Yen. Will do that at noon. I guess that�s all I can remember now. This is Joy signing off for today.

All play no work!

July 13, 2004

For some reason, I have to wake up at the crack of dawn everyday. I have not been able to figure this out yet! Another mighty weird dream, this time about Misuk�s room mate Sara. I don�t know why she would be such a prominent feature in my dream because I don�t know her really. We have at most exchanged a few sentences the once I was up in Misuk�s room. Anyway, I was up again at 7.30 waiting for the alarm to go off at 8 am. This time I actually shaved in the morning finally! I decided that Masao should see my clean face sometime. Hehe. I don�t feel like cleaning up in the morning because I feel yucky by the time I get to work anyway. It doesn�t even feel like I have showered or anything. I wish he had his air conditioners running. I left for work around 8.30 after a few glasses of milk as breakfast. At least I am getting my everyday calcium. This time I remembered to stop by the post office and sent my postcards. I am going to send some more since I got a few more addresses. Sending postcards were only 70 yen each which is surprisingly cheap! I was assuming it would be atleast 200 Y each. Good for me I suppose. I rode a bit easier today so that I didn�t perspire as much. Usually I zip through pedestrian lights if there is no traffic on the road. I also keep as much as possible on the road instead of the side walk because walking people are impediments!


When I got to university, I hooked up the laptop and got it running. I got an email from Andi. I wrote her the email yesterday thinking that I would make it short but it turned out to be pretty long. She�s roller blading and having a lot of fun with it. I sent her a reply. She�s lucky that she gets to see her friends from home. I wish I could that:(. When I hear her tell me the fun she is having with her home friends, I miss my friends back home even more. At least I still have some correspondence running primarily by email or instant messaging. I chatted with Britta for quite sometime which was great because I haven�t talked to her for about a week. There is some excitement headed her way with the bachelorette party. I think the bride wants strippers but she wants alcohol more. So, I think alcohol won this round. She actually read in between the lines in my journal which made me happy. I miss hanging out with her. We saw a lot of each other since April especially in May term. She being around made May term bearable. I�ll get to see her in about a month when she comes in early for the Diplomat thing. Which reminds me that I have to still get the Diplomat info from Pat or Deanna because I have to assign the incoming international students to the volunteers. I have to remember to email them. I also talked to Robi because he was online pretty late in the night. He also read my journal entries in the email that I sent them. He got a 30 GB Nomad Zen jukebox for graduation! Lucky guy! He has changed! I hope I recognize his scrawny ass when I see him in December. He is planning on getting his hair dyed red. My mum agreed because it was either hair coloring or body piercing. I don�t know if my brother can handle body piercing actually.. hehe. I told him to tell mum and dad to get online to chat with me.


And then Masao got to work at 10 am and we checked up on the solutions from yesterday. They were still not done which meant that I was not making any glasses today. So, my work is delayed till tomorrow. I then gave him the present I got for him, the elephant inside the elephant. He was very happy to get this from me. He was amazed at the intricacy of the work involved. He has been getting me a Vitamin D drink which tastes pretty good and not medicinal like I expected. For good health he says. Later, he started checking his results, so I was back on my computer since I had nothing to do all morning. I sent more emails. I got a couple of emails today from people. Inga always sends me a quick reply which is awesome! I really miss her because I got attached to her during the short 4 months she was here. She also gave me some very valuable advice. She is preparing for her examinations and I hope she does well. I sent an email to Greg updating him to stuff happening here. I also asked him to get an update about my paper from Doc. I have a lot of time in the evening to make corrections in my paper. I showed Masao our research results from Coe and he was impressed. He was interested to see our results from an extension of his method and wants read my paper after it�s fully corrected and stuff. I told him that I might get to present this paper later if I get more data for the glasses. I need to get a complete Tg picture of the high alkali content borates. While talking to him later, he suggested doing some electrical conductivity tests for high alkali borates because they should be good ionic conductors. The stuff I am doing might actually have some real world applications. We have to been told that conductive glasses are the best bet for light weight batteries which are not toxic. A possible use would be in space missions. But that�s in the distant future. People at Iowa State are doing research in glasses for this application and they are getting funded by NASA as far I know.

We head out to lunch at noon to go to a curry place about 15 minutes away. It was my first Japanese version of curry and cost 850 Y which translates to about $8. It tasted very good and I was pretty hungry at that point. I had a chicken and sausage curry with cheese on top. It had rice on the bottom of the plate. It was piping hot and kept me lingering for more after I finished it. This time it was the right amount of food and I didn�t over eat.

We head straight back to work because we were going to do a DSC run on one of his borates. Except as it turned out, the software was in Japanese. So, I couldn�t use it and I just watched Masao use it. The prep involving this DSC equipment was different from Coe�s. He ran the sample through 3 chemical cleans to remove the moisture contamination from the surface. First distilled water with vigorous shaking, then ethanol, and finally acetone. He normally doesn�t use acetone to clean his metallic equipment because he thinks it can also contaminate the glass. And since gloves are not used here for any chemical processes, ethanol is safer to use. And then he broke the glass into small pieces because he only needed a 30 mg sample. He used an analytical weighing balance which was sensitive upto 10 �g. I think it is amazing sensitivity because this balance is affected by even a minor temperature change. The most sensitive balance at Coe has an error in 1 mg or 1000 �g. This is the reason he has really accurate results and intricacies can be seen in his data. He then annealed the glass in the platinum DSC pan at 1000 �C for 5 minutes. He used a hand built furnace for this. It seems like antiquity but it works great for his purposes. And it�s cheaper, by a few orders of magnitude! He does two runs because the first run is usually the bad run and the second run gives better results. Each run takes 80 minutes while compared to 15 minutes at Coe. He had done a thorough analysis of the change in results due to varying heating/cooling rates. We heat/cool at 40 K/min and he does it at 10 K/min. I never knew about differing results due to different rates of cooling/heating, and I don�t know if Doc has thought about this. I think we would get better results with finer data with a slower heating/cooling rate because it would give the glass more time to respond. But it could be that at Coe, we don�t need such accurate results. Or maybe we do, and we just don�t know about it. A 10% error is normally considered ok but that�s not the case in Japan. While he was doing his runs, I was free to use the internet again. I also tried calling home again and failed to make a proper connection. I thought it connected at home but it disconnected as soon as it connected. I don�t know if they can call me, so I plan on waiting to talk to them till I get back into the US. For now IM or email is fine although they haven�t replied to my email yet.

I did more mailing and browsing. I think I am caught up with people I can mail because I emailed most people I normally email in India. I checked on incoming traffic on my blog and it has increased since I have been telling people to check it out. I am writing pretty long journal entries but I like to do it. People can read it completely if they feel like it. I know a couple of my friends are reading it fully. I got to chat with Doll for a long time and caught up with stuff happening on her end. She really liked the Terminal when she watched it yesterday. It�s a very well made romantic comedy. At least I think so. I chatted with Abhiram for a bit because it was his birthday and I sent him an ecard. He says that it made his day :)! He turned 20 and got 20 bday bumps. His butt hurts. Hehe. I talked to tubldi and mammi for a while too. Actually, I chatted with a lot of people today! Tubldi is having her bouts of preginess and she just fractured her right foot! That really sucks because she has to wear a cast for 6 weeks. For some reason, this laptop refuses to load my picture blog. So odd. But other people can view it. As Doll puts it, I need more pictures with me in it. True. I will get some with me in it this weekend.

After another drink break, I went into my last stretch of internet access for tonight. I noticed that spymac has changed its interface and I like the new version. And around 8.30, I packed up to leave. Both I and Masao left at the same time, so we walked till he had to deviate to go towards home. Before that, we stopped at a convenience store and he bought me some food again but this time I bought the alcohol. I got a fermented distilled rice alcohol called Shochu which differs from Sake which is just fermented rice alcohol not distilled. I got back home around 9 and opened my freezer to remove my frozen Nalgene because I forgot to take it out of the freezer to take with me to work. It took me around 10 minutes under hot water to un-freeze my bottle so that I could use it again. I took a shower and ate my small dinner with my usual couple of glasses of Vitamin C carbonated drink. The dinner was a curry filled bread thing and then for dessert, a Japanese sweet bean filled thing. It was a 250 Y meal which is really cheap! I watched a bit of a soccer match between Japan and Serbia. Japan was kicking Serbia�s ass. And then I continued my journaling from work. I will head to bed soon but before that I want to write about some other stuff that I thought about after talking to Masao.

I am working at a Chemistry department without gloves!?! It is very strange after coming from the US where the usage of gloves is always stressed on. I splashed some of the barium hydroxide onto my skin yesterday but Masao said that it didn�t have any bad effects with our physiology. This seems exactly like India because I never used gloves there as well. Actually, when I asked the lab assistants for gloves, they just laughed at me. In the US, we are so health conscious in labs due to the potential lawsuits. Coe has to be very careful in these legal aspects. To make sure our hands are not contaminated here, we wash our hands with soap! Different worlds, different time zones, different rationales. Masao was joking about keeping me here for a year to do research with him. Well, I am the Solution Guru in the US because I don�t think anyone in the US is using this method. He was also stunned to hear that we use 18 platinum crucibles at $800 a pop at Coe and we have to clean crucibles at least twice a day to keep them in circulation. Hehe. He knows that we are a high cost facility. We get a shit load of money to do research. I saw the list of the equipments the physics department has and its mind boggling that a school as small as ours has so much of stuff. Our floor may be worth close to three quarters of a million and we are getting some more 100 Grand + equipment. We also have a lot of students doing research for an undergrad school of our size. I must say that I am extremely lucky to have such wonderful experiences!

This picture is wonderful. I think the both of us look pretty good. Isn't Andi pretty?!? 

surfin' the wave of the net!

July 12, 2004

I have been having the weirdest dream everyday since I have been here. I am with some Japanese girl and we seem to be going around a city entering buildings and stuff. I always wake up at 4.30 am because it relates to some part of my dream. And then I am fully awake past 7.30. I basically lay down in my bed till 8 so that I could hear my alarm go off. I thought I might shave in the morning but when I got up, I didn�t feel like shaving any more. So, I had a relatively quick shower and got ready for work. I planned on getting there about an hour early so that I use the internet before I had to start working. I took some of the postcards with the intention of posting them en route.

When I got out and before I started pedaling, it was so nice out.. At least my skin was not sticky. And then within 5 minutes of biking, I felt the stickiness setting in. It took me 15 minutes to get there. I wore shorts because I did not want to be sweating in my trousers. But I carried along a pair of jeans in case Masao didn�t want me to work in shorts with chemicals. By the time, I got there, I felt yucky because I was sweating and I had showered less than 30 minutes ago! I also think I might have to use the longer extension for the seat because I feel like I am cramped for space. And of course, my butt hurts. I think if I had more leg extension space, the ride might be easier. It�s hard on my back with the heavy back pack, and then bending towards the handle bar to steer.

This time when I reached the university, I didn�t find Masao at his office. So, I could use the internet calmly. For some reason, I always check Coe email first. And I did get a reply from Britta with her address. I wonder if any more wild happenings have occurred. She did tell me that she was going to be sober and un-wild for the rest of the summer when I talked to her at Andi�s house. We�ll see about that prediction..hehe.. Also got an email from Sara updating us to what was going on there. I also chatted with Andi�s mum for a while. She was asking me about how things were going here and about the country and stuff. Andi realized late that I was chatting with her mum, and they had to go eat. So, we chatted for a couple of minutes and then she was off. I think she might hang out as much as possible with Urs before he leaves for Germany. There�s hardly anyone left at the Ziffer residence with Magaret gone as well. I wonder what Andi does all day apart from see her friends. I might get to chat with Andi a bit more after Urs leaves. I ended up chatting with a lot of people actually. I also chatted with Doll for a while before she had to leave to hang out with Meghna because she was in town. They are going to see The Terminal. I saw that movie with Andi and we liked it. It�s a different romantic comedy and doesn�t end the way you normally would assume. I also got a hold of Miho and told her that I was going to come up to Tokyo sometime this weekend. I told her to alert my other friends there. I talked to Ben early and he sent me an email with his travel plans for this weekend�s trip down here. I sent an email to my parents telling them I got here safe and sound and they could call me at work only because my room phone can�t send or receive calls. I also told most of the people to check my blogs out because I put my Japan journals and pictures up there.

Masao got to the office around 10 am and told me that I was going to make some barium borates. We were to make some glasses in the bulk glass formation range first for test runs and then try to extend the glass formation of barium and calcium borates while I am here. But first I was supposed to do the calculations for the preparation of the precipitate. I decided to use my old spreadsheets and edit the info from there. First, I had to balance the equation which I eventually got help in because my balancing was incorrect due to a mis-write of a chemical. And then it took me about 20 minutes to go through every single calculation and edit everything. And then finally, the spreadsheet was ready and the tough part of the glass making procedure had finished.

We went out to eat for lunch again. We first tried the Chinese restaurant again to taste some other Chinese food but they were too crowded. So, he decided to take me somewhere else. We walked for about 20 minutes till we got to a traditional Japanese -restaurant. It was another sit-on-the-floor place. Masao suggested that I try Dango soup. Dango is made from wheat flour and is chewy. We had some iced tea and a sort of fruit wine called Zacuro in a really small glass. The wine quantity was like that of a shot glass. We had salad before the main course. The salad was really good. We had to use chop sticks for the salad. They don�t have any silverware. So, we first ground up sesame seeds to garnish the Dango soup. While eating this meal, I got hit on (read flirting) by some old Japanese women. That was sooo funny! The soup had boiled veggies, eggs and a shrimp. And after I was done with that, I could have stopped there. But nooo..there was more food to be eaten. The chopsticks were slowing down my otherwise brisk eating pace. I had a sweet piece of eggplant. I also had my first full fish in Japan. It was pretty small and was supposed to be eaten fully. It was very tasty! I think it had a ginger after taste to it. Then we had boiled corn and other boiled veggies. There was a sort of pickle made from young bamboo which was good. And the coup de grace was a gelatinous dessert which had beans in it. I wish I had taken my camera with me so that I could have photo graphed my first authentic Japanese food.

I was unbelievably stuffed yet again. What, it�s the third or fourth time? We still had a relatively uphill walk back to the university. My tummy was tight..hehe.. I am mighty lucky I haven�t puked yet. It�s a darn good thing that I eat so much at lunch which allows for a light dinner. We got back and we talked about the nuclear situation in the present day world. He pointed out that Japan although highly developed had no plans on nuclear weapon production. He was surprised by the budget consumption of the defense every year in India and Pakistan. He knew about the nuclear information supply by the Pakistani scientist to Iran and North Korea. He didn�t know that Pakistan is planning a massive nuclear test in the next month.

So, after the 2 hour lunch, I got back and started making the two solutions for tomorrow�s glasses. I got to be in the cool A/c room for an hour. The method for the solutions is different from the alkali metal prep. All we do this time is weigh the two powders separately and then put them into a Teflon beaker and pour in distilled water slowly. The weighing was done to a much greater accuracy. I think this is the reason why he gets such amazing results. The reaction occurs in the drying oven while the water boils and evaporates. After I made the solutions, I was done with work for today.

So, while he was cleaning up, I wrote up the process and aims for the stay here in my notebook. I was done by 5 pm. I think I would normally work till 6 pm. I talked to Mammi and Ben for quite some time. Me and Masao tried calling Nigeria but we never got through to anyone. I think I will try to call mum and dad tomorrow a bit earlier so that they call me back. The operator has to connect calls coming in for Sojo. I don�t think they have an extension system. He bought me a drink to rehydrate me. My cold water was almost done. And then he worked on a paper while I started sending emails. I sent Inga, Britta, Jessi, Bhavya, and Andi emails. I also replied to Kit to tell him that I got here. And then I chatted with Nastasha and Ben till I left. Tash sent me her prom pictures. She looks so mature, and beautiful. Both the girls are growing into beautiful creatures.

I spent a lot of my free time in between stuff posting all my pictures online. I posted about 33 pictures and gave brief descriptions.. Well, since I am sending this word doc to other people I could list the blog site. Its http://joyzpixie.blogspot.com and as I keep taking more pictures I will be putting them up. I hope people can access this website.

I left for my apartments at 8.45 pm. I thought I had been there for about 12 hours, and I was sticky, so I just want to get back to the cool and dry bed room. Before I got to my room, I bought a small pair of shampoo and conditioner for $3. I might as well buy it since I don�t want my hair to be yucky. I thought I might shave tonight before sleeping but I�ll do it in the morning hopefully and not put it off anymore. I don�t look that bad, but I should keep myself groomed here. At least a bit..hehe.. I took a shower to get the much needed feel of clean and then ate a small dinner because I was still full from lunch. Well, I think it�s time to head to bed.

Japanese alimento italiano?

July 11, 2004

I got up at 11.30 today. I then all I did was journal all afternoon. I think I will go out in the evening and grab some dinner when I am out.

Well, I thought I was being lazy staying in the apartment all day. So I decided that I would get some ready to eat dinner from the FamilyMart downstairs. I got some Japanese vermicelli kind of stuff which was a bit spicy. I also got a filled puff of some kind. So, it was a 500 Y meal which I supposed was decent. I wanted to get on the internet and didn�t want to spend 400 yen again. So, I biked down to Sojo University so that I could use the internet for free there. It was also the first time I biked down there. It took me about 15 minutes compared to the 60 minute walk. It would have taken me lesser time if I didn�t have to stop at the crossroads. It was nice and cool before I started biking and halfway through it felt that it had suddenly gotten humid. Musta have been the exertion because I was biking pretty hard. This was also the first time in a long time that I have biked hard, so my muscles were getting tired easily. It should get better soon.

I got to Sojo and found Masao at his office reviewing a paper that he was sent from a journal. I used the net for a while to check some of my email and post the blogs I have been writing offline. They are pretty long and will take some patience to read. I still have to post most of my pictures. I am going to use the new blog I set up specifically for pictures. I was there for about an hour and then Masao asked me if I had eaten dinner. I told him that I had a little something. So, he took me out to eat. I left the office planning on coming in early the next day to do a bit of emailing.

We walked down and saw that the curry place was closed and then we went down further to a pasta and pizza place. We ordered two large specialty pizzas which had sausage, pepperoni and strands of a pepper. It was a thin crust, and the dough was soft. It was a bit oily but pretty good. Masao is trying out stuff with me which makes me happy. I took a sneak peek at the bill total. $40 for 2 people! Holy Shit! Well, I guess it�s not that bad, I have paid that much before. But that was a once in a while kind of eating out. I told him that beer and pizza was an American staple and we should try it. He didn�t want me to imbibe alcohol before my bike ride back to my apt. Sound decision.. I got back around 9.45 and did some journaling to catch up with today�s happening. I feel sleepy already so I�ll probably hit the sack soon.

A day of exploration

July 10, 2004

I woke up again at 4.30 am and then at 7.30 and then at 9. It�s weird for it repeat in the exact same way as the previous morning. I finished up the journey part of my dairy so that I could post it on my blog when I went out to explore. I left around noon to downtown Kumamoto to walk around the mall. I carried the laptop, with maps and my cd player to listen to. I parked my bike somewhere in the middle of the mall and then walked to the end to start exploring. I wanted to buy Kumamoto postcards so that I could send them to my friends. I will also send one home.

After an hour of browsing, I start looking for some place I could get some grub. It was expensive everywhere. I thought about McDonalds but after looking at the size of the burgers, I knew that it wouldn�t fill me. So I looked at KFC and came to the same conclusion. I then found a smaller eating joint where I could get a chicken curry with rice, soup and salad for 490 Yen which was about $4.60. It was plenty food and moderately priced. I went in to see that I had to use some machine to get a ticket for the food. I told the lady there I couldn�t read Japanese but I knew what I wanted. I took her outside to the picture of the food I wanted and she took me inside and told me which buttons to press. It all worked out. My first all Japanese encounter. The service was very quick because she had the food ready in a couple of minutes. I ate the salad with chopsticks because there was no fork. But she had given me a spoon for the soup and rice and curry. It was the right amount of food and after a satisfied stomach, I did more exploring.

I went into this electronics store to look at prices of stuff there. Everything was about 50-75% more expensive than the US. I looked at digital cameras and CD players. If I find a good deal on an mp3-CD player, I�ll buy it. I went it a store which sold sharp objects. There was a knife with a sheath that I wanted to buy but it wasn�t sharpened. I asked him how much a longer sharpened knife/sword cost and he told me that it would be $700. By the way, by asking I mean writing down on a piece of paper in English. I carried a small notebook and a pen in case I needed it and I apparently needed it quite a lot. It was pretty expensive but I felt like I could spend that much because I wanted a sword because it would be cool. But I don�t think I will buy it, I much rather spend it on other stuff here. I was looking around for souvenirs to take back. I kept seeing these chopsticks or it could be hair pins.. I dunno.. I know that badminton is pretty big here. So I went searching for badminton equipment. I found them but Yonex racquets were $200+! Damn! I quickly found my way out. I went into a few more stores but didn�t really find anything that I wanted to buy then. Last but not the least, I entered this mege department store. This was bigger than the Marshall Field�s in downtown Chicago. It housed every haute couture brand name imaginable. I knew that I wasn�t really going to buy anything in this store unless something was moderately priced. I think I need to go shopping with someone who knows where to get the best deals. I wanted Masao to introduce me to his daughter because she was home on vacation and apparently had a lot of free time. I thought she could show me around since she should know her home city pretty well. But I haven�t met her yet. She just graduated from an American university and is now prepping for her medical exams in Japan. So, I assume she can speak good English. I went to the bottom two floors of the super store and saw it had food. I tried several tasters they had put out. I just walked around looking for tasters. They also had whole section devoted to desserts. After this store, I went to the cyber caf� to check email and stuff. I used my laptop there because I could. They have free drinks at this place which was cool. I put up the first of the blogs and sent a few emails. I was there for an hour and then decided to head back to my apartment.

I got back around 6.30 and ate dinner. I tried the grapefruit juice but it was too bitter for me. So, I think I am going to throw it away. I finished Digital Fortress by Dan Brown in a single sitting last evening. It was pretty good. It�s scary to realize that we do not have any privacy in our lives and Big Brother is always watching. I watched a bit of TV, wrote my journal and then went to bed.

Walking the distance

July 9, 2004

About the next day.. I woke up first at 4.30 am when dawn first broke and then at 6.30 am and then finally at 8 am. After I showered and got ready, I started writing about my journey so that I could put it on my blog. I wrote till 9.50 when I packed up to leave and wait for him downstairs in front of the handimart. He came in right on time. I think the Japanese are very punctual or maybe it�s just him. We first had to go to the apartment office because they wanted a photocopy of my passport. From there he asked me if it was ok that we walked to the university today. I said yeah assuming it wasn�t a long walk. While walking I asked him how long a walk it was to the university, he said that it was about an hour. We didn�t head straight there either because we had to make a pit stop at a bank to break some of my dollars into yen. I got 60 dollars worth of yen. And then we took another detour while he showed me where a highly western mall was in case I was interested to come back to it and look around. We went into a few shops and then we head to his university. While at a book store, he started flipping through a soft porn Japanese magazine equivalent of Playboy in the US. He then started doing ooo�s and aah�s and asked me if I wanted him to buy it for me. He thought that kids my age love this kind of stuff. I suppose for the most part, but then there are exceptions. I don�t particularly like porn. It was a surreal experience; I had never expected this from him. But then I have realized that pornography is not a big deal for them. It was absurdly humid out there and I was getting worn out pretty easily with my heavy backpack. I checked later and my shirt underneath my back pack straps was completely wet. Yuck! The air here is so incredibly sticky. He asked me to keep track of the route we were talking so that I would make it back to apartments.

The route that we took was pretty scenic which was cool. We reached Sojo and I noticed it was located on a hill. Masao said that since we had been walking for so long, we would take the elevator up. I was very happy with that suggestion. We took this really cool elevator that moved side and up at about 45 degrees. I can�t recall what Masao called the elevator. We walked by Sojo�s cafeteria and he said that most of the students hated its food. He bought me a drink when we got up to his office. They have these cool vending machines everywhere which is a great business idea with people getting dehydrated due to the weather.

We got to his office and I checked my mail for the first time after I left Chicago. There were a few mails waiting for me. Bhavya sent me a late bon voyage, and I got an email from Andi saying that my call right before I took off made her think about me. I also got an offline message from Doll telling me that she missed me. It�s nice to know that I am important to some people. I guess I like to hear it sometimes. I hooked up Komal�s laptop to the internet and kept it running the rest of the afternoon so that people could message me. I got an email from Ben about his trip down here the second weekend.

After I sent an email to Doc telling him that I got here safe and sound, Masao took me out to eat. He gave me a running commentary about the different departments. We also talked about what I was going at Coe and basically a bit of research related stuff. He also asked me about the places I had been to. He was basically trying to get to know me better. We walked over to a nearby Chinese restaurant. This one actually had the sit on the floor seating which was very cool. Both of us tried the spicy meal which had tofu and pork in it. It was excellent. We had soup and rice with it. I was beyond stuffed!
We got back and started talking research. He was going to present a paper on sodium borates and their anharmonic properties. He printed the paper out and I started reading it trying to understand what anharmonic properties were. He then showed me around his lab and the different methods he employed to determine the physical properties of the glasses he made. He specialized in velocity of sound measurements on painfully homogenous cylinders of glass. He got extremely accurate data; his data was many times better than data we got at Coe. He had an air conditioned room for chemical and physical analysis of the glasses. He used the Archimedes principle to determine density of the glass cylinders he made while we at Coe use Boyle�s law. Using this method was trickier than using a pyc. He also had acoustic stuff to measure the speed of sound. Most of his equipment was custom built at Sojo University. That was interesting to see. It�s different from Coe because most of the things we have is manufactured and not custom built for us except the glove boxes and roller quenchers. I told him how we plate quenched our glasses and he thought that it was better than his plate quenching process. Ours was definitely quicker and cooled the glass more rapidly. The glasses he makes are easy to make and don�t crystallize. So he doesn�t have to worry about quicker cooling processes really because he makes glass in the bulk glass forming range. I have to use quicker quenching methods because I am making glasses outside the bulk glass forming range trying to extend glass formation range. I think I will be making Barium and Calcium borates while I am here because he thinks that will use the short time I have here best. I didn�t know July 20 was a national holiday which means that I don�t work on that day too. Which means that I have an extended weekend when Ben comes over. I am contemplating going to Tokyo to visit some of my friends that weekend too.

Masao wanted to buy me a bicycle so that I didn�t have to walk an hour everyday to get to work. He bought me an all terrain bike which had shimano gears for $100. He thought that was cheap and he didn�t mind buying it for me. I am lucky! We also found a cyber caf� that I can use after work if I want to use the internet. It was in the mall area which was close to my apartment. So I could go over if I felt like it. I could use it if I wanted to chat with anyone at Coe or family elsewhere. I wish I had internet at my apartment but I suppose this also works. Using the caf� is about $4 an hour. After that I rode back to my apartment and went grocery shopping so that I could eat in my room sometimes. I bought some liquids and bread and jelly and yogurt. I also wanted to try some Japanese beer, so I bought a couple of cans of local beer. I smiled when I saw Budweiser in the beer section. So I had bread and jelly and yogurt for dinner that night. While eating, I watched a women volleyball match between Japan and Italy. I wrote for the rest of the night before I went to bed at 10 pm because I was tired and sleepy by then already. I don�t think I have slept this early in a long time. Actually I can�t remember the last time I went to bed that early.

The first night in Japan

Post Journey 8 July

I started looking around for Masao even though I didn�t know what he looked like. I hoped he would recognize me. After waiting for 10 mins, I decided to move around on the platform. I saw a man sitting through 2 trains so I walked towards him. I think he finally recognized me with the Coe shirt and foreign looking Indian appearance. Masao is a relatively short man who looks like he is in his sixties. I also realized that he might have arthritis like my grandmom because his hand�s deformities resemble that of my grandma. We took a taxi to my apartments and it was conveniently placed above a handimart. He bought sandwiches, yogurt, an apple filled something and OJ. He showed me some things in the apt like how to operate the AC and stuff. And then he left saying that he will be back tomorrow morning at 10 in front of the Handimart to take me to the university.

I went down and bought a soap to shower with next day. I also walked a bit further to buy a towel. I should have brought these with me. Too bad because a single soap was $1.5 and the towel was 10 bucks. I realized how expensive this place was pretty soon. After getting back from my brief shopping, I unpacked and made sure everything was ready for tomorrow morning. I also hoped to God I would be able to wake up before 10 without an alarm. I think my exhaustion was the only reason why I fell asleep that easily even though my bio clock read 9 am.

Before I start on the next day�s experiences, I wanna talk about the apartment. On the first floor, there is a glass door that opens up with a special card. This is to keep unwanted people out of the apartments. And the door of the apt opens with the actual key. When I first looked in the apartment, it looked like the size of an apt in a big city in Japan like Tokyo. It was narrow and deep. The walk to the bedroom was about 3-4 feet across. And then the bedroom was about 15x13 sq.ft. There were separate rooms for the pot and shower. And there was a small kitchen on the left of the walkway. In Japan, people don�t wear shoes in the main part of the house. So, I had to take my shoes off to walk towards the bedroom. There is a washing machine to but the instructions are in Japanese. I don�t know if I want to mess with that, but eventually who knows, I might play around with it to figure it out. The kitchen had a small stove. It was stocked with utensils and stuff. The pot was the most interesting part of the toilet. When flushed, a tap on the top on the tank opened and poured water into the tank through a hole on the top to fill it up. The water pouring in doesn�t overflow because the top is shaped like a bowl. The tap�s present so that we can wash our hands after we are done. Ingenious! The bedroom had a table, bed, shelves, a huge closet, a TV and VCR. Beyond the bedroom was a small balcony. After figuring out how to keep the air conditioning running, the room�s humidity level dropped by several magnitudes! Now, after I get drenched in the humidity, I can cool off here because it�s dry and cool in the bedroom. And I am thankful I got the laptop because apart from this and reading books there is nothing else I can do in the apartment. The programming on TV is in Japanese. I can watch the occasional sports I guess. The telephone doesn�t allow for incoming or outgoing calls. It�s a phone that people can use if they are waiting downstairs and they want you to come down and let them in. So, essentially nobody can call me when I am in my apt. So in conclusion, the apartment is small and cozy and the right size for one person. I asked Masao the next day about the cost of renting an apartment like the one I have. He said that it was about $600 for 2 weeks with deposit. Pretty expensive, I know I couldn�t afford that!

Joy the Traveller

July 7, 2004

Andi and her mum came to drop me off at the airport. We left at 9.10 because they assumed that the worst of the rush hour traffic would be over and they were right because we got there in plenty of time since there were no traffic congestions or anything. The topic of discussion in the ride to the airport was prices of the houses in Batavia. I was amazed to hear what some houses were sold at. Although, I do think Batavia being a relatively safe neighbourhood especially near Andi�s home is a reason for the high prices. I think there was something wrong with Andi because when we said good-bye something didn�t seem right but I didn�t have time to talk to her about it since her mom was waiting for her outside. Andi couldn�t stay with me at the airport because they have to get back home since Felix was leaving the same afternoon. I guess that worked out since I didn�t really have to wait to board the plane. I got an express check-in and then the security check was a breeze. I got to the departure gate in 10 minutes.

I called Kristin while I was checking in to see where she was and what she was doing. Unfortunately, she was in Terminal 5 while I was in Terminal 1. And there wasn�t time for her to come and see me since her flight departed 55 minutes after mine and she wouldn�t have enough time to get back. She was with a large group of 15 people going to Hong Kong outskirts to do volunteer work. I hope she had a safe flight. I also blogged while waiting to board. I actually did a 5 min blog which maxed the amount of time I could audioblog. I filled up on the last few days since I couldn�t sit down for a sustained period of time to do a long blog. I talked to Doll for a bit just to tell her that I was boarding the flight was going to leave in some time. I also called Komal because I hadn�t talked to her for a long time and wanted to tell her that I was going to Japan for a couple of weeks. I also messaged my parents and they called me back immediately and we talked for a few minutes. They were also leaving for Nigeria the next day with a day�s worth of stopover at Dubai. They will do some shopping. I wish I could also go through Dubai and see the shopping malls and arcades it�s famous for. Robi�s schooling in India has commenced too. Now, he is a non-resident Indian where ever he goes.

We were allowed to board the flight at 11.40 am but the plane did not take off till 12.20. I assumed at that point that we were running a bit late. I actually talked to my parents while I was in my seat. And then I shut my phone off, and that would be the last time in a couple of weeks that I would be able to use it. I didn�t feel as nauseous while take off as I normally feel but then that could have been due to the different posture I was in. And there begun the 13 hour non stop flight to Osaka, Japan. We were served two lunches and a snack during the flight. Actually, the food was pretty good and I was hungry. The snack was Chinese noodles which were really tasty and the smell lingered on for some time after they were served. I slept for a while although it was partial sleep most of the time. I did watch a couple of movies: The Whole Ten Yards and Jersey Girl. I think I am going to junk my cd player when I get back. It hardly recognized any of my cds again. So, I had to listen to the music on the channels in the plane. Actually, most of the music was popular tunes so it wasn�t all bad. 7 hours into the flight, I decided that I needed to get up and stretch. So, I stood and walked around for the next hour. I read a couple of magazines while standing. One of them was Runner�s World which had a lot of interesting things I needed to know while running. It had a lot of good tips and new techniques.

The plane arrived early which was amazing because we apparently made fantastic time while in air. When I saw out of the window it seemed all sunny and bright so I assumed that it was warm outside. The humidity level took me by surprise while exiting the plane. Luckily the airport was airconditioned, so I was dry for the next 15 minutes while I went through customs and baggage claims. I was really surprised to the efficiency of the custom officials because I was in a long line yet I got through in less than 10 minutes. I only had to wait for the bags for 5 minutes and they were out and carts in Japan were still free so I decided to use it while I still could.
Now, the apprehension about the train travel had returned because that was the next thing to do. I went out to search for some place to use my japan rail pass exchange order to change to a rail pass. Luckily the JR place was right outside the door so that was easy and the girl who handled my pass knew enough English to communicate. She gave me directions to the train station and an English map of their rail lines in Japan. It was a good thing that I wore cargo pants for the journey because all these things were going into its many pockets. It was particularly convenient because I had to flash the pass all the time to get through the gates. I got to the right platform because there were English being flashed along with Japanese on all the signs. And I would point to the name of the city I wanted to go to and the people there could guide me to the right spot. Since, I got to Kansai International earlier than expected, the train schedule that Masao sent me did not have the right times. I decided to take the risk and extrapolate the times from the existing schedule I had and from the overhead information LCDs. The first train was the Airport Express Haruka from Osaka-Kansai International Airport to Shin-Osaka Station. The airport was pretty far from Osaka. It was a 50 minute journey. I remember being very excited to be on the trains and on the last leg of the journey. I took some pictures on this train. I also noticed that the train conductors and everyone else were very respectful to each other and they bowed all the time. The seats were very comfortable; actually they were better than the ones on the planes. And 50 minutes later, we arrived at Shin-Osaka station. I had to take the Shinkansen Bullet train called the Hikari Rail Star from Shin-Osaka to Hakata. This was the longest of the individual train travel times. It was a 2 hour and 45 minute journey. I was excited because this was my first bullet train journey. I managed to get my 3 bags from the first train to the next in 7 minutes because the train left pretty soon. I got there just in time. And by that time, I was sweating due to the humidity. It took me some time to cool down after I got on the train. I was trying really hard to stay awake but it wasn�t working because I was tired and it was night time in the US. So, I did have a bit of jet lag. I did nap for a while but never for too long. I liked the country side of Japan with the paddy fields and interesting houses. They also had a mesh sort of thing going on in the hills; I couldn�t ascertain what they were. These trains don�t stop at all stations and they are fast! I remember trying to take pictures of the country side and we were zipping by too fast. We finally arrived at Hakata and I had to get off quickly because they would stop at the stations very briefly. And then I found the last platform for Kumamoto. This time I took the Ariake express train. By this time, it was dark here already. And this was the last train to my destination. I slept through most of this train journey too because I couldn�t keep my eyes open. And finally, I got to Kumamoto and got off the train.

I started looking around for Masao even though I didn�t know what he looked like. I hoped he would recognize me. After waiting for 10 mins, I decided to move around on the platform. I saw a man sitting through 2 trains so I walked towards him. I think he finally recognized me with the Coe shirt and foreign looking Indian appearance. Masao is a relatively short man who looks like he is in his sixties. I also realized that he might have arthritis like my grandmom because his hand�s deformities resemble that of my grandma. We took a taxi to my apartments and it was conveniently placed above a handimart. He bought sandwiches, yogurt, an apple filled something and OJ. He showed me some things in the apt like how to operate the AC and stuff. And then he left saying that he will be back tomorrow morning at 10 in front of the Handimart to take me to the university.

I went down and bought a soap to shower with next day. I also went a bit further to buy a towel. I should have brought these with me. Too bad because a single soap was $1.5 and the towel was 10 bucks. I realized how expensive this place was pretty soon. .

Audio Blog from Chicago O' Hare

This is catch up for the few days before I left.

fireworks!

We walked over the local high school to see the fireworks with the 20 people. It was a amazing sight to see so many people gather from neighbouring localities. I normally don't see anyone on the roads or outside the house when I am here. I took some pictures of the pictures and stuff. It didn't last as long as I thought it would. Another thing I have noticed that Andi doesn't like holding hands or show that we are dating among big groups of people if we are around her home. She has done that a couple of times already, but never before this visit. It just seemed a tad bit odd but there must be a reason for that. whatever. It was a relatively good evening. We used the roads as "wide sidewalks" because so many people were on foot. I got to talk to Felix a bit more and some with Magaret. I went to bed early again because everyone went to bed.

Met an old friend!

Yeah, I met Andi's ex last night. It was interesting. I was wondering if he had become buff-er from the last time I saw him but nah. he just got bigger, I actually look better than he does..funny. But then I am also trying to get into shape and be fitter than what I normally am. I want to be noticed, and I think a sure fire way is to lose weight and gain muscle. We played risk all night. It's a fun game and good bonding experience. Urs won the game but only narrowly. After Urs left, Andi asked why Magaret liked me rather than all her guy friends. She said that I was nice to her and treated her like a normal person. I was happy because I think the family needs to like you. We went out for a walk and then got back to find that Andi's parents were still watching the movie in the basement. She lay on me till her parents got done with the movie. I kinda miss making out with her but I guess we rather not risk it at her parent's place especially with so many people around. Althought, that never stopped us before. I don't know if it's a sign to worry about. I went to bed around midnight again and got up at 9.30. Andi and her family went to Church and saw Magaret being dedicated to the Equador mission trip. During that time, I met Kiran. It was fun seeing him again. His face hasn't changed but he looks more manly now. We kinda got caught up but I will be seeing him again after I get back from Japan. We just drove around for a while getting lost in the process. But we found our way back. We ate at the Red Lobster. It was fantastic food. I hadn't eaten sea food in a while so it tasted good. We also had a Sam Adams each. It's a bit more bitter than Corona but I liked it. We got back around 2.30 and he talked to Andi and her mum for a bit. Right now there are 20 people downstairs. 11 from one family! We are going to eat with them and then go to see the fireworks. I did get to talk to Doll for a bit and told her about my meeting with Kiran. I called Britta but she was busy with something apparently. I'll try her again later. And I like Kiran's car. He got a really good deal on it because it was "hail damaged" although I couldn't see any damage. All in all, it was good day. But the day is not done yet. Lets see how the day ends.

do I really want to buy more stuff?

I got up at 10 today because of the long day yesterday. I talked to Felix about my research for a while in the morning after I woke up. We had banana-walnut pancakes which were very good. Then, after Andi and Magaret went off to do some yard work and cleaning of a few houses, I went out with Felix and Ely. We went to a music store and a sporting goods store. And then had ice cream at this upscale ice cream store. It was very good! I had white chocolate with Oreos. And then we head back home as it started to rain. Andi called Urs and we are going to play Risk. This is the first time that I will be meeting her ex-boyfriend. The reason for most of my summer stress. Should be interesting. She is still frustrated as to why I can't just think of her ex as her friend. I guess I don't know. I am getting better, well, atleast I didn't choke. It is my first experience with an ex-boyfriend, and I guess there is a certain sense of insecurity but then when have I been completely secure in this relationship. It's kinda hard to do when your girlfriend tells you certain things about our relationship. Anyway, she just left to pick him up..the time is almost here.

Chicago - the windy city

As it turned out in the end, it was just the two of us. For some reason, whenever it's stuff to do when we go out with just the two of, she automatically assumes it going to be boring. To anyone else, this might seem odd, but it's happened to me so many times, I should be getting used to it. We used the train in the morning and go to downtown Chicago at 10.30. The whole way there she was half asleep, it seemed to me that she wanted other people to come, especially Urs. When her mom asked her in the morning if anyone else was coming, she said a very dejected no. I am still trying to see some excitement in her because I came to see her, but none yet. The main reason is that she much rather be spending time with Urs because he is only here for another 10 days. We walked around to Michigan Avenue when we got off the train. I bought a cd of Lostprophets at Virgin records. Andi bought a tank top at H&M. That was all the shopping we did. Then we walked over to Navy Pier and took a few photographs near the fountain there. The Navy Pier wasn't as nice as the one at San Francisco. And then, we went over to the Taste of Chicago. This was a showcase of all the restaraunts in Chicago. Most of the big food portions were 8-9 tickets, and others ranged from 3-6. We bought 33 tickets for $21. We got to try out a lot of different kinds of food that we have never experienced before. We also saw 2 shows of extreme diving which was very cool. I took a lot of pictures of the diving and a video of the 80 foot dive. We also saw a bunch of people from New York performing on the side walk. They were doing a lot of acrobatic stuff, and I have this amazing video of a guy going over 10 people in 1 jump. It was stupendous. By that time, our feet were tired and Andi was really tired and out of it. We then head over to the Swing Dance thing and did the 30 mins refresher and then danced for a couple of hours before having to head back home. So, after an hour ride back home where Andi slept on my shoulders the whole way. It was a good day and it was nice to go around just with her. Of course, I love doing stuff with just her although I don't know if I can say the same about her. She tells me that she likes to do stuff with just me but quite a few times like this, we were alone because no one else could come. We didn't talk as much because she was tired and listless and just plain out of it. It would have been an exciting day if she was more alive. I wish she really showed me some appreciation of coming to visit her when I could have comfortably flown out of Cedar Rapids to go to Japan. She apologized for being listless through out the day before going to bed. She has had a long week and hasn't been able to sleep for the amount of time she wants to.

Is there something different about my girl?

Me and Marty left at 5.30 and got on the road soon after he dropped off his game at Family Video and I picked up a rose at the Hy-Vee florists. He took a different more scenic route there. We stopped at Hardee's and I ate a burger which was my first junk food in over a couple of weeks. I have been eating healthy and safe food for so long, I hope my stomach adjusts to the different kind of food in Japan. We talked all the way to where I was going to be picked up. He told me more about Sara, and I told him more about Andi..how we met, our first moves..hehe.. I called Andi's home 4 times in between 8.30 and 9 because they were supposed to call Andi to tell her to pick me up. But, that didn't really work out, so her parents came and picked me up. And when I was being picked up, Andi called but we couldn't talk due to bad reception. When I realized that there was no one home, I called Doll to help me and Marty with directions to Andi's house in case they didn't come to get me. Well, we did also get a bit lost but that's adventure. I got to her house, I met Felix. He seems like an interesting guy, I might get to talk to him a bit more. I dunno, maybe try to get to know him the way I got to know Carlo. I know I am going to miss Carlo very much here:(. After Andi got back, we went out for a walk. She seemed very restless from the way she was walking and talking. She wouldn't tell me what was bothering her. Well, she did tell me that it was weird for her to have both her boyfriend and ex-boyfriend around at the same time. We are going into Chicago today and I thought it might be just the 2 of us but I think she wanted to ask if Urs and someone else wanted to come along. I don't know why she would ask him to come along if things are going to be awkward. anyway, her mind works in strange ways. Felix is going to come with us though and that should be fun. I don't know about Magaret. Well, I told her last night that if I knew that Urs was going to be there around the time I was planning on coming, I probably would not have come. I could have flown straight out of Cedar Rapids and saved myself a lot of hassle but anyway I am here. I hope she makes me feel that this trip to her house is worthwhile and enjoyable. The weirdness happened to me as well when I introduced Andi to Kristin for the first time. It was sooo awkward for me, but it did get better or rather I saw much lesser of Kristin than I wanted to. We might do a few touristy things and go to the Taste of Chicago for food and then swing dancing in the night. I talked to her mum for a bit after getting there. But lets see how time here progresses..I hope to God it's enjoyable.
And oh yeah, about my girl looking different, she has contacts and seems much fitter and slimmer.. She looks wonderful! Damn, makes her more irresistable.

the last blog from my room for about a month

I got back early from the poster session and finished up packing. I am taking a lot of shit: a lot of books and clothes. I might dump some off at Andi's house if I think it's too much. I withdrew a couple of hundred bucks to keep cash on me. And now my room looks sooo clean. I hope I didnt miss anything. I have all my essentials.. On the way back from ATM, I saw Matt and Amanda and they told me that they will be ready to beat me in RB when I get back. I gave some of my food away and threw away the other stuff that will go bad. I called Andi after getting back to tell her that I will be there earlier than what I told her. Well, I guess if I need anything else, I'll just buy it later. I also shaved, so my face is smooth again after a week. Although, my hair has grown tooo long and I am going to get it cut in the next couple of days. I should look good after that. I feel good due to all the workouts and running and playing racquetball.. I feel fit which is awesome! Anyway, time to sign off from my computer. I will miss my baby (read computer)... Byeeee room and Coe, for 28 days!!

[Listening to: Memory - Sugarcult - Palm Trees And Power Lines (3:46)]

money pours

I did get my second cheque for Japan today and it has been deposited. So I am rich for another month before school fees cause a gigantic leak in my balance. I got Andi's message and missed call last night. She called me when I got into bed and I would have answered it if I wasn't so sleepy and tired. I figured I would call her in the morning with the details about when I was getting there. And I was right, she was hanging out with friends last night, so its a good thing I didn't call after I talked to Doll. I called early and talked to Andi's mom for quite some time and then spoke for a few minutes with Andi. Well, if I was getting there at 10 she would have picked me up but with me getting there an hour earlier, I dunno. I know her mum can definitely come and get me. Andi has a long day ahead of her, first an orthodontist appointment for her braces and then cleaning up of a house. She will be going to a friend's house in the evening, so thats the reason I don't know if she can pick me up. I found out which courses I was taking next semester so that I could order the books early. I finished up my drinks. I still have to give away food like grapes and baby carrots to anyone who wants to take them. I got a couple of messages from my parents and I replied to them. I don't know if they got them or maybe they went to bed before they got it. Anyway, I'll email them or ask them to call me.
About the paper, I have added more stuff in the paper including the references I've used. Now, the rest is really upto Greg to finish which essentially means that he has to finish his section and add it to my paper. Hopefully, this goes well because today is my last day here. I will leave my cellphone number with him in case he needs to call me. I sent the paper to Doll for a review, and that helped because she picked up some typos which I might have missed. Thanks Doll:)! Well, I will be leaving at 5.30 today which means I have to leave after the presentations and finish my last minute packing. I also will leave my room a bit clean so that I have something nice to come back to..although I will be moving into my new room pretty soon after I get back. This is the last month of fun, so I am going to squeese it for all its worth till there is no drop left. I am so glad to leave to Japan away from all the craziness and stress. Although, it will probably will be a different type of stress which includes travelling in a non-english speaking country where most of the population can not speak english.. Still I can't wait:)!!

Handwriting personality analysis of President Bush

Bush: Betrayed by handwriting
ROHIT KARIR, TIMES OF INDIA

[ THURSDAY, JULY 01, 2004 01:52:12 PM ]

Link to the article on timesofindia.com

Let's face it, it's not too difficult to analyse a person through his handwriting, who consistently says the opposite of what he intends ("the death tax is good for people from all walks of life!") and coins strange words (subliminable, resignate, transformationed, Hispanos, arbolist).


President George W Bush is such a larger-than-life figure that even three words and an exclamation mark are enough to gauge his "axis" of character.

A Politicians Hand: The handwriting of the Texan-American, who once said, "For Nasa, space is still a high priority," is typical of a politician � energetic, angular hand, tent-like 't' and a slight right slant.

Talkative: The 'g', open at the top, means that the cowboy is talkative � nobody gets a word edgeways in White House meetings, when Bush holds court on "evil" Iraq and North Korea.

Courteous: He has a quality, which probably only Laura Bush is aware of. Her husband, Bin Laden listen up, is good-natured and courteous in manner. This is because his terminal strokes are upturned and have a right slant. Perhaps the FBI and the CIA can reform the world's baddies by asking them to forge and fuse Bush's slants and strokes.

Inappropriate Show Of Emotions: The capped crescent exclamation mark at the end of the three words, considering his choice of words, shows that Bush has a need to be emphatic in situations, when understated power will do just as well. It also indicates that he does not know how to marry emotion with occasion.

Mind Prone To Strain: The connecting strokes, in Bush's handwriting, are always present, so that all letters in a word are connected. This includes capitals connected to succeeding small letters. Mr President, you might not know it, but you have a logical, well-ordered mind. Notice, also, the spacing of your letters, which is crowded; and that they are never extended. It means although you have a good brain it's narrower than a bee's bum. It's also a mind, which is prone to mental confusion and strain, a fact thrown up by the crippled drawing of 'e's in all the three words.

Bush is given to dramatics: The 'd' in the word 'freedom' is in upper case (whereas it should have been in lower case) and has a small slash inside the loop. Handwriting that uses flourished upper casing in the middle of a word indicates that person likes to draw attention to himself.

Not Quick To Adapt: Bush's 'm' and 'n's are angular do not appear as 'w' and 'u' � these are characteristics of a person, who finds difficulty in adjusting other people's opinions. On the other hand it also reveals that Bush has simple tastes.

Hasty: The president's writing is not completely legible � ill-formed 'r' and 'o'; similar looking 'e' and 'i'; and merged letters ('d', 'o' and 'm') in the word 'freedom'. The capital 'R' in 'Reign' is not fully-formed. These handwriting features reveals that he tends to be hasty and in a constant race to catch up with his thoughts. It also shows that he is not a deep thinking person and has no patience with details. Instead Bush has good instincts and mostly stands by them. But he sees no point in looking at a decision from six different sides - he likes action. And mostly, he "gets them" � his hooked convex-curved 't' � that's why.

Don't Misunderestimate Him: Superpower honcho Bush likes to write his 'i's without dotting them. He might not know it, but this is a clear indication that he forgets important details and is careless. But that's alright. As he keeps reminding us � never "misunderestimate" him � 'i' dots be damned!

Does money buy happiness?

I got paid for the month of June, a total of $1180 something. I had been waiting for that for a few days. I should be getting my per diem check for Japan tomorrow in the afternoon. That's around $1275 I think which roughly translates to $100 a day for the 13 days I am there! Which hopefully will go mostly towards food which means I should be able to save some money.
         As for the update on my paper, me and Doc emailed back and forth about my paper. I had questions about where to get certain information. I found a couple of honors paper which had the information I needed. I just need Greg's section of the paper containing the results for the paper to look sort of complete. I think we will be getting more NMR analysis done on our glasses when Greg goes over to Canada sometime this month. I don't know if we are doing more Raman studies of the high alkali content borate glasses or not. I think we should so that we have a complete set of physical data to analyse. I emailed Scott to see if he knows what happened to the book which contained the raman procedure that we used at Iowa State last summer. I need that to give a more definitive description of the method in the paper. Tomorrow is the last day I am going to be here, so I need to finish the paper so far as possible with multiple edits. I have a nagging suspicion that I have to work on it after I get back to Coe at the end of July.
         I remembered that I had to try out the aerials with Kiki so I went into workout at 5. I saw Amanda and Matt on the way and they told me that they would play with me if I did a quick run. I ran for 15 minutes sprinting the last lap, so that was about 2 miles. And then I played RB for about 45 minutes. Amanda was off today but luckily Matt was good, so we did have a good couple of games. This time they scored before I did and actually overtook me in points at some point. But I came back with serves and won both the games. I got back to see that Jessi had called me again. I keep calling her back but she is never there when I call her. I want to see her tomorrow before I leave. I think I am going to call her and make sure I see her. I called Kiki to make sure we were still on, but she told me that she had a migraine so we could practice. That sucks! I could have exercised and played more if I knew that before. But it's ok..I am still sore in my calves and butt and upper thigh. Playing RB is quite a workout, but then I need to play everyday to condition my muscles to that sort of torture. I do play everyday but the weekends. And now after tomorrow, I can't play for about a month. That will suck and I will it sorely. Atleast I can still run, although I don't know about weights anymore. I finished my hot dogs with beer. and then drank some milk and V8 to replenish me.
         I tried to finish packing my suitcase. I think its mostly done. I have to pack other stuff like chargers, music and stuff like that. I also have to dispose of the perishable food in my fridge. I talked to Doll for a long time about what went on the last couple of days and the trip to Japan and stuff. She told me that one of her friends is coming back from India. I hope the reconnection is goes well. I told her that I was going to see Kiran this weekend and she was very excited! Well, so am I!! Well, I thought I was going to talk to Andi today giving her details about my arrival tomorrow. But I think she is hanging out with her friends tonight and I don't want to disturb her. So, if she doesn't come online and tell me to call her in the next 30 mins, I'll just call her or email her tomorrow.

[Listening to: Summertime - American Pie - Music from the motion picture American Pie (3:46)]

some competition?

I saw Amanda and Matt at lunch today. Amanda tells me that she will "kick my ass" in racquetball when I get back to Coe..hehe..We'll see about that. I am sure Matt and Amanda will be worhy adversaries soon because they play hard. Amanda has the killer instinct in this game because she doesn't shy away from killing the ball when she has the oppurtunity. You know, they might actually beat me when I play them next month because I will have no practice for a month. I guess it should be interesting because they improved a helluva lot in just 10 days, saying anything else would be an understatement. Me and Amanda give so much of shit to each other, it's more fun that way. Well, I have hit her quite a few times....

Alimento Italiano

I went to bed earlier than usual, ie. before 1 am. I got up at 8.15 without the alarm, I was very surprised. Actually I was kinda scared initially because I thought I have overslept again. At work, I typed up a bit more and I have been waiting for Greg's results section to put in. I emailed Doc yesteday asking him a few questions about the paper. I just sent him another email telling him that I can't find the notebooks or papers dealing with the Raman studies from last summer or NMR studies from Canada. I am waiting to see what he says. I don't want to write about something I don't fully comprehend yet. We had Italian food from Biaggi's. It was good, and I made sure I didn't over eat this time because I still wanted to run and workout in the evening before swing dancing with Kiki. I should be done dancing by 7.45 as far as I know and I will try to complete my packing.

This is for you babe!

"When You Say Nothing At All"

It's amazing
How you can speak
Right to my heart
Without saying a word,
You can light up the dark
Try as I may
I could never explain
What I hear when
You don't say a thing

[CHORUS:]
The smile on your face
Lets me know
That you need me
There's a truth
In your eyes
Saying you'll never leave me
The touch of your hand says
You'll catch me
Whenever I fall
You say it best
When you say
Nothing at all

All day long
I can hear people
Talking out loud
But when you hold me near
You drown out the crowd
(The crowd)
Try as they may
They can never define
What's been said
Between your
Heart and mine

[Repeat chorus twice]

(You say it best
When you say
Nothing at all
You say it best
When you say
Nothing at all)

The smile on your face
The truth in your eyes
The touch of your hand
Let's me know
That you need me

[Repeat chorus]

(You say it best
When you say
Nothing at all
You say it best
When you say
Nothing at all)

The smile on your face
The truth in your eyes
The touch of your hand
Let's me know
That you need me

(You say it best
When you say
Nothing at all
You say it best
When you say
Nothing at all)

            --Ronan Keating

[Listening to: Love Is The Movement - Switchfoot - Learning To Breathe (5:10)]

A must-see

I found this video while randomly going through blogs. You should see the entire video. Amazing, electrifying talent! For all you out there who has ever played Mario. This is bound to crack you up. I watched the whole thing with people watching it around me. We were all in hysteria! Enjoy

http://gprime.net/video/blindfoldedmariopianist2.php/

I am SORE!

I must have been very tired last night because I slept through my alarm in the morning. I woke up at 9.45, and saw that Bhav left me a message but she had already left before I replied to her. I got ready quick and head out to work by 10.15. My upper left thigh was pretty sore. It must have been from the marathon racquet ball I played yesterday. There is a lot of jerking involved and I hadn't played for a while. While Matt and Amanda have been playing every day, and so their muscles are used to it. And they are much fitter than I am. Anyway, I got to work and finished the experimental procedure section of the paper and started on the discussion. I asked Greg to try to finish the results section by tomorrow so that I can include that in. The high point of the day was the video of the guys playing Mario video game's music first blind folded and then takes him blind fold and goes crazy on the piano. I found some more blogs that I will add to my watchlist. My cd player is pissing me off because it doesnt play the last tracks with out pausing. I don't know what's wrong with it. The rechargeables in the cd player lasts only for 5-6 hours on a full charge. It's nowhere close to the advertised 18 hour capacity. I think I will look around for another mp3 player and this time buy it from a store so that i can take it in and get it serviced if there is a problem. I chatted with andi briefly before she had to go to baby sit. I went running at 5.45. I ran for 32 minutes sprinting the last 80 metres!!! Thats 4 miles!! I think I need music while running because after 15 minutes of running, it becomes monotonous and I need something to keep my tempo. I tried doing math in my head but that lasted only for 10 mins. I couldn't lift much because my arms were kinda sore again which was weird. I however did play racquet ball again. I had a good workout playing because I actually had to move to score points. I am still missing shots I don't think I should miss. I got back, watched TV, and started packing. Since I am leaving on thursday, i thought I might get a head start. I have packed all my shirts and trousers/jeans. I will be taking about 20 t-shirts and 4 pairs of long pants. I still have to gather the rest of the stuff that I will be taking. I chatted with Jessi for a while because I haven't seen her in a few days. I will catch up with her after I try out aerials with Kiki tomorrow. Kiran, one of my friends from way back when in hyderabad is moving near Chicago. I will see him on Sunday and catch up with him after a loooong time. This should be fun! Andi messaged when she got back from the baby sitting. She is wiped after today because she was busy all day and had only 4 hours of sleep. I have never seen my girl function offa 4 hours of sleep in the 10 months I have known her. I have actually had quite a few days when I slept for less than 5 hours...

[Listening to: Pink Triangle - Weezer - Pinkerton (3:58)]

A full day I'd gather

I talked to Andi last night when she asked me to call her around midnight. We had a long talk about me and my reaction with Urs. She got very frustrated with me getting pissy whenever I heard she was with him. She explained things again, and this time it actually got in my head and I felt much better. It's funny that she gets pissed and doesn't want to talk to me when I am mad at her. If it was me, I would get to the bottom of the problem. She just avoids confrontations all the time. I keep reiterating the fact that communication is essential in a relationship. I get frustrated too when she keeps things from me and bottles them up inside because she rather not talk about it as the situation might get uncomfortable. She does say the things on her mind, it just takes a lot of patience for me to wait for her to come to me. I told her that I wouldn't call her for the rest of the week unless she wanted to talk to me. If she wants to hang out with her ex, she can because he is leaving in a couple of weeks and the fact that she hasn't seen him for a year since she last summer that they broke up. I know the feeling as I realized yesterday that it was similar to when I met Bhavya in January 2004 at Hyderabad. I spent more than half the time there with her just hanging out. If I am insecure about this relationship just because she is spending most of her time with her ex-boyfriend at home, she could be too because of the amount of time I spend with my female friends and how close I am to them. And the fact that all of them are good looking and physically attractive. I don't know if she knows that I find her absolutely irresistible and thats more than what I can say for my other friends. From what I was told, she had asked people what the deal was with me having so many female friends early when I was getting to know her. I found that rather amusing. Doll called while I was talking to Andi but I didn't take the call because I knew Andi would be pissed if I kept her on hold. I called Doll back after I was done talking to my girl. She called to see if I was feeling better. I remember messaging her in the afternoon when I was vis-à-vis early in the attempt to simmer down. Doll was rather subdued for some reason. I told her that I was fine, and talking to Andi helped. I talked to her till 2.30 because I didn't have to get to work early as Doc was not around.
               I actually woke up easily at 8.30 and got to work earlier than everyone else under Doc. I started on my monster paper which is supposed to comprise of all the information we have gathered about alkali borates made by the solution method. I have realized this summer that what I do is more of physical chemistry and a bit of physics involved in the analysis of the glass. I got through the abstract, introduction and a third of the experimental procedure. I am aiming to finish the procedure and start on results. I hope Greg finishes his data acquisition and tweaking to get molar volumes and packing fractions as well because I have to include those graphs as well. Apart from that, I started browsing through recently updated blogs. I found a lot of blogs that will be on my watch list. I might list them on my blog as well. After I got back from lunch, I talked to Ali for a while. I think she is flirting with me because she wants me to come to birthday celebration even though she doesn't really know me because we had sustained contact at Kevin's party for the first time. I think a girl is flirting if she is being overly friendly and is doing a shit load of smiling. I left work at 4.30 and I don't remember what I did till I left to the racquet center. I got there to find Amanda and Matt playing RB. And I hadn't played for a few days. So, I decided to play with them. Amanda actually likes to play with me now because I play hard with her. She has improved a helluva lot, damn! I actually had to work for my points a bit. She is the toughest girl I have ever played. I like playing with someone who is competitive and wants me to play hard. She is also picking up more of my tough serves. I played Matt after her, and he is quick! We did threes after that. I played for over 90 minutes straight and it was a fantastic workout. I didn't feel like running after that because my leg muscles were tight. I think I am going to keep playing with them because it is helping me getting back into the groove. I am serving hard and low now which turnout relatively consistently. I am still missing shots I should not be missing but I assume that will change after enough practice. I got back from playing to find that internet was down which was a bummer. So I watched TV while eating hot dogs and drinking beer than Dustin got me. The beer was good, it was actually wheat ale I think. I went over to Jon's room and downloaded some of his music and I have been listening to it since then. I read a few of the magazines that I picked up at the mail room. The Maxim issue this month is pretty interesting, it has a hilarious survey and a lot of scantily clad personalities. I will write about the survey sometime tomorrow when I have more time. Although I think I will get some of my packing done tomorrow night because I might leave for Andi's on Thursday. She wants me to go to a swing dance thing at downtown Chicago. I will also be going to the Des Moines swing dance with Kiki on Wednesday. She got her DVDs of aerials. I will go over sometime tomorrow evening and try them out with her. I talked to my cousin and Doll for a bit. Doll still cracks me up sometimes with her protracted innocence about amm..you know..stuff..hehe

[Listening to: Memory - Sugarcult - Palm Trees And Power Lines (3:46)]

Yahoo! News - New Text-Messaging Speed Record Set

Yahoo! News - New Text-Messaging Speed Record Set


One for the text messaging nuts!

I might have a new allergy

Fighting the awkward feeling I have when I call Andi, I did call her. And then I heard that she was hanging out with her ex again at home. The moment I heard his name, my voice choked and I couldn't get myself to talk to her any more then. So, I talked to Carlo since he is leaving tomorrow. It was good to catch up with him and promised to keep in touch by the internet. I actually will try hard to meet him when I go to Italy next summer. He has been an awesome friend, I have never connected with a guy so quickly. I felt like if I had seen him more, I would have gotten to know him very well. It took me over an hour to shut myself down after calling her. I have never lost control of my emotions like this for sometime. I couldn't talk. I couldn't stop the cussing in my head. I paced around in the room listening to loud music for about 30 minutes. After I folded my laundry, I started gaining control. And then soon, I was basically shut down and my head turned quiet. It sapped a lot of my energy out in the process of cooling down. I have realized that I have never felt good on the mention of Urs since she first talked about him. It almost seems like I have an allergic reaction to his name. Seriously, this shouldn't be affecting me like this, and I don't know why I keep feeling like that. It could be the fact that I feel Andi is not making any time for me, and the time I get to talk to her is when she is half asleep. And she has been hanging out with him a lot, geez, every time I have called he is around or she is with him or going to see him. She keeps telling me not to worry, but that isn't making me feel any better. I am finding it very difficult to deal with this alone. I would feel better if she made some quality time to talk to me. Or maybe im me or something. It feels like I am forgotten. I guess that happens when you have friends around but when you are alone, you think about the other person. Doll's surprised that we don't have contact even once a day when I told her that I talked to her every third or fourth day. She thought that's how it went if two people were dating.
            I wonder if I am being taught a lesson. Life's a bitch, deal with it and learn from your mistakes. Andi is the only uncontrollable( and huge) variable in my life now. I control other spheres in my life with the things I do or don't do... But I guess thats life, not everything goes as you plan. I have noticed how most of the things in the past year are directly or indirectly related to Andi, and it's giving her a lot of credit. But its true. My grades are up, I actually made the Deans' list twice with tough classes. Friends I have made or had issues with are also related to her. Dancing classes was her idea, and I loved it. My parents actually realizing that their lil kid is maturing quick, and is capable of making tough adult decisions including relationships. It's funny how she has become the most important person in my life after family.

[Listening to: Everything You Want - Vertical Horizon - Everything You Want (4:16)]