I haven't posted since the 27th of December. There's a reason for this. I had a horrible and miserable Christmas vacation.

My parents are splitting up.

Yes, I've known for a few months now, but spending a week and a half with my parents made me realize just how terrible things are at home. The night before Christmas, this whole thing just hit me. It was like a slap on the face, I broke down in the sanctuary of my old bedroom. There was only one thing that cheered me up though. Around 10pm I got a email from Keisuke-kun with a Christmas/New Years card. I started to feel better after reading it. It really made my night. Thank you, Kei!

So I spent the rest of the vacation housesitting for my friend Rich while he was up in Massachusetts. I had to take care of his fish and plants, and well... One of the fishes died, heh heh. Of course I told him right away. When I found it its mouth was caught in one of the fake plants so I assume it was trying to eat the plant and choked or something. Nah, that's improbable. Two days later when I came back, the fish was completely gone. I guess the others enjoyed their meal, eh?

I started the Fall 2005 semester at the University of Central Florida. It's been all right so far, but I have SERIOUS concerns with one of my professors, a Dr. King Osborne. He's the WEIRDEST old guy I've ever met. He's so disorganized and mumbles so much that nobody can hear him. Also, he seems to love watching videos of himself giving lectures. He was showing off this thing called "Double Speed" where he plays a video of his lecture at twice the normal speed. He was doing this to prove that one can learn just as well by listening at twice the speed, but then it sort of got ridiculous when he turned it up to 5x the normal speed, then 2x the speed, then half the speed. And I feel sorry for that guy, he announced to the entire class that he has no family and has the University of Central Florida on his will. Anyway, I'm worried about his class because the very first lecture that I had last night was horrible. Nor I or anyone else could understand him and I learned absolutely nothing.

Okay, fast forward to today. I went job hunting today and submitted my resume to three places:

• Staples
  
• Best Buy
  
• Target (At 17/92)

And am planning to apply at:

• Target (Waterford Lakes)
  
• CompUSA (For the nth time... Ugh)
  
• GameStop (Waterford Lakes)
  
• GameStop (Red Bug Lake)
  

Okay, the complete opposite of the beginning of this post (Which was really bad news), I have some wonderful news. I applied for a 16-day exchange program through Mobility International USA. Guess where it'll take place? Tokyo, Japan. I did mention a few posts ago that I wanted to go there on a grant to study deaf children in schools, but don't think I'm giving up on that. ;) I wouldn't mind going there TWICE, actually. I spoke with the coordinator and she looked over my application, told me that I have a very good chance of making it into the program. I'm very excited and have already started planning on things I'll need to do to get ready for it, as well as some things I'd love to do while I'm there. I'm thinking about taking the train south to Yokohama to visit Keisuke, but I have no idea how much time I'll need for travel, since most days I will be doing workshops and meeting Japanese disabled individuals.

• Shopping in Akihabara - This is a must. I'm a geek, and this is the mecca for geeks and comptuer nerds like me.
• Asakusa - I want to visit the Buddhist and Shinto shrines in Asakusa, I've heard it's very beautiful. I'm hoping for it to be a learning experience!
• Ginza and Shinjuku - Who wouldn't want to go shopping and enjoy the Tokyo nightlife?
• Eat a Kobe Steak - I've heard so many things about Kobe steaks, and I'll be damned if I'm gonna leave Japan without having some. I heard it's expensive, but well worth it. They say that they feed the cows a barrel of beer a day and then massage them so that the fat will marble with the meat, producing a wonderful steak that can't be beat.
• Tokyo Tower and Roppongi Hills - Mori Tower - I would NOT mind going up above the skyscrapers in Tokyo atop the Tokyo Tower and the newly built Roppongi Hills Mori Tower in Roppongi. I love bird eye views of cities, it's always humbling when one is high up, watching the action going on several tens of stories below you.

Of course, I may not have time to visit everything. I'm going to ask them that, when they book the tickets, to give me extra four days. Of course, I'd cover the price difference and the cost of a ryokan to stay in, but it'll be worth it for a few extra days in Tokyo. Of course, if they won't ket me and if I had to choose two things to do, most important thing would definitely be visiting Keisue and Akihabara a close second, hehe. Man, I'm so excited.

Oh Keisuke, if you're reading this... I'm going to buy you tea when we meet!