My Life

Alright. You know the drill - three quarter slides, feather blades, let your legs do all the work. Ready? Go!
clunk, drop, drive... clunk, drop, drive... clunk, drop, drive....
Okay we're going to pick it up now. I want everybody to focus on what they're doing; remember don't let you blade dig in too deep, relax your arms. Okay, Full slides, feather blades, 32 strokes per minute all the way down the river... next stroke... reaaaddyyy.... Go!
clunk, drop, drive... clunk, drop, drive... clunk, drop, drive... leeggsss... leeeggggss... leegggsss... *YaAAaAa*

...50 million hours later... okay that's it for today!

sampath thinks: *thank goodness.... only novice in this bloody boat... got soaked cause of the guy in front of me... freezing cold rashamasha@#@##%#@!%* well, to be honest, I wasn't grumpy at all. Just tired.


yaa, i'm quite exhausted... it's 10:30am... went rowing this morning at 6am on 2.5 hours of sleep. I feel like collapsing but that's a bad idea so I'm going to wait til noon and then take a nap... and until then I'm just sitting around... what a bum you are sampath and what bum ideas you have... I wonder how o.n. went... ::sigh::

Here's a question for my 4?5? readers? There's a bridge that 4 people want to cross but it's really dark and can only be crossed with a torch. yes, that's right, a torch. person A is able to cross the bridge in 1min, person B in 2mins, person C in 4mins, person D in 10mins. There is only one torch and the maximum number of people on the bridge at any given time is two. How fast can all 4 people cross?

HAPPY 19 MONTHS!!! I LOVE YOU!


im in swiss land right now. I haven't even been here for 12 hours and I've already had a dentist appointment, shopped for a new computer, bought tickets to watch FEARLESS!!!! JJJJEEEEETTTTTTT LIIIIIIII!!! YESH!!

tomorrow's going to be just as busy cause I plan on meeting jovan (my very, very, very good friend), seeing my maths teacher, maybe even shoot a machine gun :-o
Oh ya... gotta finish that research paper... i plan on having it done by sunday. I'll make it.

I hope everyone's well. And good luck with those tickets gina!!! get a fake ID!! :P

The last time I was in the United Arab Emirates was about 10 years ago. Today, when I got out of the airport I was quite surprised cause the city of Abu Dhabi is quite developed!!! The highways are smooth, wide, and just like in the states, although the signs in the streets are more european (in that everything is not written... why do they do that in the states anyways??? XING??? wtf mate, its so much cooler to have a picture of a guy wearing a hat walk crossing the street!! hahah)
My first impression of Abu Dhabi this time was that you can really feel the cultural change. A lot of it has to do with the fact that most people walk around in the national dress - dishdasha for men and khandura for women. Its not like I didnt know that before, but its quite different to actually be there. You can feel the religion.
And Im not joking. In fact, I tried going on myspace a few minutes ago and it wouldnt let me -- the message I got was:

We apologize the site you are attempting to visit has been blocked due to its content being inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates.

Scarrryy man. Im here for another 5 hours. I wonder if this entry actually gets scanned!!! lalalalala

Im signing off!
bye!!

p.s. in case it is, I LOVE POTCHA!!!! let it be known ;)

How I know I'm at home.

Sampath: "Babba? babba!..."
Surain: "yes?"
Sampath: "tea time!"

Tea time is my favorite time of the day! It's not just because I drink a wonderful cup of tea at this time, but because its (the most?) beautiful part of the day. Between 4-5:30 in the afternoon the sun is not so hot, there is an abundance of shade, most of your day is over i.e. you're done with the hard part, and after 5:30 the sun begins to set and its a whole new chapter!
That space in between though, tea time, is brilliant! I suppose a lot has to do with the fact that I've had tea time for as long as I can remember and it's always associated with returning from school and watching cartoons like "bots masters!" Those were good times man, really good times!
middle school was awesome! Everything from risky boys (me and david - he used to be my best friend) to emily and dushan, to being in OCS to being young and only caring about ..... well, nothing really! But the most beautiful thing about that time in life is that you've got all of what is happening now and what is yet to happen to look forward to. It's beautiful that you aren't always in middle school, it's beautiful that you can't hold on to what you most want forever. Sooner or later it's gone or changed and the best you can hope for is that you've changed as well and that everything still fits perfectly.
A perfect moment. It's impossible to be stuck in a perfect moment. It's impossible to stuck in perfection. Perfection is a snapshot briefly viewed from the corner of one's eye - but you don't know if you really saw it. It's perfect today but tomorrow it's something altogether different. Perfection can only exist in change - change in the perceiver and change in the perceived. Find synchronization between the two and you've found what everyone is searching for.

If you think that there is something permanent to you, to who you Are, something that makes you You, then look very closely at what that is. You know what you will find sampath, a host of things, then you'll realize that most (if not all) were not always there - that who you believe you are now is not who you were or will be. Who doesn't know this? of course everyone knows this.
But what you don't realize is that who you are now is who you choose to be - consciously or subconsciously.
Bottom line is that you have the potential for perfection. You control half the key to perfection; the perceiver. Inflexibility and the unwillingness to compromise w

hmm.

Day 59 - 06/09/01

Okay I guess I lied. This is my last e-mail from Japan. Its friday night in okazakisake and im enjoying my last night in this country.

Today, apart from to thoroughly annoying failed attempt at buying souvenirs, I went to a cool japanese bbq restaurant with my homestay family where we got to bbq marinated meat ourselves; thenn i went to an onsen!!!!!! An onsen is a japanese style bath. I must say i was quite nervous at first cause i didnt know the correct procedure of entering the bath----- my homestay mother was waiting outside cause she said she was too ashamed to go into the onsen.
So basically, this is how its done. You get a key that opens a locker where you put all your belongings - after having stripped off all your clothes, you go and wash yourself at a shower. Then you can get into the bath which is very similar to a jacuzzi - it was really hot.
There were two other japanese people there and I was quite nervous cause they were grandpas and I wasnt sure whether I was doing it right. ah. It was quite refreshing though.

Im going to continue with the Q&A now.

15. What aspect of the culture took the most adjusting to? - the culture? hmmm. Im tempted to say nothing cause I didnt really feel much of a culture shock - lets say that the strangest thing I got used to was how everyone makes such an effort to be friendly. This is mainly with respect to restaurants and shops etc cause whenever your enter everyone yells "Irashaimase" which roughly means welcome. Its a bit strange.

16. When did you feel the most accomplished? - I wish I could say once I got to the top of mount fuji, but naa, that wasnt really that satisfying. i guess it was yesterday when I got my big exam results. I PASSED!!! WOO HOO!! hahaha. This came as as shock cause I did 0 studying for it cause it didnt matter whether I passed it or not (i know, thats a bad attitude but instead of studying i spent my time very productively so Im happy). Oh ya, and of the 10 people that took the exam, only 5 passed.... sooo that made it even sweeter!!!

17. How do you think the trip changed you, if at all? - I guess the trip changed me in the sense that I can communicate in japanese --- although thats not what the question is asking.... if the trip has changed me in a special way, im not yet aware of it :/

18. Most useful thing you learned? - that you dont really use "anata" in japanese which literally translates to "you" in english cause its a bit rude :S

19. Are you sure you're ready to join the FBI? (Cal-train) - As Ive already said, I lost my two bodyguards - that should be proof enough of my determination and skill.

20. What does "kakkoui desu. me mo kirei desu" mean? :D - :P "You're cute. You've got beautiful eyes."

its nearly 10pm now. I think im going to go to bed cause i must wake up at 5amish tomorrow. - ill be taking the bus to the airport. yaayy.
Goodbye.

day 54 - 2006/08/27

my time in japan is nearly up. it has been quite a memorable trip... definitely. My first time in Japan and I dont think i did too bad.
I feel like making small question and answer survey for myself so i remember some of the less important yet funny things that took place on this trip.

1. What was the strangest dish you ate? - a plate of seasoned and fried cartillage

2. What was the strangest tv program you saw? - an experiment to find out the best way to fart and get away from the smell (does anyone want to answer?? haahha)

3. Who was the most important person in Japan for you? - hmmm, i wrote this one before even thinking of the answer. Probably Kei and Shun.

4. What was your best experience? - riding the shinkansen back from tokyo at night while listening to the fray and all of a sudden seeing fireworks light up the sky. It felt amazing. Moments like those make you feel so alive...

5. What was the strangest compliment you received? - kim's sister saying "kakkoui desu. me mo kirei desu" so matter of factly hahah

6. What drink have you ordered the most? - cappuccino

7. What was your favourite japanese dish? - thats tough... probably soba cause Id never had it nor heard of it before coming to japan and it was delicious

8. When did you laugh the hardest? - ahhh yaa!! So meredith was telling me about how her ex boyfriend was a dick to her "for no reason" is what she said. So then I asked "did you do anything to him?" and my tone meant, 'was it really for no reason?' and she says "ohh yaa, i made out with him a couple of times" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH SHE THOUGHT I MEANT DID YOU DO ANYTHING with HIM!! HAHAHAHAahAHAH So Franky who was standing next to us and listening just CRACKED UP AS WELL!! He and I were laughing SOOO HARDDD!! And so i explained to meredith "i meant did you do anything to piss him off" ahahha, and as she began to understand, franky slowly tried to run away (slowly because he was talking baby steps) and meredith looked at me, then looked at franky and grabbed him as he was running away, man handled him back to the center and SMACKED HIM OVER THE HEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH THAT WaS THE FUNNIEST THING I EVER SAW!!! HAHAHAHAH SOOOOOOOOOOOOO FUNNNYYY!!! hAhahahahaHAHAhaHAhaahhahaha!!!!!!!!!!! p.s. meredith could beat the shit out of franky!!! hahahahahahah! sooo funny.

9. The coldest you've ever been? - top of mount fuji.... brrrrrrr

10. The hottest you've ever been? - hmmm. probably biking to gamagori.

11. The most annoyed? - when i lost my homestay families bike key...

12. The most surprised? - when i entered sanjusangendo.

13. The most illegal thing you did? - videocamera in the maidcafe and sanjusangendo.

14. Biggest faux pas? - hmmm. probably tell my homestay mother about streakers and the nudist dorm at uni... hmmm. apparantly she's a delicate soul... she actually got goosebumps!!!

I think i'll end it at 14... cause i cant really think of any more questions... if anyone's got some more, please ask them!! you'd be doing me a service!! id really appreciate it. :)

I doubt im going to update again before i leave japan, so this is probably the last lj post from japan, forever i imagine. wow.
I hope the few people who are reading this are enjoying themselves where ever they may be. My sincerest regards,
Sampath.

Day --- ?? I'm not sure, I've lost count.

It's been such a long time since I've last updated. I'm in school right now cause after I moved in with my host family, it's only in school that I am able to use internet.
You went to tokyo from the 11th-15th of august. It was quite a fun trip!!! Extremely expensive but definitely worth it. Shun and Kei were awesome and their families took me to EXTREMELY expensive restaurants which was simply amazing/delicious. I had the best beer in one of them!! It was artisanal so you've got to go there to try it.
Tokyo was fun. I went to a lot of places; shibuya, harajyuku, odaiba (where I saw amazing fireworks... wow), akihabara (where people dress very weirdly), roppongi hills (i think that's how you spell it :/ the view of the city from there is awesome), and a few other places I've forgotten the names of.
Today was one of those days where a lot of people left so it was Sara, Mark and Jain's last day. Quite sad I must say... I wonder who the new comers will be.
I'm going to Kyoto on saturday to do some sight seeing and I'll meet up with shun and kei and we'll be staying at a hotel over night. I hope it'll be fun!!!
I'm getting huuuunnngrryyy!!! I didn't have lunch really. So I can't wait to get back to my homestay and eat food!! dinner's not for another 1.5 hours. I'm glad they feed me well :) Cause everything else about the homestay kinda sucks
1) they all speak to me in english (although I've got almost everyone to speak in japanese apart from the mother)
2) my room does not have internet :(
3) my room does not have an airconditioner AND it's on the 3rd floor so it's absolutely BOILING
4) the house is 20mins away... BY BIKE!
5) I am expected to give the two children english lessons before dinner.... WTF mate???
6) The house is rather messy - magazines, newspapers and random things all over the place.
7) I have to wake up at 7am to have breakfast --- class begins at 9!
8) to be quite honest, the internet thing is the most annoying cause I can't talk to my baby... :( although the fact that they want to practice their english with me is PRETTY annoying as well.

phew. I'm done with complaining :P
I can't believe I have 2 weeks left. Oh ya, that means it's day 44.
More importantly, there're exactly 32 days before I see Rachel Yong... :) 2/3 done. Just one short month! :D
I'm excited!

Day 33 - 2006/08/05

You haven't updated in a whilee man. The past few days have been quite eventful; Izakaya, going out, Omatsuri, shinkansen purchase, zigzag bar, being henna gaijin cause ai and sara have to get pictures with random japanese guys - with or without their permission.

Adrian (the guy who couldnt ride a bike) is going back home soon. His last day of class was on thursday and the last day I'll be seeing him is on saturday - i.e. today during the fireworks that apparantly attracts 200,000+ people :-/
I passed my big Japanese test and am now in the next level; we got 2 new books and the teachers said that everything gets much harder from here. I'm excited :) hanasutestu wa 90%, demokakutestu wa 84%

We have 4 new people; paul, marc, mariya and laura. We've only had 1 class together so it's hard to tell whether they will be funny or not.
Yesterday Rachel got to spy on Franky, Ai and Sara!! hahaha, that was cool. The 3 of them came into my room and I didnt tell them that Rachel could see them.
I mentioned how Adrian left. Sadly, Justin left as well :( he's the guy from Brown. He was a lot of fun! Ohh ya! I have a ton of picture from the mount fuji climb and mannn, do I look scary. We were meant to make scary faces but I guess I was the only one who succeeded - It looks as though everyone was smiling and I was just mad. hahahahahaha. I'll post a few on facebook.

Ah ya! I'm finally moving to my homestay on monday!! I'm eeeeexcited!!!!!! It's going to be greatt cause I wont have to coook!! :D Speaking of cooking and eating... guess what poor sumpy is eating as he types this? ..................... Fermented soybeans.... that's right. FERMENTED soybeans. What's more is that it's his LUNCH!!! hahahahahaha. desperate times.

Yesterday I had about 150 yen left. that's about a dollar. Ohhh boy o boy. The problem is that the ATMs and banks do not accept amex so it was soooo difficult for me to withdraw money. I got into a phone booth and called the help line for amex and they said the closest atm is 13miles away!!!!! YAaaaaaaaiikes! By the way, the phone booth was BOILING hot and I was sweating like A PIG!!! GROSSSS!! But I went back to the bank and tried the Visa card (which got rejected the last time I tried) and this time they accepted it and allowed me to withdraw some money!!!!

Okay my babe is here!! I want to talk to her :)

Take care.

Day 28 - 2006/07/31

well, it's been a loong time since I last updated and quite a lot has happened. To begin with, I have CLIMBED MOUNT FUJI!!!!!!!!
This happened on days 26-27: I filmed a lot of it but let me just summarize
- mount fuji is very ugly up close
- mount fuji is extremely, extremely, extremely cold; especially at the top duhhhh. I was wearing 4 layers (including a ski jacket) and was still freezing cold
- watching the sunrise from the top of mount fuji is beautiful; both the view and the extremely cold experience
- the hike to the top took about 7 hours because we stopped at each station for about an hour cause we began the hike 8 hours before sunrise which is a BAD idea cause you are basically freezing cold because they don't let you inside the cabin unless you pay which really sucks and if you pay its for the whole night which isn't worth it and this is a very long sentence.
- I began the hike with a sprained/pulled left foot and finished it with an aching right knee, sore left foot and bruised left knee; twas fun
- I have a walking stick with the brands from each station - 8 in all
- the mountain is 3.7km high of which we hiked 1.5kilometers (vertical distance)
- justin and eric are cool
- meredith was the slowest but she made it to the top which was awesome!
- my favorite part of the hike were the rests we'd take between each station on the path where we sat and stared at the stars... simply breath taking... we were nice and warm cause of the physical exertion and the stars (once we broke above the clouds) were phenomenal - i saw about 5 shooting stars, mars, the milkyway and billions of other stars. The only thing that could have made it better would have been Rachel by side resting her head on my shoulder...
- great memories

day 28 - today
Class was same old same old. But after class we went karaoking which was FUUUUNNNN!!! It was quite a riot! Sang a lot of songs, drank a lot of juice (no alcohol cause it was in the middle of the day!) and filmed a lot of the singing!!!
2 teachers came with us as well which was cool cause they're cool teachers.
Afterwards, we went to dinner with one teacher and 4 of us (most of the people went back home... boo). The dinner was great fun as well; franky and I ate a cause it was all you can eat pizza... hahahaha. Good times man, good times.
Now it's a little past 1 am and i'm going to be tirrred tomorrow so I better go to sleep.
Thanks for reading :)

Day 22 - 2006/07/26

I injured my foot today... :/ I hope it heals by tomorrow. I ALMOST went to play soccer at this hour (10pm nearly)!! Patosan was trying to round up a group and I said if he got 8 people i'd come. He said he had 6 so I said ok; changed my clothes (this is after I showered, got back from the gym, had dinner and was about to finish off my homework and go to bed!) and went down to find out he only had 4... that is 4 people including me!! hahaha, so I said sumimasen, yonin to saka- wa tanoshikunai desukara chotto...
I wonder if he went to play. oh well. It's a good thing I said no cause my foot hurts and i need to rest for tomorrow's CONCERTOOO!!!!
So we are going straight after classes (2:30pm) and will probably be back around 11pm. Annddddd!! Guess what kind of music it is? :)
Indie!! how cool is that? I'm sure 66.6% of my audience would like to hear japanese indie! I hope it'll be fun!
Tomorrow some people are coming to inspect my room as well... they carry out a monthly inspection of all the rooms. Unfortunately I won't be here when they come grrr.
You know what else is happening tomorrow??? :D RACHEL'S COMING HOME!!!!!! LALALALLALALALALALALALALALALALALA!!! I can't wait to talk to you babbbyyy!!! :D
2 more people left the class today; eric and denayira. Eric was veryy funny cause he never studied (i bet) and always took the looongest to answer a question!! sooo funny!! He found it funny as well so it was all good. Deyanira was more studious. They are flying back to mexico tomorrow via SAN FRANCISCO!!!!!! Lucky bums.
Hokay. That's all the news for today.
matta ashita!