Entries this day: Dream Great_being_back Keiko_lunch byebye,_Tokyo! hitomi_housing roommates ship_tour zzzz_bilgen

Dream

8:00am JST Sunday 25 December 2005

I was with some friends outside and we were climbing on some large piles of dirt, but a man came out to tell us we couldn't do it; we might get some sort of injury. He said the dirt might pinch us. I was like, "how?" because I have played in a lot of dirt and never been pinched by it. He went on to explain that because it is soft, one of our legs might sink more than the other, and therefore a nerve inside our legs might be pinched from the disparity in height. It sounded plausible, and I thanked him for the education.

I soon got an email from him offering me a brief job as a model for some Halloween performance. I would get 1 night of room and board if I let them video me being electroshocked with something on my stomach on October 12th of this year, and he proceeded to tell me that I could come visit anytime, and I wondered if I could use this interest in my body to my benefit; it appeared he would be willing to pay several dollars.

I already had a private room with a toilet which I needed to use presently, and sat down to compose him an email, but there were a lot of people walking by outside and they distracted me from my task. The room was rather large and had lots of tile and pool slash bathroom type area.

I looked more closely through the pictures he sent of me: one with his knee injury (barely visible) from when he fell recently, and some from the start of the bicycle ride, which I recognized to be the same place from wich I had started with Don's Half Fast Flash Mob a couple weeks ago. Although it ws in a rural farm setting.

I woke up and fell back asleep, dreaming I was writing this dream, and then woke up again and wrote it.

Great being back

10:33am JST Sunday 25 December 2005

Being back on the ship means being back in my old playground. I can dash up the stairs in that most efficient manner; know all the nooks and all my old stories... Excited to imagine making all new ones and maybe finding more nooks!

Keiko lunch

2:17pm JST Sunday 25 December 2005

Met Keiko today and had a Christmas lunch that can't be beat (buffet with soft serve and scoop ice cream) and just chilled and chatted about all things PB.

Found an internet cafe to upload this, what will be my final entry for a while.

byebye, Tokyo!

Byebye, Tokyo!

Hello beautiful people!

My last gasp of internet air before diving into another P3ace B0at Adventure!!

Being back on the ship fills me with happy memories and even "natsukashi" feelings
of the not as happy ones.  (In Japanese "natsukashi" means something like "to look
back fondly upon" or perhaps "reminisce" but as an adjective.

I'm in room 3027, right across the hall from where I was before.  I'll be sleeping
on David's old bed, though there has been one more sleeper there for the past three
months.  The shower/bathroom area is a bit smaller than the one we had before, but
everything feels like home.

The ship crew show fantastic customer service; everyone has been welcoming me back,
even if I didn't really talk to them on the previous cruise; they remember I was
onboard.

I understand we will have a new captain.  Captain Costas is on vacation during the
voyage and will be back at the helm for the 53rd voyage (rumor has it)..

I'm thrilled to report the piano bar (Hemmingway) and the hallway around it are
NON-Smoking areas, except for one desk-sized ventilation unit where smokers will
have to stand when they smoke.  I wish for the best for everyone, and I hope the
vast majority of passengers, staff, volunteers, crew all appreciate this change.  
Hemmingway has new bright red carpet, and the main hallway on 6th floor has all new
blue carpet (and it's a bit bouncy, too!)

Basically all of the teaching materials have been moved from 6th floor to Room 10
on GET Street, where teachers will find them far more accessible.  The old
computers and copiers are still in that 6th floor office, though.

(GET stands for Global English/Espanol Teaching)

Yesterday Tony (one of the teachers on our team) and I helped load stuff and move
some of the GET Teachers' luggage to their rooms.  I enjoyed having a head start on
getting my stuff situated in my room, and basked in a long warm shower before
reading a bit of _Speaker for the Dead_ by Orson Scott Card.

I'm planning to be less distracted by romantic interests on this voyage, and take a
lot more time for myself.

Some people have asked about sending emails...  I love to know how all my peeps are
doing, so please let me know!  I just won't likely have time to reply until mid
2006 or beyond....

      Love and Hugs
      Peace and Light
      Happy Holidays
      - Rob!

heh... I just realized I said nothing about Christmas.. It's just another work day
in Japan, save that today happens to be a Sunday.   Merry Christmas! 

hitomi housing

2:38am JST Monday 26 December 2005

I just want to record that I am healthy and happy on PB (primarily) due to having lived in Millenium House for the past ten days. Hitomi suggested that I live there because the weather was scheduled to be super cold at night, and if I were to live in a tent during this time, I might start my second PB adventure with a sickness.

I wouldn't have likely stayed there except for one detail. She offered to pay for it. I haven't properly been thankful, and I'd like to super duper incredibly thank Hitomi for funding that. And chocolate. And laundry.

roommates

7:04pm JST Sunday 25 December 2005

This voyage I'm across the hall from my old room, in 3027 instead of 3029 ((There are stinky girls in my old room now (Carla, Yuki, Rei, and Chieko.))) with Carl and Dan(iel), two pretty cool blokes (a.k.a. killa dilla mofos) from Tampa and Brisbane, respectively.

They're both chatty and laid back and there seems to be no chance of us having any issues during the voyage.

I chose the top bunk for posterity purposes, and they flipped a coin to see who got the bunk with headroom. Carl won when Daniel chose flowers.

ship tour

2:46am JST Monday 26 December 2005

I gave Carla a slow version of a ship tour. It probably lasted 1.5 hours, including distractions.

I'm really thrilled to have her on the boat!

zzzz bilgen

2:58am JST Monday 26 December 2005

After talking to everyone, and sending Fred an email from my phone (I hope that all goes as planned(!)) I was walking back and said good night to the receptionist, who remembered me from last time. Her name is Bilgen, and we chatted for probably a bit over an hour. I taught her about hiragana vs katakana vs kanji, and she taught me how to say I love you (obicham te) and I'm glad to see you again (radvam se da te vidia pak) in Bulgarian.

I was able to use the second one when I saw one of the Bulgarian near-twin sisters come back. And then I was able to correctly identify her: Kremena.