Surf's Up

i heard a big wave's been killing a bunch of people lately. i know everybody loves water, but i just feel that it's wrong for it to kill so many people. it's not right. there i said it, and i don't care what you think.

so i don't know if that tsunami took out aol or what but i haven't been able to connect to either AIM or my e-mail account for days now, so i apologize if you've sent me an e-mail lately and i haven't responded yet. on top of that, blogger has been frustrating the shit out of me for quite a while because everytime i attempt to log in it sends me to some random vietnamese person's blog regardless of what computer i use, restricting my access to my only other communicative outlet. and, as always, the internet connection has been extremely slow and unreliable, so i've been spending most of my time online staring at blank, brain-scraping screens that grate my ripe, smelly face into parmesian cheese. so given that i guess i'll just heap it all onto your plate then:

christmas day was pleasant. i had intended to go to church but forgot, but i prayed that night and jesus said i didn't miss much, so i didn't feel so bad. later i went to alison and carrie's for their holiday bash and, after politely refusing the offer to eat the head of the roasted duck we had as a main course, i was given the revelrous responsibility of being the surrogate santa in place of the always absent "secret santa." pretenses aside, alison got me an awesome tie (you know my life is changing when i get excited about something like this), and i in return got her a little stuffed doll with a cute troll-like face, long brown hair, and red lips that was wearing a pink caveman-thingy that wasn't quite long enough to cover the centerpiece of the plush doll: its explicitly conspicuous cock'n'balls.

after dispensing all the gifts we decided to hit the town, but before we could make it there our friend, the (pronounced "tay"), one of the kindest and most light-hearted individuals i've met here, was pulled over for speeding through a red light, which is total bullshit because absolutely everybody, including every single police officer in this city, does this on a daily basis. well not only did they levy a fine on the poor guy, but confiscated his motorbike for 20 days. as a real estate broker, this bike was vital to him and it was christmas fucking day. so the night ended on a sour note, but we alleviated the sorrow by renting him a motorbike the following day. fuck the po-lice, fuck the po-lice, fuck'em... but have a merry christmas.

the next morning i had 2 classes i was supposed to teach from 8 - 12, but since i had already been hired by another school, i decided the best way to notify them of my termination of employment would be to just not show up or answer the incessant phone calls from administration. it worked. merry christmas to you too, VUS!

nothing much else is new. i've been training this week at APU, alison and carrie's school. every aspect of it is an improvement over that other school and i look forward to begin teaching there next week. there was a power outage today and so us 3, mike, and a bunch of the students went bowling while i got paid for "observing." nice.

i'm also excited about moving into my new house, for which i've signed the contract just hours ago. it's beautiful: the house [balconies and tv's in each of the 4 spacious rooms as well as in the common room, 3 bathrooms (one with a tub), a kitchen with all the necessary amenities, a washer machine, and a huge roof top terrace with an incredible view of a big, fluffy pink church across the street), the lively neighborhood, and the cool roommates. i'll be living with euan (an awesome aussie whom i met at tefl), his fabulous vietnamese-australian girlfriend tiana, mike (mr. nostarwhere), and the lovely linda. i'll be spending this new year's partying with these friends and others in our humble new abode, and i think this year couldn't end on a better note, tsunami or no tsunami.