This week was characterised yet again by my sleep deciding to go on strike. Every night this week I slept very little or very poorly and it seems like waking me up repeatedly was a favourite game. I’m talking about my sleep as if it has a personality, that it likes to toy with me… clearly something wrong with this picture. ^^;

Apart from that, this week was actually pretty good. I’m getting into the groove of going to language school again, although it is a bit like being back in primary school! I’m managing to remember people’s names, which is very novel for me… although since I’m talking to them all the time every day, I should hope so. ^^ We got a bit of a heads up where we should be up to in the self-study book, and I’ve got a little bit of reading to do. The self-study book reads very differently to how they teach though, so I’m not sure how useful it’s actually going to be.

I had my first Curry-bread this week. Awesome.

I learned that depending on where I want to go on campus will actually impact on my transportation – the campus is that big. The two main places I’m going to be going are the International Center and my lab, and depending on which one I go to, I get off at different stations along the Chiyoda line. It takes me a little under an hour to get to either, with my lab being the slightly longer of the two. Quite different from the distances you travel in Christchurch, that’s for sure. When I was living in Seattle I was living in apartments right next to the campus, so it was only 10-15 mins walk to get across campus to the Computer Science building… so, it’ll be a different lifestyle than the ones I’m used to, to be sure! Well, it’ll be different for a whole lot of reasons, but it’s all the little things, right?

This week was also more set-up for my lab – more paperwork to fill out, this time for extending my scholarship. I was under the impression that I wasn’t going to be doing that until after I’d actually been accepted, but hey, I do what I’m told. Unfortunately I actually filled out a part of it incorrectly, and I needed to write up a longer research proposal, which I did this weekend and I’ll be submitting it tomorrow after class. I had a bit of a chat with my supervisor, and I really need to narrow down my specialisation/research interests. Other than the paperwork and getting my new ID card, I got a PC set up at my desk in the lab – everything is in Japanese, so it’s definitely a test of how well I can navigate around Windows without needing to read anything! As it turns out, I know Windows pretty well. ^^

I managed to get some recreation time in as well, watching anime and playing some games. I actually tried to do some online gaming today with Nik, but it didn’t pan out. I don’t think that the network here at the dorm really likes me doing much more than some emails, browsing and chatting, which is a bit of a pain. Not sure if there’s a way around it, either.

A bit of New Zealand crept into my consciousness this week, as I met up with a bunch of Kiwis! First up I met up with Mark a couple of times for some food and a bit of a walk. We actually went out to a nearby school field and I helped him break in his new cricket bat a little (he brought it with him from NZ). When I was in the office one time, I randomly met Luke, another Kiwi studying CS and chatted to him for a bit. I wonder if I’ll see him around more while I’m here. Last but definitely not least, I caught up with my friend Sammi and his girlfriend Ayako, who are over here on holiday at the moment. I met up with them yesterday and we had lunch in Shibuya and chatted about stuff before managing to locate a semi-impromptu dance party at a local park and dancing around for a while.

In addition to meeting up with Kiwis, I got an article in the mail this week from Maureen, my correspondent at the Consular Office of Japan in Christchurch. She had spotted an article about Doug Caldwell in the paper and thought I’d like it. Doug is a famous jazz pianist, and my… second cousin, I think. I never remember exactly. But, he’s pretty awesome, and I’m proud to be related to him – I have all of his CDs, and I went to the concert he gave at the inauguration of the Doug Caldwell Auditorium at the Jazz School in Christchurch. Awesome. ^^