Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Letter of motivation

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing regarding the uber-awesome masters programme that your university - located so quaintly in another country altogether - is so nice and cute and fuzzy to be offering.

While reading manga and downloading Jrock off the internet, I stumbled upon your university's supercalifragilistic web-site. It was not by accident, oh no! - it was fate. Fate led me to this curriculum which, for all sakes and purposes, seems to have been hand-tailored for me, me, me and me exclusively. I can't begin to tell you how well these subjects will complement my academic preparation. So I won't.

On to a nicer subject: me. I have graduated with flying colors from, have actively involved myself in, have been faithfully working for 3 years for, and am generally and overall an amazingly multi-talented, polivalent, polyglotic, creative, unique person, a real asset to /any/ postgraduate programme, and you'd better admit me, or else you'll miss out on a super-stupendous student. Hah, and I do alliterations too!

All in all, it would be an honor for me to finally be able to leave my country and live joyfully with my bf in a clean, lovely, civilized town full of opportunity, and this masters is the perfec excuse. Therefore, please please please with chocolate fudge on top admit me, or I'll cry and be emo.

In the hopes that,
Yours furrily,
The Lemming.






[/sarcasm]
*small voice* help meee...

~ soundtrack: /\ucifer - C no binetsu on repeat, repeat, repeat ~

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Monday, January 26, 2009

Salad days and freesias that smell like condoms

Monday, Monday, bloody fucking Monday. All the energy I've gathered this weekend went out the window. Kapoof!

I wonder if I'll always be stuck being this way, happy and preppy only if I have for whom to be so.

This weekend kicked severe ass, and I'm making an e-memory out of it so that I'll remember:
awesome people
silly concert
laughs that were had
gesturing that means nothing to some and something to others
a house that looked surprisingly non-empty
classy burger decorations
pancakes
smoking balcony
bad wine
fun music
people who lift me up when they hug me
embarassment I feel when I realize I like somebody
silly movie we made fun of and ended up watching for real
"acuma o sa iti pui si castraveti pe ochi?"
beautiful earrings and yummy tea
"we tried to split an orange"
Tintin
the yellow lighter that was given away and replaced by another yellow lighter
too much smoke
"Virgin Mary and the pig"
a growing love for Heidi. and SID
the freesias in our living-room, that have this unmistakeable Durex Extra-safe smell

And now I have to write my motivation letters, and I feel oddly un-motivated. *runs away wailing* Ttttt-Pppppp! :'( Help!

*tries to be calm and collected* Heh.

Musical candy of the day
SID - AIKAGI

...ummm... the unplugged prods decidedly more buttock, but I love how good they are live ^__^

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Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Asian Studies isn't really Asian at all

I'm as disappointed as fuck right now, and I wish I could get over it, but for some reason it's failing to go away, and I need it to go away in order to focus, but it won't. Fuck.

*breathe* *rewind*

For the past couple of days, I've been reading all the necessary in-depth info for the masters I'm applying to. Everything from requirements to accomodation, residence permits, work permits (for TP) and the whole shazam. Yesterday was spent entirely on Holland, today was designated for Denmark and Hungary. Enter denmark masters platform. Enter the Asian Studies MSc. Exit Asian Studies MSc. Wait, what?!

Even though I have almost 10 masters lined up (since it's truth time, after all, I might as well be truthful to myself, ne? *rolls eyes*), my secret desire, my dream, so secret, in fact, that I barely dared say it to myself, was that all these silly programmes were a back-up for this one, glorious, unexpected opportunity that kinda (not to put too fine a point on it), was perfect: it collected everything I've ever prepared for academically; it was in a great country; I'd even assuaged my mom's fears that it wouldn't have a career future; I even managed to /find reasons/ to assuage her (and my) fears (yay, Japan! Japan!); I was making plans, getting excited. Bleah.

What actually happened was that I was searching for info on the masters programme on the university's web-site, instead of on the portal. And I couldn't find it anywhere. What the hell, I thought, hitting the search bar. And lo and behold... it's a damn Bachelor's degreee programme. And it lasts 3 fucking years (yeah, ok, big diff considering the master takes 2 years, but still, it's an immensely long time. Even 2 years is a bit long...) There's an MSc to complement it, but it's more international than Asian in focus. *headdesk*

==Later Edit==

Ok, shopping therapy kicks ass. One silver brooch and some cosmetics later, I am once again in a (relatively) good mood and ready to search. Bring on the adventure!



*aaaaaaand.... grins inanely* 4 and a half years! 4 and a half years! OMFG, teh happiness! WOOOOOVE!!!

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Thursday, January 15, 2009

Rebound reback

I left this blog on its own for much too long a time. I was planning to come back after 6 months and draw a line, paint a picture, look back and see what's new. What changed? My writing feels rusty.

- I went to China (to pick up from where I left off). I have yet to upload all the pictures on Flickr, but when I do I'll post the link. That trip was sooooo... It scratched at my stomach. I don't think I've ever felt more jittery, more ready to leave, to up and go, than I did while waiting in the Beijing airport for the plane to take us home. I'll write about China, I promised myself. I just don't know how to put into words the feeling that I got when I first stepped into the hotel in Chengdu, the feeling I had when I entered the Forbidden City, the feeling I had when a guy stopped me on the Great Wall and asked me to have my picture taken with him - picture taken by his girlfriend. Those emotions, and those thoughts, and the images I still have burned across my retina, the tastes and smells and the joy that made me want to kyaa, cry and punch something at the same time. And the map in the Chinese Embassy in Bucharest, which showed China and, just across a smallish water-puddle (it seemed), the place where I have set my goal. More and more, I feel like that is where I'll die. Which would be quite a way to go.

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- Next, two days after landing back home, there I was at the airport again, this time on my way to London. This turned out to be the saddest sight-seeing session I've ever gone through, sadder even than Prague. After the glorious 6 days which had barely passed, and which I hadn't gotten a chance to properly digest, London left me unimpressed. Every time I think of China, I feel that the air I'm breathing in has a certain, different scent. It's hard to explain. And I strain my lungs trying to figure out what it is.

Good bits about London: the shops, ohmygod the shops. People who spoke English (finally! This was the first time I visit a native English-speaking country). All the chicks in mini-skirts who, at least for a bit, changed my mentality about that aspect (I am currently successfully employing the woolen dress I bought from there as a sweater. No /way/ am I going out dressed like that here!)

Bad bits: the food! The people are grumpy, and I'd like to know where all the /English/ are, because I doubt I saw more than a dozen blonde people at a time. I won't complain about the weather, though, it was decent.

Fun bits: the fun I had tracking down all the Neverwhere references - though I didn't get to Blackfriars, unfort. And and and... SEEING STONEHENGE. My heart stopped, and my ears were buzzing, and it was so beautiful that I wanted to cry, and so small that I wanted to cry, and people were so uninterested, and there were sheep grazing nearby, and the grass was wet and cold as I sat on it and listened to the rather lame audioguide, and there were crows. There were crows on the stones. Oh, and one of the ravens at the Tower of London is called Thor. Un-fitting conflict with Odin's image, I thought, but still a bit cute.


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- then I came home and settled down for a bit. Before going to London I had applied to a couple of jobs, got called in for interviews and had to choose one of them, since I'd gotten accepted to both. Bank or recruitment company? I chose the latter, thinking that the recession won't touch me there. I lasted two weeks (and one project, which was successful, because I'm /that/ kind of lucky-awesome). I liked the chicks working there, and the conditions were nice, but the job was already having trouble stuffing all that cock into its mouth by day two, that I thought I'd do it a favor and liberate its respiratory paths. So I quit before they had a chance to register me (or so I'd thought. Oh wellz.) and decided to freeload for a while.

I was planning on massively involving myself in voluntary projects with the "frumoasa asociatie", but they disappointed me big-time. Granted, an organization's goals, just like a person's, can change over time. But they changed drastically, and at the wrong moment. I wanted to act, not do what they were being so passionate about at the time. Now, a few months later, things are different from one pov only: their interest changed yet again. They are just as one-track-minded. *sigh*


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- in December, I was called in for work. I agreed. What else could I do? It turned out to be enjoyable, though overly dull, because I'm almost never given anything to do. Still, I have time to learn Japanese and read shit on the internet, and the pay kicks ass extremely severely. My colleagues are nice, the gossip is exciting, the food is bad, the hours are killing me (because I have to get up at variations-of-6-in-the-morning. However, I do get off at somehwere-between-3-and-4-in-the-afternoon, and you so can't beat that!). I wonder how that'll continue from now on.


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- for my birthday, TP and I took the now-mandatory trip to Budapest. It was gloriously fun, because we ate our asses off, met up with my old friend Milos, took a tour of a very intriguing potential-masters-university, discovered the coolest bar I've ever seen, and got to shop almost not at all (to TP's great joy and my huge dismay). More on that in a later post, because I feel the need to order those thoughts as well.


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- by a twist of very unexpected fate, one week later, I had the house all to myself for the weekend, so I had teh peoplez0r over - which turned out to be fun. We cooked - together, like I'd kept on saying I wanted to, and it came out gross-looking and vaguely-edible (pictures and some details later). We got a bit plastered (well, TP and I did - the others are too much of a prudish group to perform such lowly activities. Hah, I had a hangover. So what. Having sex when you're that tipsy is soooo bloody amazing.) and generally had fun (I think. Ok, /I/ had fun. Th others can do as they please, I had long ago given up the thought that, since I'm the host, I have to be the local impromptu entertainment, so that everyone /else/ has a good time.) Yay for selfishness!

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- I have fallen inexorably in love with the band heidi., whom I adore for the beautiful voice full of inflexions and the kick-ass way they use their instruments. Alas, if only I could understand their lyrics... Still, YAY for Angura-kei! (and it rhymes. And I'm a dweeb. And... yeah.)

Also, I have taken to reading all the /completed/ shoujo manga on onemanga, because I need an afflux on nigh-diabetes-inducing sweetness in my life, so as not to constantly leech on TP. Who must be at wits' end with me as it is. Meh. I'll be good, I promise *does the puss-in-boots-from-shrek face*


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- I'm not going to go into detail about how I went to the mountains for a weekend in December, got wasted every day, and got food poisoning (my first ever externally-caused-stomach-problem ever. It was... entertaining. Also, my puke reflex isn't what it used to be... if it ever was.) Suffice to say it was fun. And I want Andrei! (as long as someone trims his claws first. I'll show you Andrei if I ever figure out how to use my cell-phone transfer cable. No, I don't want any wise-ass comments about how you plug one end into the cell, one end into the computer, and are ready to go. What I want, if you're that willing to help, is someone to come to my house, look through all my stuff and /find/ my transfer cable, then transfer the pictures, because I can't be buggered. Still, better to blame it on idiocy than on laziness - at least the former is curable. No? SI!)

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And now here we are, in the present. With a waning winter, a hard-disk full of Jrock, and a head full of plans. Or plants.

I'm mostly writing this to show how I'm steeling myself for the tedious process of applying to all them masters. The Netherlands, Denmark and, as a back-up plan, Hungary. Then - Tokyo, Osaka, Hong-Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Denmark-continued, Seoul or Taiwan (in that order of preferences). For at least a year. For at most a lifetime. It's so strange to think that, if all goes according to plan, this time next year I'll be in another country - this time in three years I'll be at the other end of the planet. I feel like the time has come. This is the crossroad, and I've managed to steer my ambitions so that none of the choices I now have is a wrong one.

I'm going to write some (more) cliches here, so if you're bothered, just skip. For the first time in my life, I feel alive. I feel like I'm the one who's living my life. My choice, my decisions, my future with my amazing boyfriend in the country of our choice. And for the first time, it doesn't feel too good to be true. It just feels good. And now I know, I finally know it in my bones, that I'm doing things the best I can - and that means there's nothing to regret, nothing to reproach.


*hums* Welcome to my life.

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