[Ramble]

So I lied. French is not the answer. Spanish is the answer!

Haha, yeah. I keep changing it. But this time is for reals! Seriously! It would be super useful (the US is full of Spanish speakers), I have tons of resources (both my parents are fluent), I definitely have motivation (half my family speaks Spanish and some of them don't speak English), and there's much Spanish literature to discover. Truthfully, my initial dip into the world of Spanish literature didn't go very well. Got just over halfway through One Hundred Years of Solitude and couldn't go any further. This was after about two years of effort.

I've got it! The book is mean to TAKE a hundred years to read, and then only if you're placed in solitude the entire time! Man, I am a genius.

Har har. No, I know, I have to give the book another chance. And there's gotta be lots of good books by Spanish-speaking authors out there. Actually, if you're reading this now and know of some such books, let me know!

In the meantime, I've been trying to figure out how I want to spend the rest of my time here in Japan. I want to travel, that much is clear. But I need to travel cheap, because I've sorta been hit by a bunch of unexpected costs recently. So how can I do that? I may have discovered the answer.

I remembered last night that I have a ton of Aeroplan points, which work for any airlines in Star Alliance. That's a lot of airlines! Best part, I have enough points to swing a free round-trip flight to pretty much anywhere in Asia. Huzzah. The question now is where?

The only time I really have to do such a trip is going to be in August. I reeeeeeally want to go to Southeast Asia, but there's a problem: August is monsoon season. Practically the WORST time of year to travel there. It looks like Malaysia is relatively dry during that time, though. So maybe I'll go to Singapore, then travel around to Malaysia and Indonesia, then back to Singapore to catch my return flight to Japan. I dunno. Could work. Might be fun. I hear that's a relatively cheap part of the world, too, so maybe it wouldn't be too expensive.

Sigh.

In case you didn't figure it out, I have nothing to do these days. I just sit around at the office and wait to go home. Much thinking and plotting (dreaming) is involved.

Well, okay, I guess I've done a few things. I finally made it back to Judo after three months. That was two days ago. I'm still sore. (Reminder to self: don't skip Judo for that long again!) I've also managed to learn about 100 words in Spanish in the last three days. So that's something. And I wouldn't exactly call myself bored. It's hard to be bored in a place like this, where there's always something happening somewhere. I'm just... not stretched enough. Yeah. Need more stretching!

[/ramble]

~Jeffles