Mega eventful weekend! sunday more so than saturday, but i'll cover both days anyway.

had my first tuition class at the new place. it's much further than harbourfront, but the bright side is that i have a direct bus there. takes 50 minutes though, so there's that. going home is a little easier too; i have a bus that stops a short-ish (3 minutes' walk) from home, instead of taking the MRT and walking 8-ish minutes. best part is that there are usually seats available on the bus! so i guess i'll take that silver lining.

the place itself is not bad, quite well-located and visible. perhaps too visible; i had to use a room with a huge window that let people outside look into my class. things are still in the midst of being set up, so the room i'm scheduled to use hadn't been prepared yet. thank goodness that it's temporary, i should have a less visible room next week. downside is that there are no smart whiteboards (or even dumb whiteboards, for that matter), so i had to borrow my friend's laptop and writing tablet device. totally not my thing, so i offered to get a whiteboard for the centre at my own expense. people may ask why i spent my own money, but i'm thinking of it as a centre-warming present. besides, i think my personal relationship with this friend is worth it. not to mention the money's coming out of whatever he's paying me, anyway! hopefully the whiteboard arrives in time for next week's class...i really don't want to use the writing tablet thing again.

yesterday was really fun! it started with lunch with scary JC friend and her boyfriend at beauty in a pot. for once, we didn't over-order. i ate till i was about 65% full, and filled up on soup to about 85%. the boyfriend had a viewing, so he went off while the two of us went for the sake festival/yosakoi event. for context, yosakoi translates to "come over tonight" in the tosa (kochi) dialect, and it's the name of a dance and dance festival that originated in kochi. there's a whole story involving a monk, a courtesan or some form of lady of the night, a hairpin, and a bridge which has been dubbed one of japan's most disappointing tourist sites. the current bridge is not even at the original site! but back to the point. if not for the yosakoi segment, i probably wouldn't have gone. while it was not at the scale of the actual thing in kochi, the energy was high and i had fun. it was so nostalgic seeing the bright costumes and lively dances again! the organizer/emcee is a local lady who hasn't been on JET, but has visited kochi every summer for the past 4 years for the actual festival. shocking to think we were in kochi at the same time, without knowing about each other! i guess that answers my question of "which singaporean in their right mind would voluntarily visit kochi?".

the sake was nice too. i was pleasantly surprised by the huge variety that was available, and that there's a local brewery here. my 2 top hits were one that tasted like pulut hitam (black glutinous rice), and one unfiltered one that tasted like lychee. the creaminess and rice bits reminded me of eating lychee, too! unfortunately, it seems that they didn't have bottles for sale. scary JC friend also got invited on stage to play a drinking game, which she won. i think she would rather have lost, because the losers drink while the winners don't. we also won a lucky draw ($40 worth of food vouchers, covering out ticket cost). don't know if there's some confirmation bias going on or whatever, but it seems like i'm more lucky when i go out with her. like, more good things seem to happen to me.

we then went to the gay bar, where the theme was "kinky karaoke" - for every song you request, you have to take off one article of clothing. as close as i am to scary JC friend, i don't quite think i'm ready to undress in front of her! so i just relaxed and sang along to other people's songs. i think i've been out drinking with her so rarely that i don't remember how social she can be. she was chatting to guys left and right, and she even danced with cute bartender a bit! she probably made more friends in a night than i did in the past 6 months. just to give you an idea of how things went, she asked a guy about the curry he was having (to be fair it smelled REALLY good), and he ended up giving her a taste. we were talking about it - outgoingness, not curry - on the way there, and i told her that i don't think i could force myself to be as sociable as her. she mentioned that it's easier for her since she's a girl and is thus perceived as less intimidating, so people tend to let their guard down around her. i guess that's what's called using your natural advantage.

also at various points throughout the night, people were asking how she came to know about the place, and that led to a quick recap of our friendship. i know it sounds quite needy and like, caring too much about others' opinions, but i was so happy/touched to hear her tell the other guys what she thought of me. not going to post the whole thing here, but the phrase "he's my favourite person" was used. man, i need to live up to that more...especially when i'm feeling unmotivated or just worn out. i hardly think it needs to be said, but the feeling is mutual. somehow, she doesn't drain my social battery. like, i never get tired of being in the same space as her...not even for the 6 consecutive days we lived together in japan. granted, 6 days isn't long enough to be a true test, but i don't foresee any major issues if we had to extend the duration.

scary JC friend left before me (boyfriend came to pick her up, how lucky!), and i did have a bit of fun time with some of the guys there. there was a pretty attractive guy, but he's emotionally unavailable. rather than feeling like i'd missed a chance, i genuinely hoped he'd be able to sort out his issues. i also realize that i'm becoming less inclined to want a partner now. that was another thing we talked about earlier in the day. she was telling me that she didn't understand the concept of open relationships...like, might as well stay single, right? while i kind of see where she's coming from, i do think that having a partner, even if only for the non-sexy things (finance, health, etc.), would be kind of nice. ideally both sexy and non-sexy elements would be present, but there's this whole discourse about different people having different sex drives, how that can lead to unhappiness/resentment, and an open relationship is the only way to solve that issue. guess sex is something gay guys are less willing to compromise on!

i reached home at 12+ last night, and only slept for 6-ish hours. felt ok in the office today up till lunch, but crashed for a bit in the afternoon. thankfully, today's cases are quite simple. i have 2 of them about the same compound, so it's like buy one get one free. with luck i'll be able to finish them tomorrow, which will put we well ahead of the promotion target. but that doesn't mean i have time for laurel-resting...not if i want to improve my odds for operation "promote with C+". but i shouldn't be fixated on work, which is why i'm having dinner with some of the old boys on wednesday. further into the future, i'm buying mentor figure and scary JC friend lunch (bonus is coming in this month!), and my favourite russian postdoc is coming to visit. i didn't know she comes over every year or so, and missed her last year. it'll be nice to see her in person again after 4 years!

-random thought of the day: Lucky tomorrow is work from home.-