The Master's life in Nagaoka...

To summarize the whole post today, I'm tired.

When I signed up for masters, I imagined it would be mostly research work, where I sit at my desk, analyze data for some time while listening to my iPod, come up with credible results which I will use for my presentation. I will then go back when the sun is down, cook myself a decent meal and then sit down to blog my day...

Well, I got part of it right....only a tiny bit part of it...

It's been two months now since I began my graduate life, but already I'm used to the lifestyle centered on my laboratory. Attending lab at 9 in the morning, then reaching home at 10 at night. While I imagined a smooth sailing life, reality insist that I be buried with class assignments. And the more time I spend on assignments, the less time I have for my research work, which I have to do anyway regardless of my reports.
"In graduate life, classes are just distractions. And don't you use assignments as your excuse for not producing results" says my professor.

Damn...

But the one thing that tires me out most is....parties!!
Hahaha...well, as tired and stressed as I get from research work and assignments, I have to try to have fun whenever I can, right?

So, this is to explain those pictures of me on facebook...

You see, there's quite a large number of foreign students in my University....about 200 "aliens". And somehow, foreign students here likes to party....well, not so much Malaysians(I am the only Malaysian attending these parties), but Mexicans, Venezuelans, Thais, Vietnamese, Germans...and oh, one lonely Rwandan.
And we have these parties for any reason at all!! Someone would make a shout out, and 50 of us would turn up for the party.

Parties here are different from normal Japanese parties which mostly centers on Karaoke or drinking at Izakaya(Japanese restaurant-pub). Parties here can be described in two words, beers and dance.
At each of these parties, liquor, mainly beer and others like tequila(courtesy of the Mexicans), Japanese sake, whisky, are plentiful. After a few of these "social lubricants", we will be dancing 'merengue', a kind of Latin America dance which involves a guy twirling a girl round and round to a music which has a distinctive beat. Yes, I can somewhat, more or less dance to the beat...although I'm nowhere nearly as good as the "professionals" here...haha.

Anyway, yeah...I have a lot of fun here. Through the parties I get to meet plenty of people, among them are some of my most memorable friends. Not just "beer buddies" or "dance partners" but friends with whom I can have intelligent conversations with. Friends I can share an innocent laugh with...
Pol, Omar, Joe, Karel, Yumiko, Megumi, Waen, Hiroko, Aline...the list goes on...

And there's another party next week...man...I am busy...haha.

At the end of my studies here, I think I'll be graduating with masters in "entertainment" instead of engineering.

But seriously...I'm doing serious work on normal days.
Ehem....not that I'm trying to sound like a hardworking graduate student here...heh heh.