You Asked For It (Seventy Three Times)

Hello all,

This post mainly serves the purpose of appeasing my parents' weekly requests to see my apartment.  I have spoken to them just about every weekend since I got here almost eight months ago, and I don't think they failed to ask about those gosh darn pictures.  Unfortunately, my place hits its peak of disrepair on the weekends; I then talk to my parents, clean the place the next day, and forget to photo it.  This cycle repeated dozens of times, and I recently told them that if I put photos up, it would mean that I had a girlfriend.  This is indeed not the case at the moment, but the more tangible prospect for that of late is undoubtedly a factor in my desire to not live like I typically would.  So, there's some good stories that have surfaced recently, but not all of them should be posted on here.  Feel free to inquire.  In the meantime, take a look at my place and ask questions about any peculiar items you may notice in the place.  I'm not going to make a running inventory of the apartment just yet.  Finally, the last picture is a bonus to illustrate some of my frustrations while driving.  Since when is it OK to blatantly cut across three lanes of a shopping center entrance BEHIND A CAR that is waiting to leave and IN FRONT OF A CAR (moped) that is pulling up behind it?

Edit: I should note that I am not an ideal driver, either.  Jonathan left a comment a few posts back, so here's a chance to reply to it.  He saw the picture of all the students with the identical helmets.  The helmets are in fact made by a variety of companies, but the students are required to get full-face white helmets to which they then apply colored stickers that indicate their grade.  They are easily identifiable when out in public.  My helmet is also white, but I don't need any fancy racing-stripe-like decoration.  This is my second helmet; my first one was cool and black.  Bike helmets are designed to take some hits, but once they do, the integrity is compromised and a new one is advisable.  So, yes, I have had one accident.  I was getting into the swing of driving and was mildly lost looking for a convenience store.  I pulled into a wide, empty intersection and decided to take the chance to look around for signs of a store.  I took my eyes off the road for a full two or three seconds.  When you drive something that turns based on how you distribute your weight, turning your head and shoulders leads your body in the opposite direction.  I looked back to the road, and realized I was a half second from hitting the curved part where a curb begins.  I may have been able to swerve out of the way.  Instead, I literally thought to myself, "it's like a video game; ramp it".  I indeed ramped it.  I then crashed to the ground and collapsed.  I was scratched a little and my headlight was busted, and that was all.  The noise was formidable and I decided to take the opportunity to make some locals feel a little off-put.  Some gas station attendants witnessed the whole thing, and it turned out I needed some gas.  So I walked my unskilled self over, and they stared at me.  I said "fill it up, please!", to which they could only say, "OK...uh...but...are you OK?"  So that's that.

Bye, America!