On China, Japan, and Russia

Okay, its Monday just before one. That gives me about 30 minutes to do a post. No problem.
Let's see, what all have I done since my last post. Not much. I'm really boring. Oh yeah, on Saturday, I had my second Chinese class. That's right, Greg is learning Chinese. I'm not exactly sure why, though. I'm going to be there for maybe two weeks, when my aunt picks up her adopted babies, which is a really great thing, for all parties. The babies need parents, and my aunt and uncle have been unable to conceive, but I know they'll be great mother and father to the kids. So anyway, since they get to go, of course, so do the rest of us. By that I mean my grandfather, mother, and brothers, and possibly my other aunt and uncle, along with their daughter. So this all leads to me taking Chinese classes, so when I show up, not only will I be a stupid American tourist, I'll be a stupid American tourist who thinks he's special cuz he knows how to say "I'm wearing clean underwear!" in Chinese. Of course, I don't really plan on using it when I'm over there. Or rather, I don't plan on using anything I've LEARNED while over there. I'm just going to stick with the group, and if I need Chinese, I'll grab a dictionary, and POINT to the words I mean. I'm not even going to try and pronounce them, because if I've learned one thing from my classes, it's that I can't learn nearly enough from just 8 hours of Chinese class. God I hope there are some people who speak English over there.

Which reminds me: one of the reasons. I'm so against learning Chinese is because the language I REALLY want to learn is Japanese. For starters they're our allies, I think (the U.S. being really really hateable right now makes me somewhat doubt that, but since we have an overwhelming military presence in Japan, I think they're on our side). Also, they're the people with all of the really cool stuff. They are like the high tech center for the globe. Hardware-wise, at least. Making all the computing languages English by default sort of gives foreigners a disadvantage, you know? But the Japanese have all the cool gadgets, like mini cameras, mini mp3 players, mini computers... You name it, they have it, fun-sized! And they have all the cool new games... Specifically, a PS2 game based on the original Transformers series, which doesn't look like its coming over here anytime soon. Sigh... Plus, in my opinion, capitalism > communism, at least in practice. I do have a great deal of respect for the former Soviet Union, however, for two accomplishments:

1 - the MIG fighter, an jet that was designed to be tough not because it was better in the air, but because, due to communism, the runways weren't getting cleaned! That always makes me laugh.

2 - Tetris, the best game ever created, was originally designed to keep engineers in their space program alert on long night shifts, and to encourage problem solving thinking. Good job, Ruskies, it worked.

Oh yeah, and their space program was pretty cool, getting the first object into space, and getting the first man into space (I think). We still got the first man on the moon, but... Well, I think they had kinda given up then, and focused more on not collapsing.

I kinda got sidetracked there. I got like 10 minutes before my next class, and I still need to tell you all about yesterday. Actually, on second thought, my headaches are sucking on me some more, I'm going to skip today's comp sci, since its just review for Wednesday's final. Anyway, yesterday we had a family trip to Killeen to visit my grandfather's cousin. Last time I fell asleep during the visit, so this time, I had to stay conscious, or I'd get into trouble. On the way there (and the way back) I pulled out my Game Boy SP and worked on my Final Fantasy Tactics Advance campaign. For those of you with a Game Boy Advance, let me say, if you don't have it already, get this game. I liked it so much, I went out and bought it again, after I lost my first copy. I was going to wait for Christmas to get a new one, but I couldn't. (On a side note, I found the original copy in my car recently, so if anyone wants it, just ask). It's just that good. I'm almost addicted to it. I'm not, because if I was, I'd be playing it right now instead of talking to you fine folks. But yeah, I have a full day of activity logged onto that game, and then some. To compare, I have maybe 5 hours logged onto my Final Fantasy VII game, but that's more because I can't play that on long car rides. If I could... hrmm, I know what to ask for next time my family has a huge road trip.

Oh yeah, the real high point of yesterday, aside from leveling up my main FFTA character (I'm a ninja!) from 14 to 15 (the leveling system is really kind of slow), was lunch we had IHOP, the International House Of Pancakes, though, for the life of me, I don't really know what makes them International. I've never seen an entry on the menu for even Belgium Waffles, but I bet they do have French Toast. Still, that shouldn't count. Anyway, I was going to have an omelet, like I usually do, but I decided, on a hunch, to go for their new stuffed crepes. I got the Ham and Swiss ones, and let me tell you, they were ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS. Oh My God, I cannot express how awesome they were. You just have to try them. Right now.