Then and Now 48 - Road of Rock

Then and Now 48 - Road of Rock
Time: Mid-2007, at my bud's aunt's place.

When I first came here, I didn't have much besides my PSP and some clothes. I'm usually one to travel light, and I assumed that I could buy some stuff as time went on. Also, I wanted to wean myself off of video games at some point, so I only brought the PSP for the plane ride, and two Guitar Hero guitars so I could play with my bud, and maybe throw a party later. I didn't bring a PS2 because the one I used to use belonged to my family, and it was pretty broken anyway, so I planned to buy one here.

The PSP ended up getting used way too much as I went through my adjustment phase, but as I came out of it and set it aside, I still wanted to get a PS2, because my bud and I both loved Guitar Hero. It was the only game he ever came over to my house in America to play. So that day, the two of us headed out to find a video game store. His aunt told us that there was a shop about a twenty minute walk away, but because neither of us had walked the streets she was talking before, we got lost.

We headed under an overhang for a construction site and past some really big and busy streets on our way to the shop. There was a veritable maze of houses and businesses to our right and past the construction site, and to the left, we could see the bright waters of a river. After a few minutes, we stopped at a little shopping mall to ask directions.

Inside, there were maybe twenty or thirty stores. The mall was completely indoors, and every one of the stores was a cube between little walking paths that wound around them, or off to the side. All of the stores also had clear walls and dividers, so no matter where I was standing, I could look through one store and straight into another.

My bud went wandering on his own for a little bit, so I took the chance to peek in on some clothes stores. I also saw a card and miniature shop with a bunch of robot statues in the display, and even some pillows with pictures of girls on the pillowcases. After a bit, my bud and I met up again, and we found a metalworking shop. The boss didn't seem to weld or anything like that (or at least, I didn't see any welding equipment), but he did do engravings and other things.

He and my bud spoke in the local language for a while about where to find the game shop, and after getting directions, I used a very rough mix of poor local language and English to thank him and ask him about his store. He responded with his own language mix, but his English was a lot better. To thank him for his help, I paid for some dog tags with my name on them, and picked them up a week later. I still have the tags, the gift bag and the boss' namecard in my memories box.

So on my bud and I went to the game shop, which wasn't that far away. It was a lot smaller than I'm used to, and the boss was an older woman, so I was a bit surprised when I first came in. She was very professional, and allowed me to try out my copy of Guitar Hero and the guitar on her display model to see if it worked, and they did perfectly. In no time, I bought the system, and my bud and I were ready to rock.

On the way out, a pair of foreigners came in, a guy and a girl. I tried to say hello, but they both ignored me and went straight to the boss. I guess it was because they were both very overweight and feeling self-conscious or something. They asked the boss in English if she had a copy of Silent Hill 4. She didn't understand, so they had to pull out a picture and show her, but she didn't have it. Then, they left without a word. It was just another example of rude foreigners treating other expatriates like toxic waste, and not having the respect to learn the local language.

My bud and I were back at his aunt's house in no time, and we were rocking out that night. The volume had to be kind of low because we slept on the second floor between his aunt's business and bedroom, but it was still another great night in my single life.

As for today...

I woke up at 9:00.
I went to work.
I taught students.
I came home.
I prepared teaching lessons.
I roughhoused with my son.
I went to work.
I taught students.
I came home.
I ate dinner.
I started a load of laundry.
I cleaned up the floor and table.
I folded and put away dry clothes.
I surfed the net.
I hung up wet laundry.
I slept.