not a whole lot to report as of late...homesickness is finally hitting me. I miss new york like crazy, especially thinking of the city decorated for christmas...and being away from my family on christmas eve/christmas day is definitely going to be hard. but I know that homesickness is a natural and necessary part of the experience of being abroad...I went through it in england and then got over it...and it makes you appreciate home more. I guess what's going on is just that I'm over that initial excitement of being here, yet I still don't feel at home here anywhere except my apartment. I'm not complaining though. I know that in retrospect this whole experience, including the feelings of homesickness and displacement, will all seem terribly romantic. I will remember walking by the river and staring at the mountains listening to the hedwig soundtrack, cooking rice in my warm little apartment, playing pool badly with tricia in empty bars, and the homesickness will just be another thread in the tapestry.

I borrowed mr. kang's guitar, so I have a guitar to play. now I am once again faced with the task of building up callouses. I also didn't bring any of my music or my chord book or anything with me, so I'm going on memory. I wrote a song which is actually more sophisticated than any of the others I've ever written, so I guess the immediate plan is to perfect that, and to master downtown train.

refrigerator is a lost cause. I turned the dial to halfway between low and medium. it is once again freezing things. I've accepted it now.

last night lost in translation came on television. I'd never seen it before. it was really good, and quite pertinent right now, what with the themes of a) a love that provided necessary, temporary comfort but could not be sustained or clung to (one of the overriding themes of my life, it seems) and b) the surreality of being in a country where you don't speak the language.