Day 15 - Friends Return, CPR, and a Private Room

April 23rd, 2015

After last night’s fiasco (not quite, but I want to use that word) with the quiz, I felt I had earned a good sleep in. I figure I’ll have a job soon, so what’s it going to hurt sleeping in? This is dangerous thinking and I need to stamp it out or I’ll end up to very late nights and very late starting days. It’s not as dangerous as when I lived at home, as everyone is in bed by around 1:30am, and most are up before 10.

Today is the day when I’m supposed to get a better room, so I head on down to the front desk and find Yuzu, Nicole (turns out she doesn’t have an H in her name - whoops!) and Tomo checking in. We exchanged warm greetings and it felt like today would be much better than the last. 

The front desk informed me that I had to stay in the 8 person room until Saturday, which I pushed to avoid. After some frustration (namely because I was still groggy and hadn’t eaten yet), I talked my way into a room with a double bed, all - to - myself. Yessssssssss. 

I gave her a Canada flag pin
(She's not posing, this was her
genuine reaction)

It’s only for a night, but f*ck it. I don’t have to pay any more, it will already be empty, and I'm pretty sure I paid for my week at the 3 person room’s rate. Today is, indeed, going to be a good day. I move all my stuff, and do the logical ass backwards thing of compressing/reorganizing my luggage in the new room. I guess I was thinking that I would have to move in the morning again, so I should prepare for that. Also, it feels strange organizing in a room that’s in complete, untouchable disarray.

I visited with Yuzu and Nicole a bit before heading to the bank. Liz said she would pick me up on her way to the CPR course. I figured out my bank stuff, and wandered around before meeting her down the street from the hostel.

The course in class went by pretty quick, though their first aid/CPR seems a bit different than ours. For one, it actually went a fair bit more intense than I recall the last time I took it (puncture wounds, crush syndrome, etc.) but also had a fair bit more to say on poison treatment. “Ice for the land, Heat for the sea!” Compresses, that is.

Liz had the suggestion that we buy lunch at the supermarket beforehand, which turned out to be better prepared than the rest of our coursemates. I still find the pricing here strange. Four pieces of chicken for 4.50, but a salad with some flayed chicken is 6ish. Prices go wonky when produce has to be shipped in, but maybe that’s just my perspective coming from farm country.

On the way back, we stopped at Maccas. I said goodbye to Liz and hello to Yuzu, Nicole. Reunion Island Paco was wandering around, smoking pot and having a general good time. I don’t speak to him very often when he’s sober, but he’s always so nice and emphatic in his communication when he’s under any influence. 

I was writing the blog, as I am starting to slip behind, and introduced Nicole to it. Neither she nor Yuzu, apparently, had any idea that I had been including them in it (they have me on facebook, geez). They didn’t like the pictures I put up, but what’s done is done (or so I’m saying at this point). Probably one of the most surreal-feeling moments I’ve had so far was around this time.

I’m sitting in the common area, which acts as a breezeway, while Paco smokes out the front door. Second-hand high, the scene just felt so bizarre: I’m in a foreign country, listening to a Japanese woman explain the different size and shapes of the bath tubs they have in Japan, and a German girl is speaking german to a passing German guy (either Daniel or Fabian). So weird.

Yuzu took her night shower (apparently Japanese people tend to take one in the morning and one at night) and we talked about various topics that we had yet to cover, somehow. Yuzu turned in, leaving Nicole and I at the picnic tables. She was reading the newly discovered blog, laughing, but keeping the reasons a secret. I keep saying that it’s the excellent writing and fantastic humour, but she says that’s not quite it. 

"Alright, now when you're done, just peel off the faces!"

Nicole turns in around 3 (really late night, due to the first aid running till 10ish) and I retire to my luxurious, one-person, double bed. It’s nice. So nice. SO FUTZING NICE to be in a room that doesn’t swell with the collective breath of its dormant dreamers. Also, being in the top bunk is a pain in the ass when you’re in the dark. I fell off once. I had jumped a little short, and fell into the inky abyss. Luckily, there was nothing there to hit my head or catch a limb on. No one stirred when it happened, meaning I probably would have been left on the ground 'til morning.

Only one more Daredevil episode before the season is over, which means I may have to switch to actual comics for a fix. So good.

My private heaven

Final note: I realized today that Yuzu is like an archetype from animes. In animes, there are some common appearing themes with characters, and Yuzu has a lot of qualities of one type, but I can't seem to find the label for it. These characters often don't think themselves to be the best or the greatest, funniest nor the most liked, but despite that, they tend to make a lot of friends and bring people together. Good things tend to happen to them, even after bad, because people in their life like them enough to put in the effort to help them and make things work. Some mornings, people have just made her breakfast. She needs a place to live? I did some research to try and find her a place, as were two of her friends that she had met in Melbourne. Just one of those modest, genuine, happy people that tends to brighten your day. I haven't told her this yet, but will in a few days from now. When I do, she will say "but I am real!" to which we all laugh. Of course you're real, Yuzu, which makes it all that much more impressive. Also, she calls me Teacher/Sensei, which is awesome.