Have I mentioned I can't wait for this semester to be over? I'm starting to get nervous about getting into this Nuke Med Tech program. Last year they had 44 applicants for 14 spots. Hopefully my enthusiasm and grades in everything else will make up for my bad grade in physics. I do think physics is interesting but I just don't think in mathematical equations.

So I should be more concerned with finals but really all I can think about is where the hell I'm going to go on vacation this spring. It's really a shame the dollar sucks right now, that has pretty much ruled out a big potion of Europe this year. The thing that really sucks is all the cheap flights are to places that are really expensive. Sure a flight to London can be found for under $500 if you look real hard, But I would be limited to a week considering the cost of getting around and sleeping and such. Anyway so far my travel destination hopefuls are down to Vietnam, India, Iran, Dominican Republic, Northern Spain, Mozambique, Seychelles, and Mexico. In all likelihood Spain and Seychelles will not happen unless I hit a massive windfall this spring. Also cost of flights to Iran and Mozambique may rule those out. Does anyone have any suggestions to really awesome places that are off the beaten path, that are relatively cheap to travel in/too?? Preferably they will have cheap beer as well.

Ok so I know (e:paul) was interested and (e:drew) said he could be dragged out if it was planned. So I'm thinking of going out for sushi on Monday if anyone else is interested. I would like to try Wasabi because I have heard its really good. Does anyone have an opinion of that place? But I would definitely return to Kibirashi again. O is definitely out, I think their food sucks. Let me know, because I am definitely going but I figured it would be fun with more people than just myself.

"That Tenderloin was so juicy I could have sworn it was Filet Mignon!" He tipped so well that I didn't have the heart to tell him.

Well not really my hometown, or my relatives for that matter. I just bought my tickets to go to Florida to see my family for Christmas. I was so excited to find nonstop tickets at decent travel times for $213. I am the self-proclaimed king of finding good airfare. But this is way cheaper than the usual jacked up rates around holidays. Let me tell you how excited I am to be flying my 10th airline and my 6th Boeing jet. Most people get on the plane and ignore it, but I love flying on different aircraft. After this I only have three Boeing jets left before I have flown all of their commercial production models. I have never flown Airtran before so I'm hoping it's a good airline. Has anyone ever flown them? Also on the subject when did Jetblue become so freaking expensive? They used to be the first place I looked because they were so cheap. Now they same flight dates would cost me over $500! I have no loyalty to airlines whatsoever, those frequent flyer programs are so lame anyway. Everything is restricted and sometimes you have to fly standby just to redeem your miles. I really hope Virgin US comes to Buffalo so we can have some nice price wars between them Southwest and Jetblue.

Although I will not divulge the pathetic number of women I have slept with, I will divulge how pathetic the first time was. I was 19 years old and needed to beat the 20 mark. I think I did by maybe a couple of months. The moment was really ruined by my lack of preparedness. Stopping to walk to the quickie mart 1/2 a mile in freezing cold rain tends to do that. Anyway it was on my friends apartment floor in potsdam, and I believe it may have lasted all of 2 minutes, give or take a minute. What can I say? I was excited. I can imagine she was largely disappointed.

So yesterday right before Bio Lecture I really had to blow my nose. So I went into the bathroom next to the lecture hall, even though there was a disturbing odor permeating into the lobby. As I was washing my hands, out from the stall stumbled my bio professor looking disheveled with his shirt untucked, I thought wow he is either sick or hungover. Anyway he made a beeline straight for the door bypassing the handwashing process. I couldn't help but snicker during lecture everytime his hand came anywhere near his face. Remind me to never shake that dudes hand.

As a new Buffalo transplant its nice to be able to have a multitude of new restaurants to try. Tonight was my first dinner at Saigon Café. Overall a pretty good experience, the food was by far the highlight.

The Good:

I ordered Pla Jean, which is whole fried red snapper with red and green peppers in a ginger curry sauce, allegedly garnished with scallions but there were none to be found on mine. A few minutes after I ordered I heard the unmistakable sound of cold flesh hitting hot oil stream out from the kitchen. I could hardly wait to try it, this is the first time in several months I have had whole fried fish. It was by far the best dinner I have had since moving to Buffalo. They certainly know how to fry snapper well. The curry tasted vaguely familiar, like I had eaten it many times before. It had a little bit of Thai basil in it and a hint of coconut milk as well, slightly sweet and medium spice. It was a massive portion but I was determined to eat the whole thing. I avoided most of the rice because it was an ungodly amount. I had the urge to try the eyeball and it was really anticlimactic, just extremely chewy.

The Bad:

The service wasn't terrible; it just wasn't all that great. They do that team serving crappola, which I normally despise. There are a few exceptions when a place has captains and back servers with a system that works that I find it to be really efficient. This was more of a "whoever isn't busy" can take care of you sort of system that led to me not being greeted very promptly. They were pleasant however and I did get an excellent recommendation for dinner. I noticed that their reservation system is lacking as well. There were two parties that had a res for 7:30 and the entire dining room was sat. So maybe there are a few front of the house issues there.

The Indifferent:

As I was getting up to leave I peered into the kitchen window and to my shock they were using the same brand of canned curry paste that I buy. I was surprised they don't make it themselves, but honestly I really don't care. That dish was freaking delicious.

Although for only a few minutes, its only a matter of time before we can strap the skis on!

This is a question that has plagued me since I took those tests in 8th grade that said I should be a farmer. In a moment of clarity I figured it out last night. Why not combine my love of traveling and drinking while getting paid? I have always thought it would be fun to be on one of those travel shows. But honestly I doubt that I'm charismatic enough to be on Globetrekker. In fact I would probably offend most of the PBS viewing audience. But on the same token I don't want to be on one of those E goes wild on shows either. I mean sure I would love to go to Ibiza or Bali and dance with half naked women but lets face that's already been done. So I suppose this is not an original idea I kinda stole it from Dave Attell. But here is the difference I would to do a show about places Americans avoid. I would go to places like Oaxaca and do shots of tequila in a towny bar, or maybe pound a few back in the Tamil Tiger controlled region of Sri Lanka. It would be sort of a dangerous proposition but lets face it if I started buying rounds for the bar I would be pretty well protected for the night. So the title of my show would be "James Gets Drunk In_____?". I think this could be big. Does anyone want to underwrite me?

Or so it seems. I had my Bio test this evening and I really have no idea how I did, but this time I did not get that "I just fucked that up feeling". In fact I think a good majority of my answers were well thought out and actually made sense this time. So hopefully these last couple weeks of real studying paid off. I'm still not out of the water yet. Tomorrow is physics and although I feel ready, it could go horribly wrong depending on the complexity of the problems. Nonetheless I feel cramming more at this point will only make me more nervous.

On the job front I have an interview tomorrow, hopefully it will go well and they can offer me what I'm looking for. I'm pretty miserable at my current place. I never thought I would say this, but I really miss working at Tokyo-Seoul. That restaurant was the cleanest that I have ever worked or eaten in. The food was consistently good; I rarely if ever had a complaint. The money was also so much better. Despite how difficult it could be to work for someone who screamed at me in Korean when I didn't live up to unreasonable expectations, or the completely unfair policies that are probably against labor laws. I at least knew where I stood there. People were not phony or complete dickheads for no apparent reason. We didn't have lame ass staff menu knowledge tests or constant threats of being fired for the most minor of rule infractions. The owners ruled with an iron fist, but as long as you worked hard and didn't lie to them you were safe. Hopefully this new place will work out, I guess if it doesn't I will keep looking.