Sami - Wizard Battle Royale

I was quite keen to get myself to a Magic: the Gathering event after such a long time. The last time I did anything of the sort was when I played in FNM during RTR. Excuse my lingo there, sages know what I speak of.
I prepared myself for the upcoming battles in the side events as I, Teemu, and a few engineers made our way to the familiar locale of the Expo Hall, although this place was a lot more expansive than I originally thought. I wouldn't be taking part in the main event, for my inventory was not complete and I knew that the lines were filled by the greatest of wizards from Singapore and elsewhere. After quite a distance indoors we would start seeing people trading their spell scrolls. We had arrived. Plans were made to show the might of European planeswalkers in a trio team Sealed match, where we'd have a shared pool of cards to build our inventory from. The time for that wasn't now, however. I settled to destroy my eastern opposition in a game of four-way Commander. This showed that mana flows differently here, as the game turned into a 3v1 game against the strongest among the wizards. The battle was harsh and fate was sealed, and despite my vain attempts to destroy his library of spells, I fell.
How ever, in the trio match I had more luck. I managed to defeat two of my three opponents. My arcane brethren weren't so lucky, as they fell before their superior foes. The break in between matches due to the team total score was an experience in it's own way as we went a bit further away for food (We got two free rounds and could have a break at that time). We needed to be back in 50 minutes time. Had a spicy Korean seafood soup. My meal choice was poor since I needed to eat in a hurry. Again I would sweat like there was no tomorrow. I have to make note that this particular place had forks and spoons in use, and to my dismay I realized that eating with these utensils had become more difficult as I have gotten used to chopsticks. I had to find these eastern standard tools in order to finish my meal in time.
I also played a match of Draft on Sunday after drifting about in a mall with my comrades. The way that was played was a brutal single elimination: You lose, you're out. I managed to stay in for one round as I overran my opponent, but afterwards I was utterly destroyed.
Aside the battles there was merchandise to buy, but due to the price tags I settled for some Commander-suitable single cards. I also traded with some locals, including someone who recognized me from CharaExpo. I guess I do stand out like a sore thumb.
To my surprise once I got home Sunday, one of the engineers had taken upon themselves to buy a board game. XCOM. We would be playing that quite a bit on our free time I'm sure.

Another Week Begins

After the flowing mana became dormant again, another week begins. I hear rumors of broken promises and plans that may or may not go awry when it comes to a trip to Hong Kong that was being orchestrated. I wasn't planning on taking that route due to having enough on my hands and due to spending quite a bit already. All the while I am still focusing on modular tile texturing.
Due to the sudden changes in the plan to venture forth within the eastern world with our new acquaintance, I have yet to have a taste of tortoise flesh. How ever, this week I managed to grasp a treat originating from India thanks to an earlier exchange student reminding me of it. He had mentioned it before I left for Singapore.
Murtabak. I'd describe it as a filled pancake folded during the cooking process. It contains onion, spices and a meat of your choosing. Chicken and mutton seems quite common in this area. You are also given a dip sauce, which has a flavor I'd simply call delicious with this combination. I guess it is a type of curry gravy flavored with some herbs. You tear away pieces from your pancake sandwich pizza thing and dip it into the sauce. Left over scraps are easily dipped with the help of a spoon so not much is left on the plate.

I decided to throw away my winter coat of many years and take a swim in the campus pool area. It is a good place to go, although I do not know what time would be best. I went with an engineer when the sun had already set in order to cause terror when two Finns destroy the area with their utter ignorance. However my partner in crime had already gone to the pool a few times, and there weren't that many people. Could swim in peace and the ignorance was already dealt with before. Will definitely do that every now and then from now on, perhaps take a look at the Shower of Bees, a legend told by the engineer.
I hope that later this week I'd have a chance to be taken for a trip by the Expo Sage of the East as was said prior. But there is no certainty about the state of vehicular repairs right now. Might be at the end of this week, might be later.
On another note, I have now settled to get a room in Breda for my one year exchange period, so now I need to figure out the timing and means to get there in addition to the many documents I need. Preparation for that trip will be hasty as there will be only a few days between my arrival from Singapore and my departure to the Netherlands. And I'd need to get and set up a brand new laptop as well. All in all a stressful thought.
As the end of the week came closer, I set these stressful thoughts aside for a while when I found that while the original travelling plans had gotten a bump on it's way, the travels themselves would still happen. Might as well make note that also the trip to Hong Kong will take place, apparently. Not relevant to me, but it just means things went better than expected all in all. Anyway. We took ourselves to an area with our local guide that was a lot more like my initial imagination had pictured Singapore to be. A lot of traffic, people, small alleyways, street vendors all over the place, lights blinking and so forth. We enjoyed a local treat: Durian. A large, spiky fruit that had meaty bits inside covering the large seed. The whole ordeal was like dissecting some sort of alien cocoon: The hard spiky surface was cleaved with a large knife to get to the inner delights. The flesh of the fruit had a yellow skin-like cover under which soft quark-esque substance was around the seed. It also tasted a bit like quark, and many of our group grew tired of the taste quite quick. Personally I liked it as long as it lasted, but each to their own. Worth a try either way.
After that treat we went to have ourselves a single beer at a local terrace. After our guide exchanged some words, six bottles were brought to us and we were enjoying them in peace. During conversation another bartender brought six bottles of a different type of ale to us, visibly confused that we had ourselves a batch already. She was determined to sell this bucket of ale, and proceeded to fill our glasses with the current drink we had, apparently to motivate us to drink faster. I tend to be rather quick with drinks anyway, and personally didn't mind having another so I settled with one more bottle. Three from the second batch were bought in total and from it all I drank five cans worth due to the latter offering's flavour causing an engineer to give away half a bottle. I didn't like it that much either since it had a side flavour reminiscent to tobacco, but as a Finn who already had a few sips I wouldn't turn down a free glass of ale.
Amidst discussion and warnings about the local criminals and shady services, new plans were made due to our local guide remembering my enthusiasm for strange dishes. Nearby there was a place that served frogs in different ways. We had rice and two types of frog legs: One set in sweet and sour sauce, and one in hot and spicy sauce. The latter must be the spiciest food I've had here thus far. Nevertheless, frog is pretty much like a miniature chicken when it comes to texture and taste. Very good all in all.
We headed home and got to our rooms and beds. In the weekend I would simply rest.