Moved into the small boarding house on Esteban Abada Street today. I covered my bed, organized my closet, and sorted out my clothes into teacher-y and non-teacher-y outfits. I have three outfits that I can wear to school. I do not think I’ll ever get away with those corduroy shorts – they’re higher than mid-thigh! Mrrf.

Had dinner at Cafe Maison.

It’s soooo warm. I changed into my nightclothes already. It’s a good thing I packed a spare, as the ones they had sent were even worse! In fact, I feel strongly tempted to go to sleep and just wake up early tomorrow, but it’s 7:00 and that may sort of be pushing it. If I slept now, I could get up at 4 after nine full hours of sleep!

Just remember, Sacha: you love computer science. That’s why you’re here, far from an Internet connection, in a sweltering non-air-conditioned room, away from your family, your Net, your… your… your cat…

WAAAAAAH!

Oy vey.

Other things that happened today:

Played chess with Stanley. I tried the 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 c6 gambit, and that went pretty okay, but my middle game was rather shaky. End game saw us with only kings and pawns – Stan had a two-pawn advantage, including one on a clear file. We raced white f, black h pawn to queen. I queened first, he queened right after, but I had the initiative so I kept checking him to force an exchange. I had the positional advantage – the queen exchange took him away from the cluster of pawns from a to f – but I blundered (stupid zugzwang!). Managed to recover and engaged in another exciting race to queen. I was a move behind him. He queened his last pawn. My pawn moved to a2. His king was too far away to help his queen checkmate me, and his queen couldn’t force my king away from the pawn on its own. (I heavily abused the fact that stalemate would’ve been a draw! =) ) He offered me a draw, which was the best I could do given the circumstances.

Chess – what an adrenalin-charged game!

To do:

• Get a stand fan taller than my bed. (Too bad I can’t just ask for the bed to be replaced by a futon…)
• Get a desk lamp.
• Get slippers.
• Get a pillow.
• Get teacher-y clothes.
• Wipe the floors so that it’s not so dusty.