Vienna, on a particularly cold Christmas Eve

Vienna, December 24, 1999.

Around midnight a man sat in front of his desk reading a book, a collection of works by Mister Edgar Allan Poe. He pulled his long, wavy hair back with one hand while still holding the book with the other. He had just re-read one of his favorites: The Raven. And that last part still rang heavy in his mind.

"And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted - nevermore!"

This man was cursed. Cursed to live forever in darkness, to drink only blood, to eat only ashes, to always be as he was at death. Never dying, ever living, to walk forever in darkness until the last days. This was a minor problem to him, throughout his unlife he had taken advantage of his condition; but sometimes he hits a low point and angst and anxiety takes hold of him, and a shadow is cast over him that made him be aware just how vastly empty he felt.

That was absurd. He was in a position of certain power, Sheriff of Vienna; he had servants. This was a man that had fought and clawed his way to get there, his enemies always spoke his name half whispered... He was feared. But tonight, this monster was the one that was afraid.

"What are you doing?" he said softly, frowning, and then he heard a noise. Footsteps. Someone was coming. He stood very still. He knew that if he did, whomever walked in the room would not notice him, and his eyes turned like those of a beast, and the darkness became clear as daylight to him. The door opened, but it was not gang members send to kill him. It was a just little girl carrying a poorly wrapped present and a woman; Annie and Dianna. His progeny. He relaxed, let himself be seen by them and the little girl ran towards him, tripped and began to fall... But he wouldn't let that happen, not to her. He moved with supernatural speed and caught her before she hit the ground.

-"For fuck sake, Annie...!" He loved that girl like a daughter, but he was a little rough with words.

Annie just smiled, handed him the present and told him, in the worst Italian you will ever hear -"Buon Natale, Marko!" all the while smiling like a golden haired angel.

The man look at the woman, they had known each other long enough to know what the other was thinking without even speaking... This, all this was the little girl's idea, and there was nothing nobody could have done or said to stopped her from getting that Kittie CD, a more or less mediocre band "But they are all girls, and Marko likes girls". Those were the words she told Dianna when she tried to convince her it was a bad idea. 

The man saw this in the woman's eyes. He realized he was still holding the book in his left hand. He placed it on the floor as he rubbed his eyes with his right hand fingers. Then he looked back at the little girl and smiled as he took the present from her hands and softly said to her -"Grazie!. You guys are truly something."

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If you can understand what I mean by this, then you know I wrote this for you.

Either way, Merry Christmas all.

Trippy trip to Noken 5

Last Friday I left for Caracas to take The Nihongo Nouryoku Shiken, meaning The Japanese Language Proficiency Test. Most of you already knew this, and although it was overall a good trip, I'm gonna rant a bit about our getting there and coming back home experiences.

Friday. The day that we left.
Nothing much to say here to be completely honest. The bus was delayed for about 30 to 45 minutes, but who really gives a fuck, right? I mean, I was with friends. Some of them I knew really well, some of them I knew right there, but one good thing about GOEN Maracaibo is that they're all good people there.
So the bus finally came, and we finally left. Got stuck at Rafael Urdaneta Bridge for like an hour, you know, GNB "doing their job".... Meaning one of them checking if he could hitch a ride with us. And he did! Turns out he was a nice guy, it seems. Offered help to guide people in Caracas once we got there and everything.
End of day one.

Saturday. The day that we arrived.
It was going all too good, we had fun, we joked, some people studied, I scared Panda-Senpai and Luci-Senpai... NI KAI!!!.... And then the bus died on us around... I don't know, early morning. It just died. At least he passed away peacefully (you will understand that joke later on). So, for what it seemed like an eternity, but was maybe an hour tops, he driver tried to bring the bus back to life, but to no avail. So he called in for back up, since we where actually pretty close to Caracas. Maybe 40 minutes away. We were talking and, we've all done road trips in that same company many times before and no one had never had anything like that happened before... Except Diego-Senpai, who said that this always happened to him. So we decided it was his fault and proceeded to joke about it for the rest of the trip. What we did not know at the moment was that the joke would intensify later on.
Well about an hour went by while the other bus came along. It finally came, we got up and resumed our trip. Got to Caracas at about 11am when we should have arrived around 8 or 9. I stayed with my cousin for the weekend so I parted ways with GOEN there. I spent the day with my cousin and his wife (I love this two very much, and not because they let me stay there) and went to a birthday party that night. Pretty much and uneventful night, except for the fact that I saw a crazy cat lady. The woman had like 30 cats or so. The smell was unbearable.
End of day two.

Sunday. Nihongo Nouryoku Shiken.
Got up. Got ready. Had a light breakfast. Got moving. Got there.
The anticipation was killing me, although it was good to meet with the other guys that had not taken the bus ride with us, like both Luis-Senpai, Ari-Chan, Carlos and Steph-Senpai. By the way, a joke. I had this pin on my Iron Maiden cap, it reads "I'm Fucking Metal" and every time I get the chance I joke with it, something like "What, you thought I wouldn't do it? Bitch, please! What does it say on my pin?". Well I was really freaking out and Luci came and said "Enough, what does it say on your pin?"... So I had o cut the crap.
Anyway, the test started. Noken 5 is divided into 3 parts. 1st part was pretty standard stuff, vocabulary, kanji. Got a few wrong, but overall I did ok. Then came the grammar. It was hellish. The stuff of nightmares. A little bathroom break and then the final part: Audio. Fucking nailed it. I really have no idea of knowing just exactly how well I did because I do not know how the examination actually works, but I think I got it. I hope I got it. I better get it.
Then I parted with the guys from GOEN, went to have lunch with friends from school and with my cousin, who by the way went to the same school ad I did. We had a great time at this BBQ joint, "Llanero"Style. It was good and cheap =D. Had a great time with them, but time grew short, so we went to get my stuff, I took the 3 S's (The shit, the shave and the shower) and on to the bus station. Got there, said my farewell to my cousin Martin and Vivi, his wife. Got everything ready and then the journey back home begun.
End of day Three.

Monday. They day all Hell broke loose.
I'll be honest with you: I was having a bad trip. I was feeling nauseous, couldn't sleep, but hey! Look on the bright side, right? We talked a lot, joked a lot and despite the fact that I wasn't feeling good it was an Ok trip. We were making good time and all. Then, at about, I don't know... 5am maybe.. less than 3 hours away from home, the driver made a sudden trun. I had to hold on to something because it was really sudden, then it felt like one of the tires had exploded, another quick trun trying not to loose control, and then the bus died. Most of the passengers woke up and we started to blame the thing on Diego-Senpai, of course. The driver started the bus again, we moved a little bit and then we stoped for a while. Afetr some 20 minutes, the driver came up and told us what happened: we had hit 2 horses that were asleep on the middle of road.
You read it right: TWO fucking horses.
Luckily enough, no one was hurt. Except the horses, who did not died as peacefully as the bus on our way to Caracas.
So we had to head back to a truck stop and stayed there for a long while. The driver called the company and they said they were sending another bus. The problem is they had no back up buses, so we really had no clue when we were gonna get "rescued". The jokes on Diego-Senpai's bad luck grew to a point where I didn't find it funny, but there were two jokes that killed me:
1.- Miguel said: If we got on a plane with you, it is most likely that we hit a Pegasus in mid air
2.- Panda-Senpai bought Diego a wooden toy horse. Lol

We were fucking stranded there and then the driver told us to get in the bus and try to make it to Maracaibo. Unlikely, since the windshield was broken and the suspension all fucked up, some one (meaning the police or something) was gonna stop us. And indeed they did. So after hours of waiting finally the bus company paid these guys that own small buses to get us here. And I mean San Jacinto like buses. It took 2 of them to get us all moving along. I took the second one with my closest friends, and around 10am, maybe 10:30am, we were back on the road. From there on it was uneventful and boring. We were tired, spent, and a bit grumpy. But our spirits were still up. Always look on the bright side of life. We got to Maracaibo at around 2:00 - 2:30pm, depending on which bus you took. Said our goodbyes and went home to eat, sleep and tell a lot of stories. I was gonna meet some friends for dinner... but guess what? You're right. Lights out. So screw dinner. But that my friends, is something you can read about on the news.
End of day Four.

Thus ends my, very heartfelt, story about my trip to take the Nihongo Nouryoku Shiken. I hope you enjoyed. To conclude, I would like to quote a band which I'm not very fond of, but a line from one of their songs fit here perfectly.

"Through the fire and the flames we carry on!"

Good night, everyone.