Things are looking up! I found the super cheap Tokyo flight that I was hoping to come across (S$418 ea.) so we're off for Tokyo for a couple of days soon. I'm very excited about our trip. Mark and I spent a little over 24 hours in Tokyo two years ago and loved it! It will be great to have a bit more time to poke around.
Other good news:
* Our friend Jen is coming to see us in mid-October. She'll be our first visitor and is lucky enough to have scheduled her visit around Thimithi, a Hindu festival in which some of the faithful walk across fire in Little India. Should be weird and wonderful.
*My volunteer position will probably turn into a paid position sometime in the next two weeks (keep fingers crossed).
Other things I'm hopeful about and are looking forward too as possibilities:
*Mark's possible contract in Tasmania. If he gets it, I'll go down to spend atleast a week with him. Hopefully we'll have a chance to check out Melbourne too.
*Coming home for Christmas. We haven't booked our tickets yet, but should have them in hand by early October. It will be Mark's first trip home in a year, and my third. Guess who's more home-sick?
If all these things happen I think the next 3-4 months might be pretty cool.
Things that suck: We heard back from Australia, with an acknowledgment of receipt of our application. They told us to expect the visa processing time to be 50 weeks and not to contact them in that time because they're busy and BTW may put your application on the bottom of the pile if you harass them. Oh well, I can't say we were surprised by the 50 week estimate. Still sucks though.

Wreid. Tihs bolg mkeas a good pnoit. I wlil bet it denos't hlod ture for sueliapidseqan wrdos toguhh.

Holy places. Today we wandered a bit through Chinatown, down near my new workplace, with a camera. Check out some of the holy places we passed by. We still haven't learned the proper etiquette for visiting these places so the shots are all external ones. I don't think they like you taking pictures inside anyway.