🍎🧬📚🌈 queenofthegods' "I passed N2 now what?" Study Log

[GolyBidoof]

@queenofthegods

Another weekend of blindly trusting my friend when he hits me up with “hey let’s hike, meet you at 8am?” Actually I think this was the longest hike I’ve ever done with the group. My phone said my total for the day was 9 miles and 163 floors, so that means 9 miles(15km) of walking and 1630ft (541m) of elevation gain total, honestly pretty on par with the big hikes I did as a teen with my family.

AHHH HIKING IS SO FUN C:

@queenofthegods

First one is pretty self explanatory but “HOW FAR IS ONE RICE?!?”

apparently 6 milimeters, but im sure japanese got it wrong regardless xddd

@queenofthegods

Is biking 10km after hiking 15km a bad idea? We will see tomorrow.

it’s a very fun idea and this is what matters xddd

@queenofthegods

There are also a lot of pictures of me falling over because I’m not that good lol.

people usually only care for the attempt that succeeded, it’s like those perfect trick youtube channels when people do something that looks almost impossible and then it turns out that this was the attempt #1214 at doing something and the pop-off they had was not because they’re so skilled but because the 6 hour recording session paid off in the end xddd

But damn, this handstand is a flex, good one ^^

[Dadung]

@queenofthegods

so never got diagnosed so I am self medicating with athlete’s foot cream because I know enough chemistry to read the active ingredient and it’s almost the same as my cat’s medicine and the red patch on my face went away and in the US we don’t go to the doctor unless we are dying anyway but maybe from a Japanese perspective this is insane behavior…

Also insane behavior from my german point of view , but at the same time very relatable from my “I have some knowledge of chemistry, so I know better” mindset

The pictures from the hike look absolutely gorgeous!

[mitrac]

I enjoy reading your research chatter. I don’t always respond, but it’s just so nostalgic, thanks for all the details, I enjoy!

@queenofthegods

Due to the concert ticket like system for getting a vet appointment

that is wild, and such a pain. I’m glad it finally worked out and so glad to hear your mentor helped you’ve got yourself surrounded by some great people!

@queenofthegods

I like to see if I still got it.

yes!!!

@queenofthegods

These days I’ve taken on a “traumatize them back” approach to my homework assignments and wrote about the solutions my family used for animals that died randomly,

this is from an older post but I laughed so hard and still wanted to comment. I really want to see their faces grading this

@Enigmaxprincex

Well, in Germany, you only get treated if you’re dying/about to die

yikes, is your experience really that bad here? Maybe I’m lucky where I live (or my comparison, I’ve lived in countries with worse standards of care), but my experience here has been way different… more like exemplary. A good GP makes all the difference (some are just rubbish at referrals and then the whole system literally can’t work). I know some people who have switched GP and then their experience of the whole system gets better.

‘5 stars, great country, would take citizenship again’

[Enigmaxprincex]

@mitrac

yikes, is your experience really that bad here? Maybe I’m lucky where I live (or my comparison, I’ve lived in countries with worse standards of care), but my experience here has been way different… more like exemplary. A good GP makes all the difference (some are just rubbish at referrals and then the whole system literally can’t work). I know some people who have switched GP and then their experience of the whole system gets better.

Well, I’d like to think that I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly. You’re right, a good GP can make a difference, but all the GP can do is give you a direction and point you towards the right special doctor you should be looking for. Now, getting an appointment at that doctor’s is the true nightmare, because if you’re not on death’s door, you’re not gonna get any appointment in the near future (if you’re not already a patient there, they just straight-up kick you out of the door, because they don’t accept new patients). If, by some luck, you managed to get a close appointment, that’s good. However, the chances are that you’re encountering a trainee (who still doesn’t have a lot of experience, but that’s ok). If, and god forbid, you also get referred to another doctor (or that you need to have something taken a photo of), then the whole cycle repeats itself again and good luck with that

The main problem is that the number of patients is always increasing with time and the number of doctors is somewhat decreasing with time (or even if it’s increasing a bit, it can’t manage to reach the necessary threshold to take care of the current number of patients). Unfortunately (at least from what I see and hear here), the situation isn’t gonna get better at any point in the future. The best thing you can truly do is to try to live a healthy life and avoid getting sick as much as possible (which is ironically the aim of every health insurance).

I know this might not be valid everywhere, but it’s sadly becoming more of a reality the more time passes.

You could still go in case of emergencies to certain institutions, where you might have a better chance of having your “acute” problem being taken care of (I also have somewhat good experiences with that).

Again, there’s the good, the bad and the ugly and I apologize, once again, if I rambled a lot or if my experience might be the exception and I do really hope that everyone stays healthy

Here’s a Sakura for everyone as an apology

[GolyBidoof]

@mitrac

yikes, is your experience really that bad here? Maybe I’m lucky where I live (or my comparison, I’ve lived in countries with worse standards of care), but my experience here has been way different… more like exemplary.

@Enigmaxprincex

The main problem is that the number of patients is always increasing with time and the number of doctors is somewhat decreasing with time (or even if it’s increasing a bit, it can’t manage to reach the necessary threshold to take care of the current number of patients).

Because I have a similar experience to Mitrac of not being born and raised in Germany, this conversation always rubs me the funny way because for me the conversation is very equivalent to the conversation about trains from Deutsche Bahn

It’s like, yes, the trains are delayed like 15-45 minutes on average;

Your train from Berlin to Münich takes 4 hours over 600 kilometers and good luck getting faster even after factoring in the delays with any other transportation method at all xddd

I’ve had a similar experience with doctors where you have to wipe your sweat off because your gynaecologist or endocrynologist have a waiting list of a month on public healthcare;

Great, the same doctor in Poland would’ve been like half a year on the waiting list.

And four figures at least in the US.

There are so many things that bother me and are frustrating about Germany, but more often than not I just look at the S-Bahns having leaves on the tracks and stopping at a certain station;

And think about how blessed I am that I can just go like “great, i can jump on a) U-Bahn b) tram c) bus d) my own bike e) rental bike f) electric scooter” and I’m just so grateful for all of that

[queenofthegods]

@Enigmaxprincex

I’m not quite familiar with nitrile gloves, but I’d like to give the general warning of avoiding latex gloves or those gloves that come with powder inside of them

In my experience every lab ever uses nitrile gloves not latex, probably because we do have to wear them for hours a day. Almost all are the purple ones but you can have other colors. My school had gloves in school colors and my current lab has some random white ones.

@Enigmaxprincex

Out of curiosity, how do you learn to balance yourself as a gymnast?

A lot of it is just “hey, do a handstand” but I think one of the key things is the coach/another person will hold your legs then transfer more and more of your own weight to yourself. Eventually they will hold onto one toe and you have to balance yourself.

@GolyBidoof

But damn, this handstand is a flex, good one ^^

I am also shocked at how good it looks. Like I should NOT be that flexible in the middle of a hike lol. Like as a person who has always had flat splits, long hikes are the only thing that can prevent me from doing the splits.

@Dadung

Also insane behavior from my german point of view , but at the same time very relatable from my “I have some knowledge of chemistry, so I know better” mindset

I mean, my other idea was put the cat medication on both of us

@mitrac

this is from an older post but I laughed so hard and still wanted to comment. I really want to see their faces grading this

One of the professors sits behind me in the office, so I probably will . Another professor found me at another event and tapped me on the shoulder to THANK me for my ramblings.

@GolyBidoof

Great, the same doctor in Poland would’ve been like half a year on the waiting list.

And four figures at least in the US.

Um, I regret to inform you that the wait lists are at least 6 months in the US as well…

You also have to be dying to get care in the US. Like my mom’s heart was swollen and she still had to wait weeks to get the fluid drained off. If she ever felt weird we had to rush her to he ER in case her heart was collapsing (closest ER was 30min drive away too).

Actually I went to a presentation about the NHS last week and the students kept talking about how England has 3x as many doctor applicants as actual positions so I was curious if they had over or understaffing issues. Turns out despite the huge overabundance of workers, everywhere is still severely understaffed and wait times are super long. Like…couldn’t the NHS solve two problems at once (the highly competitive job situation and long wait times) by just hiring more doctors? But no, money presumably is the problem…

[Enigmaxprincex]

hmmmm… There’s no correct/right way for me to reply to that (I thought a lot about what the correct reply “objectively” would be, but I just can’t get away from being “subjective” and a bit emotional, due to what I had to live through or experience, per se and that’s totally not the point here). Hence, the following:

I’m not the best at articulating my thoughts (this isn’t something new to me ) and I apologize for that. I also apologize if I came out as disrespectful or ungrateful, as it never was nor is my intention

My ony hope and wish is for you to only experience the good side and never be exposed to the not-so-good side

One more apology accompanied with a Sakura

[Enigmaxprincex]

@queenofthegods

In my experience every lab ever uses nitrile gloves not latex, probably because we do have to wear them for hours a day. Almost all are the purple ones but you can have other colors. My school had gloves in school colors and my current lab has some random white ones.

That seems logical and smart (I’ve never worked in a lab nor have a medical background and that’s why I presented the question ) I appreciate your answer I never knew that you could have the gloves in multiple colors (I’ve seen white, black, blue, yellow and purple? but I thought those are the standards ) It’s always good to have a variety

@queenofthegods

A lot of it is just “hey, do a handstand” but I think one of the key things is the coach/another person will hold your legs then transfer more and more of your own weight to yourself. Eventually they will hold onto one toe and you have to balance yourself.

Interesting. So, no teaching of the center of mass or how to distribute your weight was introduced? It’s quite interesting

@queenofthegods

I mean, my other idea was put the cat medication on both of us

I wonder what could go wrong

@queenofthegods

Um, I regret to inform you that the wait lists are at least 6 months in the US as well…

You also have to be dying to get care in the US. Like my mom’s heart was swollen and she still had to wait weeks to get the fluid drained off. If she ever felt weird we had to rush her to he ER in case her heart was collapsing (closest ER was 30min drive away too).

I’m sorry you had to live through that

@queenofthegods

Actually I went to a presentation about the NHS last week and the students kept talking about how England has 3x as many doctor applicants as actual positions so I was curious if they had over or understaffing issues. Turns out despite the huge overabundance of workers, everywhere is still severely understaffed and wait times are super long. Like…couldn’t the NHS solve two problems at once (the highly competitive job situation and long wait times) by just hiring more doctors? But no, money presumably is the problem…

Somehow, money is always the problem, no matter the topic or the field

[Stulti]

@GolyBidoof

It’s like, yes, the trains are delayed like 15-45 minutes on average;

Your train from Berlin to Münich takes 4 hours over 600 kilometers and good luck getting faster even after factoring in the delays with any other transportation method at all xddd

I’ve had a similar experience with doctors where you have to wipe your sweat off because your gynaecologist or endocrynologist have a waiting list of a month on public healthcare;

In Germany we call that “Jammern auf hohem Niveau”

[queenofthegods]

June 1st and 2nd

5 lessons and 146 reviews
appeased the owl for a week straight
Night Watch
Heated Rivalry
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

HAPPY PRIDE MONTH EVERYONE!!!

Pride isn’t necessarily recognized in Japan but that’s even more reason to celebrate. Got the Family Mart Pride socks, rainbow t-shirt, rainbow hair bow, and clothing gifts from my queer friends. Also rainbow bread. Think I can do better though, last year’s Pride bread was pretty legendary.

Reports for my lectures are due soon and uggghhhh I am just not interested in paying attention in lecture. It’s so hard to understand and even when I do lock in and try to look up words I can get maybe one word out of three looked up before it’s onto the next slide and I still have no idea what is going on. Some of these professors want long reports too. It’s quite frustrating when all they offer is lecture recordings which is helpful, but still a pain. Like just send us the slides, please. Actually for my Monday lecture I ran into my friend outside so we were chatting in English as we walked into the classroom. The professor looked like he just saw a ghost hahahaha. Or just a “wtf is this white girl doing here???” He actually stopped the entire lecture to send us foreign students the slides so we could actually understand the lecture. I appreciated it, but dear lord his lecture was hard (a bunch of logic problems) and he had us pass around a microphone to answer questions. Have 12 reports to write by next Friday and of course start on the June ones. I’m just so over it lol.

While I am clearly uninterested in studying, I am actually getting into a lot of books. All my holds became available at the same time now I have to try to get through four books at once. Night Watch isn’t available in audiobook form so I have to read that and Heated Rivalry with my eyeballs but The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and Equal Rites are audiobooks. I’m liking Heated Rivalry more the more I read it but some of the most iconic lines from the series are missing, mostly regarding Haden like “you want to get me pregnant too?” “go get laid, weirdo” and of course throwing hands at Marleau. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks so far is a lot about race which I think is important. However I am severely grossed out by the fact that Henrietta Lacks’ first child was at age 14 and fathered by her 5 years older cousin that she shared a room with starting 10 years earlier. Also that his cheating and subsequent giving her STIs is likely the cause of the cervical cancer that killed her at age 31 but also gave rise to the most important cell line in history. Obviously HeLa cells have been of massive importance but I feel so much sadness for the circumstances of Henrietta Lacks.

Recently I have been thinking a little about the idea of professionalism. Technically speaking my previous job was more professional, but as an ALT you are also kinda outside the circle of any real responsibility vs now I am just a regular member of the lab (the lowest ranking one, but still). The problem is the common language in the lab is English and I haven’t had to speak formal English in YEARS and crack jokes CONSTANTLY. Like I did this in Japanese too, but I’m even more unstoppable in English for obvious reasons. Some of the PhD students were cleaning out a freezer today so I said “oh, so this is what I will learn if I become a PhD student” which made them laugh, but not as hard as when I imitate how I used to teach English (kids repeating words after me) because all of them had to go through that in school . All the people from Asia were taught that way so they laugh their asses off because being a former English teacher, I do it like every English class ever. In my understanding I’ve always been funny, but somehow in the past few years I developed the skills and desire to make people laugh all the time. Technically speaking the constant jokes are unprofessional but in general lab life it’s fine. Not really sure how or why this happened but presumably because being ALT is a lot of just being super energetic and funny, especially for elementary school.

Obaachan has discovered that laying IN my bed is more effective at getting my attention than just meowing at my head in the middle of the night. That said, I don’t feed her in the middle of the night generally because 3am meowing isn’t something I want to encourage, but if she feels sick I will get up and find food for her. She’s really into the window bed again. Her favorite place shifts around every few days to a week. Not entirely sure what the logic is to it but as long as she’s happy.

Back to Pride month, the Oregon based drag queen Pattie Gonia is being sued by Patagonia because of “irreparable damage to their brand.” Apparently seeing a parody of the Patagonia label with rainbows is bad for their brand image or something, despite the fact that Pattie Gonia is a CLIMATE ACTIVIST which is what Patagonia (supposedly) stands for too. Then there’s the drag queen Jan Sport who has a COLLABORATION with the brand Jansport. I’m not a lawyer but I find it rather sus and sad that there is literally another drag queen in the exact same sharing a name with a company position and instead of fighting it, the company embraced it. Pattie Gonia would be a great collaboration considering all the fundraising, awareness, and programming she does to promote the outdoors and the environment. They have the same goals, yet somehow suing Pattie Gonia is the only way forward? Rude.

[queenofthegods]

@Enigmaxprincex

So, no teaching of the center of mass or how to distribute your weight was introduced? It’s quite interesting

Well, the majority of gymnasts start at age 2-6 so even if you try explaining, kiddos won’t understand. At that age it is easier to show than tell. You can get people into the right position by poking their stomach (kids are usually ticklish and will bend away from you, which is the correct position) or by literally picking them up by the ankles and putting them back down, because one of the keys to staying in a handstand is imaging your toes are stretching to the ceiling. Like I have zero memory of learning the basics of gymnastics but obviously someone taught me at some point. What I do know is you definitely do handstands every single practice, and over the years you get better. Hand balancing is another ballgame which has specific techniques plus I started later, so I could actually understand explanations from coaches. That said, it’s still mostly “go do a handstand” and holding your toes lol.

For example, here you can see that both while falling and while getting to the handstand, I have at least one foot very much stretching straight up. It helps a lot with stability. Coaches will literally hold your foot the whole time because the correct form for this is to keep your back foot up to the ceiling from the time you are standing up straight until right before your back hits the ground. Gymnastics is all about clean lines, they even purposely hyperextend your knees to achieve these lines. Hand balancing, on the other hand, focuses more on pushing all your weight into your hands/death gripping the floor, but that’s a whole different rabbit hole lol.

[Enigmaxprincex]

@queenofthegods

I appreciated it, but dear lord his lecture was hard (a bunch of logic problems) and he had us pass around a microphone to answer questions. Have 12 reports to write by next Friday and of course start on the June ones. I’m just so over it lol.

This just feels like a horror movie I’m sorry you have to go through this Here’s a Sakura to help you with the reports

You know what would be interesting (and horrifying at the same time)? Asking each professor or any professor how much time is expected from you for studying (excluding lectures). I think hearing the answer will be mindblowing

@queenofthegods

Well, the majority of gymnasts start at age 2-6 so even if you try explaining, kiddos won’t understand. At that age it is easier to show than tell. You can get people into the right position by poking their stomach (kids are usually ticklish and will bend away from you, which is the correct position) or by literally picking them up by the ankles and putting them back down, because one of the keys to staying in a handstand is imaging your toes are stretching to the ceiling. Like I have zero memory of learning the basics of gymnastics but obviously someone taught me at some point. What I do know is you definitely do handstands every single practice, and over the years you get better. Hand balancing is another ballgame which has specific techniques plus I started later, so I could actually understand explanations from coaches. That said, it’s still mostly “go do a handstand” and holding your toes lol.

This is a very valuable insight and I really appreciate it I like the idea/concept of always trying to imagine your toes stretching towards the ceiling and always doing a handstand. Over time, I assume this would develop some kind of intuition as to what works best for you and how to do things best. It’s fascinating

@queenofthegods

For example, here you can see that both while falling and while getting to the handstand, I have at least one foot very much stretching straight up. It helps a lot with stability. Coaches will literally hold your foot the whole time because the correct form for this is to keep your back foot up to the ceiling from the time you are standing up straight until right before your back hits the ground. Gymnastics is all about clean lines, they even purposely hyperextend your knees to achieve these lines. Hand balancing, on the other hand, focuses more on pushing all your weight into your hands/death gripping the floor, but that’s a whole different rabbit hole lol.

I like your comment I, again, really appreciate the insight you provided and find it really helpful Having to have your knees hyperextend isn’t a nice thing The sacrifices every athlete has to do are usually underestimated by normal people

This might be a weird question, but is there usually a way to practice a handstand without hurting your wrist or hand or getting them injured? In other words, do you usually do certain exercises to strengthen your wrist?

[queenofthegods]

@Enigmaxprincex

This might be a weird question, but is there usually a way to practice a handstand without hurting your wrist or hand or getting them injured? In other words, do you usually do certain exercises to strengthen your wrist?

In these sports, handstands are the least of your worries when it comes to wrist injuries. If anything, the handstands themselves are the training. The only thing I remember doing is stretching our wrists every way during warm up. Hand balancing training can get a little hard on your arms, but the elbows are the bigger concern. My handstand coach caught the hyperextention in my arms before I got any sort of injury, but I still have elbows that bend backward and my forearms are bent sideways about 20 degrees from the plane of my arm (normal is 10 degrees). My coach had the same issue but needed surgery for it, hence his vigilance about my elbows. Even ten years on I still have no issues with my elbows or my hyperextended finger joints despite the changes apparently being permanent.

[Enigmaxprincex]

Such injuries are not easily tolerated nor easily recoverable I’m really glad that you had such a coach, who would always be on the lookout for such things

I hope you will always remain injury-free Injuries aren’t fun at all Once something is inured, it’s really hard to get back to what it was before

This Sakura shall keep all the injuries away

Thank you again for the insight and the answer

[queenofthegods]

June 3rd, 4th, and 5th

102 reviews
appeased the owl
lecture x2 Japanese x1 English
Heated Rivalry
Equal Rites
Night Watch

Got this far before I rage quit. It’s hot and a Friday and I’m just over it.

My DuoLingo Chinese came in handy for once this week. One lab member was talking about his honeymoon to China and we were trying to figure out what he was talking about but I recognized “The Forbidden City” from my DuoLingo sentences and figured it out before anyone else, despite reasonably being the least skilled at Chinese in that entire group LOL.

Okay so my experiments keep failing right? I did finally get two successful mutations, but first batch of plasmids failed and by the time I got the second round done we determined that one was a fail (through even more experiments of course). PCR to plasmids takes three days for reference lol. As a last ditch effort before throwing in the towel and ordering new primers, my mentor told me to drop the temperature of the PCR to a whole 5 degrees below the lowest melting temperature (which is more than 10 degrees below what we got to work sometimes before) and try 4-6 mixes to just see if ANYTHING works. I mixed up 7 and three of them gave clear bands. What’s even funnier is I have been working with bad PCR results for so long I thought I had failed because it looked so different but it was actually perfect . The mixes and PCR protocol worked perfectly on our third mutation too.

One of the PhD students actually asked ME for help on one experiment. Like I’ve been here for two months what do I know . Generally speaking he could figure it out from the instructions but wanted to ask what a word meant because despite his English being excellent of course, I am the only native speaker in the building. What’s funnier is I got tricked into setting up the centrifuge for him. It is an absolute pain in the ass to set up correctly and I could not for the life of me get it to work the first multiple attempts. Took it off and tried to give it to him to try for himself and he pulled a “can you show me again?” then just walked away lol. Like my guy I had to learn you have to as well .

Decided to be brave and go to a party with my classmates. Was very on the fence about going but I didn’t want the other international student to go alone and I should at least TRY to make some friends. I’m really glad I went because turns out the group is a lot more diverse than I thought. I had assumed everyone was straight out of undergrad, but turns out there are actually multiple of us that worked for a couple years before going back to school. One girl even studied abroad in Toronto and speaks great English, as do some of the younger ones. Our class is also only 10 people, with only one being a guy. In Japan in my age group it is very strange to have mixed gender friend groups but from what I could tell (the guy sat at another table) there was no awkwardness at all. This was my experience when I dated the guy 3 years younger than me, he had friends of all genders. The other Japanese dudes I dated have zero female friends generally. Hell yeah Gen Z.

Party day was also the same day as our English lecture. The students asked me and my friend “wait, so this is what you do every day???” Yes, yes it is y’all lol. Our joke is the girl from China can read the slides and I can understand the lectures, so together we can figure it out. Speaking of language difficulties, the izakaya we went to had a LINE app ordering system that auto-translated to whatever language our phones were in. I did it first and was laughing my ass off at “radiation breast” and “sand liver” to the point of my friend telling me to stop looking at the menu so I don’t die. Then she opened the ordering app on her phone and the Chinese auto translations were even worse. She had “magic teacher” and “blurry bellybutton” as menu options . We did our best to explain what was so funny to our Japanese tablemates as well as explaining why I went “oh yeah, enjoy your orange juice ” (basically explaining how air quotes work, I was teasing my friend and the fact that every izakaya serves the cheap fake orange juice not real orange juice). Everyone enjoyed my English class imitation as well, since everyone there is DEFINITELY young enough to have had an ALT in their school lol.

Anyhow, I need to get out and socialize more. It is cheaper and easier to lay in bed all day, but it’s not good for mental or physical health. Essentially I gave up hanging out with people years ago, or at least actively seeking it out. Like I don’t ditch people if they ask, but I felt okay with the friends I had, going out alone is fun, and got disappointed too much by how my social interactions were going. Being homeschooled, having food allergies, and being somewhat neurodivergent, my idea of “hanging out” does not match the definition most have so it leads to issues. The other issue was living so far away people just never invite me. Now I live in the city, which means I have better access to people, but I still need to make the effort to see others. This also fits into the quote from Hank Green in this video, “I made the world more me shaped, but I also made myself more world shaped.” In my experience people are open to my strange ideas of hanging out, but it’s also on me to learn how to fit into how society socializes.

Obligatory Obaachan pictures, she is getting more cuddly these days. Here’s to hoping her skin infection has cleared up?

[Enigmaxprincex]

@queenofthegods

Okay so my experiments keep failing right? I did finally get two successful mutations, but first batch of plasmids failed and by the time I got the second round done we determined that one was a fail (through even more experiments of course). PCR to plasmids takes three days for reference lol. As a last ditch effort before throwing in the towel and ordering new primers, my mentor told me to drop the temperature of the PCR to a whole 5 degrees below the lowest melting temperature (which is more than 10 degrees below what we got to work sometimes before) and try 4-6 mixes to just see if ANYTHING works. I mixed up 7 and three of them gave clear bands. What’s even funnier is I have been working with bad PCR results for so long I thought I had failed because it looked so different but it was actually perfect . The mixes and PCR protocol worked perfectly on our third mutation too.

I’m glad that some things are finally starting to work out well You’ve put so much time and effort into it and it paid off in the end I feel that the fun is only starting

@queenofthegods

Took it off and tried to give it to him to try for himself and he pulled a “can you show me again?” then just walked away lol. Like my guy I had to learn you have to as well .

I feel in such cases, you should tie him to the chair and not free him until he learns how to do it by himself

@queenofthegods

speaks great English,

This is a bit of an unusual question, but how do you usually decide if a person speaks okay English, good English or perfect English? Is there a certain criterion you use to classify them, per se?

@queenofthegods

In Japan in my age group it is very strange to have mixed gender friend groups

Is there a reason or an explanation for that in general?

@queenofthegods

LINE app

This is a bit of a strange question, but is this app like the Japanese or Chinese version of WhatsApp? and is it the default used app for communication in Japan? and is it usually needed or recommended to have there?

The translated names of the dishes made me laugh quite hard Those are epic names for dishes

@queenofthegods

Everyone enjoyed my English class imitation as well, since everyone there is DEFINITELY young enough to have had an ALT in their school lol.

This is quite wholesome

@queenofthegods

Anyhow, I need to get out and socialize more. It is cheaper and easier to lay in bed all day, but it’s not good for mental or physical health. Essentially I gave up hanging out with people years ago, or at least actively seeking it out. Like I don’t ditch people if they ask, but I felt okay with the friends I had, going out alone is fun, and got disappointed too much by how my social interactions were going. Being homeschooled, having food allergies, and being somewhat neurodivergent, my idea of “hanging out” does not match the definition most have so it leads to issues. The other issue was living so far away people just never invite me. Now I live in the city, which means I have better access to people, but I still need to make the effort to see others. This also fits into the quote from Hank Green in this video, “I made the world more me shaped, but I also made myself more world shaped.” In my experience people are open to my strange ideas of hanging out, but it’s also on me to learn how to fit into how society socializes.

This hits hard for different reasons I’d like to say that you’re doing the right thing and this Sakura will accompany you and bring you luck on this part of the journey

Another random question: how are you handling food allergies in Japan? I’m assuming it’s not an “easy-to-handle” problem

@queenofthegods

Obligatory Obaachan pictures, she is getting more cuddly these days. Here’s to hoping her skin infection has cleared up?

This Sakura will help with that

[queenofthegods]

@Enigmaxprincex

This is a bit of an unusual question, but how do you usually decide if a person speaks okay English, good English or perfect English? Is there a certain criterion you use to classify them, per se?

As for my personal ranking, it has to do less with any sort of book skill and more to do with how well a person can follow me in a conversation. My way of speaking is different because I’m a native speaker but the more a person can keep up with me, the better their English seems. I talk at a strange or fast pacing even for native speakers so someone being able to follow a more natural conversation with me shows fantastic English. Obviously I slow myself down if people are struggling but the less I have to do that, the higher someone ranks. Like you don’t have to know a lot of words or have great grammar, it’s more a measure of how well you keep up with me.

@Enigmaxprincex

Is there a reason or an explanation for that in general?

Japan is a very gendered country. Groups are often split by boys and girls as well as sports being split like that too. Like when my school had our big end of year cleaning we would split classes by boys vs girls until our class percentages got so wacky we could no longer do that. When I ask the men I date what they think of me having a lot of male friends they think it is weird, and the concept of having female friends is somewhat unthinkable to them. Not really in a judgemental way, just a “why?” sort of way. Like for example one of my guy friends is great with girls and gets along with them quite well, but he never really pursues friendships with women like he does with men (outside of me, but that was because he had the realization years down the line that he wanted to date me but that’s separate story lol).

@Enigmaxprincex

This is a bit of a strange question, but is this app like the Japanese or Chinese version of WhatsApp? and is it the default used app for communication in Japan? and is it usually needed or recommended to have there?

Yes LINE app is the WhatsApp of Japan but it also functions like an app platform because many companies instead of making their own apps just make apps within LINE. For example, GongCha’s app isn’t really an app it’s a LINE app. So, when I want to use my GongCha points, I have to find the “chat” with GongCha and open it up which reveals an app screen where I can do a mobile order, check the menu, exchange coupons, or display my member code. I have met a grand total of two Japanese people without the LINE app but generally speaking I would say it is necessary to function in Japan.

@Enigmaxprincex

how are you handling food allergies in Japan? I’m assuming it’s not an “easy-to-handle” problem

I handle it by almost exclusively making all my own food, or not eating anything unless I can read the ingredient label. Even though I know how to explain my allergies in Japan, people will still miss things like “well there’s no flour in rice bread, it must be fine!” (rice bread is usually majority wheat flour) “well it’s salad dressing why would there be wheat in it so I don’t need to check” (almost all salad dressings contain wheat). Food allergies aren’t common so most people don’t understand them and don’t understand that you do really need to check everything because while I agree that bacon shouldn’t have wheat in it, it’s bacon, about half of Japanese bacon contains wheat.

[Enigmaxprincex]

@queenofthegods

As for my personal ranking, it has to do less with any sort of book skill and more to do with how well a person can follow me in a conversation. My way of speaking is different because I’m a native speaker but the more a person can keep up with me, the better their English seems. I talk at a strange or fast pacing even for native speakers so someone being able to follow a more natural conversation with me shows fantastic English. Obviously I slow myself down if people are struggling but the less I have to do that, the higher someone ranks. Like you don’t have to know a lot of words or have great grammar, it’s more a measure of how well you keep up with me.

You know, I never thought about it like this before, but your way/definition seems to be the logical one when it comes to two people attempting to understand what they’re saying to each other. You really described it in a very accurate way. This opened my eyes to a whole new world

@queenofthegods

Japan is a very gendered country. Groups are often split by boys and girls as well as sports being split like that too. Like when my school had our big end of year cleaning we would split classes by boys vs girls until our class percentages got so wacky we could no longer do that. When I ask the men I date what they think of me having a lot of male friends they think it is weird, and the concept of having female friends is somewhat unthinkable to them. Not really in a judgemental way, just a “why?” sort of way. Like for example one of my guy friends is great with girls and gets along with them quite well, but he never really pursues friendships with women like he does with men (outside of me, but that was because he had the realization years down the line that he wanted to date me but that’s separate story lol).

I appreciate the insight you provided It really seems that they’re just following the “typical” way they saw ages before or so (and that’s in itself a whole discussion) and maybe along the lines of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. I really laughed at the plot twist at the end laughed and cried

@queenofthegods

Yes LINE app is the WhatsApp of Japan but it also functions like an app platform because many companies instead of making their own apps just make apps within LINE. For example, GongCha’s app isn’t really an app it’s a LINE app. So, when I want to use my GongCha points, I have to find the “chat” with GongCha and open it up which reveals an app screen where I can do a mobile order, check the menu, exchange coupons, or display my member code. I have met a grand total of two Japanese people without the LINE app but generally speaking I would say it is necessary to function in Japan.

Oh, that’s interesting. They have ascended to a whole other level Japan always has its unique way It seems, however, quite functional to have everything in one place. Is the app restricted to Japanese numbers? or can you also make an account and access the app with an international number?

@queenofthegods

I handle it by almost exclusively making all my own food, or not eating anything unless I can read the ingredient label. Even though I know how to explain my allergies in Japan, people will still miss things like “well there’s no flour in rice bread, it must be fine!” (rice bread is usually majority wheat flour) “well it’s salad dressing why would there be wheat in it so I don’t need to check” (almost all salad dressings contain wheat). Food allergies aren’t common so most people don’t understand them and don’t understand that you do really need to check everything because while I agree that bacon shouldn’t have wheat in it, it’s bacon, about half of Japanese bacon contains wheat.

I’m sorry you have to go through all of this It’s really an unpleasant experience having to discover that a certain food has something you’re allergic to right after you consume that food Any experience with allergies is a very unpleasant one, but I’m glad you’re able to find some kind of a way to handle it or deal with it It’s also one of the things I would always have to keep in mind whenever I travel or decide to order something from a new or old place The surprises you would usually get are fascinating May this special Sakura banish those allergies to the oblivion

One thing I forgot (and keep forgetting) to ask you about: how did you figure out (or had the suspicion) that you have dyslexia?

Once again, I’m really grateful for you taking the time to answer all those questions and I appreciate it a lot

[queenofthegods]

@Enigmaxprincex

One thing I forgot (and keep forgetting) to ask you about: how did you figure out (or had the suspicion) that you have dyslexia?

In roughly chronological order:

I knew all my letters very well but could not read properly until the age of 9. Like I could read, but the letters were all scrambled so I read everything wrong. Reading was a laborious task, but one day it clicked and I went from struggling to read picture books to reading chapter books quite rapidly.

Meet a friend of my sister’s and he frequently wore a shirt that says “dyslexics are teople poo” and I ask what dyslexia is. Apparently said friend has it and it was described to me as people mixing up letters or being unable to read. That’s how I experienced trying to read. However, I didn’t mix it up like the t-shirt and when I brought it up with my parents they said I didn’t have dyslexia.

Still couldn’t spell to save my life until one day when I was 11 or 12 my mom signed me up for a spelling bee class and competition (the competition was mixed age and I was the first one out, couldn’t spell the word “empty” out loud lol). In the process of studying for that I was typing words in a word document and turned the font size up to 100 or something to make it fun but that also turned all my big age-appropriate spelling words into smaller words (chunks of 3-4 letters) and that is how I learned how to properly spell.

A little later at age 13/14 my English tutor would have me write essays by hand, specifically the 25min argumentative essay for the SAT (American college entrance exam). In those essays I frequently would leave off the first letter of words if it was the same as the last letter of the previous word and mixed up p and d and m and w. I make those same mix ups when typing too. The teacher was baffled by the weird way my brain processed words but I could still do all the reading and writing I needed to (with a lot of mistakes) so we just kept practicing.

One day in high school I was watching a TV show with my parents about a big city teacher who moves to a coal mining town to teach (When Calls the Heart I think). One episode was about the teacher fighting to teach a kid to read so he doesn’t drop out of school and go work in the mines. She finally manages to teach him to read using the same breaking down into much smaller pieces method I discovered and it is revealed the kid has dyslexia. Have a “wait a second…” moment because this was the first piece of evidence I had linking how I learned to read with dyslexia. Previously I was told I didn’t have dyslexia because I could read, just with significant difficulty for many years.

Started learning Japanese and find all kana completely unintelligible just like I found English as a child. Mixed with kanji is a breeze to read, though.

Talking to my mom one day as a young adult, she says “yeah your dad struggled when he was younger because he has dyslexia.” Like WHAT??? They had a child with major reading issues, a parent with dyslexia, and NEVER thought that could be the problem??? I was homeschooled mostly but I did spend some time in the public school system and the reading tests stressed me out but I never got flagged for anything (that I know of…?). I did try to explain to my parents why I was having such a hard time reading but they just yelled at me mostly. Personally I suspected something was wrong with me but my parents said no so I just dropped it. I did eventually become a strong reader and can spell (from muscle memory only), but that came from repetition and accidental discoveries more than from regular teaching. When I asked my mom more recently if they were worried that I couldn’t read at age 9 (according to Sold a Story if a child can’t read by 3rd grade they are unlikely to ever learn to read), my mom said they were not because you can do things at your own pace when you homeschool. However, at the time my parents were quite angry at my lack of reading abilities so not sure how that translates.

To this day I have never been diagnosed and am probably a strong enough reader I can make it through all the tests as “normal,” but I can’t think of how else to explain the clearly strange reading difficulties I had.

@Enigmaxprincex

I really laughed at the plot twist at the end

Wait until you find out the way he discovered he wanted to date me is by watching me try and fail to back out of a narrow parking spot so many times he had to come help me lol.

[Enigmaxprincex]

I’m sorry you had to go through that, but I’m glad that you were able to come up with ways to overcome it and that things are way better now

I think your parents were just hoping you won’t have dyslexia, but I just wish they had given you the chance back then to see someone who could help you with it

I’m just glad you’re in a better place now and that you have some ways to deal with

I would recommend having an idea of some of the “diseases” or conditions your parents or grandparents have, as with time, such information might be helpful or relevant (in my case, I have a couple of things, like eczema, from my grandparents and I’m afraid with time, the list will only grow longer )

@queenofthegods

Wait until you find out the way he discovered he wanted to date me is by watching me try and fail to back out of a narrow parking spot so many times he had to come help me lol.

This can’t be real What a golden moment to come to that realization You should consider writing the dating stories in a different book than the other one I’m pretty sure it’ll sell out in no time