August 1st, 2026
Yesterday I praised 兄の仮面が剥がれ落ちようとしている for being perfectly understandable and easy to grasp, today I see 桜は臓硯のお眼鏡にかなったってコ and I can’t figure out how are you supposed to piece out the expression from individual words in this one, if anyone had a clue, let me know xdd
But yeah, I am doing a one-day experiment with MaruMori, and hope it’ll lead to more days with MaruMori, I picked up from my previous trial and I’m doing the “Sands of Mastery”, the N2 course:
…and, eee, of course I did read it xdd
I still don’t know if I’ll persist by MaruMori and not even how to use it, because I’m not feeling like picking up another SRS, but on the other hand, that’s the easiest way to remember grammars, so for now I’m
just doing the lessons and see if I can persist with it, today we did やら and ということ grammars, both I’ve been vaguely familiar with, but I got a much better idea after reading the explanation.
And had a big spree of Bite size Japanese today:
Layla is finally one of us! She moved over with her boyfriend to her boyfriend’s parents in Australia and is grinding 2 hours of English classes every day to be able to find a job at a new continent ^^
She did say she’s something like B2-ish in English (hey! C:) and she did complain that although people see her as capable to take a job in English, her ability to formulate complex thoughts is getting in her way, and also that when she goes multiple hours a day of listening to her boyfriend’s family, waiters and people outside speak English to her, her mind goes blank and she can’t tell what they’re saying, relatable ^^
She did complain about the Australian sense of humor, that when she showed a keychain that had “Made in China” in it, her boyfriend’s father was like “damn, you must have got it from China, right???” and that was the joke and Layla didn’t find it funny at all, and I found it funny by itself and I found it even funnier that Layla wasn’t able to find anything funny about it xdd
But yeah, complaining about English-sphere cuisine, praises to boyfriend’s mom cooking, talking about commutes getting very long, being confused about being conflated with Chinese people, being interested in how big the cars are in Australia, how unaffordable the rent is, the usual - but the good news is that I had a 99% listening comprehension the whole time I was listening to her story, and although I don’t see myself returning to listening podcasts much, it felt GOOD to listen and understand this much today ^^
So, Layla, ONE OF US, and she will overtake my German before I know it xdd
I’m comforting myself that I learn 5 languages at the same time and she only does two, so hey xdd
(Still on the Hello Chinese grind! Still avoiding Anki Chinese flashcards!)
Life
So it’s August and because Gamescom is this month, and of course I’m going to be travelling a lot around NRW, I got myself a Deutschlandticket! It allows for unlimited travel with public transit and regional trains across Germany, so today I went for my first adventure ^^
Potsdam!
The last time I was here for an anime convention last year, I mostly went to the Babelsberg area, and not the historic city. Potsdam has been getting a lot of investment from private investors after the reunification of Germany, and while it’s still a big construction site, there are a lot of pretty things around the Schloss Sanssouci!
I wish I had taken my DSLR, but alas, walking around and having a Japanese podcast on the headphones is meditative ^^
It’s a very pretty place, with a huge park surrounding it, and the foliage, even though a little sunburnt right now, still does leave an impression ^^
Walking around the city, there’s of course a film museum, as Potsdam is where some of the highest caliber German films are being shot, and a lot of facades that are renovated to not resemble Berlin at all xddd
But no, the shop layout on the main street, the main station, don’t be mistaken, it’s like Berlin Ostkreuz, Berlin Hauptbahnhof, Berlin Spandau, Berlin Potsdam, don’t tell that to Potsdamers, they will be upset xddd
Technically, Potsdam is no longer in the same state as Berlin - it belongs to Brandenburg, but it definitely stands out from the rest of the region thanks to the old town here ^^
And as a reminder, Berlin does not have any old town, everything got destroyed in 1945, so hey, it’s nice to see something more classical, like:
xdddd
And yeah, I wonder how many day trips like that will I make as long as I have the Deutschlandticket C:
And yep, made it back…
…just in time for the brand new Spider-man film! Not a really big fan of Spider-man myself, but I heard people being like “YOU HAVE TO SEE IT” and I did see it and…
…well it’s definitely better than Minions & Monsters xdddd
But truth to be said, I found the film to be really, really good: the emotional conflict, especially with the antagonist, hit me in a way I didn’t expect from a superhero film and in the final confrontation I was deep in my seat being like “OH HECK OH NO PLEASE HELP THEM ANYONE AAAA”, so emotional damage has been cast ^^
What an interesting film 
Either way, see you tomorrow! ^^
And amazing job connecting with community for healing as well as taking the step to potentially being able to manifest change in the world. Berlin is lucky to have you! 
Sometimes I watch media made for teens now and it’s all about loving and accepting yourself and others and valuing friendship highly etc etc and it feels a bit healing but also sad that I grew up in a time when 
