The final month of lessons - a certain Bidoof's study log!

[Szymbar]

January 18, 2021
Level: 56
Streak day: 348
Level up: January 21, 2021
Reviews: 212
Apprentice items: 203
Items left: 538

Yup, as expected, today was easier than usual on Mondays, not ideal though, some words got down all the way to Apprentice 2 and I’ll have to give them a little more . Don’t really feel like doing it either today or tomorrow though xd

I like a few kanji on this level, 呉 is among my favorites because of how simple it is to memorize and how the mnemonic portrays it

I reminded myself of this infinite banger called Heartbeat, Heartbreak from Persona 4 and then I got a little nostalgic for the easier times when it was possible to do fun stuff with other people and fall in love with them while doing that. Persona 4 by itself was a game that when it came out made me nostalgic for a life I didn’t have and made me go out and meet people, and now I’m nostalgic for the life I did have for a change xd

Went for a walk today, my self-isolation is over, so I bought myself a milkshake today! It was a weird one as it had actual bacon pieces in it

And what’s crazy is that it really wasn’t that terrible either!

I caught up a few episodes of Attack on Titan season 2, I hardly remembered what happened in the first season, but I’ve gotta say that Hiroyuki Sawano delivers on every front and I’ll never not stan him. As embarrassing as it is to say, the reason I got invested in German(y) in the first place was because of Bios years back and now I’m two weeks away from renting my own flat in one of the biggest towns in Europe. Damn.

And yeah, I don’t know what’s more embarrassing, the thing I wrote above or the fact I unironically love Aldnoah.Zero for the plot. I’m gonna excuse myself before I burn in my own hot takes xd

[Szymbar]

January 19, 2021
Level: 56
Streak day: 349
Level up: January 21, 2021
Reviews: 310
Apprentice items: 191
Items left: 538

I was surprised how easy both of the review sessions were today, so much so I decided to turn on the timer and I would fail myself if I couldn’t remember the item in 10 seconds or less. That brought my accuracy on the items down to 88% (95% reviews in total), but I didn’t mind it because it proved that I do know something after all xd

But yeah, the difficulty on Guru 2->Master and Master->Enlightened level ups keeps creeping up, we’re almost there though.

I’m feeling very much Torvus Bog from Metroid Prime 2 today, here’s a fun fact: Metroid Prime is my favorite game of all time. Metroid Prime 2 improves in almost every aspect over Metroid Prime. I could never finish it regardless of how much I love it. It’s a solid 7/10 xd

Twenty-one thousand steps today, trying to make as many memories of Ireland as I can, despite this lockdown
I went to a bike shop where I got my bike from and got it cleaned, I’ll pick it up tomorrow. My plan is to ride around a bit and then leave it at the store again to get it packed and sent to Germany. No chance in hell that’s gonna be cheap xd

I caught Aldi on my way back home and picked a cardboard box that’s not too big, but seemingly big enough to fit most of the stuff that I’ll want to have sent to Germany too, hmmm. Looks like the translocation procedures are going fine so far.

Another one of the challenges will come up tomorrow, I need to pack up my monitor display and bring it back to the office. It doesn’t sound that difficult on the first glance, but my office is an hour walking away from where I’m working from home, so that’s gonna be a few dozen thousand steps tomorrow as well.

[Szymbar]

January 20, 2021
Level: 56
Streak day: 350
Level up: January 21, 2021
Reviews: 244
Apprentice items: 161
Items left: 538

All of the reviews in one session, ouch xd
I got into a pretty deep meditative state and it went through just fine, I’m looking forwards to tomorrow’s morning reviews, even though it’s pretty late and I’m sure I’ll be a zombie tomorrow in the morning xd

Sherbet Land from Mario Kart Double Dash, as I really miss snow.

My parents are lucky enough to have HEAPS of it looking out of the window, but the good news is that I’m going home as a stopgap on my trip to Germany in a mere 9 days from now! Hope they’ll have some snow when I’m back

The logistics of the travel terrify me however, I’ll need to have everything packed then! Luckily, everything that i set my mind to turns out to be easier than I initially thought it’d be, so I’m like “aight”, this whole ordeal might work!

I had my bike thorougly cleaned today and it’s sparkling clean, the bike service I went to really put their heart into the bike - and for free to add to that! I’ll go to them again this Saturday to have the bike packed into a box so that I could send it to Germany.

The translocation will probably be good, but I don’t know what about the level up tomorrow though xd

[Szymbar]

January 21, 2021
Level: 57
Streak day: 351
Level up: January 24, 2021
Reviews: 635
Apprentice items: 243
Items left: 412

I woke up early (5.50am) and started doing reviews long before the sun showed itself, as usual on Thursdays xd
But, since I’m taking the next Thursday off from work and I don’t know if I’ll keep it up beyond level 60, this might have been my last Thursday to actually do so

I haven’t made up my mind how long do I want to keep on going, but yeah, I might or might not miss it xd

I’m so burned out of WaniKani that this isn’t funny, but there’s only 10 days left, so I’ll keep on going just a liiiittle longer

Let’s Assimilate from The Sims 3! Betcha didn’t expect that xd

But yeah, speaking of Let’s Assimilate, I did a lot of legwork and reading about Germany today, the tax stuff, documents, where have I decided to settle (about damn time ), what can you do around the town and what will you be able to do if the lockdown ends in 2025

Looks like I’ll be living in a building brought up as a residence for students and young professionals, they have a nice website and a Facebook page, the building has a lot of studio apartments in it and a few common areas here and there. This means that my living alone/sense of community ratio is going to be way better than I worried it’d be, it looks like a Sakurasou with bigger rooms or simply a four-star hote- student dorm or something, the contract I’ve signed allows me to live there for up to three years with an option to sign off the contract every 6 months. Aaand then I could get another contract with another fee if I wanted to.

But truth to be told, three years is an enormous amount of time. Three years ago I was a mere student without a sense of purpose, completely oblivious to the concept of Japanese language, yet alone being an expat, yet alone in two different countries.

A lot has changed, a lot for the better, I grew closer to my family as I moved away from them, I graduated Uni, I learned to snowboard, made a ton of new friends, found a lot new hobbies, played a lot of games that jumped very high up in my list of favorite games of all time, but not all of the changes have been positive I’d say.

One of the biggest challenges I only started to struggle with over the last three years was getting entangled in endlessly scrolling internet for days on no end. I’m watching less movies, playing less games, talking to less people than I would’ve otherwise and it’s been partly fueled by WaniKani as well, if I have 30 minutes left to another review session I won’t put up a game for those 30 minutes, I’ll just check all of my social media accounts instead.

As I transition to my residing period in Berlin, I have no idea how to do so, but I’d like to find a purpose - different than just writing reviews on WaniKani each day for a year, maybe even other than doing the same with German instead. I’d like to get absorbed in something that would make me feel as if the thing that I’m doing actually makes a difference.

And I have no idea how to get started with that. A few ideas that come to my mind are: volunteering (although that’s mostly out until the lockdowns are over), adventure travelling with others (read the previous one), learning a new instrument or getting a midi keyboard and jamming out (i suppose i could do that xd), I don’t know, I’ll try to think of something

If you have any ideas, let me know, I’d really appreciate that!

[Szymbar]

January 22, 2021
Level: 57
Streak day: 352
Level up: January 24, 2021
Reviews: 283
Apprentice items: 234
Items left: 412

Very short today, as my sleep routine is already in shambles xd
But it’s nice to have spent a little longer than usual on reviews on Thursday, pays off on Fridays

#5 thirsty from Splatoon 2, that’s just a pure banger no matter how you look at it xd

Oh man, I spent a lot longer than I expected today, fortunately not on Doomscrolling, but on acquiring a lot of info today. I probably shouldn’t have done that anyway, I could’ve played Smash Bros instead ;___;

Here’s a scone my landlord baked me today, I was so happy about this

[Szymbar]

January 23, 2021
Level: 57
Streak day: 353
Level up: January 24, 2021
Reviews: 240
Apprentice items: 215
Items left: 412

Unfortunately, as time goes on, I meet more Master or Guru 2 items that I struggle to remember, that’s why I’m not very happy with the idea of letting WaniKani continue on through until I’m done burning all of my items xd

It’s not that bad though, it’s just that I’m severely exhausted at this point and I’d like to take a looonger rest

Undertale PS4 theme. This song is my go-to each time I feel tired or empty. And I felt this way for a bit of today, but I managed to salvage the rest of my day

There’s less than 6 days until the end of my world as of now. Having a specific deadline imposes a bit of pressure onto you, because that means you can’t use any excuses, if you don’t go out and see the stuff today, you won’t see it for a while. And that’s what I did today, to celebrate the end of the world I went to the… end of the world. Even more so, two separate ends of the world! One right at the lighthouse at the eastmost point of the southern part of Dublin and the other one at the Dublin Harbor.

When you look out to the sea, there’s just nothing out there, no matter how far away you look
Okay, maybe if you were to get a pair of really good binoculars somewhere in the distance you miiiight be able to see Wales, but I couldn’t spot a single thing out there

Anyway, my phone has a x10 telescope camera, I used it to take this pic from across Liffey, right at the other lighthouse. Turned out pretty decent, didn’t it?

[smellslikerain]

As an avid sims (especially 3) fan, I was happy to see that music rec in your post! EA still sucks though lol

Anyway, how about you take up writing? Maybe poetry? Personally, art is an escape for me as well as a coping mechanism, so writing and drawing both have very deep roots in my heart. They also make me feel more grounded to reality. I very much believe my purpose in life is to inspire others, so maybe you’ll find the same sentiment. Also, I wish you luck with the relocation!!

[Szymbar]

January 24, 2021
Level: 58
Streak day: 354
Level up: January 28, 2021
Reviews: 667
Apprentice items: 238
Items left: 282

It’s always fun to wake up to a wall of reviews, and they don’t stop coming, fed to the rules and I hit the ground runni-

I’m officially level 58 as of today! Which means there’s only 282 items to go, next Thursday, next Sunday and potentially two more learning sessions after that, but my cake post will be up in a week from now xd

I haven’t gone out today, not even for a walk, because I really wanted to nail down this session and I think it didn’t go terribly, but I’m soooo tired right now. So, so, so incredibly tired. I need to treat myself for something on my level 59 promotion, that’s gonna be my last chance for as long as I’m in Ireland xd

Yeah, I guess that the time passage is my theme for today, so let me treat you to Astral Observatory from Majora’s Mask. The realisation that time is running out is something that always terrifies me, regardless of the context it’s shown in.

One of my favorite games of all time, Virtue’s Last Reward, has this as one of the plot points in one of the bad endings, when a desperate protagonist simply runs out of time and the deadpan sidekick brings the pacing to a complete halt, gives an empty glare to say that indeed, they’re out of time and there’s nothing that can be done at that point in time. It was over, and then it all turned to while.

Needless to say I’m not very comfortable with the concept of aging as well xd

But this time aging is something I can be proud of, over the last 354 days I’ve managed to learn 1950 kanji and I’m going strong! Who would’ve thought that would work, huh?

That being said, I haven’t started packing yet xddd
The pic below exemplifies why
Should’ve gotten a bigger box

[Szymbar]

January 25, 2021
Level: 58
Streak day: 355
Level up: January 28, 2021
Reviews: 248
Apprentice items: 229
Items left: 282

Sometimes I feel as if those braindead reviews in the morning when one of your eyes is still closed are easier to do than the ones when you’re wide awake and all raving to go, and especially compared against the evening reviews. Might be due to the fact I’m still fresh with Apprentice 3 items though xd

Stickerbrush Symphony from DKC2, the so-called “Internet Checkpoint” because I’m in a need of it again xd

I have a friend who’s insanely creative, like a renaissance man. Whatever they touch, they drill it for as long as it takes until they pull gold out of it. Ever since I got to Ireland in general I’ve been doing less creative stuff because my work’s been draining me and I was making an excuse that I’m here to make memories and not work on creative self-fulfillment

Which is funny, because now with the heavy lockdown it would be the best possible moment to actually start self-realization, but I’m so far out of loop I don’t even know what to get started xd

Hm, as I draw closer to the end of WaniKani the amount of things I’d like to do keeps piling up, but the plans to start doing those things are still not in place

give snowboard slopes back though

[tls]

@Szymbar

I’d like to get absorbed in something that would make me feel as if the thing that I’m doing actually makes a difference.

One of the things I’ve realized while traveling was that sharing a story might be way more helpful than sharing (deliberate) advice. For me the major difference is if someone shares their story with me it gives me the freedom take out of it whatever I feel comfortable with.

A little story... with absolutely zero advice...

A couple of years ago I changed my diet. I did it out of completely selfish reasons and I never bothered with what it would mean to other people especially people I feel close with. Later, and I don’t remember how many month it was… maybe even a year, I had a talk with my parents and they confessed that me changing had a deep impact on their view on food and dietary habits. Their takeaway lead them to a different approach but I raised awareness. And without knowing, without intending, my decisions effected the decisions of others.

There is no revolution in this story. And compared to ~7.8 billion people living on this planet the life’s of two people seems like nothing. But it is two people I care about. And I am confident that you going your way is already making a difference for a couple of people.

Okay, to not leave you with only cheesy lines, here comes my very practical advice: in case you settle on getting an ukulele, get one that fits into the hand luggage size restrictions. An ukulele is a perfect travel companion, since (in my humble experience) music in general can overcome any language barriers. But getting yourself one that fits in with usual soprano sizes saves you a lot of discussions to sneak her in as hand luggage

@Szymbar

Sometimes I feel as if those braindead reviews in the morning when one of your eyes is still closed are easier to do than the ones when you’re wide awake and all raving to go, and especially compared against the evening reviews.

Keep fighting! It is only a few more days to go

[Szymbar]

January 26, 2021
Level: 58
Streak day: 356
Level up: January 28, 2021
Reviews: 349
Apprentice items: 210
Items left: 282

Today’s reviews were unexpectedly… simple.

I averaged 98% of correct answers, a score I haven’t seen from before the fast levels started. Damn xd

The final review of the day was just autopiloting the right answers and pressing enter, that made me happy <3

Let’s celebrate it with The One Star from The World Ends With You then, I was FLYING through reviews today.

I can’t say that about my relocation process however. I’ve spent two whole podcasts’ lengths just deciding what will go in a box that I’m sending straight to Germany. It ended up being 20kg and I feel like I should’ve swapped out some things anyway. I’ll be taking a 20kg suitcase, a smaller 10kg luggage suitcase and a 10kg bag with myself to the airport as well.

If that were the extent of the troubles then I’d be content, but no, of course there had to be something that didn’t work out - I’m sending a bike over to Germany too.

And it exceeded the standard girth across delivery companies of 300cm by 20cm.
Because of that, a 20kg package containing a bike costs me TEN TIMES AS MUCH to send as a 20kg package containing all of my belongings I want to get sent to Germany.

TEN TIMES.
200 EURO FOR SENDING A 20KG PACKAGE.

i could’ve sold the bike instead, but i just wanted to have a memory of ireland on me xd

here’s the other, the cheaper 20kg package

[Szymbar]

January 27, 2021
Level: 58
Streak day: 357
Level up: January 28, 2021
Reviews: <the review script broke for me today, but around 200-250>
Apprentice items: 164
Items left: 282

Aaand today was the complete opposite, I struggled through the reviews really hard. Got the number of Apprentice items down at least, so that’s a good sign for tomorrow, especially since there’s gonna be less lessons tomorrow, I think around the 100-120 range maybe.

I’ll try to get some decent sleep as I don’t have work tomorrow.

The Noble Haltmann from Kirby Planet Robobot. Could’ve given the SiIvaGunner version because I adore it.

The whole SiIvaGunner project is something I really appreciate. I have fallen out of the train lately, but SiIvaGunner introduced me to a lot of music compositions and a lot of references I wouldn’t get otherwise. They’re also the reason why I’m so much into Love Live and city pop, not gonna lie.

Speaking of Love Live, a lot of people look at me weird when I say that I find it to be as good as High School Musical 2. And I really like High School Musical 2

I know I’m jumping around topics a lot, but each time I have a lot of thoughts that don’t necessarily correlate with one another, I think back to my favorite movie of the last year - I’m Thinking Of Ending Things. An interesting point that was brought up in that movie was that we, as humans, are a result of media that we engage with. Who can even say if a thought is of your own if so many thoughts that you have, have been inspired by other media.

And it’s not a bad thing per se, but sometimes in order for others to catch up with you, they need to be on the same basis as you are and understand the references that you’re pushing around.

That being said, Kirby Planet Robobot really was a fun game and if you haven’t tried either Love Live or High School Musical 2 yet, give it a shot.

And I’m Thinking Of Ending Things too

[Szymbar]

January 28, 2021
Level: 59
Streak day: 358
CAKE DAY: January 31, 2021
Reviews: 598
Apprentice items: 202
Items left: 168

Yep, that’s not a drill, I’m one level away from the cake. I was really glad I woke up later today and that I’ve only done 598 reviews today, that’s unusually low for Thursdays and I could keep up without too much trouble today.

That being said, today’s lesson sessions were pretty difficult, especially the vocabulary, for some reason I find it harder when I only have one or two words to a kanji than, let’s say, five. It’s good that the kanji characters for “pickled” for example keep coming back, but wouldn’t it be nice if I had any word for “sedge”? I barely got to know the word in English and it’s out already ;-;

Misthallery’s Many Canals from Professor Layton Last Specter, sets the mood for my last evening here in Ireland.

Tomorrow at the same time I’ll be back at home. I won’t be able to return to Ireland for a while, mostly because of the very strict incoming flight requirements and the fact that the flights by themselves are becoming more of a novelty than a regular schedule.

Since this is my last evening here, I went to the beach. I live right next to the seaside, but the nearest beach is 6 or 7 kilometers walking away from where I live. It’s pretty climactic, listening to the waves calms me a lot, especially if it’s late and the tides are gentle.

There are so many things I should’ve done, but I didn’t. So many places I could’ve been to, but I wasn’t. My story of being in Ireland is a story of a ton of unexpected encounters, but also a story of so many thwarted hopes and dreams.

I feel like I’ve simultaneously underperformed and overperformed my expectations of being here, I’ll definitely have stories to tell down the line.

I’m gonna miss waking up to the sunrises next to the seaside, riding the bike down the promenade, eating donuts and drinking takeaway coffee, not even the pandemic was able to take that away from me xd

The plan of translocating to Berlin assumes that I’m going home tomorrow, repack my luggage, fill all the necessary docs and go for a road trip with family on Monday, February 1st - one day after reaching the cake. That’ll be a wild ride, not gonna lie.

I hope I’ll be able to catch some donuts and coffee before the flight tomorrow too, as my last time around.

I need to start writing the cake post too, oh well xd
Maybe I’ll go for an introspective in a post here in the study tomorrow too, I wonder.
You don’t want to miss it, I think!

[Szymbar]

January 29, 2021
Level: 59
Streak day: 359
CAKE DAY: January 31, 2021
Reviews: 233
Apprentice items: 201
Items left: 168

Posting a bit earlier than usual today, because my plane flight was delayed and I won’t be at home before midnight after all xd

I’m writing from the airport, where I did reviews too, wish I could say I’ve never reviewed with a mask on, but that wouldn’t be true either. That’s the first time since October though

Tokyo from SMTIV. I’ll get there eventually, or at least that’s what I’m hoping for!

I had a plane ticket for a flight in March of 2020, I had to cancel it a week before the flight for obvious reasons. Though, it was mostly fear-mongering at that time, everyone in the world would be delighted to see the case numbers of you know what being the same as back then. And besides, Japan didn’t start introducing restrictions until a month after the Europe has, so I could’ve still flown there

Oh well, what’s done is done! Can’t rewind back to when the world looked completely different.

But that’s a good point to branch off to an introspective. Saying that 2020 was a tough year is an understatement, no matter how you look at it. A lot of things went wrong, a lot of interests of mine had to get completely replaced by something else instead and I made a lot of bad, terrible decisions.

From a person that always held their head up I lowered my nose towards the ground, though luckily not too many people have noticed that, so maybe there’s still a chance for me to recover xd

WaniKani has been both a blessing and a curse for me, on one hand, I accelerated my Japanese studies to previously unprecedented heights and I got really decent at reading, really fast. On the other though, I realized that I don’t like Japanese that much and realistically speaking, I can’t see myself sticking to Japanese too long after I’m done with WaniKani - the biggest benefits would probably be reading light and visual novels in original, but most often those are available in English as well and English translators do a very good job of not only preserving the contexts, but also explaining concepts that don’t exist in English to English speakers.

I haven’t found too many websites in Japanese that would have info that would both interest me and not exist in English, but that’s still work in progress. Maybe I’ll find a fanclub of Tsukihime somewhere on 5ch sometime in the future maybe

One of the reasons why I wanted to study Japanese in the first place is that I wanted to get to read those obscure PSP-era games that never got translated and I hope I’ll eventually get to them. Right now I’m going through Super Mario Sunshine in Japanese and I’m doing pretty okay, despite there not being too many kanji xd

My ultimate goal in studying Japanese is to read 大逆転裁判2, a game that I consider very intimate and something that realistically could become my favorite game of all time. I relate to the first part pretty heavily, being an expat, straight out of college, having a 覺悟 like 成歩堂龍ノ介, the only thing missing is the sidekick part xd

I’ve developed a few other bad habits over 2020 too. I tend to play less games, indulge myself less in art, if I see that I have 20 minutes left to another review session I doomscroll for the next 20 minutes instead of doing anything else, I’ve stopped running, I’ve stopped working out, I eat a lot, I’ve stopped programming for fun, I hope I’ll be able to reclaim some of those things in 2021 when I’m in Germany

But yeah, one thing I really struggle with over the expat life and the pandemic is being able to have a person whose door I could knock onto anytime of the day or night and complain about the world being unfair. I’ve become very sheltered and secretive about my feelings because I assumed nobody would be out there to listen. I did find out two people I could open up to by being away from home though: my parents! My relation with parents improved a lot over this expat pandemic journey. I love my parents very much.

Buuut I still wish I had a best sort of a friend next door anyway xd

If you have any experiences with loneliness and opening up to anyone, feel free to post them in, I’d love to read those. It’s much better than doomscrolling anyway

[Szymbar]

January 30, 2021
Level: 59
Streak day: 360
CAKE DAY: January 31, 2021
Reviews: 160 (a few done after midnight, so I’ll count them as Jan 31)
Apprentice items: 195
Items left: 168

Welp, this is it, the final day of level 59.
I didn’t sleep well today at all, so I autopiloted through all the reviews, but I’ll try my best to be in top shape for tomorrow, after all that’s gonna be my Cake Day

Lonely Rolling Star from Katamari Damacy. I was going back and forth on what would be a good track for a day before Level 60 and decided to settle for my first game I played start to finish in Japanese without any prior context. I loved it quite a bit, though not gonna lie, katakana made me skip over a lot of text back at that time xd

A few obstacles came up along the way of translocation, I even got enrolled on an obligatory police-enforced 10-day quarantine that I was able to shorten to one day only because of an exemption on transit I’ll fall upon. Whew, calling a 24/7 hotline at 3 in the morning to get an update on if I’ll even be able to leave home gave me a lot of goosebumps xd

Aside from that, it’s nice to be at home. I decided not to go outside today at all not to test my luck, but as of an hour ago I’m free again

I played a few games on Wii U today, that console needs more attention, it’s got so many bangers all around, Xenoblade X, Nintendo Land, Project Zero, Wii Sports Club, I love those few a lot. I think I’ll take my Wii U with myself to Germany, but I’ll decide tomorrow

Haven’t taken too many photos today either, but a package was waiting for me at home when I arrived, my Secret Santa that was supposed to come from UK before Christmas but UK postal services lagged a bit around Christmas this year and I was only able to get my hands on those toys today.

Pretty cute stuff, I’ll try to mess around with it tomorrow

Big day, I hope I’ll be up to the task xd

[tls]

@Szymbar

Japan didn’t start introducing restrictions until a month after the Europe has, so I could’ve still flown there

Oh well, what’s done is done! Can’t rewind back to when the world looked completely different.

It is way more easy to judge about events happened in the past than forming those laying upon us

One of my former supervisors taught me to always base my decisions on the knowledge available until that very moment when I make them. It is my task to take into consideration everything I can know by then but also to acknowledge that at the same time this is where the limits are. Everything I gain knowledge about or that even happens after making a decision is simply out of scope.

For Japan(ese) and me my moment of truth came in March 2011. Now, ten years later I can easily say that it became a game changer. But back then I simply took into consideration all given information and everything that mattered to me. And made my choice.

@Szymbar

But yeah, one thing I really struggle with over the expat life and the pandemic is being able to have a person whose door I could knock onto anytime of the day or night and complain about the world being unfair.

That’s an interesting way of phrasing it. As someone who has been moving around many times for me there have been many doors I’ve knocked onto.
I never thought about whether it always should be the same door to knock onto. To me this sounds more like a partnership than a friendship. Not sure though, whether it makes sense to draw a line between those two concepts.

Anyway. This is your last couple of hours before reaching the final level. Tomorrow at this time you’ll be full of delicious cake and dreaming of the upcoming trip with your parents, I guess

Thanks for sharing a part of your journey within this study log. As well as some of your thoughts with one of the new durtles around. It was really nice meeting you and I wish you all the best for the upcoming adventures in Germany and hopefully many more places some time in the future.

[Szymbar]

January 31, 2021
Level: 60
Streak day: 361
Reviews: 623
Apprentice items: 229
Items left: 55

A certain Bidoof's acquired cake, confessions of a Level 60!

I did it. [image] [image] After 361 days of speedrunning like an absolute madman, bashing into the keyboard 214 words in two languages a day, I’m finally there. THE CAKE. And you know what, the cake was more than the friends made along the way after all! it was a pizza in my case ;-; As of today, according to WaniKani stats I’ve learned 8841 items in total, 6304 words, 2054 kanji and 483 radicals. I thought I’d use this rare spotlight that I’m having right now to share a few thoughts that …

I have a dream,
a song to sing
To help me cope,
with anything
If you see the wonder of a fairy tale
You can take the future, even if you fail.

Credits from You Have To Burn The Rope. How did I spend the rest of my day? Being here on WaniKani and only that, the whole day long xd

I’m mostly packed and ready to go, not yet under quarantine, so I could go outside and appreciate the winter Wonderland.

See you from Germany tomorrow! Hopefully, at least

[Szymbar]

February 1, 2021
Level: 60
Streak day: 362
Reviews: 113
Apprentice items: 229
Items left: 55

Yep, it’s my first time in 362 days where I’m okay with leaving more than 0 reviews going to sleep xd

My plan for the next few days is to unlock all of the items and then turn on a permanent vacation mode on Sunday, I think I’m fairly content with my level of studies that I’ve had so far xd

Ricco Harbor from Mario Sunshine, played a bunch of this game today. Damn, it’s such a banger. Remember that one time Miyamoto went on his first vacation in 20 years and liked it so much that he decided to make an entire console worth of games based on his vacations? (Mario Kart Double Dash, Mario Sunshine, Luigi’s Mansion, yupyup!)

I’m in Germany now! I have a flat, it’s not a big one, 26m^2 worth of a studio apartment but the amenities around make it so much worth it. There’s a bike parking in the basement, a huge terrace I could do some workout in the morning, a laundry room, a dryer and a few other things too. Luckily I didn’t end up getting stopped on the border, so the travel here was pretty smooth, but I don’t want to draw too much attention and I’ll try to adhere to the quarantine restrictions as much as possible so that I wouldn’t pose any risk to people here in Germany.

There’s a train track right in my neighborhood too, but the walls block the noise and you don’t hear any trains. And I love trains, so if everything reopens in 2025 that’ll be a nice benefit to have xd

I’ve already furnished the room pretty extensively, I took something like a hundred kilograms worth of belongings, there’s still two packages coming over from Ireland, it already kind of feels at home

I’m liking it here so far, but we’ll see if I can survive 10 days without going further than the terrace - the rules of quarantine are a bit different here in Germany than in Ireland, in Germany you’re not supposed to leave your permanent residence under any pretence. Oh well xd

[smellslikerain]

Oops, forgot to pop in yesterday and say congrats to finishing! So here’s my late congratulation confetti!