A Cup of Tea

[KingOfPain]

And trying to force myself to remember that English is not a pro-drop language, yet can not stop doing it. Makes trying to write for non-personal use strange.

Without grammatical cases, it seems hard to be able to drop pronouns, no?

I find English unpleasantly verbose because of this sometimes.

One of the biggest obstacle for Chinese is the use of tenses. Those are implied in the context of the conversation. No need to invent new words for the same thing. Example: eat-ate-eaten, man-men, and then there is sheep-sheep!? The one that get me most is a pair of pants vs a shirt 

-Where did you go yesterday?
-I went to school

(Chinese) The word yesterday indicates an event in the past. Why bother with do, did, done?
-Where you go yesterday?
-I go to school.

Similarly, the use of singular and plural are completely absent.
How many men did you eat yesterday?
I ate three men

(Chinese)
How many man you eat yesterday
I eat three man.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

You ever fall asleep, and wake up and it's a month later?

Have been sleeping like a squirrel in winter, yet am never rested. Probably need to rewire my daily routine. Have been slowly going mad reflecting over my college experience and trying to make sense of it all. Am beginning to appreciate chamber music. And trying to force myself to remember that English is not a pro-drop language, yet can not stop doing it. Makes trying to write for non-personal use strange.

Chevalier, how was the Japan trip and the date?

Regrettably, I haven't yet met the young lady! COVID-19 has upended a lot of plans here in Korea, and I wound up having to delay my travel to Seoul this weekend. Hopefully we can connect in March? I know now that she's a Westerner, like me, which is only slightly disappointing since a Korean girl would have been great incentive to practice my Korean. Regardless, it'll be my first date with anyone other than my ex in ten years, so it'll be a grand adventure!

Speaking of, Japan was...everything I wanted it to be and more. It's impossible to fully describe my trip, so let me instead describe one moment for y'all and let it stand for all:

So I bought a JR Rail Pass, which for two weeks grants me unlimited rides on essentially the entire Japanese rail network, from the mighty shinkansen bullet train all the way down to little municipal trains that roam around rural provinces. I could go wherever I wanted, when I wanted, which I used to the fullest extent, exploring the whole length of the country between Hakata port and Tokyo. 

By Wednesday, I've been in the country nearly a week, and I'm on the shinkansen. It's an intimidating thing, when I first tried it - the shinkansen station in every city is massive, with tens of thousands of people hurrying everywhere, a hundred different shops packed in, video advertisements, posters, signs pointing to trains every which way - for a Midwestern boy like me it was all a bit overwhelming. When you reach the platform, the roar of trains coming and going is constant, and the air is filled with announcements in Japanese and English, and people talking to each, too, so it's an intense experience. Then the train comes barrelling down into the station and between the noise and the speed of it you can just feel the power of this machine. I loved it. But once you board the shinkansen, things change totally - the ride is smooth, the cars are spacious, luxurious, and quiet. The seats are wide and soft, smiling women roam up and down the aisle with drink and snack carts, and unless you look out the window you can hardl tell you're moving at all. 

So I'm snug in my seat Wednesday afternoon, racing towards evening. Behind me is Kyushu, Hiroshima, Himeji, Osaka, Kyoto - but yet to come is Tokyo. I'm tired from everything I've already done - a hundred adventures already - but I'm also excited for my first glimpse of Tokyo, the largest city in the world. Still ready to see some of those iconic Japanese sights like the scramble crossing or Tokyo tower. And the train comes around a bend, and my jaw just drops - in the distance, glowing in the sunset, dozens of miles across a wide valley, I get my first glimpse of Mt. Fuji. 

Now, I've heard of Mt. Fuji, of course, and seen the pictures. I thought I was prepared for it. Fellas, let me tell you - I was not prepared. The snow on the volcano flared golden in the sunlight. Clouds skirted along its foothills. The intervening valley between us lay mostly in shadow, except for the lights of Fuji town, just now starting to twinkle in the advancing evening. I just kind of stared, slack-jawed for a while, then dove for my phone - the train is racing along at hundreds of miles an hour and I have bare minutes. It's not the greatest photo in the world, but it's all I had time for:



Now that is a natural wonder of the world. 

My trip was filled with moments like that. I drank sake with a dozen strangers on our hotel roof for Chinese New Year. Didn't learn their names - no one shared and no one asked. Waded in the tide at Itsukushima Shrine. Got kidnapped by some elderly women in Hiroshima and dragged to a traditional tea ceremony. Toured the Imperial Palace. Met American contractors in a tiny dongatsu joint in Osaka, who were building animatronic robots for a theme park (one guy did Gringotts, in Orlando!). Chased by wild boars at Fushimi Shrine in Kyoto. Had my best gin and tonic ever in the shadow of Tokyo Tower. 

Have you ever had a perfect day? A day where you would change absolutely nothing, because even the smallest alteration would mar the rest? Picture a string of days like that - every day in succession was more perfect than the last. That was Japan.

So yeah, good trip.

[darrelljs]

What a marvelous post .

Darrell

[superdeath]

Have you ever had a perfect day?

I slept 26hrs once after staying awake nearly 47hrs. Does that count?

[superdeath]

Had my "hearing" on possibly getting my job back at the post office, Management did a horrible job in defending their removal case... so im fairly sure the arbitrator will side with me. Getting that job back + 4-7k backpay would really help my finances.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Good luck! Rooting for you!

One question in my mind, though - what would it be like to work for management, if you got your job back? Would it be weird, knowing that they wanted to be rid of you?

[Old Harry]

Yeah, good luck! When will you hear the result?

Also that was a great post CMF. I don't have the urge to travel anywhere I don't know the language but you've almost convinced me...

[superdeath]

Good luck! Rooting for you!

One question in my mind, though - what would it be like to work for management, if you got your job back? Would it be weird, knowing that they wanted to be rid of you?

Oh, its going to be exciting knowing they are looking for any/all reasons to fire me again. Not that they werent trying before, but knowing they fired me over a made-up rule has me.... ready.

I wouldnt even be considering going back if it werent for the large potential backpay, and the 6-7$ an hr pay increase between the jobs.

But im hoping to afford

 https://www.carfax.com/vehicle/2G1FJ1EJ1E9324711

Something like that about a year from now, so ill be taking whatever pays the most. In fact, im killing myself working 12hrs 5 days a week for as long as possible to get as much overtime pay as i can for that goal.

[superdeath]

Yeah, good luck! When will you hear the result?

45-60 days from now. The arbitrator gets a bunch of "free/paid" days that they get to use to decide the case. Even if they had their mind made up during the hearing. More backpay the longer they take to make the decision though..

[KingOfPain]

I like that the new Camero are style after the 67-69 models. Those are the good looking ones