#i struggle talking in my native language too and that's why i prefer texting over speaking any day

[how-to-portuguese]

hey, hope this ask finds you well! I've been wanting to study EP (European Portuguese) for a while now but I can't find any resources available. I'd appreciate it greatly if you would recommend me any resources that you use (especially self-study methods that use the IPA, grammar books would help too!). thank you so so much and have a great day/night!!!

Hey! I know it can be really difficult to find EP resources, especially when you are starting out. I’ll give you a bit of background about my own journey and talk about the resources I have found along the way. (Edit: This is quite a long post, so the content is after the break.)

I started learning European Portuguese about 4.5 years ago. Like many others, I struggled to find good EP resources online, and so I ended up taking evening classes. I had a really good teacher and a very small class, and so the lessons helped me build a solid foundation. We used the Gramática Ativa 1 (A1/A2/B1) book by Isabel Coimbra and Olga Mata Coimbra and the Gramática Aplicada: Português para Estrangeiros (A1/A2/B1) book and the corresponding Caderno de Exercícios by Carla Oliveira and Luísa Coelho.

I moved about 2 years ago and am no longer able to take the evening classes, so I have only been doing self-study in my free time. I am currently working my way through the Manual de Aprender Português 3 (B2) by João Malaca Casteleiro, Luísa Coelho e Carla Oliveira. I also bought the Gramática Aplicada Português Língua Estrangeira (B2/C1) book by Carla Oliveira and Luísa Coelho and the Português Atual 3 (C1/C2) book by Hermínia Malcata, but I have not started them yet.

You can find all off these books and others by the same authors online at Bertrand.pt and Lidel.pt. Some of the book series come with CDs for you to be able to do listening exercises at home, which will give you some exposure to the pronunciation. I also bought the Harry Potter series in European Portuguese from Bertand last Christmas (there is a difference between the BP and EP versions!), and I think pushing myself through those books is helping me to reach a much higher level. I can really tell a difference from where I was when I started the Philosopher’s Stone to where I am now starting Prisoner of Azkaban.

I never had books on pronunciation since I took classes from a native Portuguese and my partner is Portuguese. However, I did a quick search on the Bertrand website and found Manual de Pronúncia e Prosódia by Carla Oliveira and Luísa Coelho. I can’t say whether they use IPA or not in that book, but it might be worth looking into. I liked the grammar books by those authors, so the pronunciation manual is probably good as well.

I recently reblogged a YouTube video called The Secret to Understanding Portuguese Natives by Practice Portuguese. That video uses IPA to explain EP vowel sounds. It is about 40 minutes long, but it is worth the time. The Practice Portuguese team have a handful of other YouTube videos and podcasts where they have their viewers submit recordings of themselves reading a text and then they review it and provide advice.

There is also a Practice Portuguese website with other material and lessons, but I have not used it yet as it is not free. It seems to have a lot of good content for beginners, but it’s not clear whether they have a lot of paid content for intermediate and advanced learners. (That is really the only thing stopping me from signing up, so if someone knows the answer then let me know!). I think they are working on a mobile app as well.

I tried A LOT of free language-learning apps offering Portuguese. Most of them only offer Brazilian Portuguese or are very bad quality. Portuguese with Carla did a YouTube video with a really good, in-depth review of the Top 10 European Portuguese Learning Apps. Talk the Streets also has a YouTube video about learning European Portuguese with free apps. Both of those YouTube channels, along with Practice Portuguese, are fully dedicated to EP language learning content.

I completed the DuoLingo tree a while ago, but I did the tree without sound (it was just too confusing). I still use it now and again to practice verb conjugations while commuting. It was helpful that my partner is Portuguese and could point out differences in word usage and grammar. You could potentially use DuoLingo with the DeepL translator and/or the Priberam dictionary to help determine whether a word is more common in Brazil or in Portugal. Linguee is also useful for definitions and to see how a word is used in context.

Memrise does have some European Portuguese lessons. Some people really like this app, but it just wasn’t for me. I think the content wasn’t a good fit because I only discovered the app after I had been taking Portuguese lessons for more than a year. I also really disliked their notification system (even more than DuoLingo), and the app design felt a little too childish and a little too gamified.

Anki and Quizlet are both good flashcard apps. I have heard a lot of positive things about both of them. I tried this briefly, but they mostly reminded how much I hate flashcards. I personally don’t enjoy rote memorisation, and I find that I learn better when I encounter new words in context and then try to use them in conversation or in writing. I think that’s why regularly watching/reading the news on sites like RTP and P��blico and reading the Harry Potter series has been helpful.

I also tried Tandem, which is a language exchange app. I use it now and again for writing practice, but every time I show myself as online I get flooded with dozens of messages which can be a bit overwhelming. It can be difficult to keep track of the active conversations, as your inbox keeps filling up and pushing those conversations further down the list. I think part of the problem is that you have to put your native language, and a lot of people jump at the chance to practice with a native English speaker. I also have yet to find a native EP speaker, although occasionally I have chatted with pople who make corrections to my messages in both Brazilian and European Portuguese.

One of the cheapest options for lessons is finding teachers through iTalki. You can arrange private lessons with a native speaker from Portugal. Some of these are professional teachers (very few in my experience) and others are native speakers (often linguistic students) trying to get teaching experience or just earn some extra money. I tried iTalki lessons for a while, but the people I had lessons with didn’t seem prepared to teach grammar to someone at my level. It was good for conversation practice, but it just wasn’t what I was looking for at the time. It does seem to get really good reviews from beginners.

You can also look into doing classes online through Instituto Camões. They have online self-learning courses, group classes, and individual classes. The self-learning classes are €180 for 12 weeks, and the price increases up to €320 for 12 weeks of individual tutoring. I have been considering this option recently, as I have found it difficult to commit to regular self-study while also working a full-time job (I’m a Tumblr ancient). I think the financial commitment and the regular schedule would really help me, but that is a personal preference.

If you ever decide that you want to do some language classes in Portugal, you might consider the University of Coimbra Portuguese language courses. They do short courses and several degrees in Portuguese language, literature, and linguistics. There are great language courses all over Portugal, but University of Coimbra is a really cool university in a very nice city. The student culture there is really famous even in Portugal. I haven’t studied there myself, but I have spent a lot of time in the city and the university makes me a bit sad that I am no longer a student.

Whew, this ended up being long post! I tried to give a variety of resources at different price points. I hope you find at least some of this helpful! I may reblog if I remember anything else, and maybe some of my followers will have more suggestions...

[floatingpetals]

One Last Call || Maybe Not

Pairings: Steve Rogers x Reader

Warnings: Angst, language, eventual fluff

Word Count: 2400+

Summary: A mission had gone horribly wrong. She knew things were grim, and she had something she desperately needed to get off her chest. All she needed was one last call.

A/N: HA YA’LL THOUGHT I WAS GONNA LEAVE IT LIKE THAT?! HAAAAAA!! APRIL FOOLLSS!!! But seriously, I couldn’t leave that story off the way it did. It just hurt too much. I’m not gonna give much more away, so I hope you enjoyy!! 

Gifs not mine, credit to the creator!

Natasha was there the second the phone slipped from Steve’s fingers. She knew how important Y/N was in his life, how quickly he had grown to care for the woman. It was heartbreaking to watch; he was just forced to listen to her dying breath and there was nothing he could do about it.

Tony let out a heavy sigh, biting back his own set of tears. His gaze swept around the rest of the team, seeing similar reactions on the rest of the team. They fought back their own tears, the air was thick and somber. With heavy steps, he walked over to the discarded phone on the floor and picked it up. He paused when he heard shouting from the other end. The line must not have dropped. Raising the phone to his ear, he winced after a loud shout and snapped back.

“Hey-What’s going on?”

The officer on the other end let out a string of words in Ukrainian before letting out a sigh of relief.

“Добре. Ти все ще там.”

“Yup. Gotta speak English.” Tony said flatly. He figured they’d need to discuss where to pick up Y/N’s body, no doubt they’d have to take her to a corner before they could get her back to them. To bring her home one last time. The words the officer spoke next made Tony’s heart burst with hope.

“She’s still breathing.”

Sinking back into his seat, Tony let out the breath he was holding. Voice shaking he asked the man to repeat himself.

“The woman. We were able to get her breathing.” The officer said. He could hear the sirens pulling away in the distance, the officer closing his car door. “She’s in critical condition, but she is alive. For now.”

“Oh-That’s-“ Tony was at a loss for words, fresh tears now streaming down his face. Only this time they weren’t for sorrow. “What hospital are you taking her to?”

“A local hospital. They need to do surgery. There’s still a bullet in her side-.”

“Yes. Get her in and get it out. Do not let her code on us again.” Tony said firmly, spinning around in his seat to go at the controls. He kicked the jet into overdrive, pushing it to its limits.

Behind him, the rest of the team listened in shock. Steve’s sobs had stopped, his eyes wide as Tony explained that they were a few hours away. He glanced at Bucky, whose eyes were just as bloodshot as his. Was this a joke, or was Y/N still alive?

“I’ll send you the coordinates to our landing site. We’ll need transportation to the hospital. You can? Great.” Tony flipped off his tears and switched into the leading role. Y/N meant a lot to him as well, but someone needed to step in until Steve could recollect his emotions. Tony understood, he was the same and is the same when it comes to Pepper. “What’s your number? I’ll text you from my phone when we’re close and you can keep us updated.”

Natasha passed Steve a tissue, a happy smile spreading on her face. This was good. Y/N was still alive. Barely, but she was alive.

“Talk to you later.” Tony hung up the phone and spun around to address everyone. “We have great news and bad news. Good news, Y/N might have coded before they arrived but by some miracle, they were able to bring her back. Bad news; she’s hanging by a thread, needs surgery and we’re still five hours out.  Petro, the cop who answered her phone, says she’s got a bullet they need to get out and is suffering from significant blood loss and definitely has internal damage. She’s probably going to just get out of surgery by the time we get there if the damage is as extensive as they thought.”

“But she’s alive?” Natasha asked, resting a hand on Steve’s shoulder. Tony smiled, although grimly, and nodded.

“She’s a fighter apparently.”

Steve stared down at his hands on his lap and gave a watery chuckle.

“That’s my girl.”

~~~~

True to Tony’s word, six hours later the jet landed in a field just outside of the village Y/N was sent to. Right where he said he would be, was Office Petro and four squad cars. He shook hands with Tony and directed them to pile in the cars. Steve joined Tony with Petro, eager to learn about Y/N’s status.

“She just got of surgery,” The bigger man said in his heavy accent. His voice was rough but gentle. He understood their concern for the woman he thought too was dead. She would have been another unfortunate statistic to the death of drug crimes around the area. “If you don’t mind me asking, why was she in the area we found her. You say she is an agent?”

“Yes,” Steve replied. “She was supposed to be tailing some of the drug dealers around this area. They’re small, but the demands for the drugs they supply is quickly growing. It’s a mix of molly and Adderall that a lot of younger teens seem to prefer.”  

“Ah, yes. They have quickly become a problem around here. But how would they know they were being watched by anyone, let alone a single woman?”

That caused Steve and Tony to pause. Petro was right. How else would they have known about Y/N? The gang wasn’t known for its use of guns and violence as of yet. They both shared a look, fury starting to build in their chests. Someone tipped them off.

“Anyways. The last thing they told me was she’s in ICU. She coded once on the table, but they were able to bring back once more.” Petro sounded impressed. “I don’t know what you give her to eat, but she wasn’t ready to leave just yet.”

Tony grimaced a part of him proud of Y/N but worried she wasn’t going to make it through the night.

“She’s a stubborn one, that’s for sure.” He clapped a hand on Petro’s shoulder. Petro pulled up to the front entrance of the hospital, throwing the car in park. Steve was out of the car before it stopped, desperate to see Y/N, to make sure she was still breathing.  

The nurse at the front desk had seen a lot of things in her days. Bullet wounds, people with limbs handing on by a thread, even people with screwdrivers embedded in their thighs. Looking up to see The Captain America, Ironman and party rush up to the desk looking like they were ready to tear the walls down was a different level of terror she experienced that day.

“There’s a woman, Y/N Y/L/N. She was brought in a few hours ago for a bullet wound and just came out of surgery.” Steve demanded, leaning over the desk. The nurses’ mouth fell open, her wide eyes darting frantically between the Avengers that loomed over her desk. She shook her head, unable to understand English. Petro tutted and pushed the overbearing Captain aside.

“She doesn’t speak English.” He explained and then turned to the woman. He explained quickly, asking for the room number Y/N was in. Relief washed over the woman, nodding quickly and leaned over the desk to point down the hall as she spoke. Petro turned to the Avengers. “She’s on the third floor, room 308. I’ll come so you don’t scare the other nurses.”

Steve bit back a snarl but nodded. He needed to get to Y/N, not get thrown out for terrorizing the natives. He followed a step behind Petro anxiously. The ride up was excruciating, and the walk to her room was terrifying. Petro stopped him at the door, waving to a sink.

“They want you to wash before you go in and only one at a time.”

“You go ahead.” Tony patted Steve on the shoulder. Steve stay rooted to the spot, staring blankly at the door in front of him. “Go on Cap. The team and I have things we have to take care of. Go see your girl.”

As he walked over to the sink, the reality of what happened and what he was about to step in to hit him. His stomach felt like someone filled it with lead, and his legs struggled to hold up his weight. He was terrified. He already thought he lost her once, just seconds after admitting how much she meant to him. She was nowhere near out of the clear. The second he’d open that door, it meant this was all real. It wasn’t some twisted nightmare he was forced to live through.

Nothing in his line of work could have ever compared to slowly opening the door and seeing Y/N hooked up to all machines. The door shut softly behind him, the click releasing the silent tears he held back. She looked so frail, her skin a sickly shade lighter than her usual tone. His heat shattered in his chest. He moved to stand beside her, afraid if he took her hand in his he’d hurt her further.

Letting out a heavy breath, Steve pulled the chair closer to her beside and delicately reached out to take her hand in his. Her skin was clammy and cold, but he could feel her faint heartbeat. It was enough to soothe his fears for now, even though he knew she still had a long recovery ahead of her. Pressing a kiss against the balk of her hand, he settled in beside her for the long wait for her to wake.

~~~~

The door popped open, startling Steve awake. He blinked, blearily looking for the newcomer. Bucky walked in with a fast food bag in one hand, and a giant drink in the other.

“Hey.” He greeted, passing the food over to his friend and sat in one of the large armchairs. Steve mumbled thanks and turned his eyes back to Y/N. They had taken her out of ICU three days ago, her body healed enough that she didn’t need to be on constant care. She, however, had yet to wake up. The doctors assured the team it wasn’t a bad thing, she went through extensive trauma and her body would wake on its own. Now in a new room, Tony made sure she got the best treatment he could get her. After two weeks sitting on the painful plastic chairs, Steve was grateful for the soft chairs in the nicer room.

“How’s she doin’?” Bucky asked, his eyes growing sad looking over her prone body.

“Same as yesterday,” Steve replied solemnly. Bucky grunted and reached in his pocket, pulling out a phone. He passed it over to Steve.

“Tony fixed it for you. Also wanted to let you know we found the assholes who did this. Natasha made sure the rest that went into hiding wouldn’t ever come back.” Bucky said with a hint of pride. Steve felt the corners of his lips turn up in a smirk. “Doesn’t mean they’ll stay there long. Natasha and Wanda both took this to a whole other level.”

“Good,” Steve stated, digging the food out from the bag. Bucky smirked.

“Tony threw a fit when he couldn’t get us the suite in the only hotel here in town. So, they set us up in the honeymoon suite.” Bucky muffled a groan and rolled his head to look at Steve. “It’s been an interesting few weeks. You ever gonna come up to the room?”

Steve shook his head, chewing on a bite from the burger. The room had a shower, and he had Natasha bring him a change of clothes and deodorant. The only time he left was when he went to get coffee or food from the cafeteria. The nurses and doctors stopped trying to push him out after visiting hours, instead opting to just ask him to stay in the room with Y/N. Not that he ever had plans on leaving her side for too long.

“Come on man.” Bucky started up. “You can’t stay here the whole time. You need to sleep. In a bed. And not curled up on a half stuff ottoman in a hospital.”

“I hear what you're saying, but no Buck. I can’t leave her.” Steve said firmly. “I wasn’t there for her when she needed me, but I’m going to be here for her when she wakes up.”

Bucky fell quiet, observing Steve for a moment before letting out a heavy sigh.

“Alright. But when she wakes up and bitches you out for not taking care of yourself, give me a heads up. I want to get a seat and popcorn for that show.”

“You’re hilarious,” Steve stated dryly. Bucky flashed him a toothy grin and swung a leg over the arm of his chair.

“That’s why you keep me around.”

“Punk.”

“Dick.”

“Hey now. That's rude.”

The two froze, their eyes going wide at the scratchy feminine voice that entered the fray. Their heads snapped towards the bed, both their eyes growing wide in shock. Steve moved first, vaulting off the chair to rush to Y/N’s side. He grabbed her hand while Bucky shot off outside to grab a nurse, giving the two a moment before the doctors would come rushing in.

“Shit, sweetheart.” Steve croaked, the tears starting all over again. “I’m so glad to see you’re awake! How are you feeling? What hurts?”

“Slow down, Stevie.” Y/N giggled, wincing at the flash of pain that shot up her side. “Clearly, I’m not goin’ anywhere.”

“Jesus, you gave me a heart attack. I thought I lost you.” Steve stated his voice cracking. “I heard you die. I just-.”

“Hey.” Y/N interrupted. She reached her free hand up, and cupped his cheek, brushing her thumb along his lips. “I’m so sorry you had to hear that. I didn’t though. I’m here. That’s all that matters.”

Steve couldn’t say a word, his voice caught up in his throat. Instead, he did what he’d wanted to since the day he realized he started to fall for her. He closed the distance between them and pressed a searing kiss against her lips. Y/N melted under his touch, tugging him closer. They didn’t pull back until the door swung open, the doctors filtering in.

Stepping back, Steve’s eyes never left Y/N as the doctors went through the motions. A smile spread on his face, his eyes shining with fresh unshed tears. He wasn’t going to mess this up. He was tired of being careful. He had a second chance, and he wasn’t going to ruin it.

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Steve Tag: (Open)

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[missmentelle]

How to Support a Partner with Autism

After nearly two years of being single following a very difficult breakup, I got into a new relationship last year. Although we had a bit of a rocky start - as regular readers of this blog already know - we have managed to overcome our issues and build a happy, affectionate, stable relationship with each other. My new guy has all of the traits I was looking for in a partner - he’s kind, thoughtful, and considerate. He's dependable, and even though I’m not a morning person, I gladly wake up early to exchange “good morning” texts with him, filled with flirty compliments and encouragement for the day ahead. We share the same interests and values, and there’s nothing I look forward to more than curling up in his arms at the end of a long day. After years of living with a partner who seemed determined to grind me down, my new guy is the first person I’ve ever dated who puts an effort into building me up instead. 

He also happens to be on the Autism spectrum. 

My partner is from a European country with some of the worst protections for autistic human rights in the developed world, and his diagnosis has been a source of deep shame for him. He has lived his whole life under serious stigma, and he had hoped that moving to America would make things a little better for him. My friends and family’s reactions to finding out my partner is autistic, however, have been disappointing, even in an age and country where autism acceptance is on the rise. Many of them don’t understand why I would want to have an autistic partner, or they are surprised to learn that autistic people date at all. It’s not entirely surprising that they think this way - although there is more information out there about autism than ever, and depictions of autism in popular media are on the rise, it is still rare to see autistic people presented as sexually desirable, or to see serious conversations about dating and sex with people on the spectrum. When we are shown autistic people in dating situations, either their social awkwardness is played for laughs, or they are portrayed as only being capable of dating other autistic people. The idea that autistic people can have happy, mutually fulfilling romantic relationships with non-autistic people is not often explored in media or in resources about autism, and I have to look pretty hard to find advice or examples of relationships that look like mine. 

So if you’re a non-autistic person who is in love with an autistic person, and you’re worried about how best to support your partner’s needs, here are my personal recommendations:

Ask your partner what they need. Your partner has been living with their quirks for a lot longer than you have, and by this point, they probably have a good idea of what works for them and what doesn’t. Don’t guess, and don’t make assumptions - ask your partner what they need from you, in plain and direct language. The things that worked in your previous relationships might not work for this partner, and it’s better to discuss your partner’s needs ahead of time rather than learning that they don’t like something after they’ve already gotten stressed out or upset. 

Beware of stereotypes. Don’t assume that you know what an autistic person needs just because you sat through three episodes of Atypical and half a season of The Big Bang Theory. Autistic people have as much variety as non-autistic people, and your partner is probably very different from every other autistic person you know. My boyfriend is the guitarist in a heavy metal band and routinely performs in noisy bars - he doesn’t experience sensory processing issues to the same degree that other people with autism do. He does have a hard time with written communication, while some autistic people literally write novels. Everyone is different, and relying on stereotypes is unfair to your partner. 

Be prepared to face communication difficulties. One of the hallmarks of autism is that it makes communication difficult. That’s kind of what autism is. While previous partners might have been able to effortlessly read your meaning from a single glance or a gentle nudge, your autistic partner may have difficulties doing the same, and getting angry at them for not picking up on subtle nuances is just going to make you both upset. Finding a way to communicate is essential for all couples, but it may require more dedicated effort when one or both of you has communication issues. Get used to saying exactly what you mean - many people with autism struggle to parse sarcasm or passive aggression, and you can’t have a productive relationship when one of you has to work a lot harder to understand what the other is getting at. If you are the sort who loves to tease, check in with your partner and make sure they know when you are kidding and when you aren’t. Debrief after difficult interactions to see where you both could have done things differently. Your partner is worth the effort.

Learn to not take things personally. People with autism can be very blunt, and sometimes struggle to know when they have crossed the line from “telling it like it is” to “hurting others’ feelings”. They may also have moments where they want to socially withdraw, or moments when they do not want to be physically touched. It’s important not to take any of it personally, and to remember that your partner’s moods and needs are not always about you. Your partner isn’t trying to hurt you - they are just trying to exist in a world that isn’t always comfortable for them. My partner and I have a double barrier to communication that can sometimes lead to unintended offense; there is a language gap between us, as his English is not perfect, and I am barely conversational in his native tongue. There are plenty of times he has accidentally said something harsh, or chosen unnecessarily harsh wording. He struggles to find the right words to comfort someone, especially over text message, and when I’m worried about something he will often say “I don’t care about this” - not because he’s telling me to shut up, but because he can’t find the words to say “I am confident that everything is going to work out okay, and so I am not concerned about this issue and you shouldn’t be either”. Having a partner with autism often means extending the benefit of the doubt, letting things go, and asking your partner for clarification before responding to what they say.

Don’t drop hints or expect mind-reading. You shouldn’t do this in any relationship, but it’s especially important that you not do this with an autistic partner. Autistic partners cannot play the “what’s wrong - I’m fine - no you’re not - I said I’m fine” game with you; you have to tell them outright if something is bothering you, instead of hoping they will notice you are obviously in a pissy mood. Use your words. Social connections do not always come naturally to your partner, and asking them to make the connection between an offhand comment you made a week ago and your mood today is just going to make everyone needlessly frustrated. If you didn’t say it in plain language, don’t expect them to know what you want.

Remember that honesty is a double-edged sword. People with autism often do not see the point in lying. If I ask my boyfriend if I look fat in my new dress, he will absolutely give me an honest answer, and then make several suggestions for changes that I might make to my diet and exercise regime. He is not trying to be rude, and he doesn’t actually want me to lose weight - he is giving me the answer that he thought I wanted. Don’t ask your autistic partner questions that you don’t want honest answers to. The little voice in your head that tells you “the truth is going to hurt this person’s feelings too much, time for a white lie” doesn’t work for everyone, and your partner may have a hard time understanding when you are actually hoping to be lied to. 

Understand that you may need to initiate things. People with autism tend to face a lot of social rejection in their lives, and by the time they reach dating age, it can really begin to take a toll on them. They are used to seeing themselves portrayed as sexually and socially undesirable, and they may have come to believe that dating is off the table for them. Most have been burned before for coming on too strong, or for making their feelings known when their interest wasn’t returned, and they may be hesitant to make the first move. My partner has actually been in a lot more relationships than I have, but almost never of his own volition - he is objectively extremely physically attractive, especially to women who like men from alternative subcultures, and he has been fortunate enough to have other people constantly make the first move. Even at this stage in the relationship, I often have to be the one to initiate affection - he is wary of coming on too strong, and prefers to wait for me to make a move.

Be prepared to offer a lot of reassurance. My partner struggles to identify other people’s moods or read facial expressions. He cannot tell a “I’m genuinely happy to be interacting with you” smile from a “I’m trying to be polite but I want you to go away” smile, and he knows it. It’s very stressful to not be able to tell what kind of impact you’re having with another person, and sometimes people with autism need extra reassurance that their partners are enjoying whatever it is they are doing and want it to continue. A quick “hey, I really like that you hugged me just now, it made me really happy” goes a long way.

Don’t infantalize your partner. Your partner is an adult with autism. They are not a child, and they don’t need to be treated like one. The fact that they might sometimes need extra patience with communication does not mean that they need to be coddled, talked down to, or pitied. People with autism deserve to be respected like any other adult - you should not be trying to shelter them or undermining their ability to make decisions for themselves. Let them take risks if they want to take risks, and don’t act like their substitute parent. 

Plan dates and activities with their needs in mind. Even if your partner can handle going to a noisy bar, that’s probably not the place to meet up with them if you need to have an emotionally tough conversation with them. Some autistic people struggle with food - a trip to a restaurant with completely unfamiliar cuisine may be more stressful than exciting for them. Likewise, while popular media pushes the idea that being “spontaneous” is important for a love connection, many people with autism are much happier having a set routine and knowing about any plans well in advance. If my partner and I have a date set for next week, he will text me every day until then to confirm our plans. Don’t worry about what the world finds “romantic” - do what works best for the two of you.

Remember that they still feel emotions, even if they can’t always show it. People often make the mistake of assuming that people with autism are “emotionless” or “robotic”. But an inability to express emotions outwardly does not mean they aren’t being experienced on the inside. People with autism can experience very intense emotions, but not show outward signs of this. Don’t assume that your partner is feeling nothing just because they seem placid and calm - check in with them, even if they appear to be okay. 

Enjoy them for who they are. The whole point of getting into a relationship with someone was, presumably, because you enjoy spending time with them. So keep spending time with them. It’s important to be mindful of barriers that your partner faces, but it’s also important not to get too wrapped up in it and reduce your partner to a label. My partner is autistic, but he’s also my cooking partner, my travel buddy and the person whose ass I am going to kick just as soon as I get good at shooter games. There’s no point trying to divide him up into “autistic traits” and “non-autistic traits”. He’s a whole wonderful person, and someone I feel very lucky to even know. 

[rigelmejo]

i really do mean this, if you’re a native english speaker and you’re the type to try being a polyglot, or you just would like to learn multiple languages, and ESPECIALLY if French is a language you want to learn:

it really IS one of the easier ‘commonly studied’ languages for a native english speaker to learn. (Theoretically, Spanish is too, so you may consider that instead if it’s the language you really want to learn).

A couple years ago, I took a french class in college. I took it because in high school I’d tried to take classes and/or study the following languages independently: Spanish (1 class, learned nothing), German (2 years of classes, learned some verbs and standard conjugations, basically learned A1 kind of stuff), Chinese (1 year learning the basics and the teacher was great but I promptly forgot almost all of it), Japanese (independent study, I learned the kana and some simple words). I basically learned nothing significant - not enough to USE any of the languages in the ways I wanted to even minimally use them. I figured I was bad at learning languages. 

So in college, I picked a french class to explore 2 things: 1. To see if I could even learn a language at all, by trying again with a new language I had absolutely zero experience with. 2. Because I liked the idea of studying languages, and wanted to see if I got to choose to study it on purpose if I’d do better (compared to many college classes I was required to take and hated, compared to language classes being required therefore ‘disliked’ by me in high school).

So mainly, I picked French because I had no experience studying it and thought it would be a good test of if I could learn anything substantial. I had some reasons for learning French, but none really motivated me: I figured since I live by Canada French might be useful, I figured if I ever work for the UN I could use French as one of my languages for it. So basically, the usual ‘not passionate’ reasons. 

Now I do actually think passion helped me to actually learn French. So I encourage you, whatever language you are studying, to find something in that language or to do with that language that drives you and makes you passionately CARE. For me, I found a couple books. I was in a thrift store, and found 2 French graded readers from the 1930s. One was a French history book, and I found it fascinating that it was how French people from the 1930s viewed their culture and history. The other book contained letters from a 19 year old french schoolteacher as her life was more and more effected by world war 2 ramping up and then eventually occurring and changing her life. I am very interested in history, and I am even MORE personally interested in how specific people view their positions within their own perspectives. Because every person’s perspective is different - how a French person from the 1930s views their country is different than how a French person in 2020 probably would, and how we see WW2 is very different than that 19 year old woman in France in the 1930s saw it starting in her own world. 

She wrote that she was shocked and impressed America had elected its first congresswoman, when in France women had no voting rights yet - and those small lines changed my whole view of what her life must’ve been like! Along with just... the idea this girl younger than me, a 19 year old, was a teacher of a classroom writing to another girl teacher at University of Michigan! For some people these details might be boring, but to me they reveal so much about what life might have been seen as back then, in those places in those perspectives. Those books are what made me WANT to learn french, CARE about learning French, get MOTIVATED to learn. For me, wanting to read French perspectives in their own language, directly from the source, is what made me care about French. I definitely think if you are studying a language (or probably anything), you will have an easier time if you can find something to care about and motivate you to study and improve. As a bonus, this interest driving your passion can help you come up with tangible actual goals you wish to accomplish. 

For example, the goal of ‘I want to be fluent in French/German/whatever’ is fine. But how do you test that? With a CEFR test? I hope so, or something like that, or else you might struggle to come up with a real goal to aim toward. If you’re learning for a test, like a certificate that will allow you to work in a certain country - well that’s a real goal to envision and that you can plan for, and that goal can motivate you. But if it’s just ‘learn to C1 level fluency’ but you don’t ever plan anything measurable or tangible, how will you know you’re making progress? Get specific. If your goal is ‘fluency’ and it’s not for a test/certificate, then what do you want to DO with fluency? Talk to native speakers? Read books? Write articles in the language for a company? Translate? Travel to a location and speak with the locals about their city and culture? Decide. Decide what you want to do with that language. That’s where you’ll find your passion. That’s also where you’ll be able to figure out what real goals you’re aiming for. 

For me, the real goal was “I want to read these books.” That allowed me to realize I needed plans to improve my reading ability - plans to learn words, study grammar, learn the most common words, etc. And allowed me to study according to my needs for my goals. I really suggest finding your passion, then making goals and study plans from there.

---

Okay, back to: why French is a good language to try learning, if you planned to study it anyway, and aren’t sure how to learn a language (at least in my experience). 

French REALLY IS a ton like english. I can’t stress that enough. It has a huge number of cognates and that’s really the biggest reason French is approachable. So many words, at least written, look so similar to english you can guess them. The grammar is a bit different, but it is generally pretty regular so if you study it then it will be manageable. The grammar is also, while a bit different, very understandable from an english native perspective. Even when it’s different, it usually makes sense to a native english speaker. And - in reverse - if you speak French and mess up and use English grammar patterns instead of the correct french ones, often you’ll still at least be understood. The pronunciation is also quite regular and once you get used to it, sounding out new words is pretty easy (I had to learn some Russian at one point in my life and... French pronunciation/listening is such a cakewalk compared to Russian...)

When studying a language, you need a study plan. If its your first time making one, you’ll likely run into a lot of suggestions on the ‘best approach’ and a lot of different methods you can use. Look into them, try them out, and when you find what works for you, be CONSISTENT and stick with it. French is a nice language to do this experimenting on study approaches, because improvement is generally quite rapid when you find an approach that works for you. (Compared to a language very different from English - for example, it took me 2-3 months to start reading French articles online and French books and at least comprehending short sentences and skimming for some main points in simple texts like news articles/informational books. Japanese, it took me 6 months to be able to look at titles and short tweets and do the same thing, and 1 year to be able to look at simple comics aimed for preteens-teens and be able to skim those comics for main ideas - I still can’t approach an actual news article in japanese!). So a language like French, or anything more similar to English, is going to allow you to see if your study plan is working FASTER. Especially if it’s your first time trying to learn a language.

I have found, that a lot of the techniques I use to study Japanese and Chinese, I actually used successfully with French first. So now, even though my progress is much slower when I use them for Japanese and Chinese, I already know that I DO know how to do those study approaches and I DO know they give me progress over time. 

One technique is to ‘switch to monolingual engagement with a language as soon as possible.’ With Japanese or Chinese, as you can imagine, it takes longer to attempt to do this because learning to read in these languages is difficult. With French? What I had to do to make this leap was: learn basic past/present/future tense (just look up “French Grammar Guide” on google and read a free one), look up a 500 most common word list (also easy to find on google), study those for a few months. Once I did that, I could start reading French materials and just occasionally looking up new words that kept appearing and confusing me. At that point, I still occasionally relied on bilingual dictionaries and grammar books. So at about month 6, I looked up French grammar guides IN FRENCH. Then I just started reading them, and that’s how I learned a lot of my more advanced grammar in French. At that point, I just continued reading french/watching french, studying French grammar in French. I still occassionally use bilingual word lookups for frustrating new unfamiliar words, but mostly I’m so lazy I prefer to guess the meaning from the context of the sentences. And if I wanted to, I know enough words to just switch to a monolingual dictionary. After about 1 year, I got comfortable enough that I can navigate french sites, french wikipedia, french books, relatively fine. I’ve had my Google account set to French since probably month 3, and so all my computers and devices always give french sites/results first, french wikipedia, french definitions, so I just got more comfortable with french over time. If I had to compare it to my english, my French now at about 2 years (only the first year actively ‘studying’ in the sense of reading vocab lists and grammar guides), is a reading level around where I was at age 12-13. Enough that I can pick up whatever and read it, its just that more complicated reading material may be a bit of a slog (like adult level fictional novels). I started practicing from month 2-3 with instructive non-fiction books, so my reading level for history books and linguistic/science books in French is a bit higher. Basically, it took me 2 years to get to where I wanted to be in French (which is incredible to me!). And when I did it, part of my study plan ended up resembling the method of ‘switching to monolingual engagement of the language’ quite a lot. My experience studying french showed me that, yes, it does work. And its very helpful for me as a study method, since I learn most happily when learning from monolingual context in the media I’m consuming. 

I am well aware of where I fall short in French - listening (and pronunciation as a result of that), and writing. I can write, but the active vocabulary I can recall is very low since I haven’t spoken/written in a while and it takes a few hours of me ‘warming up’ to remember how to say the words I can read. I can write, but the grammar I can write is much WORSE than what I can read, since I didn’t do grammar drills and NEED TO eventually when improving my writing becomes a goal. Reading was always the goal, so reading is the main thing I studied for. I can text/write with french speakers, but I’m not grammatically smooth. My listening is weak, because again - I rarely practiced, it was not a goal of mine. I didn’t care about French videos or audio content, or speaking to french speakers. If that’s a goal I desire, I’ll study for it and work on those areas.

If using any kinds of study methods, I do think French is similar enough to English, that you will notice in a reasonable amount of time if your method is working for you and giving you progress. If it is, be consistent. There’s good weeks, and bad weeks where you’ll feel lost and incompetent. 

---

When studying Japanese I noticed, on a much longer timeline, similar progress being made from similar methods I used. Japanese had some unique challenges for me - the biggest simply being that I have to work harder to memorize new words since they’re not cognates to english like much of French’s vocabulary is. But my methods do work for me. So if you plan to study multiple languages, from my experience... French is definitely a good ‘testing waters.’

I had to crash learn some Russian to talk to some Russian people in my life for a while, and read Russian texts etc. And the study methods and goal setting skills I picked up when studying French helped me with that too.

My basic plan was:

1. Figure out your specific goals, plan accordingly. If you don’t care about learning certain areas within speaking, listening, reading, writing - then don’t make them the priority. If you do consider some or all of these areas priorities, then make specific plans for studying each area.  2. My goals have generally always included being able to read. So the following has always helped greatly: 

look up the 300-1000 most common words in the language. These are the most important vocabulary to focus on learning first. The tumblr 300 word list, and the 625 word list floating around online, are my favorite starting places. Some nice lists on Memrise of common words are also good starting places. I can learn other additional words I look up, but these common words will help me improve fastest so they’re my priority. 

look up “Language X Grammar Guide.” There are free ones for pretty much any language. Find one for the language I’m studying, and focus on the basic grammar points first - specifically verb and adjective conjugations, particles if the language has any (or that thing Russian has going on etc), genders, and simple ways the language does past/present/future tense. Basically, try to read the basic grammar points first, then also skim or read over more complicated grammar points as desired just to get an overview of things I’ll eventually want to notice later. My goal here is to get used to the patterns of the language, so when I look at sentences FULL of unknown words, I can at least try to identify which words are verbs/adjectives/nouns and other kinds of words that help explain what’s going on (like/the/and/or/for/to/with/’s). The quicker I can recognize at least the basics of what’s going on in sentences, the quicker I can figure out where words end in languages with no spaces between words. The quicker I can figure out which words are vital to the understanding of some sentences (if you know which words are nouns, and are reading News, then locating verbs helps next - to figure out whats Happening to the nouns). Knowing all this helps me prioritize which words I’ll NEED to look up when I’m trying to understand native content without me looking up every single word. Also, if writing/speaking is one of my goals, it helps me quickly learn some BASIC ways to express myself (simple past/present/future tense so I can communicate any idea basically with the help of a dictionary if i need to use a new word).

After that, make engaging with native content regularly a priority. If I want to learn to read, then make myself try to read native content as practice, and use graded readers as stepping stones etc. If listening is a priority, engage with listening materials regularly (and shadow what I hear, if I want to practice pronunciation). Basically - whatever your eventual usage goal is, regularly attempt to do it NOW (even though you aren’t fully capable yet). You will learn a little more each time, and improve specifically in that area you’re aiming to be able to eventually do. And you will have a nice gauge on your progress and what areas you’re falling short and need to adjust your study plan for. With French - from months 2-3 I started reading native content. It was a SLOG to read news articles and wikipedia. Eventually that was okay, but it was still a SLOG to read my own graded readers! Eventually I got decent, but it was still a SLOG to read french fanfictions! Eventually, that got decent, but it was still a SLOG to read french fiction novels for adults. Etc. I improved, but I didn’t start out perfectly able to do it - and I didn’t WAIT until I could do it, to start TRYING to do it. A lot of my improvement in reading... came from me practicing reading, looking up words over time until I learned them, until I got good enough to learn words from context, and still SLOGGING. But I wanted to read, so I kept trying to do it. I improved. It works that way with listening too, etc.

Finally, figure out what areas are not progressing toward my goal, and come up with additional study plans for those specific areas. If I need more grammar help or to do writing drills to improve my writing, maybe I need a textbook. If I want to speak to native speakers, maybe I need to find a group/people to speak to. If my listening comprehension is atrocious but its a GOAL, maybe I need to add listening study materials like podcasts/audio lessons/LISTEN to all new words when I look them up and add audio to my study flashcards. If I need to learn more words, maybe its time for me to update the vocabulary lists I’m using, maybe use SRS flashcards, Memrise, etc.

---

A lot of that study plan I came up with for French, I ended up using when I started learning Chinese. And overall, it’s been a huge help. It’s still mostly what I stuck to. Hanzi and lack of cognates, mean that I do a lot more vocabulary flashcard grinding in the ‘knowing absolutely zero words’ stage. But the overall study plan is the same.

One thing I DID start doing for chinese, that I didn’t do before for other languages, was LISTENING from day one. I listened to Chinese shows, chinese youtube videos, chinese songs, and when I looked up most new words I looked up audio too. It wasn’t a goal for French so I don’t care too much that I never did it. But I can definitely say it helped me learn Chinese a lot EASIER than if I wasn’t doing it. I have a much better sense of listening to chinese and guessing the spelling, than I do for French. I have a much better ability to hear a word, and recognize it later when reading. Vice versa, in Chinese I’m much better at only reading a word and guessing its pronunciation based on pinyin, and it being close enough that when i HEAR a new word later I recognize it as one I’ve already read. These are simple skills but they’re super underdeveloped in my French - I struggle to do all these things in French. Now, my Chinese tone production is kind of shit - mostly because I need to do more tone drills, need to practice FULL SENTENCES more. But at least I can listen/read and link those two things in my head, and recognize them. I am certain it’s because I actively listened to Chinese from day 1 of learning, and kept doing so. 

I also think, at least with chinese, the chinese subtitles that chinese content tends to have is immensely helpful. Seeing chinese subtitles especially in the early stages of study, helped me link the new sounds and words to the characters. And since I studied a grammar guide early on, seeing the chinese subtitles helps me make out the separation of words I hear, and helps me figure out which words I’m hearing are adjectives/nouns/verbs/grammar constructions etc. And, because I’m lazy, I’ll say that the DUAL english/chinese subtitles also helped me a fair bit. Again, because they helped me link the chinese sounds to the characters to the english words. When I knew no words, to even now that I know 1000+ solidly, they help me to learn new words constantly. In the very beginning, they helped a lot with me learning words/phrases that mean a few different things/have different nuance than in english. Like ‘ba le’ ‘suan le’ ‘xiang’ ‘kankan’ ‘meishi’ ‘meiguanshi’ ‘danxin’ ‘ni fangxin’ ‘bubi’ ‘xiaoxin’ ‘xing le’ ‘mingbai’ ‘dong’... just, so many super common words that have a few different english translations depending on the context of a situation and the translator’s choices. 

If I go back to French and try to improve my listening comprehension, I’ll definitely be doing all these methods with French.

[jaeminfilm]

𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘸𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘵  ; 𝘭𝘦𝘦 𝘫𝘦𝘯𝘰.

genre: angst style: oneshot warnings: mentions of depression

summary: you’re not the same girl who fell in love with him but you are the girl he fell in love with.

–––––

the first thought lee jeno has when he steps onto american soil is your name. which is weird, because you two had broken up a long time ago. he’d even dated a couple of people after you, but here he is, stepping onto american soil with your name being the only thing on his mind. 

he can’t shake this feeling, this feeling that had something to do with you, even though he has no idea what the feeling is.

maybe it’s the fact that he had always thought that when he’d come to america, he’d be coming home to you after all the calls you had spent talking about meeting. except he has no reason to come to america looking for you, and  he hasn’t had one for a year now. yet here he is, under the same expanse of sky as you, somehow hoping that he had a shot at seeing you again.

all in all, the way you two had met hadn’t been the most conventional. in fact, your relationship wasn’t conventional and that’s why it had been a secret between you two and a select few, because not many people would’ve encouraged a long distance relationship between two sixteen year olds where the chances of meeting each other and lasting just wasn’t likely. 

(and in your case, it really hadn’t been). 

it had been a year into the relationship when you had begun to want something more– something real, palpable, something you could touch, and when you were crying at midnight heavily considering a relapse, jeno’s texts to you while he was in class weren’t it. it wasn’t your fault, nor was it his, but at the time it had been irreconcilable. with priorities naturally falling into place at the time, you couldn’t be his first.

and so you two realized that it wouldn’t work. at least you had realized it when jeno had told you your expectations of him were too high, and he had begun to distance himself from you. what he hadn’t told you was that he had been too afraid, afraid that he would never amount to what you wanted, to what you needed and deserved. you were both only seventeen after all, and an ocean away from each other.

so jeno started to leave in the moments where you needed and wanted him most, even if it were his measly snuck-in texts in his four pm classes and him calling you when it was already too late.

you would’ve taken it. but then he left completely.

–––––

the first thing jeno does the day after unpacking all of his stuff is go to the mall. he needs clothes suited for the heat of southern california rather than the snow of south korea, so he goes with his older siblings even if he finds himself separated from them after a while. 

he might as well enjoy himself, he figures when he looks around to see his siblings nowhere to be found. his eye catches sight of a smoothie stand, and he licks his lip as he nears the cashier.

“what can i get for you, sir?”

“berry antioxidant smoothie, please.”

it’s automatic, the way he orders the smoothie that he remembers you love, because it makes you feel fake healthy even when it’s loaded with sugar. 

he prefers more chocolatey smoothies, but when he takes a sip of your smoothie, he gets why you had loved it so much. maybe he’ll start loving it too.

–––––

he’s debating between getting the yellow sweatshirt and the black sweatshirt when he pulls out his phone, scrolling through his contacts for the familiar contact of your name to ask you which one he should get when he realizes that that’s not possible. 

you two had been broken up for a year.

he thinks the californian air is getting to him, that breathing the same air as you is getting to him. he keeps thinking about you, your name like bile in his chest and he’s on edge, even if he doesn’t know if you’re still even in the city. you should be in college by now, and your dream had always been london. 

so he concludes that you’re in london by now, quietly tucking away his phone and picking the yellow sweatshirt over the black sweatshirt, just because you would’ve picked the black one.

he left you a year ago, and he doesn’t have the right to mourn that. he doesn’t have the obligation to follow what you want, because he had broken your heart. not the other way around.

he tosses his half-finished smoothie into the trash can as he leaves the store with the plastic bag in hand.

no matter where you were, this city would always remind him of you, and no matter where he was, he would always find the time to think about you.

(he doesn’t realize that he had broken his own heart when he left you).

it’s jeno’s first day of classes at the local university. the campus is huge, and he’s not used to it, nor is he comfortable with it as he struggles to navigate the area. his siblings, rather than attending university, are already job hunting (and illegally driving alone with their learner’s permits), so he’s in uncharted territory alone. 

the campus is beautiful, he has to admit– overseeing the distant southern californian beach and a valley of trees that was well-maintained for a desert area. flowers had been planted along the walkways, and there were fountains and statues marking every few buildings in a manner that made it a little bit harder to get lost. 

the school itself is big enough to have its own maps app, and he watches his phone closely as he tracks the moving dot that denotes his position that’s (hopefully) nearing his destination until he collides with another person.

“sorry about that–” jeno begins, looking up to see a male around his age– korean too, he can tell– who holds a purple smoothie and a coffee cup up high because his two drinks almost spilled from the collision.

“it’s cool, don’t worry about it. at least the smoothie didn’t spill or else my girlfriend would be really mad,” he laughs, “i’m jaemin, by the way. you new here too?” 

jeno blinks, before clearing his throat and smiling. “yeah, name’s jeno.” 

“so, jeno, where are you headed? i could help you, i’ve been around here for a while even for a new student.” 

“uh, chemistry with–”

“burner? i’m on my way there to drop off my girlfriend’s smoothie, i’ll walk with you!” jaemin cheerily offers, already taking the left turn jeno was just taking when they bumped into each other. 

jaemin’s easy to get along with, jeno quickly realizes and comes to appreciate. he doesn’t question the broken english of the platinum blonde haired boy, instead automatically slipping into a conversation in their native language. he finds out that jaemin’s on the soccer team and that he’s a commit– whatever that means, because it definitely isn’t a thing in korea– but majors in biochem. the mention of the subjects makes jeno’s nose scrunch. it makes jaemin laugh– he understands.

“my girlfriend hates chemistry too, but somehow, it’s how we met in high school,” jaemin chimes when he notices the sourness on jeno’s facial expression. the sourness on jeno’s face morphs into an almost nostalgic simper as he arrives at a door with jaemin. you had hated chemistry too.

“this is the chemistry lab, by the way.” 

the slightly shorter boy nods as he follows the other in, and jaemin immediately makes a beeline towards a girl with long black hair and blonde highlights on the bottom half.

“hey babe,” jeno makes out just as jaemin swoops in for a kiss and places the smoothie in front of her. then he waves the other over.   

an awkward smile making its way onto his lips, he goes to stand beside the cheerful boy, whose girlfriend turns to look at the boy her boyfriend beckoned over. she has her zodiac sign tattooed right below her ear, he notices. 

immediately, the polite smile that she dons falters from her lips, replaced with a more forced and awkward one, and she sets the smoothie down, hand moving to clasp onto jaemin’s hand that lays on her shoulder. the latter doesn’t notice, because his eyes are on jeno as he introduces them.

but they know each other already. 

there’s a brief silence between the two of them, jaemin’s eyes shifting between them in confusion until jeno breaks the silence, his heart already aching by the way her mouth opens and then closes because she can’t find the words to say.

“i guess london didn’t work out, huh?” jeno says, with a bittersweet smile as he lets the fact that his first love is happy with another boy who buys her smoothies just like he promised he would one day and helps her with chemistry like he never could sink in.

"no, it didn’t. but i guess you really did find your way here eventually,” she replies, a look in her eye that jeno can’t quite pinpoint. he swallows thickly, as if he’s swallowing all his emotions, all the weight in the world.

“yeah, i did. a little too late, though.”

she can only force a polite smile at jeno for that one, and he figures he deserved that.

–––––

the thing about first loves is that they never leave. you can date a million people, you can find your soulmate, or you can find your true love, but they’ll never be the first love. they’ll never be the person who taught you what it was like to love, what it was like to hurt, and they’ll never replace the person who owns that little locked space in your heart. 

you didn’t realize that until your first love was right in your face in a way you never thought he would be, but jeno had realized that with the first girl he had dated after you. he had this fear that he’d never love her as much as he loved you, and the fear had been right. he didn’t, so she had left him.

but standing in front of you right now, jeno realized that you loved jaemin just as you had loved him, if not more. it was in the way that even after you had shared a polite conversation with him full of memories of the distant past, you looked back at jaemin with a reassuring look in your eyes as you rubbed circles with your thumb into the ligatures of his hands. it was in the way you offered to walk with him to his class all the way across campus even though you seemed to already know he’d say no, and in the way that when jaemin left, your kiss on his lips lingered a little longer than the kiss hello. it was in the way you slapped jaemin’s shoulder when he told you to text him if there was anything you didn’t understand in the class, pouting as you claimed it was only the first day and that he needed to focus on his own class.

it was in the way you looked at jeno, with a look in your eyes that was unfamiliar to him because he had grown used to you looking at him with nothing but adoration and love. 

it wasn’t the same look he was used to.

he had left you, so you had let him go.

you were no longer the girl who fell in love with him, but you were still the girl that held a special place in his heart. you were still the girl he had loved, and he wishes more than anything that he could love you again. he thinks he’d be ready this time.

but now, he can only hope he holds a special place in your heart, too. because he thinks that you are his true love, but who knows, because he’s eighteen and he probably doesn’t know much better than he did when he was sixteen and fell in love with you.

–––––

from: princess 🌹💕 what smoothie should i get

to: princess 🌹💕 your favorite berry one, duh buy me one too

from: princess 🌹💕 okay, fly over then

to: princess 🌹💕 bet one day

–––––

to: princess 🌹💕 black suit or blue suit for my sister’s wedding

from: princess 🌹💕 you know i’d usually say black because it matches with everything but blue will pop out so you can look like the most handsome baby at the wedding :*

to: princess 🌹💕 and you’d make the prettiest date

–––––

from: princess 🌹💕  i looked around some london unis at the fair today!!

to: princess 🌹💕  you’re really serious about this huh

from: princess 🌹💕 of course i am, you know me

to: princess 🌹💕 even if our time difference will be even worse if you move to london?

from: princess 🌹💕 you know we’d get through it

to: princess 🌹💕 i’m kidding cutie i know we would

–––––

to: princess 🌹💕

it’s 3am there why are you awake go to sleep baby

from: princess 🌹💕 i haven’t finished my chemistry homework jeno i’m so stressed out right now

to: princess 🌹💕 do you want me to help you?

from: princess 🌹💕  you hate chemistry

to: princess 🌹💕 who said i was gonna help you send the problem and i’ll send it to my friend

from: princess 🌹💕 you’re a lifesaver jeno, i love you

to: princess 🌹💕 anything for you

–––––

from: princess 🌹💕 jeno? hello? please help me it’s 2am and i can’t stop crying i know you’re in class right now but i need you i can’t stop

to: princess 🌹💕 fuck sorry babe i saw your texts but i couldn’t reply are you okay? it’s 4am there now babe?  babe?

[spacyparker]

Floating Through Darkness

MASTERLIST - PROMPT LIST

Request : “A tom fic with 42. 59, and 75? I think this would be cute but take your time ofc“

»  “The way you flirt is shameful.”

»  “Is it really you?”

»  “Shut up and kiss me.”

Characters : Tom Holland x reader

Word count : 2k

A/N : I first wrote this in my native language before translating it, being obviously more comfortable with french words. I hope there’s a little change and it’s a little bit better than my other writings then. I also wrote this while listening to the new Being as an ocean album, it’s really chill so check it out I love this band. Well, my requests are still open and you can talk to me about anything on anon or not ! THANKS PEOPLE xx

Time seemed to have been stopped, et only the rain allowed itself to continue sliding against the air, drowning the grass and the roads in the surrounding area. You were sitting in front of the lake of your university, your jean surely full of mud up to your butt but you didn't care. It wasn't as if you intented going back to class then, you didn't fit in there. You were way too bad in every subject, and you couldn't manage to make friends. You were alone, everyday, all by yourself, having as your only companion your old phone and your long-standing friends, far, far away. You would have never believed that leaving high school would have been that hard, everyone told you life really beginned in collede. Then shit, if this was the start of you real life, then how would it end up ?

Nothing had a sense anymore today, separated from all that made you happy once. You didn't have your best friend anymore, she went to the US to study, and same for your other best friend who was more and more valued by many directors. Once, he was able to find some time for you at least for a few days, but since couples of months his schedule didn't allow him to take a break. It was impossible for him to take some time for you. Through text messages, you had made everyone believe everything in college was great for you, that you were happy and you spent your time having fun. But all of this was just lies, all of this was just false pretence so no one would be worried. They all rusted you, way too much concerned by their own life. Everything was vanishing.

How many nights had you spent crying in front of your room, empty of any life, watching through the window the shitty weather which was perfectly matching your mood and nostalgia. How much was it awful seeing all those groups of friends walking in the street laughing out loud, meanwhile you had trouble to simply smile. You remembered all this people all around the world, your old friends who might no event think of you while you were spending your time with your memories in mind. Tom and Harrison were the one you were missing the most, it was with this two guys you laughed the most your ass out, you weren't a girl who needed to polish her image while hanging with tem, you could be who you wanted to be, act as you liked it without having to worry about what they'd think of you then. It was with them you felt the more... You. But today they were only God knew where, maybe still in China, maybe back in Canada for shooting... Nor Thomas or Harrison had given you informations about their location, actually it had been few weeks you were on radio silence, but you obviously understood. They might be both exhausted and busy.

You sighed, throwing a pebble in the lake which rebound a few times you didn't count. You knew deep down inside of you you wouldn't take it until the end of the year, but you didn't know yet how you'd break down. A tear rolled on your cheek, a tear that went unnoticed since the rain was already flooding your skin. The world seemed to be set on pause and still the horizon was swirling around you.

“You'll catch a cold if you stay under the rain.”

You turned your head towards a familiar voice like no other. It was an hallucination, right, Tom couldn't really be standing right in front of you ? You heart missed a few beatings while you were busy scrutunizing the person facing you's face, this so spiecial someone who you missed as you never missed any other thing before.

“Is it really you ?” You feverishly asked. As a first answer to that question, he smiled.

“Wouldn't you prefer to go in a... drier place ?”

You instantly jumped on your feet, mud dripping along your legs, but fuck the filth had no importance there, not when he was finally here, few steps from you, steps you crossed the fastest you could until you found his arms back. How did he have done to arrive at the good time, right when you needed him the most ?

Neither of you undertook talking. The only thing that counted, it was your bodies against one another, your arms around his hips and his passing behind your shoulders. It was a hug so thight, so fueled on emotions, anyone who would have seen you would have felt the distress escaping from it. Tom kissed your temple without untying his embrace meanwhile you took advantage to snuggle up your head in his neck, his skin way warmer than yours, and reassuring.

“I thought you were filming, or on a press tour. Working...” You whispered lightly moving from his body so you were able to examine his face and every line forming it. You were close enough to him to notice his scar which sat prominently at the level of his former mole.

“I have a few days of free time. I told myself it'd be great to come visit you. But don't stay in here, ok ? Let's go to your place, safe from the rain.” You nodded.

The walk to your apartment was half silent, Tom understood by seeing you facing this lake that all wasn't going well as you were pretending so good, he understood you were hiding the truth, but he wasn't dumb enough to let you go with all your lies without real explanations. However, he didn't talk about this during the distance, he'd wait for you to be wrapped around your sheets, warm. He grabbed your hand in his, goosbumps going through his spine because of this freezing contact.

It needed almost an hour for you to be home and take a super hot shower. You left the bathroom with red cheedks and your first reflex was to grab Tom's arm around yours, as if you were holding him from leaving you again. Tom loved this contact you were offering him, he loved having found you back and the fact that you have both missed each other. He loved you.

Soon, The Lion King was playing on TV and you were lying on your bed wrapped around Tom's arms, your duvet over your wramed up bodies. Everything seemed so good, so perfect, you'd almost forgot the ordeal you daily lived in college.

“Are you planning on talking to me about it ?” Tom whispered.

“Talking to you about what ?”

Il te serra un peu plus fort dans ses bras, attristé de voir qu'il fallait te pousser à avouer tes maux. “Ce qu'il se passe réellement dans ta vie.”

He hold you a little thighter in his arms, saddened to see he had to push you so you'd confess your pain. “About what is really happening in your life.”

Your hear missed a rebound and you shook your head by reflex. “Everything's fine, Tom. My life is perfect. Let's just say I miss you all a bit, and I'd like us to be together like we have been for years, that's all.”

“I know when you're lying, Y/N.”

“If it was true then you would have talked to me about that a long time ago.” You sighed.

“So you admit it.” Thomas' tone was strangely calm, maybe he didn't want to get mad against you and impose you even more pain. You turned around to face him, you could seem distress in his eyes and could tell he was awfully concerned about your situation. “I wanna help you, Y/N. So tell me what is going on, you know I won't judge you.”

One of his hand went through your hair so he could put a strand of hair behind your ear, and suddenly the world seemed to be set on pause once again. You couldn't hear the songs of the movie unwinding anymore. “I can't do this. I'm struggling getting passing grades, I only succeed in three classes. I'm a loser. Here people don't like me, no one tries to know who I am. I just have this impression that I'm not good enough.” You pouted while your voice while breaking through the words. It was hurting you to finally admit it out loud. “I'm a real burden, Thomas, why does everyone do great but me ?”

He frowned in front of all those absurdities leaving your lips. Why on Earth did you think you were nothing, that people didn't need you ? His heart was breaking imagining the pain you could feel and he felt so sorry to not being able to detect your frustration sooner. Tom felt responsible for what you were going through all by yourself for a few months already.

“Hey, Y/N. You're not a loser, and you're not a burden, and you do are totally worthy. If this people don't like you, then it's their turn to be sad, because they are missing the best experience of their life.” He blushed. “They can go fuck themselves. We do not need them.” He took a breathe all knowing it wasn't the only subject you were terrified about. “And about your grades, it's that dramatic. A lot of people make wrong decisions while choosing their future, you're nor the first or the last one. If you're unhappy with it, then stop it right away, don't go any further into grief.”

You looked away, it seemed so easy when he said it. “But to do what ? I don't have any clue of what I want to do with my life !”

“Take a year to rest and recharge your batteries.” He shrugged before smiling, an idea going through his mind. “Travel with me.”

“Travel with you ?” A little laughed left your mouth, the idea was really pleasant. You pulled him closer to you and his hands instinctively went on your hips. “It's ridiculous.”

“Not at all ! That's what Haz already does, he follows me everywhere, just do the same. I'd be so happy to have you by my side. Because, well, the fact that I don't talk to you doesn't mean that I don't think about you, you know that. There's no day without your face going through my mind, or your laugh.”

Tom's eyes pushing through yours to the point you blushed. Shit, the idea was so, so, so pleasant, but wasn't it a mistake to give up ? You didn't really want to think about it now. “The way you flirt is shameful.” You tried escaping the discussion with a little touch of humour.

A smirk took place on his face. “I'm not flirting with you, not yet. But I could flirt with you everyday if you decided to follow me.” Disturbing, these words were disturbing. Tom blushed again, ready to expose his repressed feelings if it helped you make up your mind on what to do. “I could show you people love you, I could show you I love you.”

“Tom, I... Why do you...”

He shook his head, now afraid you didn't feel the same and feeling like a jerk. “No, no. Fo-forget about this, I'm sorry.”

“It's not that. I'm just afraid you're telling me this because you have pity for me. That would hurt me, I love you too.”

There was a silence. “Then stop arguing about that, just shut up and kiss me.”

You weren't so sure it was the best idea, but you thought why not. You had wanted his lips for years now, and he was finally giving his love to you. Plus, you needed it more than never before. You grabbed his cheek and came closer to him until your lips met for a first kiss full of sweetness and love. A kiss had never felt so right.

[darcy137]

So my lovely @whalien27​ tagged me in this a long long time ago but I was in the middle of getting a new laptop (’cause my old ones heroically broke down right after my finals and after almost 5 years of loyal service to someone who is like the female version of Namjoon when it comes to destruction power), moving between my school and Boston and my internship place, and of course the start of my internship. Thus I had no time, until now, to do this.

Rule: Finish these 92 questions and then I’m supposed to tag 20 people. However my loser self don’t even have that many people I can comfortably tag so I’m gonna leave it open - you can do it if you see this on your feed and feel like doing it.

THE LAST: 1. drink: water 2. phone call: mom - which is funny, since I don’t call home that often 3. text message: with my group of roommate complaining about some projects I’m doing 4. song you listened to: Tomorrow - BTS. This is my motivational, my go to when I need a pick-me-up song. 5. time you cried: A few weeks ago - I watched The Ark’s The Light MV for the first time :/ 6. dated someone twice: yeah 7. kissed someone and regretted it: when I was in middle school and played a game where the game master would say things like “three arms” and you are supposed to make exactly 3 arms touching each other (you can join with other people). The game master said “two lips” and everyone thought it was a kiss, and since it was a kiss it would be better to do it with someone from the same gender so this girl grabbed me and kissed me before I could even react. Turned out by “two lips” the game master meant to press your lips together (a kiss would have been “two pairs of lips). I didn’t like the fact that the kiss was forced and it was to win a game, not for any romantic purpose - and we didn’t even win in the end, and it was completely unnecessary. So yeah, that was the only time I kissed someone and regretted it. 8. been cheated on: no 9. lost someone special: yeah 10. been depressed: yeah 11. gotten drunk and thrown up: no. I don’t like drinking, nor do I have high alcohol tolerance so I usually quit after one or two sips, and even I wouldn’t get pissed drunk that quick 

LIST 3 FAVOURITE COLOURS: 12-14. blue, pastel pink, purple, silver

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU: 15. made new friends: yeah 16. fallen out of love: yeah 17. laughed until you cried: yeah

18. found out someone was talking about you: yeah, but in a positive way: my Korean tutor (in our school for languages we usually have this system were we pair up a native speaker with a learner, so my tutor was a fellow student) told me her friend, who was a TA for our Korean teacher, told her that I did my homework well 

19. met someone who changed you: no, not during last year 20. found out who your friends are: yeah 21. kissed someone on your Facebook list: no. I didn’t kiss anyone last year, period

GENERAL: 22. how many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: about more than half of them - the other half are people I works with on projects, so while I don’t really know them in real life I have talked to them in some way before or right after adding them 23. do you have any pets: no. I wish though - my dream is to have two dogs, one must be a German Shepherd, and may be a cat 24. do you want to change your name: no. I have grown to love my name over the years 25. what did you do for your last birthday: enjoyed school, hanged out a bit with my friend, applied like crazy for internship, had a minor quarter life crisis even though I wasn’t 25 yet 26. what time did you wake up: these days usually 6-7 am  27. what were you doing at midnight last night: trying to use internet. Ok so for my internship I was assigned a room in a student dorm nearby, which is super nice and convenient. However, since it’s a high school dorm, they cut off all internet connection at 1am exactly, so these days at 12am I would be crazily trying to savour the last hour of internet :))))) 28. name something you can’t wait for: going to LA after I’m done with internship 29. when was the last time you saw your mom: August 24th last year - that was the day I left Vietnam to return to school. 30. what is one thing you wish you could change in your life: nothing. I sometimes wishes things like to be born in another country (because I’m always curious about what it’s like to be citizen of another country), or to know certain people (like, imagine what it would be if you are best friend with BTS!!), but ultimately, everything - both good and bad - that I have experienced in my life makes me who I am today, and that’s why I don’t want to change a single thing 31. what are you listening to right now: nothing. I’ll probably play something from BTS after I’m done with this though 32. have you ever talked to a person named tom: yes 33. something that is getting on your nerves: rude people 34. most visited website: tumblr, youtube, facebook, these days twitter as well since KCON is near 35-37. there was no question here so...  38. hair colour: very dark brown, like close to black brown, and the lower layer used to be dark bluish purple but it has faded a lot so it’s more purple mixed with light brown 39. long or short hair: long, like touching the middle of my back long. it’s the longest my hair has been in a while 40. do you have a crush on someone: normal people, not at the moment. celebrity, yes. 41. what do you like about yourself: my eyes and these days, my hair 42. piercings: ear piercings (the standard ones) 43. bloodtype: B, I’m about 60% sure it’s B positive but I don’t know 44. nickname: Darcy (yes it’s my English nick name - I don’t have it anywhere in any of my official paper), Huaiqiu, Gaeul, chubby cat, puppy, shrimp (apparently I sleep in curling position like a shrimp when it’s cooked so...), Mom, Aunt, Greatgrandma, Mama Bear 45. relationship status: single 46. zodiac: aquarius 47. pronous: she/her 48. favourite tv show: Criminal Minds 49. tattoos: none, though I sometimes flirt with the idea. If I ever do it, I would probably get a blue butterfly (something highkey reminding me of HYYH) or the sentence that I like the most from Tomorrow: Because the dawn before sun rises is the darkest). 50. right or left handed: right handed 51. surgery: does minor incision when they remove my wisdom teeth count? 52. piercing: wait does this question repeat? 53. sport: why do you think I was called “chubby cat”? Gym to me is like dance to Namjoon and Jin - something I can do if I need to, but probably not something I enjoy that much 55. vacation: I’m looking forward to my getaway to LA in August baby 56. pair of trainers: a blue runner pair

MORE GENERAL 57. eating: popcorn 58. drinking: water 59. i’m about to: read some fanfic 61. waiting for: the weekend 62. want: some motivation to study Korean, start learning case study and prepare my resume for consultant firms’ position 63. get married: I will think about it when my life and career are more stable 64. career: ideally HR, but I’m actually open to anything related to management, HR, development, customer services and even marketing

WHICH IS BETTER 65. hugs or kisses: kisses 66. lips or eyes: eyes 67. shorter or taller: for my partner, taller would be better but I don’t really care that much 68. older or younger: ideally older, but my ex was younger (though he’s probably as old as me, if not older mentally),so I don’t care that much I guess 70. nice arms or nice stomach: for others - I don’t really care. For myself, nice stomach - I’m a fatty especially around there :( 71. sensitive or loud: I’m more sensitive, and I would prefer people who are sensitive too unless you are Hobi then you are welcomed to be loud af my February Friend ~ 72. hook up or relationship: relationship, definitely 73. troublemaker or hesitant: hesitant

HAVE YOU EVER: 74. kissed a stranger: yes. ^see my story above 75. drank hard liquor: I don’t think so?? I might have accidentally drank something when I was a kid but honestly I can’t remember 76. lost glasses/contact lenses: I don’t even wear glasses nor contact lenses (10/10 eyesight here) 77. turned someone down: yeah 78. sex on the first date: eh... I have never gotten pass first base with anyone so... 79. broken someone’s heart: ... unfortunately yes 80. had your heart broken: yeah... 81. been arrested: hell no 82. cried when someone died: yes 83. fallen for a friend: yes, and man I fell hard

DO YOU BELIEVE IN: 84. yourself: not really... it has been a struggle for me, though I think I start to be able to do so a little bit these days 85. miracles: nah 86. love at first sight: definitely no. I believe in attraction at first sight - like, you can feel attracted to a person at first sight. However, to love someone means to learn about them, understand them and grow together in a positive way, so no way you can achieve that at first sight. I feel like people who claim they fall in love at first sight probably are attracted at first sight, and because they believe it is love they try their best in getting to know the other person and improve the relationship, which then turn it into real love.

87. santa claus: no. I even act as someone’s Santa Claus before so definitely no. 88. kiss on the first date: I don’t mind, but I also rather get to know the person well before kissing them  89. angels: no

OTHER:

90. eye colour: dark brown 91. favourite movie: I probably have a list, but the one I can remember right now are Conjuring 1 & 2, Insidious, Guardians of the Galaxy, Boss Baby, Pirates 1, 2 & 3, The King’s Speech

92.????? Is this question lost too??

[richjapan]

#RichJapan - Day 8

There’s a certain level of joy and freedom that comes from traveling solo. I can go where I want, when I want, and do things how I want. Day 8 reminded me why I prefer being independent not only in travel, but also in life.

I took an early train from Kyoto en route to the Art Islands. The trip was only supposed to take three hours, but it ended up being five hours and six different trains to get me to Uno because of a couple missed calculations. 10 hour (round trip) journey, four ferry rides, and two grueling bike rides uphill to experience less than 24 hours of art in the middle of paradise. "This better be good," I thought.

After 7 long days of being “on the go”, day 8 was the first time I felt fatigued. I remember waking up from a nap at my AirBnB in Uno around 5pm and thinking I should just go back to sleep. Then I reminded myself that I’m in middle of a once in a lifetime trip that other people would kill for. Best to take advantage of this privilege. It feels like I’m an explorer with the great burden of sharing new discoveries with the world (sans pillage and plunder).

Observations: - Japanese really know quality. Everything I’ve encountered has been top notch. Everything from the bathrooms, railways, restaurants, convenience stores, and more. Even the ferry from Uno to Naoshima had plush seats and great amenities. - Americans warned me to watch out for all the weird things in Japan. What’s weird here? I’ve yet to experience anything too weird for me. I live in San Francisco - birthplace of the weird. Bring it on! - I think one reason why Japan feels so safe is their draconian justice system. If someone is arrested their “guilty until proven innocent” and there’s a 99% conviction rate. Even possession of marijuana has a minimum of a five day jail sentence. Japanese are too afraid of the consequences if they commit a crime.

Memorable Moments: - Within my first two hours on the island of Naoshima, I knew I made the right decision to endure the many trains and bike rides and ferries to get there. First stop was Benesse Art Museum which features numerous works of mixed media. I don’t want to give away details about the art pieces because I think it will ruin the surprise, allure, and mysticism of the island. I think one of the downfalls of Burning Man is the art is shared too much on social media which lessens the experience of actually seeing it in person. What I will say is that one of the most memorable exhibits involves a unique ant farm. Thanks Connie and Joshua for the valuable insights and recommendations!

- This next memorable moment will be very hard to describe via text. I wish someone took a video because the experience seemed like something out of a movie. After spending time at Benesse Art Museum and Naoshima Bath, I ditched the two tourists who I spent some time with because they were a complete bore. I found my way to a local diner near the Naoshima port. I sat down at a table by myself. The table to my left was about 5 feet away and there sat three Japanese men sharing a few cocktails. As I sat there looking at the menu, I glanced over and one of the guys at the table was staring at me. He looked like a Sumo Wrestler starter kit. Like a Japanese Jersey Shore. Early 20s, huge chest, tanned skinned, and dyed brownish hair. As I looked over at the corner of my eye, I was not sure if it was a stare out of curiosity or aggression. Was this the night where I’d finally meet an unfriendly Japanese?

Aggressive animals become more aggressive when they know their foe is weak, and they back down when their foe returns the aggression. So I decided to stare back. It felt like a 10 second staring contest. No words spoken. Then finally, the man tilts his head back and has a big, jolly laugh. He doesn’t speak any English so the rest of the night we play the most entertaining game of charades to try to communicate with each other. It felt like I was back at the Monkey Park in Kyoto.

After his laugh, he pumps his chest with his fists and then points to my chest. He then acts out the motion of a bench press. I nod my head and return the motion of the bench press. He then makes the motion of the bicep curl. I nod my head animately and mimic his bicep curl motion. He and I both burst into laughter. He and his friends motion for me to join them at their table. For the next hour we only communicated with body language and with the iTranslate app. I would type or voice a sentence in English into iTranslate and it would translate the English into Japanese kanji for them to read. Then they would do the same in Japanese.

His name was Reyuya and his friends call him Kong. Later I learned he’s a local celebrity. They order me rounds of drinks. They pay for my meal. They take pictures with me. We arm wrestle. They dub me "San Francisco Richard" and call me Gojira to Reyuya's King Kong. Reyuya frequently says to me that he’s “tanoshii” (which means “happy”) and that he and I are now friends.

As Reyuya and I leave the restaurant, the waitress says goodbye and speaks to me in English. I was shocked. I said to her, “You mean this whole time while we were struggling to communicate with each other, you can speak English?? You could have really made this alot easier! haha.” She says, “The whole restaurant and I were so entertained watching you guys that I didn’t want to ruin the moment.”

Reyuya and his friends invite me to join them at the equivalent of a local dive bar in Naoshima. I’m the only non-Japanese in the bar. Very little English is spoken. At one point a group of three English tourists try to come into the bar and the bartender does not let them in. The whole bar then bursts into laughter and they all joke about how much they hate tourists. I felt like I was “in.”

- There were two moments on this day that gave me goosebumps because of the synchronicity. In the journal entry from the 6th day I talk about how “things can only getter better” and that there are “known knowns and known unknowns’”. One of the art pieces today was called “Seen / UnSeen Known / Unknown”. While at the dive bar with my new friends, they said to me a popular Japanese saying is “Life Gets Better.”

- The Naoshima bathhouse is a place where men and women can enjoy warm, communal, nude bathes under the backdrop of mosaics and art pieces. While entering the bathhouse, one of the tourists says to me, "This is the weirdest thing I've ever done." I said to him, "Dude. If this is the weirdest thing you've ever done then you need to get out more." Was I being too "San Francisco" by that statement?

Learnings: - The importance of Radical Self Reliance. I find myself always prepared for any scenario while traveling: spare cell phone battery, water, snacks, proper documents, etc. - My only negative experiences so far in Japan have been when encountering Western tourists. How can you visit a foreign country and not understand anything about the culture or a few basic phrases in the native language?

Places Visited: - AirBnB'ed at a super cool place. It's one of Uno's oldest building. Looking from the outside at first I thought I had booked a room at a crack house, but inside everything was freshly remodeled and had a very "Oakland Warehouse" feel to it. The building also doubles as a community meeting space and a music venue. My friend Shuang would really like it! https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/6958406?s=51 - Benesse Art Museum - Naoshima Bath