On brain exercise and wishing for snow

"No tip, you say?"

Today a customer (and former student of Karate Husband's) at work asked me if I was Karate Husband's daughter. I don't really know what to do with that assumption. I have dark hair and dark eyes, and I speak Japanese, but apart from that I don't think I look even remotely Japanese. I don't think I'd even pass for half-Japanese on a good day. Also I don't know if I want to resemble Karate Husband, even if I kinda like him. Then again, I guess there are worse things that people can assume about me than me being the daughter of a well-respected karate legend.

Hemingway left the country, returning home to Hong Kong today. We had a talk this morning that was pretty much a eulogy for our deceased relationship, during which we concluded all unfinished business, told each other that we think the other is a good person, gave each other some advice and encouraging words, and then parted on good terms. It's good to have things finished. I hate leaving things unresolved, and it's good that we can still be friendly with each other without things being weird. It's a good feeling to not have to worry about the awkward-seeing-your-ex-out-and-about-tension, as there's literally half a world inbetween us now. Even remaining friends, I think that the distance will do good things for the both of us. It was a good end. I'm glad for it.

I spent my time today between playing video games and studying Korean at a café before work. I've noticed how much I've missed a good brain workout, and that's really what Korean is to me. I can feel the cogs turning when I'm trying to figure the logic behind the linguistics out, and it feels really good. I'm a little bit disappointed with myself that I didn't think to enroll in a university course in Korean for the spring, since it would most likely be on weekdays before work, and I could've easily handled the workload, seeing as my Japanese studies weren't all too strenuous. I mean, others had problems, but when I'm interested in something, I'll just power right through it. Need to practice vocabulary? Do it obsessively for hours on end. Need to remember five hundred kanji? Proceed to create flash cards for all of them and then review for hours, all day every day. I don't even get bored.

Pony once asked me if I thought my flash card reviewing was fun, as I can do it with unbroken concentration for hours. I don't know if it really counts as fun - I mean, I get enjoyment out of knowing that I've remembered something I possibly wasn't able to remember last time, but it's not like it's some high-paced game or anything. It's more like a meticulous brain organizing scheme. Process information until it's stuck, because I want it to be there. It's not fun per se, but it's not boring either. It's just a task, one that needs to be done carefully in order to get the desired result from it. My rational brain likes stuff like that. My brain is a language hoarder.

It's almost mid-December now, and the snow has just melted away today. I feel kinda heart-broken about that. I did manage to get one (albeit very small) snowball fight into the snow days that were this weekend, but I was looking forward to building snow men and just generally being childish for far longer than the few days the weather decided to give me. Then again, I've been given hope now for the rest of the winter. I love snow days. I mostly like watching them from the inside with a nice cup of tea and huge sweaters, but that doesn't make them feel any less magical. I miss last year's crazy amounts of snow, that lasted from October all the way to April. Truth to be told, I hated them in April, but 40 cm of snow around Christmas turned everything into a fairytale themed Christmas card. Breaks from reality are always appreciated. Escapism makes the world go round.