#WeekendCoffeeShare – 4 Days Before…

Published on by Yinglan

Greetings! Welcome to #WeekendCoffeeShare, thank you for meeting me on this Saturday. Let’s take this chat inside with a steamy cup of latte.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you the garden expansion project is complete! Over 200 bricks were used in this project. If you recall from last week’s post, mom pushed the project to be completed by Labor Day or it will have to wait until after the trip to Japan. With a little help from her getting the bricks in place because of the issue with their sizes, the project was completed just before Mother Nature decided to dump about 2-inches of rain within a 24-hour period.

I agree, it looks fabulous from the top but down at ground, improvements are definitely needed. Many of the bricks were uneven as we were hurrying to finish the project that there were spots where we didn’t bother even the ground out before placing the brick. I foresee a second project in the future to redo some of the bricks.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you the perennial asters are beginning to bloom in the garden. In case you don’t know, this is my favorite color and knew immediately I must have this when I saw it. I planted this aster bush in the fall of 2021 and each year, it’s gotten bigger. Last year, after it went splat – the entire bush looked like it got stomped by a giant foot – I chopped it to the ground. I became worried after I did it, worried if I killed the plant.

I was surprised how fast it grew back this year and held it shape, probably thanks to having other plants in the close vicinity to keep it in check. This aster usually blooms in the fall and the period is incredibly short. I was glad I got to see it before my trip because I have no doubt that the flowers would be gone when I return.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you mom gave me a scare this week. On Thursday afternoon, I got a call from mom telling me she’s in the ER (Emergency Room) because she complained of chest pain and headache during her doctor’s appointment. Her doctor immediately sent her to the Emergency Room. I’m not sure what kind of tests were performed. I wasn’t there and she doesn’t know much either. All I know is she found out she has high BP (blood pressure) and will be doing a CT scan of her heart on Monday.

She also told me the doctor found an enlarged blood vessel in her brain, which is dangerous as it easily burst and cause a hemorrhage. Hemorrhage means death. It’s not the sort of news one wants to hear less than a week from boarding a 16-hour flight to Japan.

The doctor wanted to keep her overnight for observation but she wanted to go home. If it were up to me, I would’ve said yes to an overnight stay at the hospital. I was so anxious that night of whether I would wake up the next morning to find my mom dead or alive. Thankfully, she seems fine.

Finally, if we were having coffee, I would tell you the trip to the land of the Rising Sun (Japan) is in 4 days. I will be boarding a plane bound for LAX before boarding another plane to SFO and from there, it’s a straight shot to Haneda Airport in Japan. To be honest, I’m not really keen to switch planes so many times. There are so many things that can go wrong.

According to Duolingo, I have now spent 64 days learning Japanese. Though I can probably get around in Japan knowing how to read Hiragana, Katagana, and a lot of the Kanji, conversation-wise, I doubt I can understand if I ask someone a question.

I will be blogging and documenting along the way and hope you will come with.

#weekendcoffeeshare is hosted by Natalie of Natalie the Explorer. I appreciate you stopping by. Until next we chat. 🙂

25 thoughts on “#WeekendCoffeeShare – 4 Days Before…”

  2. Glad your mom got quick treatment. Hope things turn out to be okay.
    Yes, that trip to Japan is long! We went because my husband was sent by the Army, and lived there for about 2 years. Beautiful country and the people are so friendly. We found most can speak English, so don’t worry about communication. Just enjoy the sights. 🙂

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  4. Your patio looks stunning, Yinglan. I hope your mother is well enough to travel. I’ve never been, but I’ve heard it’s beautiful. Good luck with your Japanese. That would be super hard for me to learn. 🙂

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    1. Thank you. I’m not sure about her condition. Her doctor had told her to follow-up in 6 weeks but I do wish she would be careful instead of living like there’s no tomorrow.
      I think Japanese would be difficult for me, too, if I didn’t already know Chinese.

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      1. Yes, knowing one language always helps. I tried learning Hmong years ago, but I couldn’t hear the tonal differences in words. As you know, changing tones in English may change the meanings of words, but it doesn’t change the words. For example how many ways can you say the word, “good?” It can mean good, (factual statement) or good? (sure- a little doubt about it), Good! (I’m so excited!) All with a little change of tone. I don’t know about Japanese, but in Hmong a change of tone changed the word, if I understood correctly.

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      2. I heard the exact thing from one of my coworkers, who is learning Mandarin Chinese for fun. He couldn’t hear the tones either. There are tones in Japanese as well. It probably has to do with the limited number of characters. So far, I just know the words for rain and candy in Japanese. It’s the same pronunciation but change the tones and it will mean one or the other.

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      4. I think tones are just part of Asian languages, some more tones than others. I did some research and saw there are 8 tones in Hmong, 6 tones in Cantonese, and 4 in Mandarin. I think Japanese only has 2 or 3, so it sounds a bit easier to English speakers, I guess.

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      5. Eight tones in Hmong. No wonder I had trouble! LOL I still think you are amazing to learn another language. I know three including English, and my other two are pretty basic.

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  7. I once worked about a week in Japan and was thankful for the ex-pat friends who helped make sense of it. I taught a class to about 75 software engineers and it was an experience I’ll never forget. Loved the people, the food, even not fitting into normal things like my hotel room door – that was just weird and strange.
    I’d go back in a heartbeat and hope you have a great visit.

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    1. Wow, I didn’t know you’ve been to Japan, Gary. I had to laugh picturing you having to duck or squeeze into a hotel room. I have been trying to make sense of its language for 2 months now and learned a lot of history just by studying its characters and from watching videos on YouTube, I can tell why so many people love it and I hope I will, too.

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