PSA: dangerous things are dangerous.
I have had the worst day.
I've been really, really sick this last week, to the point that I missed almost an entire week of classes. I'm getting better now, but today I got told in my Japanese Writing class that if I missed one more class or was late even just once, I'd automatically fail the class. Wonderful! (On the other hand, I'm passing the Japanese Speaking class with flying colours, but GUESS WHAT? I need to pass BOTH to pass my LAST language credit back home, which is only ONE CLASS, NOT TWO. fml.)
But that wasn't the really bad bit.
The really bad bit was that on the way home, I crashed my bicycle into a vespa.
(!!!)
THANKFULLY I am okay-- the vespa was going SUPER SLOW and slowed down even more before we crashed so I got off pretty lightly. Thankfully almost a lifetime's worth of tripping over my feet and falling on tennis courts has taught me pretty much instinctively how to fall properly so as to minimize damage (ie, not break your wrists and graze your palms), but unfortunately I was still tangled up on a bike so I couldn't exactly roll away to cushion impact either. Instead I landed weirdly on my right knee and elbow and they hurt, but not to the point that I can't move them, so hopefully I will be fine. The most worrying is the knee, but we'll see how that goes. The inside of my top lip is also bleeding in three places and swollen, and I also hit my head and the side of my face, but I don't even have a bump on my head, so aside from a mild headache right now, I think that will be okay too. My cheekbone has a HUGE bump on it though, luckily it's on the side of my face I can hide with my ~emo side bangs~ lmfao. I wouldn't be able to do that if I hadn't cut my hair recently.
Oh yeah, I cut my hair recently! I forgot to mention that. Here, have a picture.
Webcam shot from the halloween dress up day on campus on Friday. That's the only shot I have and it's a webcam shot, but it'll have to do until I upload proper photos. You can't see it well here, but I basically cut the front half short (from the back of my ears to the front) to my chin, and left the back half long (which is the bit that's tied up in plaits). My long hair has been bugging me a lot lately, but I didn't want to cut it all off either, so I made an anime-ish compromise. (I was aided in this decision by the fact that I can't see the back of my head and am not double jointed, so cutting the back myself would've been rather difficult.) It looks a little silly but I don't really care, since it still looks fine on me. Actually I've gotten several compliments on it, lol. I still tie the long-half back in my usual single braid most days (so from the front you can't even tell that I don't have just normal short hair) but I can finally wear the front half loose again without having to worry that it'll get tangled, or that it'll get in my food when I eat. It's great.
OH RIGHT. ANYWAY. Back to the bike incident.
So yes, that was the list of injuries. Not seriously hurt (we think, yada yada yada).
Really, the worst of it was shock. I've ... never been in shock before? I don't think. Not that I can remember anyway. But that was really terrible. There I was on, on the ground, sobbing huge fat tears like a big baby and getting soaking wet (it was raining, hence why I crashed in the first place-- I was riding my bike while holding an umbrella YES SHUT UP I KNOW IT'S ILLEGAL I'M NOT GOING TO DO IT ANYMORE and I was turning around a sharp corner and couldn't maneuver away from the oncoming vespa in time because I still had one hand on the umbrella) and there I was just hyperventilating away. People were speaking to me and I could understand perfectly what they were saying and I knew what I wanted to say back to them but I couldn't speak. I couldn't get any words out. It was horrible. Two other foreigners from my dorm though were walking home at the time and saw the crash and came over to help.
I didn't want to go to the hospital though, because hospitals and ambulances are expensive and an initial check of my body seemed to reveal that I could move all right, so nothing was broken or serious. Also I knew I was completely in the wrong for the crash, so I didn't want it to get back to the university and be scolded, I just wanted to go home and be warm and dry and have a bit of a cry. I couldn't communicate that though because no words were coming out, so we had a few (in retrospect) hilarious exchanges, like so:
(Italics = in Japanese)
(Also this is paraphrased and cutting out a lot of repeated exclamations of "What do I do?!" and other repeated questions and long pauses for hyperventilating and the like. Real conversation was much longer than it appears, but this was the gist of it.)
VESPA LADY: [Freaking out] Oh my god are you okay are you okay?
ME: [BAWLING BAWWWW everything hurts bawwwww]
VESPA LADY: Should I call an ambulance?!
ME: [VEHEMENT HEAD SHAKING]
VESPA LADY: [Turns to the other two foreigners] .............Does she understand Japanese?
LEWIS: She understands!
ERIC: She can understand better than we do, haha.
VESPA LADY: [Back to me] Do you want to go to the hospital?
ME: [More head shaking and hyperventalating]
VESPA LADY: [Back to Lewis] Does she really understand?! Can you translate for me? Ask her why she doesn't want to go to the hospital!
LEWIS: Uh...
ME: [Struggling to get words out] I... understand...
LEWIS: [Helping me up and gripping me hard while I test my leg and do a check of my body and bawl some more because everything still hurts]
VESPA LADY: Why don't you want to go to the hospital?!
ME: [Hyperventalating too hard to speak]
VESPA LADY: Hey calm down! I'm gonna call an ambulance okay?! [To Lewis] Does she really understand?
LEWIS: [Trying not to eyeroll] She's in shock.
ME: I'm okay! It's the shock. I'm ... okay.
VESPA LADY: Are you really okay?! Why can't I call the hospital??
ME: Costs... money...
VESPA LADY: I'll pay! Okay?
ME: [Headshaking "no" again] I want to... go home...
VESPA LADY: .............................................................
LEWIS: She just wants to go home.
VESPA LADY: Can you really go home like that?! I don't think I can see you getting back on that bike like that!
LEWIS: [Quickly] We'll walk the bike.
VESPA LADY: Okay ... well if you're sure ...
She was so confused. Poor lady.
The really funny part was, though, because almost this whole conversation had been in Japanese and the first language I heard after I fell down was Japanese, after the lady left and Lewis and Eric were walking me home and talking in English, even though I could understand them, for a few minutes there I couldn't think of what to say in English at all. All I could think of was responses in Japanese. It was like my brain got stuck in Japanese mode. Sob.
I really have to thank Lewis though. He was a big help. I don't know what I would've done if he wasn't there. He helped me stand back up again and held on to me very firmly during that whole conversation when I felt shaky and like I was going fall back down again at any second, and then helped walk my bike back home in the rain. Then I got home and Brittany let me cry on her pathetically for a few minutes and hugged me tight and then helped me change out of my sopping wet clothes.
So that was my day.
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth.
I've been really, really sick this last week, to the point that I missed almost an entire week of classes. I'm getting better now, but today I got told in my Japanese Writing class that if I missed one more class or was late even just once, I'd automatically fail the class. Wonderful! (On the other hand, I'm passing the Japanese Speaking class with flying colours, but GUESS WHAT? I need to pass BOTH to pass my LAST language credit back home, which is only ONE CLASS, NOT TWO. fml.)
But that wasn't the really bad bit.
The really bad bit was that on the way home, I crashed my bicycle into a vespa.
(!!!)
THANKFULLY I am okay-- the vespa was going SUPER SLOW and slowed down even more before we crashed so I got off pretty lightly. Thankfully almost a lifetime's worth of tripping over my feet and falling on tennis courts has taught me pretty much instinctively how to fall properly so as to minimize damage (ie, not break your wrists and graze your palms), but unfortunately I was still tangled up on a bike so I couldn't exactly roll away to cushion impact either. Instead I landed weirdly on my right knee and elbow and they hurt, but not to the point that I can't move them, so hopefully I will be fine. The most worrying is the knee, but we'll see how that goes. The inside of my top lip is also bleeding in three places and swollen, and I also hit my head and the side of my face, but I don't even have a bump on my head, so aside from a mild headache right now, I think that will be okay too. My cheekbone has a HUGE bump on it though, luckily it's on the side of my face I can hide with my ~emo side bangs~ lmfao. I wouldn't be able to do that if I hadn't cut my hair recently.
Oh yeah, I cut my hair recently! I forgot to mention that. Here, have a picture.
Webcam shot from the halloween dress up day on campus on Friday. That's the only shot I have and it's a webcam shot, but it'll have to do until I upload proper photos. You can't see it well here, but I basically cut the front half short (from the back of my ears to the front) to my chin, and left the back half long (which is the bit that's tied up in plaits). My long hair has been bugging me a lot lately, but I didn't want to cut it all off either, so I made an anime-ish compromise. (I was aided in this decision by the fact that I can't see the back of my head and am not double jointed, so cutting the back myself would've been rather difficult.) It looks a little silly but I don't really care, since it still looks fine on me. Actually I've gotten several compliments on it, lol. I still tie the long-half back in my usual single braid most days (so from the front you can't even tell that I don't have just normal short hair) but I can finally wear the front half loose again without having to worry that it'll get tangled, or that it'll get in my food when I eat. It's great.
OH RIGHT. ANYWAY. Back to the bike incident.
So yes, that was the list of injuries. Not seriously hurt (we think, yada yada yada).
Really, the worst of it was shock. I've ... never been in shock before? I don't think. Not that I can remember anyway. But that was really terrible. There I was on, on the ground, sobbing huge fat tears like a big baby and getting soaking wet (it was raining, hence why I crashed in the first place-- I was riding my bike while holding an umbrella YES SHUT UP I KNOW IT'S ILLEGAL I'M NOT GOING TO DO IT ANYMORE and I was turning around a sharp corner and couldn't maneuver away from the oncoming vespa in time because I still had one hand on the umbrella) and there I was just hyperventilating away. People were speaking to me and I could understand perfectly what they were saying and I knew what I wanted to say back to them but I couldn't speak. I couldn't get any words out. It was horrible. Two other foreigners from my dorm though were walking home at the time and saw the crash and came over to help.
I didn't want to go to the hospital though, because hospitals and ambulances are expensive and an initial check of my body seemed to reveal that I could move all right, so nothing was broken or serious. Also I knew I was completely in the wrong for the crash, so I didn't want it to get back to the university and be scolded, I just wanted to go home and be warm and dry and have a bit of a cry. I couldn't communicate that though because no words were coming out, so we had a few (in retrospect) hilarious exchanges, like so:
(Italics = in Japanese)
(Also this is paraphrased and cutting out a lot of repeated exclamations of "What do I do?!" and other repeated questions and long pauses for hyperventilating and the like. Real conversation was much longer than it appears, but this was the gist of it.)
VESPA LADY: [Freaking out] Oh my god are you okay are you okay?
ME: [BAWLING BAWWWW everything hurts bawwwww]
VESPA LADY: Should I call an ambulance?!
ME: [VEHEMENT HEAD SHAKING]
VESPA LADY: [Turns to the other two foreigners] .............Does she understand Japanese?
LEWIS: She understands!
ERIC: She can understand better than we do, haha.
VESPA LADY: [Back to me] Do you want to go to the hospital?
ME: [More head shaking and hyperventalating]
VESPA LADY: [Back to Lewis] Does she really understand?! Can you translate for me? Ask her why she doesn't want to go to the hospital!
LEWIS: Uh...
ME: [Struggling to get words out] I... understand...
LEWIS: [Helping me up and gripping me hard while I test my leg and do a check of my body and bawl some more because everything still hurts]
VESPA LADY: Why don't you want to go to the hospital?!
ME: [Hyperventalating too hard to speak]
VESPA LADY: Hey calm down! I'm gonna call an ambulance okay?! [To Lewis] Does she really understand?
LEWIS: [Trying not to eyeroll] She's in shock.
ME: I'm okay! It's the shock. I'm ... okay.
VESPA LADY: Are you really okay?! Why can't I call the hospital??
ME: Costs... money...
VESPA LADY: I'll pay! Okay?
ME: [Headshaking "no" again] I want to... go home...
VESPA LADY: .............................................................
LEWIS: She just wants to go home.
VESPA LADY: Can you really go home like that?! I don't think I can see you getting back on that bike like that!
LEWIS: [Quickly] We'll walk the bike.
VESPA LADY: Okay ... well if you're sure ...
She was so confused. Poor lady.
The really funny part was, though, because almost this whole conversation had been in Japanese and the first language I heard after I fell down was Japanese, after the lady left and Lewis and Eric were walking me home and talking in English, even though I could understand them, for a few minutes there I couldn't think of what to say in English at all. All I could think of was responses in Japanese. It was like my brain got stuck in Japanese mode. Sob.
I really have to thank Lewis though. He was a big help. I don't know what I would've done if he wasn't there. He helped me stand back up again and held on to me very firmly during that whole conversation when I felt shaky and like I was going fall back down again at any second, and then helped walk my bike back home in the rain. Then I got home and Brittany let me cry on her pathetically for a few minutes and hugged me tight and then helped me change out of my sopping wet clothes.
So that was my day.
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth.