This might not be of much practical use to most of you, but I though it might be interesting to see the experience of an outsider. Especially as I am one of those evil anti-smoking expats that the community at 20min warned you about.
Originally posted here.
EDITED I clarified a few points that came up in the comments. So if a comment looks like they didn't read the text they actually did.
It is now just over 5 years since I (32/male) moved from the UK to Switzerland. There have been many surprises along the way. I moved here with a 1 year temporary contract and had vague plans to work, see the country at weekends, and then move on elsewhere after. During this time I have moved house, moved job, been unemployed for a few months, explored the country, met and worked with Swiss people from various parts of the country and Expats of various backgrounds, oh and gotten married to a Swiss person.
This is not an all out guide (there are plenty of those), more my reflections and a few lessons learned.
I have posted before after 1 year and after 2.5 years.I have also written pretty extensively about travelling here and Switzerland in general – an overview post of all that is here.
---Resources---
I came in knowing practically nothing other than a frantic check of anything I needed to do to avoid being kicked out.

The book “Living and Working in Switzerland : A Survival Handbook” by David Hampshire, is very useful.
Various dedicated websites with more serious official information sem.admin.ch, and Ch.ch, and to an extent websites like SwissInfo.
Various websites with more unofficial but helpful information. The EnglishForum.ch is a treasure trove of information and experiences. But there are endless other places like Newlyswissed, and Swiss and Chips that vary between useless fluff and very useful info.

---Why and how---

I did a PhD in the UK and as I was finishing it up and looking for a PostDoc I basically just got a job here in a place I had never heard of through chance by a chain of contacts. I had been looking to move abroad but for some reason Switzerland had never occurred to me.
Initially I arrived on a 1 year contract with Firm A, with the strong likelihood of it being extended to 2 years. It ended up as 2.5, by which time I was moved in with my girlfriend and I was set on sticking around. Job hunting was slower than I expected, so before starting on a new position at Firm B I applied to unemployment benefits for what turned out to be just a month (not sure I need to be so secretive really, but why not).
I basically just moved with my laptop and as much clothing as I could fit in a 60L backpack. I didn’t botheforgot to declare anything (not that I brought anything of any value with me).
I got lucky with housing, but that could have been the biggest problem. Initially I had been expecting to stay at a flat rented by the company for a month or two until I found my own place. This got cancelled at the last minute and I found myself trying to find a flat to move straight into. In the end I staying at a hostel for a week and moved into a shared flat found through WGzimmer.ch before the end of the week. There are not many shared flats where you can quickly jump in compared to the UK, and applying for a flat of your own often feels more like applying for a job or dating with the process dragging on for much longer than the “You like it? OK pay the deposit and sign here” method in the UK. Starting early and getting help from your company is certainly advisable there. The only time I ever use my Dr title is on job and housing applications.

---Bureaucracy, Rules, and Paperwork---
I had feared this would be a slow and complicated torture, but to date this has all been very quick, easy, and painless. In large part probably because I had a job already, I was an EU citizen, and I had an address lined up quickly. I know it gets more complicated for non-EU citizens.

Dealing with the local authorities has always been fast, efficient, and friendly. Other than collecting my residency permit every so often when a contract has been renewed I have only had to deal with them very periodically, but any phone call or visit has taken no more than 20 minutes with very little waiting. This might just be because I live in a small city – maybe in Zürich or a tiny village it is different.
I had a slight delay in getting my permit and bank account activated as I waited for the landlord to approve my place as subtenant and give me a contract for proof of address (despite the fact I was already living there). This didn’t create any problems, my firm just gave me an envelope stuffed with bank notes for my first payment.
Setting up a PostFinance bank account was easy (even with a language barrier then). 20 minutes of filling in a form and showing a few documents.
Despite the reputation for rules and order I have not noticed much difference to life in other industrialised western countries. If anything it is more relaxed in many ways. There are some stricter rules like having to use pre-taxed bin bags or minimal noise on a Sunday, but these are mostly reasonable enough. It is nice not hear endless lawn mower engines on a Sunday afternoon. The only rule that seems pointless is having to tie up paper in a perfect bundle for recycling. Maybe if I ever try and build a house or plan an extension the rules will get more complex and painful.
You are supposed to swap your driving licence within a year, or unable to drive in Switzerland and be made to repeat the test again if you want a Swiss licence. I didn’t apply at first given that I never intended to drive here or stay much longer at first. When I did apply after 2.5 years through the standard process (just to see what would happen) I actually did just get given a Swiss licence without being asked to go through the whole testing process.
The mandatory health insurance is easy enough to set up with all the big companies offering English support. I have mostly done the bare minimum I need to do here and have yet to start being truly Swiss and chasing the best deal every year. The cost is painful, but the health care system has always been efficient and effective for me.
Tax was originally paid at the source (as is standard for foreign workers up until you are on a C permit) which made life very easy there, but now being married and treated as a combined legal entity I am paying tax through the standard method.
Going through the marriage process was also easy. Being an EU citizen marrying a Swiss citizen helped. There was some confusion when they asked for a statement from the UK govt saying I was not married as this apparently has not been given out in years, but a quick chat resolved that problem. A British friend who married a non-resident Russian had a much harder time.

---Money---

I make roughly 100k CHF per year. This is more than decent by Swiss standards. Given my education and experience I could get more in another firm/position here, but I am happy with my workplace and would be very reluctant to give up my scenic riverside commute by bike.
Saving money has not been a problem. Even bearing most of the household costs with a studying partner. Not having a car, pets, kids, or eating/drinking out much helps there. My main non-essential expense is the general train pass and food/accommodation costs for weekends around the country.
The high prices take some getting used to at first, but when you work here it isn’t so bad (once you learn to stop converting them back to your native currency). The positive side is that when you leave Switzerland everything is suddenly so cheap.

--- The Swiss ---
I like the Swiss.

I have never had any problems with the Swiss; despite the number of comments I see online bemoaning the fact that whilst Switzerland is a beautiful country it would be terrible to live in as the locals hate foreigners. I have never had a moment of hostility and experience less general rudeness than I would expect back home in the UK (even with language/culture barriers to push the patience).
I am however white, from a north-western European country which doesn’t have many expats in Switzerland, and educated (outside the expense of the Swiss people). So I am probably not going to be the target of much racism or xenophobia.
Whilst not the warmest people in the world there is a certain friendliness, especially in informal situations. Put a Swiss person in the countryside and they will be friends with anyone. In rural restaurants especially sharing a table with strangers and saying hello/goodbye to everyone there as a whole is standard practice.
I am amazed by how relaxed and trusting they can be. Once for example whilst eating outside at a quiet restaurant I asked for the bill and a coffee, the owner left the restaurant wallet on the table with me and went to get the coffee. Likewise I went to a bike shop I had never been in before, said I was interested in quickly testing a 3000 CHF mountain bike and they just handed it over and told me to have fun - no request for ID or anything.
I am also more on the introverted side so a quieter and orderly country is probably more my sort of place than some of the commenters.

---Making friends---
My friendship group is a mix of Swiss and other expats. It is easier to integrate with other expats, though I find that the younger generations of Swiss are much more open than the old jokes of knowing a Swiss person from birth or for 40 years to be their friend would suggest.
Moving in with a Swiss man of my age right away made this much easier. I basically got an instant friend and guide to all things Swiss.
---Language---
I have written fairly extensively about Swiss-German before. Though I do like Swiss-German and I much prefer High-German with a Swiss accent to the standard German High-German.

I had some very basic German in the distance past from school. Then started learning before I arrived. Now I am B2/C1 with German and (very slowly) working towards A2 with French, with the aim of having at least some very basic Italian.
Oddly even living in a German speaking area it can be hard to use it, especially now not being out and about much. My work is in English and it is conducted between workers in German or whatever language most people in the meeting speak (which is typically English), my home life is mostly English as I met my wife when I didn’t speak much German and we got too used to speaking English together.
I didn’t need to get a language certificate (still don’t really). Partly I put it off thinking I would wait until the next level, and partly that the grammar and me are not friends. In the end the updated rules for my canton meant I needed evidence of my language skills to get a C permit rather than just staying on the B. So I have finally taken and passed the TELC B2 exam for German which more than covers everything I need (including citizenship). Long term I am thinking about aiming for certificates for C1 in German, B1 in French, and A2 in Italian – but those would just be to help set goals rather than be requirements.
The Swiss are very patient with language. I got one or two comments from shop workers that I should learn German if I was going to live here at first – but nothing that felt like it had any bad intention or resentment to it. If anything I have a problem getting the Swiss to speak German with me, many of them will switch to English as soon as they get a hint of my accent. I expect that in a touristy area like Interlaken, but it happens everywhere from the butcher to a remote farmhouse restaurant in the Jura. I am never quite sure if they are being polite, want to practise their English, or can't stand the idea of dealing with High-German.
As noted above English is very widely spoken.
If you live in a city and work in an international workplace then knowing the local language isn’t really needed. Once you have a flat and bank account all the interaction you need is self-service machines at the supermarket (and even those you can set to English). Though I certainly don’t recommend doing that.
It is natural to think that everyone here speaks German/French/Italian fluently (and maybe some Romansch), but that is far from the case. Some do have all 3, many are fluent in 2, but very often English is the preferred common language outside of their mother tongue. Likewise the way the language regions tend to have very hard borders without much overlap was a bit surprising at first. I often find that French speakers would rather (or can only) speak English rather than German.
Being in a country with multiple languages will never get boring. Especially somewhere that actually is bilingual like Biel where it isn’t uncommon for a shopkeeper to forget what language they were speaking to you in and switch from German to French.

---Surprises---

Those bastard fancy landscape photos didn’t show the fog did they? From September to February temperature inversion means that much of the low lying middle of Switzerland can be sat in/under a thick fog. How bad this is varies by location; some places barely get any whilst others turn into Silent Hill for weeks on end. Already shorter winter days can be shortened by hours as the light is swallowed. The plus side is that above the fog you get super clear views, but it gets depressing after days of daily life sat inside it.
The country is much livelier than I expected. The stereotype of a grey serious place might have been true decades ago but certainly isn’t now. Especially in summer there are constant music festivals, lively bars, and flotillas of people floating down the rivers in inflatable flamingos. Granted it still isn’t Latin America.
I was not prepared for Swiss-German, my then basic German knowledge didn’t stand a chance. I have been working on this and managed to put together as comprehensive collection of resources as you are likely to find anywhere for Swiss-German.
Sometimes it feels like being back in time. Shops close early (or don’t open at all on Sunday) and at some cinemas they pause the film and have a 10 minute intermission. Things that went away in the UK before I was born.
The Swiss love to shake hands. For me they are something for the first time you meet someone, or maybe for professional acquaintances you see infrequently. Not for everyone in your group of friends at the start and end of the evening. Kids shaking hands with the teacher everyday is still a strange concept to me.
The Swiss see summer as BBQ season in a way that makes the Aussies look like amateurs. I have seen people lighting up fires on tiny balconies in Zürich to BBQ on.
How much there is outside of the Alps. Maybe it was my ignorance before, but I was surprised by how many beautiful spots there are even in the topographically boring parts of the country.

---My Swiss Achievements---

Aromat on the table.
Making a fire in the countryside to roast a cervelat.
Phoned the police to lodge a nose complaint (the Bünzli award). It was 2am on a weekday and the 5th night in a row. I haven’t started to phone the police because my neighbour sneezed too loudly on a Sunday (yet....).
Raclette grill and Fondue caquelon in the kitchen.
Waking up at 3am for the Morgestraich in Basel and tolerating other parts of Fasnacht like bands outside my window at 2am on a Tuesday morning.
Swimming and floating in lakes and rivers during the summer.
Visiting more places in Switzerland than most Swiss people I know. A new country is always more interesting than your own backyard in fairness.

---Why I am still here---
I certainly never thought I would be here 5 years later, but I am very happy to still be around.

It is a beautiful and safe county with nice people, high quality services and infrastructure. Having put in the effort to understand the culture and learnt the language is an incentive too.
I keep finding work. The Swiss level income is a nice bonus, but it really isn’t the thing that is driving me to stay here. I am not very career driven, so long as I have enough money to enjoy myself and find the work interesting enough I am happy.
The thing I would find hardest to give up is the freedom of the landscape. The extent of the paths and smaller roads around the country that are open to anyone is amazing. Making it so easy and carefree to get out and anywhere, especially by foot or bike.
It is much more varied than you would expect. Both in landscape and culture there is plenty of different things to see and take in so there is always something interesting to do.
I also dislike driving, so the extensive public transport system is fantastic.
The self-service machines in Supermarkets are actually used in addition to normal checkouts rather than a replacement. And they actually trust you and don’t weigh your goods and shout at you if anything is 1g out of place. It might sound like a strange point to be so happy about, but compared to the UK shopping experience these days it is so nice.

---What I dislike---
Not much.

Less smokers and more Australian like rules on smoking would be very nice (eg: no smoking in areas where people are eating, including outdoors). It would be nice to sit down on a terrace at a restaurant and not worry if a chain smoker is going to sit down at the table next to you.
I still have problems quickly picking the right coin out of a pile of change. Why half of them have to be so similar is beyond me, especially when the notes are so vivid and clear.
More exotic food and longer shop opening times would be nice (seeing the supermarkets closed at 18:30 was a hell of a shock at first) but I have gotten used to that. I don’t demand 24 hour shopping, but until 20:00 would be fantastic.
Jobs are mostly advertised without a salary, which you then discuss in the interview. For me at least this is rather awkward.

---Regrets---

Not getting a language certificate earlier.
Not joining a social club. I have looked but nothing has taken my fancy.

---Changes with time---

I have gotten too used to the landscape. I still admire the view from the train window, but it is never as special or exciting as during the first few months.
My town has seen a dramatic increase in English speakers. Mostly due to the growth/arrival of a few big MedTech firms.
E-bikes are increasingly everywhere. I had never seen one before I arrived and was surprised to see them all over town back in 2015. Now they are all over the countryside too with mountain E-bikes being very common in places that were previously only the domain of the most hardcore riders.
The climate seems to be getting warmer and drier every year. The amount of snow in the flat land isn’t that different to the UK these days.
The amount of rubbish and anti-social noise (especially blue-tooth speakers) seems to be getting worse. People seem especially unable to bother carrying their empty cans and disposable BBQ with them from the riverside during summer. The increasing number of people (not even just teenagers) who need an absurdly loud speaker at all times is sad, thankfully it isn’t common in the countryside (yet).

If Latin America would become a federal state ¿How it would be? ¿How would you like it to be? I created some maps, flags and lore

My idea for an Union of Latin American States
Hi everybody, just a disclaimer, this is a personal project that goes beyond maps, but i would like to share it with you all, i hope you like it
If you want more lore just ask, thank you all.
These are common questions that you might have:

This is just not feasible

Well, yeah, I did not want to make an idealistic scenario neither a fully realistic one. This is just a thought experiment, and is asking If for some reason the entire continent united ¿How such a behemoth would work and how would we like it to be?

¿How federal is this Union?

It is barely a state, is a loose confederation, state governments have almost as much autonomy as the countries of the EU, with some exceptions; environment, defense, public service, education and healthcare where federal institutions have the last words.

¿What are these reserve things?

These are fully functional states carve out of existing states for their immense ecological and strategic importance. People here have more liberties than the rest of the federation. They barely pay income and added value taxes, receive a basic income (Like in Alaska) and preferential treatment, but in contrast have to follow really strict environmental rules and regulations and heavy penalties for pollution.

¿¿¡¡¡WHAT DID YOU DO TO MEXICO AND BRAZIL!!!??

Sorry Brazil and Mexico-Sama you are too big (sorry for that cringy otaku joke)
But yeah, is sad but Brazil would have 1/3 and Mexico 1/6 of the population. Those countries would be underrepresented in Congress if they are considered just one state and overrepresented if each State (Alagoas, Chiapas etc.) would be considered equal to Colombia or Argentina for example, so I choose a middle path. The idea is that any state has more than 50 million people (1/12 of the Union). I chose to cluster states vaguely trying to follow regional sentiments, in the case of Brazil I choose the regions.

¿Where does the Anfictionic City name come from?

It was the name of the meeting proposed by Bolívar and Miranda to create a United states of the Spanish and Portuguese colonies. It also sounds good both in english, Spanish and Portuguese.

¿How is the territorial organization?

📷
The Union is divided into federal entities: States, Federal reserve states, the Federal Capital and Federal dependencies.
Federal dependencies are either almost uninhabited islands or Antartica.
States are divided in provinces and metropolitan regions. Each province has no more than 1/1200 of the population, roughly half a million people and Metropolitan regions are the same as provinces but could be way bigger and are created surrounding a big city. If a city expands further than its municipal limits, it passes more and more functions to the province that gradually becomes a metropolitan government and its municipalities become Wards or localities.
Provinces also work as school and hospital districts.
Municipalities have a ten-level-tier-system that considers population, wealth, services and other variables to decide the budget that receive from the province, the state and the Union. Municipalities level three and four have a lot less bureaucracy, few public employees and citizens have a more direct participation in local regulations, school curriculum and budget creation for example.
Municipalities over Tier Three have a mayor and a municipal council where the number of members depend on the population. The smallest municipalities (level one and two) have a communitarian system where there is only a Community Board of ten elected members that collectively realize all government functions, local decisions are taken by direct democracy meetings called Local Assemblies that are realized the last saturday of every month.
The name of the municipality change according to their level:
📷
The same happens with municipalities in reserve states, but sectors are ruled by Commissariats that are part of the State Guard.
Municipalities have to belong to a province, but could choose in a referendum to change which one they belong.
Federal reserve-states have a different system. The territory is divided into organized and unorganized territory. The former is divided in Sectors and the later in municipalities that only include the urban and suburban territory, every four years the limits are actualized by a technical agency. Sectors are almost uninhabited and as such do not really have a local government, they are ruled directly from the State.
¿How is the government?
The division of power is pretty normal for a semi presidential republic, but there are some caveats. The executive is divided in three (or two and a half if you want).
The president is elected by a single transferable vote (STV), she/he should be both the winner both in the Union and in at least 15 of the federal entities. There is an informal truce that assures that there should be a president from either the Brazilian or Mexican, most presidents come from small states, such as Costa Rica or Uruguay while the Prime minister generally comes from the most populous states, like Aztlan or Nordeste.
The prime minister is the president of the party or the coalition that holds the majority of the House of Representatives. Is accompanied by a Cabinet that is chosen by the House of Representatives. The Prime Minister is also the Chief of Government.
The Secretary General is a particular character, is not elected, but is designated by a Federal Public Service Exam and an absurdly strict interview process that assures political neutrality because it is a life-time position. The SG have the function of assuring cooperation and breaking controversy and discussions between the President and the Prime Minister and among states and as such, it has the power to overrule the decision of any other institution.
It has to live an ascetic life, It should NEVER express personal opinions on media, hold any real estate or financial activities so it does not have any moral interference. Is supposed to be approved by all parties and states and be as impartial as humanly possible. They are generally older jurists that have made a life-long career in public service with any scandal or misbehavior during its life.
The legislative branch is divided in two houses. The Upper House is the Senate, where the amount of seats is one for every million people. Senators are elected federally, all citizens of every state could elect different senators from any place of the Union. This house is supposed to represent the popular vote.
The Lower House is the House of Representatives, where the representatives of every federal entity are calculated by adding 20% to the number of millions of inhabitants plus three representatives. Every Federal entity has one or two houses depending on the state constitution. The Upper house has a state-wide representation while the lower one is a province-based representation. States have governors, state-reserves have commissioners (Or lieutenant governor) and the Federal Capital have a Mayor-governor and local mayor for every locality.
Provinces only have a provincial assembly composed of representatives from every municipality, a state representative and other ethnic or civil society representatives specified by the state. The same with metropolitan regions. The Province Representative is the Mayor of the municipality that is the capital of the province.
¿What is the state guard?
Is a civil defense institution that keeps public order and the rule of law and directly confronts guerrilla groups, drug lords, paramilitaries and generally everything that police is not really able to do. They also fulfill the functions of police in reserve-states, where they have a special name. In Patagonia they are called the Austral Guard (Guardia Austral) and in Amazonia the Anauê (That means Brother in Tupí). They are a state and not a federal entity and as such, have a lot of autonomy in their internal organisation.
The Austral Guard is known for using horses in their daily routines and by using a well known uniform (Like the mounted police in Canada), that consist in a light blue beret and poncho, with a Southern Cross in the back and military gear. The Anauê is generally divided in different ethnicities and groups, hence, they use different uniforms that generally mix European and native iconography.
¿And what about the armed forces?
Is pretty average, there is an army, a navy and an air force, all of them only act in external defense because the internal control is done by the State Guard. There are three other minor bodies. The first one is the Environmental Task Force that has the responsibility of controlling deforestation, illegal hunting and other activities that hinders the natural resources, that are considered property of the Union and not individual states. At the end is the Antarctic Task force, that is composed of a collection of all of the other bodies and have the function of protecting Latin American Antartica from foreign intervention, they also have a scientific body.
The last one and the most controversial is the Agency of Security and Intelligence (Asein) that is the intelligence institution for both internal and external missions. They are considered something close to a secret police. This organ should be a civil one and restrained by the Defense ministry, but in reality, works like part of the armed forces and have actually spied, kidnap and even torture party members, specially those of Lusitania and Freedom and Revolution.
Most of its members came from the various intelligence services and even paramilitaries of each country. The DAS in Colombia, the SEBIN of Venezuela, the Cuban Secret Police, the AAA of Argentina and even some former FBI and CIA from Puerto Rico. There are also many internal conflicts of various ideological factions but all of the federal governments have ignored their mistakes because they have been able to eliminate, sometimes brutally, any irredentist movement and foreing intervention.
¿So what about Antarctica?
Is a federal dependency with a special legal regime. Other countries do not recognize the claim and directly accuse the Union of violations to the Antarctic treaty, and those claims are actually true. The geopolitical strategy consist in hitting the first blow and be more prepared than other countries for the year when the Antarctic treaty end and the Union could take control of their Antarctic resources faster than the rest of the world, that is why the Union spends millions of Pesos-Reales in keeping Puerto Esperanza afloat.
¿How does education work?
Most schools are public, but are not free. Every parent receives a coupon of certain value for every child and most schools do not charge more than that amount, but those schools of high quality are able to charge a little bit more. This coupon system was implemented in order to reduce cost while increasing coverage. It also forces schools to compete for increasing the averages of their students in Federal Standardized Exams while giving reasonable prices. A similar system is used in public universities.
There are private schools and universities, but tend to exist to provide a service to a specific demographic, such as those of a specific religion or ideology. These schools have more autonomy to choose their curriculum.
There are four basic periods. Nursery, that takes care of young children until they have 7 years, Primaries, from first to fifth grade, highschool, from sixth to tenth grade and Technical, that are three years where the students choose a technical specialisation, generally is a preparation for university, such as pre-legal, pre-engineering, although many students prefer vocational training, such as mechanics or programming. Each period has a Federal Standardized Exam that is realized by the Ministry of Education without the intervention of schools.
Federal Exams are a big deal because they help students to access better schools. These schools are ranked not just by a simple average, but also with the amount of students over a certain grade or capacity. This forces schools not to just help good students to become even better, but to help the worst student to reach the rest of their classes, reducing the inequality of quality of the education in schools.
The Union has both Spanish and Portuguese as official languages, and as such, every student has to take a Minimal proficiency test in either of them to graduate, this tends to be easy because both languages are taught parallely since first grade. Teachers put reading lists that include both hispanic and lusitanian authors trying to create a narrative of united history and culture. Media is also really bilingual and lusitanians are strongly eager to defend their right to receive public services in their language.
All public documents have to be translated to both official languages. States and provinces have also official languages, but could choose to translate services to those languages. For example, Quechua is an official language in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, Guaraní is official in Paraguay, Maya in Yucatán, Nahuatl in Aztlán, Welsh in certain provinces of Patagonia, German in parts of Sul, etc.
Many public schools have courses in other languages, Chinese, Hindi and Hebrew in Anfictionic City, Japanese in Perú, Lebanese in Granada, Korean in Guatemala and Paraguay and Mapundung in both Chile and Patagonia.
In general terms, education not only looks for technical learning, but the creation of compromised citizens and the creation of an unified identity and sense of national pride. Different states change the curriculum to be closer to what states want, for example, religious or moral elements in Costa Rica and Peru or localized elements, such as biology and botanic classes in Amazonía and international economy in Anfictionic City.
The education in the union has some influence from the German and Japanese model. Nursery and Primary have a strong focus on civic duties. Toddlers are expected to learn respect for their elderlies, tolerance, acceptance to people of other states, basic house chores, study habits while in the primary, childrens are taught both the history of all of the Federation and not only their rights but their duties to the Union.
During highschool and technical they also receive education about the political system, their means of participation and the importance of the National service. This consists in a duty that every citizen has to fulfill in order to become a citizen, vote, be a public servant etc. It could be civil or military. Civil service is one year and a half and the military just ten months. Every public institution, civil society organisation or private entity with a community mision upload their job vacancies in a federal database where students could choose theirs, based in their studies and aptitudes, the CS is generally paid and could be reduced to fourteen months or even less if is served outside of the home state of the student.
This service is considered the transition to real adulthood for many, is the first time that a student is outside of home, receiving a wage, living on their own. It also fulfills a more important function, it gives every single student of the Union important job experience and a close relation between technical schools and the market to reduce unemployment.
Military service usually is really scarce and only those with great physical aptitudes and any health problems are accepted. It could be fulfilled in any of the branches of the armed forces or in the national guard. Families in the Reserve states tend to have great pride in having one or more sons or daughters in their national guards, which are considered an important cultural pillar of these regions.

What the f is GRE evaluating?

AoButa Volume 11 "Nightingale" summary (Spoilers)

Hi everyone! this is a summary on volume 11 Rascal Does Not Dream With a Nightingale (2020) events for everyone interested on catching up the current story status without need of reading the books since most of them aren't translated to English yet.
For summaries on previous installments you may take a look at these: Volume 10 summary (by me too) Volume 8 and 9 summary (by u/yccbarry)
This summary will be longer than the previous volume 10 one since the content in this is a bit more dense, like Volume 6 and 7 plot (the ones that the movie adapts). I also added some details
So, like all the volumes so far, this one features five chapters (Each one with 4 or 5 parts, except the last one which is the epilogue):

正義の味方 (Ally of Justice)
不協和音 (Dissonance)
記憶領域の君と僕 (Memories of You and Me)
ヒルベルト空間の彼方から(Far Away in the Hilbert Space)
Message

This summary is divided in these chapters and will give as many details as possible, as well some conclusions at the end.

Chapter 1: Ally Of Justice

Is a Sunday noon, October 30th, six days after volume 10 ending. Sakuta and Kunimi meet at Enoshima Station, it has been several months since the last time they've seen each other. Kunimi spent 6 months away in Firefighter training, but from now on will work in Fujisawa. Sakuta notices that Kunimi's aspect is a bit more mature and serious, but he keeps his personality like in High School:

─ Hey Kunimi, do you like "Santarinas"? (Girls in a Mini Skirt Santa Claus costume) ─ Really not. ─ Then you love them? ─ Oh, I love them for sure!

Then Futaba appears (she arrived earlier and was wandering around the place) and complains on how dumb is their conversation. The three of them go to eat in food restaurant near the sea shore where they talk about their lives as Firefighter (Kunimi) and college students (Sakuta and Futaba).
Kunimi has a 24-hour shift work schedule so he is free today. In the other hand, Sakuta and Futaba's lives are pretty ordinary: There are a lot of clubs and parties where uni students hang out, meet each other and exchange contacts, but they don't use to attend to them, specially Futaba, who always excuses and avoids them. Suddenly, Futaba receives a phone call from someone in her uni so stands up to answer at the restaurant's gateway. Sakuta and Kunimi notice that Futaba smiles and slightly laughs during the phone call.
When she comes back, Sakuta and Kunimi ask if she was talking to a friend, she tacitly confirms and excuses that is a peer-mate assigned for some activities in the School of Sciences. Sakuta and Kunimi ask to meet them, Futaba shows resilient at first (What I'm going to say? "Hey, you wanna meet two guys with girlfriends?") but ends accepting.
They leave the restaurant for a walk over the shore in Enoshima, there Kunimi takes a photo with his smartphone (1st color illustration) and later they leave to the station since Sakuta and Futaba have work to do at the cram school in the afternoon, which is near the train station where they met before. They go back, Kunimi leaves and while heading to the Cram School Sakuta and Futaba talk about his encounter with Touko Kirishima (it is implied that they have talk about it before).
Due how surreal it was Sakuta though it should be a dream or an hallucination, Futaba searched for information about Touko in the internet but there's nothing about her appearance or she using a Santarina costume since all her internet operations are anonymous. Sakuta thinks that if Touko is a girl suffering a syndrome that don't let her able to be visible in real life, she could be having it since she started her artistic operations in the Internet 2 years ago, and it must be though to deal with a syndrome a time that long.
Sakuta met Touko for first time last week in Monday, October 26th, just after Uzuki left after her university drop-out (Volume 10 ending). She was wearing a Santarina costume, approached Sakuta like if they have already known and introduced after Sakuta asked to since he was unable to recognize her. Touko claimed that she was who gave Uzuki her puberty syndrome, Sakuta asked how, she only replies that "Santa gives presents to good children", strange since it wasn't Christmas yet. She also said that Sakuta must be a bad boy trying to "open his eyes and figure who Santa is". None of the students walking around where able to see Touko but Sakuta, then he asks if she can stop giving away syndromes, Touko accepts... since she has already delivered all of them.
Touko challenges Sakuta to guess after showing him her empty bag, starting by low numbers (1, 2, 3, 10...) up to 1000, Sakuta gives up and Touko tells him that she gave out 10 million "presents", including most of the students that were passing by there, like Ikumi Akagi, the girl featured in the book cover. She is studying Nursing in the same university than Sakuta and was his classmate back in middle school, her first appearance was in volume 9.
Futaba asked if Sakuta is going to do anything about those 10 Million syndromes, but from his perspective it isn't an evident emergency and he is already busy with his two jobs and dating Mai. However, feels curious about what is Ikumi's syndrome, but he hasn't any contact with her, also they aren't friends so it may be strange trying to reach her and ask about it. Finally, Futaba suggests Sakuta to ask Touko for her phone number next time he sights her.
The next day there are Sakuta, Mai and Nodoka in Mai's car (1st book illustration). She is driving them to the university since she has work to do in Tokyo and the campus is in the road. Sakuta thinks of it like a "drive date" and tries to ignore Nodoka's presence. Sakuta talks about his meeting with Futaba and Kunimi yesterday as well the Touko's phenomenon (seems like he has talk about it with Mai and Nodoka before too). 45 minutes later they arrive to the train station next to the university campus.
In the next part Sakuta is heading to the cafeteria, looks for a seat and he finds an empty one in the same table than Miori (they have a similar relation manner that Sakuta with Futaba) She gives Sakuta a pair of little jam jars to give to Mai, they are a present she got in a visit to the countryside in Nagano (4 hours away by car) with friends since one of them called Minami got a driver license, Miori also mentions a joint party she is having later (parties where students from different universities or faculties meet, primarily for the purpose of exchange contancts and flirt with others. You may think of them as "blind dates") Minami invited her and mentioned something about a handsome guy attending.
Takumi arrives and sits in the same table than Sakuta and Miori. Miori already finished eating and though it was better to leave Sakuta and Takumi alone, also she seemed annoyed by Takumi (2nd book illustration). After this he asks Sakuta if he is free in the afternoon to join him to a joint party he was invited, Sakuta doesn't want since it might be misunderstood since he is dating Mai. But Takumi insists since it seems like Sakuta gives him a bit of confidence, he also mentions that there will be some Nursing Department students so Sakuta thinks it may be an opportunity to reach someone there and hence Ikumi, he phone calls Mai to ask for permission to assist and she allows with no questions (Hope you pick up a cute girl~ Mai said). So later they leave near to the place where the joint party was going to be hold.
It was Halloween (Sakuta didn't knew) so there was a large crowd on the square in front of them. Suddenly, Sakuta collides with a girl in a Victorian nurse costume and fake blood over her face, she was Ikumi (3rd book illustration). No words where exchanged but Sakuta saying "I'm sorry", then Ikumi leaves to a little girl in a Little Red Riding Hood costume who was under a big pumpkin lamp under a lamppost, her parents where about to take a photo to her, suddenly the pumpkin lamp falls down but Ikumi reaches to take her by her shoulder and push the girl away. If it wasn't by Ikumi, the girl would be seriously injured.
During this Sakuta briefly lost Takumi, but found him soon after so they got into the party place, it was a restaurant with private tables in different cubicles for up to 6 people each one. There it was Kodani Ryouhei, a 2nd year student from the School of International Commerce, who was the event organizer, he introduces and gives Sakuta a business card. Later two girls arrive: Chiharu and Asuka. There is still one girl left to arrive since the reservation was for a party of 6.
While showing photos to Takumi in her smartphone, Chiharu mentions a tweet she did saying something like "I'm having a joint party in October 31th, hope to find my right one! #Dreaming" and Sakuta asks what is that "#Dreaming" thing. Everyone seems surprised that Sakuta doesn't know about it so he explains he has no cellphone (he is used to the reactions). Ryouhei explains that people started to publish visions they had in their dreams using the #Dreaming hashtag, but eventually some of them became true, people superstition was stimulated so everyone started to use it expecting to get their dream experiences and "wishes" to become reality or give a warn on potentially dangerous events.
Sakuta hears a familiar voice approaching out of the cabin, it was the remaining girl: Kamisato Saki, Kunimi's girlfriend (4th book illustration).

Chapter 2: Dissonance

Next day after the joint party, Sakuta and Takumi are in the Computer Room in the campus, where Sakuta is doing an assignment to submit it. Seems like yesterday meeting ended an hour and a half after Kamisato arrived, introduced her as the a Firefighter Girlfriend, talked about her High School days and everyone noticed that she and Sakuta don't get along very well, nonetheless Takumi thinks it was fun.
Sakuta didn't knew that Kamisato was studying in the same university for half a year ago like him, and that she is taking the Nursing major is a complete surprise for him.
Since he was in front of a computer, Sakuta searches for the "#Dreaming" trend, finding countless tweets tagged, at least 300 in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile Takumi asked Sakuta about his relation with Kamisato ("I think she hates me" Sakuta said).
Suddenly, Kamisato appears next to Sakuta and Takumi, she asked Takumi (though Chiharu and Asuka since Kamisato didn't exchange any contact with Takumi or Ryouhei) for their location, he immediately left to don't interfere in their conversation. However they didn't talk that much, the most relevant thing was Sakuta indirectly asking why Saki assisted to the joint party, she replied that it was to match numbers and accompany Chiharu and Asuka, who are her friends. However the main reason of Saki's presence was not to talk to Sakuta: Ikumi appeared and Kamisato left she and Sakuta alone. Ikumi is Saki's friend, they are classmates in the Nursing Department.
Ikumi and Sakuta have never talk a lot before, back in Middle School they where classmates, not friends. Seems like Ikumi's concern was to ask Sakuta about his impression during their accidental meeting yesterday, but they also talked about Kamisato, who Ikumi said is a nice girl ("She got into Nursing Major to support her boyfriend who is a Firefighter, isn't that cute?") and that Ikumi's vocation is to "Help people who need help", being that the reason why she wants to become a nurse. She also explained that yesterday's costume was because she was with her junior high school students who had gathered for a volunteer class.
Sakuta asked if she is always helping people as a way to ask for the Pumpkin lamp incident, but Ikumi seemed confused. Sakuta thinks that like most of people in Middle School, she didn't seem to be superstitious to believe in puberty syndromes.
Additionally, Ikumi hands Sakuta and invitation to an ex-alumni meeting next November 27th with middle school classmates, he keeps it but due obvious reasons doesn't want to go. Ikumi also says that she might not come, since she feels harassed by the other girls trying to "asserting dominance" (Saying stuff like "My boyfriend is a handsome guy who goes to a prestigious university" or "You should get a boyfriend, Ikumi...") that is the same reason she told Sakuta that he wouldn't have problem attending since he is dating a national-known actress like Mai (remember that Sakuta is popular in the whole uni due this).
Ikumi took a peek at the monitor in front of Sakuta, it seemed like she noticed or remembered something and left. Sakuta shuts down the computer and leaves to the cram school.
When Sakuta enter the cram school there was Futaba tutoring a particularly tall guy called Kasaitora Nosuke, who is their kouhai from Minegahara High School and Kunimi's team-mate back in the basketball team. Nosuke wasn't paying attention so didn't understand what Futaba was explaining. After he leaves, Sakuta asks Futaba if she knows something about the "#Dreaming" trend, also explains that Ikumi seems like using it to find and do some sort of righteous deed, and wonders if it has something to do with Touko Kirishima, since she said that gave Ikumi a syndrome. But Futaba doesn't see the problem with it, seems like she has plenty of spare time and uses it to help people, and even it that's her "syndrome", maybe there's nothing to do since she isn't in any trouble.
After this Sakuta went to his classroom to teach a lesson to Juri and Kento, his assigned students. During the class Kento asked Sakuta to give him a short break since he feels overwhelmed by the class, Sakuta gives five minutes to them, time where he asks if they know something about the "#Dreaming" trend. Kento thinks it is silly stuff, while Juri already used it to ensure a dream where she was scoring the deciding point for her team in a volleyball match. Suddenly the door opens, it was Himeji Sara, the girl who was introduced in the previous volume as a student in Minegahara and Kento's crush. Sara came to take Sakuta's class, something that makes Kento get nervious.
At the end of the class, Sakuta and Sara leave the building at the same time, she will wait for her mother to pick up her by car and Sakuta hurries to go home since tonight Mai will cook dinner. When he arrives at home notices that Nodoka and Uzuki are there too. A few interactions happen and later they sit to have curry for dinner. Uzuki came to invite Sakuta to the next Sweet Bullet show at the school festival in the university (it was booked time before she dropped the uni) that same Sunday, and gave him two tickets for himself and Mai. After this, Nodoka leaves to Mai's place to take a bath, Uzuki follows her, and likewise Kaede will take a bath at home. Sakuta asked Kaede to lend him her laptop (to keep researching the "#Dreaming" trend). This leaves Mai and Sakuta alone, who will drink coffee and watch TV while Sakuta searches for info in Kaede's computer. Mai and Sakuta have matching mugs with animals (a rabbit and a raccoon, respectively) as well Kaede and Nodoka (a panda and a lion).
Also, Sakuta received mail from Shouko, it was a postcard of Shouko posing in the beach in Okinawa (click here for some fanart reference made by asuda in Pixiv) the dedication said: "I love you! Shouko-chan is looking more and more like Shouko-san!", and she seems a bit grown-up. Even if she tried to hide it, Mai was clearly jealous (2nd color illustration).
Sakuta takes a look to the laptop searching for the "#Dreaming" trend, most of the tweets where vague and unrealistic, but few of them where very precise with dates and events. Then Sakuta talks with Mai about the Ikumi's incident and how fuzzy his memories of middle school are, and that maybe his mind is predisposed to forget it due the bad experience he and Kaede had back then. It is also mentioned that Kotomi Kano (an old Kaede's friend, briefly appeared in the anime and a frequent character in the new volumes) told Sakuta that after Kaede's incident, there was a witch hunt against the girls who bullied her, the girls stopped going to school and eventually they all moved out. This leads to a Sakuta's though on how most of the times someone's happiness will unavoidably mean someone's else unhappiness, maybe inspired by a Tokusatsu (Japanese Live-action SFX shows like Godzilla or Super Sentai [Power Rangers] franchise) show that was showing in the TV in that moment. This makes Sakuta feel like the bad guy of the story.
Finally Sakuta registers a new account in the Twitter-like site he was researching, used a photo of Nasuno yawning as his profile picture.
The next part take us directly to the school festival day (November 6th) where Sakuta briefly met Miori. He asks how the joint party was, but explains that she and Minami got lost in a crowd of people and was unable to find her again so went back home.
Next up he headed to the Sweet Bullet's show, later the girls had another activity to do in the Auditorium, so at the end Sakuta and Mai where asked to collect their lunch since there was no time for refreshment, Kaede and Kotomi helped them standing in the lines for the different items they requested.
Sakuta and Mai where in the line for tacos, which was being attended by Saki, Chiharu, Asuka and Ikumi (Takumi and Ryouhei were also there). All of the girls were wearing the same nurse costume that Ikumi in the last chapter. Sakuta noticed that Ikumi had an right-arm sling suspended from her neck, Sakuta asked Saki (who was attending them) what happened to her so she explained that it was while supporting a wobbly man in the station, it was the same day and after his meeting with Sakuta in the computer room. Mai and Sakuta collect the tacos that Sweet Bullet girls requested (they were feeding each other while heading to the dressing room). Mai took all the items to bring them to Sweet Bullet dressing room so Sakuta can go and investigate what happened to Ikumi.
Sakuta found Ikumi sitting on a bench in the shade of a tree so he sat down in the same bench to talk with her (5th book illustration). Their conversation was kind of vague and evasive, at one point Ikumi asks him if he remembers what he wrote on the graduation book in junior high school but Sakuta doesn't since he threw it to the trash when moved and never opened it. Ikumi says he wrote "Someday, I want to reach kindness" (some of the words Sakuta learned from Shouko) and asks him if he already did.
Suddenly Ikumi stands up and says that has something to do; Sakuta wrote a tweet yesterday mentioning a boy falling down in front of the clock tower in the campus, so guessed that Ikumi was heading there. He tried to stop her explaining that it was fake, Sakuta planned to use it to find real Ikumi's intentions and why she was helping others. He though she would be angry but she was completely calm ("I'm glad there are no crying boys.") her reaction was too idealistic, like a real "Ally of Justice". Then inexplicably Ikumi crouched down, her face turned red, he body started shaking, her nurse cap flew away, hair got loose (even if there was no wind), it also seemed like something was seeping under his clothes and got her skirt ripped. Seemed like something invisible (like a ghost or poltergeist) was attacking her, even under those conditions, she was able to articulate and say "I'm fine".

Chapter 3: Memories of You and Me

Sakuta brought Ikumi to the nursery after her strange accident, Saki came to bring a change of clothes to her and Sakuta tries to talk a bit with her about Ikumi. At first Saki thought that her helping impulse was a fashion statement to "decorate" herself and brag about it, but Ikumi's behavior is too honorable for that, she is too nice that is almost creepy. Saki has stuff to do so she leaves. Sakuta enters the room where Ikumi is with the clothes Kamisato gave him. Ikumi asks Sakuta to help her to change her clothes so he has to take off her camisole, the rest of the changing is made by Ikumi behind a curtain.
After the previous incident, Sakuta is curious about what Ikumi thinks about him and how is that her apparent syndrome has to do with him, so she proposes him a game: If Sakuta is able to remember their common past, her syndrome will be cured and won't need to rely on the "#Dreaming" trend. This implies that Ikumi's purpose of helping people using "#Dreaming" is to forget about Sakuta to cure her. Ikumi will lose if she forgets that common past first. A weird game but Sakuta has no choice and accepts, they go back to the festival.
Kotomi (Kaede's friend mentioned before) finds Sakuta and say that they were searching for him for about an hour, Sakuta asks her if she knows something about Ikumi. She remembers that back in middle school she was the student council president and most of the students thought that she seemed to mature for her age, she was also very active in local volunteer activities and always takes the initiative. However, there was a rumor saying that she had an older lover and stayed at his house for a time, but Sakuta thinks is very likely to be false.
The next day Sakuta was at home doing laundry when he receives a phone call from Futaba asking to meet him at the bookstore before his job turn. There he tells her about Ikumi's accident, Futaba thinks it's similar to Kaede's syndrome. However they can't come up to any significant conclusion.
Later Sakuta heads to Benny's to do his part-time job as waiter, there he finds Tomobe Miwako (Kaede's school counselor from middle school) who uses to visit the place occasionally. She says that Sakuta looks more mature and grown-up and asks how is life going. Unexpectedly, she asks if he already met Ikumi at the university, since they went to the same school and Ikumi is doing all her volunteer operations there. Mrs. Tomobe collaborates with Ikumi in her volunteer activites and thinks she is a serious girl with a strong sense of justice, and since it seems like the way everyone sees her, Sakuta deduces that maybe her syndrome has to do with Ikumi striving to fit in everyone's perspective. In this conversation Sakuta discovers that when Kaede's accident happened, Ikumi wanted to help him convincing their class that puberty syndromes were real, but failed. Finally he asks Mrs. Tomobe to take him in to the next volunteering activities with her.
In the next volunteering activity Sakuta and Ikumi remain alone in a classroom in their university campus after the volunteering class (she has not the sling anymore). This time Sakuta talks about his deduction about what he is supposed to remember. The poltergeist attacks her again but now writes something in her left arm:

─ Is everything okay there? ─ Sorry for the sprain. ─ Watch out for him. ─ Everything is be fine.

Sakuta asks if she knows who is the entity that is attacking her, but she didn't answer. Then an unknown guy wearing a suit and looking in his twenties appears searching for Ikumi, but she escapes.
Sakuta and the unknown guy (that by some reason knows Sakuta's name) sit on a bench outside the building. He introduces to Sakuta as Takasaka Seiichi, Ikumi's ex-boyfriend, tells Sakuta that he knows him because he appears in Ikumi's graduation book. They met while in high school volunteering and he is some years older than her. Ikumi used to spend time at Seiichi's home and help him (like Mai and Shouko have done for Sakuta). During the 4th year of college Seiichi couldn't afford to care for her since he was too busy hunting for a job so they broke up when Ikumi graduated from High School. Seiichi saw a #Dreaming tweet from Ikumi saying something about an accident next December 27th with the police involved, felt curious and wanted to ask her. Seiichi had work to do and left, he wanted to exchange contacts with Sakuta but as you know, he doesn't have a cellphone.
This event suggests that the "poltergeist" attacking Ikumi is just her boyfriend touching her in the other world.
Just after this, Sakuta turns his view and there it was Touko in the seat Seiichi left. Sakuta asked her what was Ikumi's syndrome but she replied that just gave her what she wanted, it isn't the "poltergeist" thing, and that she can't spout off "which presents Santa gives to other people". Then Sakuta asks for Touko's phone number. After convincing her, Touko shows him her phone screen displaying her number while she counts down from 3, Sakuta does his best to remember it. Just then Mai comes and Touko vanished as soon as Sakuta looked away. He briefly explains what happened before and since today Sakuta planned to visit his parents later, Mai will go with him. He'll ask them if they remember something about Ikumi.
Once in Sakuta's parents house, Mai helps his mom with the cooking (in front of his parents, Mai refers to him as "Sakuta-kun" instead of just "Sakuta", and she feels weird doing it). Meanwhile he asks his father about Ikumi: They remember her mother is a lawyer (might have influenced Ikumi's justice sense) and that she used to actively participate in the parents committee. Then Sakuta's father went to search something, at his come back hands Sakuta his graduation album (when moving the operator found it in the garbage and though it was an accident, so gave it back to Sakuta's parents) there where plenty of photos of important events along three middle school years, he remembered that him and Ikumi used to sit together. In her quote, Ikumi wrote "I want to be an adult who can help others". There also was what she mentioned Sakuta wrote (Someday I want to reach kindness) some of the words that Shouko taught him, but there was something wrong: He couldn't be able to write that, because by that time he didn't remember Shouko yet. Someone else did (Sakuta from the other world in Vol. 9).

Chapter 4: Far Away in the Hilbert Space

Sakuta and Koga are at Benny's, he gave her some custard buns in gratitude for she covering his turn last Sunday. Then asks her about "#Dreaming", Koga says that is an old topic (has been in the internet at least since July) and doesn't like it since a friend of her called Yoneyama Nana made true a dream where a boy approached Koga in the beach, but Nana-chan ended dating him. A typical Koga problem he though. Sakuta also gave her a pair of brand-new earphones (the same that she mentioned in volume 10) as a gift for passing her exams. Uzuki (who stared in the commercial for those) gave them to Sakuta and he told her he was going to give them to a kouhai of him (Koga) since he doesn't even have a cellphone to use them.
Koga shows Sakuta a tweet mentioning something about an accident with a fluorescent lamp breaking up in the Minegahara High School in November 27th, but what she doesn't know is that Sakuta himself wrote that tweet (from a new account) to bait Ikumi later, so he tells Koga to don't worry since an "Ally of Justice" will solve it.
Then Kaede appears and tells Sakuta that Futaba is waiting for him. He goes outside to hear her what she has to say about Ikumi (again, it is implied that Sakuta told him what he discovered in the graduation book before) and they agree that potential Ikumi's syndrome started 8 months ago when the university term started. Futaba has a more important thing to show him: there are tweets mentioning an stabbing in an ex-alumni meeting in the same place Ikumi invited him with the #Dreaming hashtag; so Sakuta must be careful if he decides to assist.
In the next part it is November 27th. Sakuta went to Minegahara High School and signed up as a guest to get access, in the list he notices that Ikumi is already there. Since it was Sunday, there were almost nobody in the place. Then Sakuta encounters with Ikumi in a classroom (3rd color illustration). She already noticed that Sakuta's tweet was fake. A long interaction where the they talk about her syndrome takes place, and the next assumptions are are confirmed:

Sakuta already knows that the Ikumi he is talking to doesn't belong to this reality, but to another "World of Possibilities" (this is how the author calls it). Whatever is their syndrome, it switched them.
In the original reality (where they currently are) Ikumi assisted to a different High School (the same that Kotomi). In the other hand, in the World of Possibilities, Ikumi studied in Minegahara High School (because she followed Sakuta) and became friends with Saki soon after.
Ikumi says that she feels better in this world because she is able to help people, in the alternative one Sakuta makes her feel like there's no need for Ikumi to exist since he solved Kaede's problems and all the other syndromes (was observing him closely).
In the World of Possibilities, Ikumi failed the University Admission Exam, this was the drop that spilled the glass and when she wished to be in a world where she would be able to be as she wanted to.
Ikumi's effort to help people using the #Dreaming tweets are an effort to feel better with herself. She didn't to come back since feels confident in this world, even if she has to deal with the "poltergeist" attacks.

In a nutshell, Ikumi is a girl that feels too self-conscious to accomplish all that she has been said and believes has to do (work for the justice and help others), in the World of Possibilities that Sakuta "opened" in Volume 9, he accidentally generated a reality were Ikumi feels frustrated because she can't accomplish any of the things she though must do, so she wishes to live in another world where she could, thus is sent to the "real world". She also has an esteem-resentment though of Sakuta, because she thinks he is too cool helping his sister and the other heroines, but also makes her feel incompetent.
But there's a catch: After 8 months she feels too fulfilled that she feels kind of guilty. Furthermore, Sakuta has won the game that Ikumi started and acknowledged her condition, so she can be at peace with the side of her that "hated" him.
They leave the High School and after walking a bit, Sakuta and Ikumi are separated by the security barrier in opposite sides of the train tracks (she deliberately stood after crossing it), she thinks she is ready to come back to her world.
Ikumi rolls up her pants, revealing a text saying "I'm waiting at the ex-alumni reunion" (6th book illustration) written by the original Ikumi in the World of Possibilities. Finally, Ikumi says "bye" to Sakuta. The train passes and Ikumi isn't there anymore, instead there is the same child version of Mai with the red randoseru that in volume 9, but she seemed a bit grown up. Sakuta tried to stop her but she suddenly disappeared too.
Whit this, Ikumi (from the other reality) syndrome is "solved". It's already dark so Sakuta hurries to the ex-alumni meeting to prevent the potential accident. Once there he finds Ikumi (the original one) sitting with a knife and a fork, it seemed like everybody was ignoring her, she was invisible for this world. However since Sakuta can see her calls her name and now everybody is able to recognize her existence and see her (the same series mechanic since Mai's Syndrome).
Ikumi starts a discussion with everyone in the meeting recriminating them for not believing in Sakuta's syndrome and "ruining his life", naturally everyone shows stubborn and think that Ikumi is acting childish. Ikumi hadn't the intention to attack anyone, the multiple tweets where made by the other Ikumi to obligate Sakuta to assist to the meeting.
Sakuta intervenes to say that all of this is a joke, and that they didn't ruin his life, in fact is better than ever and (as they may already know) he is dating Mai Sakurajima, so he has no grudges with any of them. After this, he leaves the place.
Sakuta is heading to the nearest train station when Ikumi reaches him. Sakuta asks her how she feels about how the "plan" went (Trying to convince their old classmates that puberty syndromes where real) but Ikumi says that she doesn't feel too relieved and briefly talks about her experience in the other world. Sakuta says that the time will heal and she shouldn't bother too much in meeting all the expectations set on her, even him (who Ikumi envied) lives in an "inefficient" way and even so he has found his life path, so she'll eventually overcome all her regrets too.

Chapter 5 (Epilogue): Message

The morning after the ex-alumni meeting and Ikumi's syndrome resolution, Sakuta wakes up after having a dream of a regular class in the cram school with Sara, Kento and Juri. He prepares and attends to the university.
Later, Mai and Sakuta are having lunch in the cafeteria and he tells her briefly what happened yesterday, and that he feels proud to be her boyfriend.
Ikumi appears, introduces to Mai and sits on their table. This time is the original Akagi from this world. New messages appeared over her hands (this means that the World of Possibilities still exist) in her left hand with what seemed like Ikumi's handwriting:

A message from Asuzagawa Sakuta by here to Asuzagawa Sakuta by there.

And the second one, written with what seems like Sakuta's handwriting:

You must find Touko Kirishima. Mai is in danger.

Volume 11 ends here.

Afterword

Mr. Kamoshida message is a single sentence: "I hope the days where nothing happens come soon".

Conclusions

Volume 11 is about Ikumi Akagi, a girl who since an early age was given with a strong sense of justice and the duty to help others. However, during middle school Ikumi witnessed how Sakuta suffered because Kaede's harassment, admired his effort to help his little sister and decided to convince everyone around them that puberty syndromes where real since everyone used to make fun and deride Sakuta's condition, but she wasn't able to do it.
In volume 9 Sakuta wished to live in a world where Kaede's accident never happened; generating a new puberty syndrome that opened a parallel "World of Possibilities" where Sakuta was able to deal and solve Kaede's problem earlier and more, nevertheless Ikumi from this world became deeply frustrated because she wasn't strong enough to solve all the problems she though must have done, she also started to suffer some other personality complexes, like being single.
Before getting into the university, Ikumi's frustration drove her to wish being in another world where she were able to help everyone, so she and the Ikumi from the original world switch positions. But after 8 months in the "real life", Ikumi from the World Of Possibilities with a bit of help from Sakuta realizes that this isn't the best solution, so she goes back to her reality. We could say that she solver her syndrome by herself like Sakuta in Volume 9.
Hilbert Spaces is maybe the most extravagant topic Mr. Kamoshida has picked up to analogy a syndrome (Is not a popular nor well publicized Physics topic but a Pure Mathematics topic from Linear Algebra). It doesn't even have a traditional Futaba explanation at all in this volume and it's only mentioned as the title of a Touko Kirisima's song at the beginning of the volume.
However this doesn't matter, remember that all the sciences topics in AoButa are merely decorative and allegoric. AoButa is a Magic Realism Fiction work, not a Sci-fi. All you have to know is that Hilbert Spaces are an abstract math concept that can be used to, in particular, describe the space where we live in and that allows some properties used in Quantum Physics study. We may say that the series world "is" a Hilbert Space, and both the real life and "Worlds of Possibilities" disclosed in volume 9 and still present in this volume are different "dimensions" in this same space. The "Nightingale" in the title name for this volume seems to be a reference to Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), who is known as the Mother of Modern Nursing, a prominent social reformer and an icon from the Victorian age in England.
This series issue heavily relays on volume 9 events, which may be good since we have already discussed how volume 8 and 9 may be mess to adapt into a potential 2nd animated series season, fortunately volume 11 (and likely further ones will do to) are giving a sense to them.
Touko Kirishima seems to be the most crucial and mysterious character in the series so far, even if we already had a first intervention from her in the story we don't have too much new information to speculate and determine which is her role and affiliation in the series: I she a villain? Where does she comes from? Is just a different girl with another syndrome or something else? What she has to do with Mai?
Seems like the climax for this new series stage will come earlier than later.
See you in the next volume!

Di-Jun Huang

#46
I’m cutting the character I’ve been complaining about no one else cutting for the entire round, who could have seen that coming?
I like Huang. Low B tier, I guess. Very low B tier. Scraping the top 50 is much more than far enough.
Turnabout Target
Turnabout Target is an excellent case. It’s fantastically paced with big reveals happening snappily one after the other, flying forward through its mystery like a bullet from a gun. It’s more densely packed than any first case has any right to be, and contains more hooks to keep you interested in the rest of the game than was even necessary.
Near the centre of this whirlwind is the titular character of this cut, Di-Jun Huang, the supposedly nearly assassinated president of Zheng-Fa. Isn’t this exciting! Kicking off the game with the attempted murder of the previous game’s rival’s country! And the assassin is the same fucking guy from 2-4? We get to finally take that guy down now, 4 games later, and in the first case no less??
That was enough. That’s all the case needed to be and I would have been satisfied with simply nabbing De Killer and having that be the end of it. But instead we get a great twist midway through the case where not only is Shelly not de killer, but he’s even meddling in the case’s investigation for the specific purpose of allowing Edgeworth to uncover the truth. I love it, and this is barely the halfway point.
The next section of the case finally concerns the man, the myth, the legend himself, the character who is ranked higher than Maya Fey, Di-Jun Huang.
Huang has been this commanding and authoritative presence throughout the entire case, he’s enormous and comically ripped in his stupidly tight suit, and never once lets up from his bravado. An overwhelming, powerful man who is a total fraud.
The assassination plot being a fake is just so fun? It’s fun. What a convolutedly dumb thing to do. The whole thing being an “asinine publicity stunt”, as Edgeworth puts it, isn’t a twist going for gasps so much as it’s going for laughs.
Look at this chubby chump. Pathetic.
It’s an ordeal entirely too entertaining to not captivate, which is great since the whole point of this portion of the case was to be a distraction so Knightley can do his Good Culprit Stuff behind your back. Or his back, technically.
And that’s about the extent of all there is to say about Di-Jun Huang, really. At first he looks like a tough guy. Then it turns out he’s not a tough guy. Pretty funny stuff.
I2-1 then proceeds to chug along without Huang since he’s outlived his purpose, but that’s whatever. He had his little thing, and then we move on from his little thing. Minor character doing minor character stuff.
But ending the cut here would be negligent of me, because there’s more to this president than meets the eye.
I lied his story does end there the next thing he does is die.
Di-Jun Huang is not alive any more. Shock and awe! A victim who we’ve already met when they were alive in a previous case? That’s kinda crazy. Sorta. The game literally just did this with Knightley but whatever, two people can share the spotlight, it’s fine.
In I2-5 we learn about Di-Jun Huang’s sordid past. Namely that the Di-Jun Huang we met in I2-1 wasn’t Di-Jun Huang at all, but a fake who’d stolen his identity. Fake-Huang had served as Real-Huang’s body double for a long time, and began to grow resentful. Why should the Real-Huang get all the glory of being the president when he’s not even the one putting himself in danger most of the time? Fake-Huang’s the real hero for always putting himself in danger’s way, until one day his grudge and envy became too much to bear.
He has the real president killed, and then assumes his identity.
In an attempt to cover his tracks, Fake-Huang attempts to kill the very same assassin he hired to kill the Real-Huang, only to fail in his attempt to assassinate the assassin due to the intervention of a young clown looking boy from the nearby orphanage. This clown boy would in turn bare a terrible grudge against Huang, leading to his murder a decade or so later.
All of this is to say, when I played I2-5 I said to myself “wow this lifeless corpse sure does have a shockingly convoluted backstory.” Cool stuff.
I2’s plot is a big step above basically every other Ace Attorney game’s plot because of how interconnected each case truly feels. The murders of four out of five cases were orchestrated all by the same man for the same reason, and everything clicking together in the end is rather satisfying. I2-3 is the only case that wasn’t set up by our favourite animal tamer, but no one even died in I2-3, it’s a cold case. All in all, the interconnectedness of the whole thing makes for a rather gratifying experience, and Huang being greatly involved in the backstory and motivations of our main villain only adds to that fun “everything is connected!” feeling.
I will say that in writing this writeup that I’ve realised that Huang/Roland/Blaise’s plan is a little bit contrived now that I’ve thought about it for more than a minute. Not only was there no need to try and kill off Dogen to buy his silence, but if we assume that is was actually necessary for them to be so overly cautious couldn’t Fake-Huang just fucking. Kill Real-Huang himself? He 100% had the opportunity to do that himself, all things considered, and it saves them the trouble of having to kill Dogen. Saying Fake-Huang wouldn’t do it because he’s too cowardly to do the deed himself is likely untrue since he also murdered the journalist dude by beating him over the head, and was also planning on killing Courtney because he was afraid she would uncover his secret (if Lang’s speculation is to be believed).
But I’m not cutting Huang because of this dumb nitpick that probably has an in-game explanation that I missed. That doesn’t really matter. The point of all this backstory they give Huang is to make him feel like an unexpectedly crucial element of the plot because, again, that “everything is connected” feeling is very fun! It achieves what it set out to try and do and I’m sure no one cares enough about Huang enough to put the finer details of his actions under scrutiny.
The only thing that really matters about the summation of events I’ve provided for you is that Simon Keyes has a reason to want Huang dead. That’s the only crucial detail since Simon Keyes is the character who actually matters and does cool character things. Di-Jun Huang aids Simon Keyes in doing cool character things by being dead. Very considerate of him.
And that’s all, really. Huang’s a gag character in the first case, which is fine, it’s a funny gag. He’s a corpse in the last case, that’s fine, he’s a good corpse.
I could leave things at that, but I feel committed to crafting the best Huang writeup I possibly can. There must be more to delve into.
Imposters
I think it would be prudent to compare and contrast Huang with characters of a similar archetype. As far as Ace Attorney is concerned, I think Furio Tigre would be a good candidate, especially considering the fact that Furio was another option for me to cut this round.
What makes Furio work as a character is the offensive, unashamed implausibility of everything about him. This guy who looks nearly nothing like Phoenix. He puts on a shitty cheap suit complete with a cardboard cut-out lawyer badge and proceeds to fool the entire courtroom through sheer force of will which is, quite frankly, delightful. Furio is a character that bakes himself into the tone of Ace Attorney, he’s a character that couldn’t work in basically any other murder mystery visual novel except Ace Attorney because Ace Attorney is extremely stupid. Ace Attorney is a dumb series where silly things happen and I need to emphasise that I say this with love. And Furio roars onto the scene (sort of like a furious tiger, if you will) and embraces that tone wholeheartedly. He looks you, the player, dead in the eyes and asks you if you’re man enough to actually be angry about how purposefully contrived this entire situation is. We all know the answer to that question.
Huang carries surface level similarities to Furio: they both barely look like the person they’re impersonating, they act nothing like the person they’re impersonating, and they’re able to completely fool everyone into thinking they are, indeed, the person they’re impersonating. They’re also similar in that the “reveal” of how they’re nothing like the person they’re impersonating is played as a joke.
But where I think Huang fails whereas Furio succeeds is in that special Ace Attorney quality that Furio has that I already went over. While the reveal that Huang maintains his appearance of strength by constantly sucking in his gut is pretty funny, it’s pretty easy to imagine this kind of bit character existing in another series. The impossibility of Furio’s existence is what makes him work, whereas Huang just doesn’t have that extra unique factor that his contemporary has.
You could argue that Huang is a slightly better character because they gave him a tiny bit of depth with the whole thing about him feeling intensely envious of the real president. However, this is a throw away piece of information that barely impacts the game in any form, and only serves to give Huang any old motivation to justify his actions. This (admittedly human) side of Huang simply doesn’t get explored by the game at all, because the game has no interest in exploring it. I don’t think that’s a fault with the game, in truth. I2-5 is long enough without also adding in a few scenes where we lament the tragic twisted life of the fat guy pretending he was fit. We don’t need to explore Huang’s depths, he’s better left alone as the more or less bit character that he is.
And besides, Furio Tigre himself arguably does get a sprinkle of depth on top of the comedy in the same way Huang does. Often overlooked by people is the fact that Furio’s actions were primarily motivated by self-defense. He was under threat from the Cadeverini crime family to pay up an extraordinary amount of money or else he’ll find himself sleeping with the fishies, as they say. It’s an interesting spin on the killing in self-defense motive, since the man Furio killed, Glen Elg (may his soul find peace), didn’t pose any kind of threat to Furio at all, yet he still felt the need to kill Mr Elg to save his own skin. This extra dimension of his character, unlike Huang, is actually featured more prominently in the case. All in all, I brand Furio Tigre the superior imposter character, which is why I’ve chosen to cut Huang over Furio here.
However, I don’t want to get too sidetracked. I realise I’ve slightly wandered away from the point by going on about Furio, so let’s circle back to reflecting on Huang’s character a little more by comparing him to another character.
Fair warning: the character I want to draw comparisons to now isn’t an Ace Attorney character. They’re a Danganronpa character. I know that both fandoms tend to have a lot of overlap, however I think it would be prudent for me to at least provide a spoiler warning for Danganronpa before we proceed.
Oddly enough, I think the Ultimate ImposteTwogami shares more similarities with Huang than even Furio does. Coincidentally, Investigations 2 and Danganronpa 2 happened to release one year after the other, so is it possible that Twogami maybe took some inspiration from Di-Jun Huang? It’s not a secret that Danganronpa draws heavily from Ace Attorney in terms of gameplay/concept, so I don’t think it’s impossible that this is true… It’s just extremely improbable.
Imposter is a character who feels a kind of envy toward the real Byakuya. He laments how he wishes he had been born with an identity as grand and full of opportunities as a Togami, so he simply pretends to be Byakuya. What Imposter comes to understand during his FTEs with Hajime is that all of Imposter’s friends like him for Imposter: they don’t know or understand what the real Byakuya is like (which is nothing like Imposter) and that everyone likes him because of who he is, not as who he pretends to be. Huang is similar in that he also takes on the identity of someone with much more renown than himself because he believes he could never acquire it on his own. The clear distinction being that Huang is right in sussing that he will never be as great a man as the real president.
Another funny coincidence is that both of these characters are basically the fatter version of their doppleganger, but I think it’s interesting to contrast how each of these characters feel about their fatness. Imposter has an interesting sense of pride in the fact that he’s overweight, always going on about how hard he works to maintain his ideal perfect weight. There’s a moment I quite like where another character tries to mock him for being fat, but Imposter just smiles and says he’s happy for people to acknowledge the truth about himself: the truth being that he’s fat. Imposter’s weight is the only distinguishing physical feature he has from the real Byakuya, therefore he gets an odd sense of comfort whenever people make reference to his “true self”. This stands in stark contrast to Di-Jun Huang, whose weight is treated like a source of shame or mockery. Huang feels no sense of empowerment in the occasions that he shows his true body, and instead seems rather embarrassed that he isn’t as physically fit as the real president.
I think that’s the heart of what the difference between those two characters’ identity issues are: Imposter wants to take pride in who he really is without having to take on the guise of another, yet he feels like he has to impersonate another person out of fear that his true self isn’t good enough. But he’s wrong, his true self is good enough, and that’s what he needs to learn. Huang stands in stark contrast because his true self is portrayed as most definitely not good enough. He has no positive qualities, and must leech off of another person’s good image so he can feel like a good person himself. But he will never get out of his identity issues rut because his deepest insecurities are true: he is nothing without the name Di-Jun Huang. Without that name he would be nothing bat a lazy, incompetent coward.
One of these characters needs to realise that he’s a good person who doesn’t need to transform into someone else. The other is terrified of the knowledge that transforming into someone else is the only way he’ll feel fulfilled. (Notice how both of these characters draw attention to how they are overweight as a form of comedy. Funny coincidence.)
I’ve gone on two tangents now about two characters that aren’t Huang, but that’s because I don’t think I’m capable of making any interesting analysis of Huang when looking at him in isolation. By standing Huang up against at least two other characters who are similar to him, I hope I’ve been able to squeeze out enough critical analysis to satisfy you.
Logic Chess
One notable thing about Di-Jun Huang that I would be remiss not to mention is the fact that he serves as our introduction to the Logic Chess minigame. (Logic Chess also happens to be the most useless skill in aarankdown)
The bread and butter of Ace Attorney gameplay has always been the cross examinations. It’s by far the most fun part of the games and the reason I wanted to play through this entire series at all. Rifling through bits of evidence to find the lie in someone’s story is a fun and satisfying little puzzle (almost) all of the time. That said, this series has never felt the need to leave well enough alone and likes to introduce little side mechanics that can be hit (therapy session, divination seance) or miss (magatama, perceive).
Logic Chess happens to be one such minigame that I think is pretty fun. There are many instances in the Ace Attorney story where the protagonist coaxes out information from another character in some way, and Logic Chess is a way of putting that process in the players’ hands instead of it just being a part of the story.
Admittedly, it’s a rather easy minigame. The options are always a) I respectfully disagree with what you have to say; b) I disrespectfully disagree with what you have to say you stupid git; or c) Wait and see. In spite of this, the game still feels rather engaging simply with the addition of a time limit that depletes faster everything time you select the wrong answer. That little bit of pressure not to fuck up turns Logic Chess from what would have been a bit of a tedious slog to something that actually feels rather engaging. Our chess battle with Huang is no exception, and a great first exposure to the mechanic.
Chess is a running motif throughout Investigations 2. It’s brought up how Edgeworth really enjoys the game, and we can even graph many of the characters we see in the game onto each of the chess pieces. Rooke is the rook, Knightley is the knight, and Huang is the King. On the Ace Attorney wiki page for Di-Jun Huang it says that Roland is supposed to be the queen and Blaise is the bishop. Personally, I don’t see the resemblance, but for the sake of keeping up the metaphor I’ll just sagely nod my head and agree.
If we were to then consider I2 a game of metaphorical chess between Edgeworth and The Mastermind, then I feel like the whole chess analogy begins to fall apart. Chess ends when one side captures the other side’s king, and if Huang represents the king then Keyes sure captured him. Perhaps it’s best that we don’t look into this chess imagery too hard, since it’s really just a surface level aesthetic rather than anything meaningful.
I’ve never personally been too great at chess. I know how to play chess, however the problem comes from the fact that I don’t know how to play chess well. I still really enjoy the game though, I find it fun to read up on the tactics involved with different openers and whatnot even though I don’t think I’m personally capable of utilising them well in a real game.
That’s probably why I degrade myself by playing Fire Emblem so much. Strategy games that emulate the feel of chess in the sense that you’re moving pieces along a grid to capture/kill the other team’s pieces. I don’t think the rudimentary similarities are lost on the Fire Emblem games, since there are multiple characters who invent games akin to chess to practise their war tactics on. For example, the main character in Awakening is this tactician using chess to hone his tactical skills, and then this other guy called Virion comes along and offers to play him since it’s hard for the MC, Robin, to practise by himself. However Virion keeps whooping Robin’s ass in chess, and he begins to feel like he shouldn’t be the army’s tactician if he can’t even win at chess. Virion then points out that he only wins because he makes tons of sacrifices out of his pieces, and such strategies would be cruel to employ in real life and it’s Robin’s strong desire to never lose one single piece that should be valued over Virion’s more ruthless tactics. I always really liked that support thread, I like how it knows that the player is always desperate to keep every unit alive and uses that to draw the distinction between the best way to play chess vs the best way to play Fire Emblem, plus Virion’s a very cool character. Just a shame he’s not that good of a unit.
I think I find strategy RPGs much more appealing than normal RPGS because with the ordinary RPG the enemies stats are always hidden from the player and everything feels like a shot in the dark. I like how Fire Emblem allows you to calculate exactly how much damage you will deal and take, it really makes me feel like the outcome of a fight is in my hands.
The only problem with Fire Emblem when it comes to feeling like you’re always in control of the outcome is when they use same turn reinforcements, or STR for short. Basically, STR are when extra enemies show up on the map that weren’t previously visible and attack you before the game lets you do anything (they attack on the same turn they appear). There’s never any way to plan around it, and for a game that’s supposed to be strategy oriented, losing because of something you literally cannot plan around saps the fun out of the whole experience. What’s worse is that in the most recent FE game, they made it so that STR only exist in the hardest difficulty, so the developers 100% know that they are frustratingly annoying to deal with and utilise them to artificially inflate the difficulty without having to design the enemy layout in such a way that the player is decently challenged without feeling cheated. It’s a shame how FE can be such an old series with so many installments and yet it can’t get mechanics that everyone hates removed after so many years. It seems like it’d be easy to do.
I think that if Di-Jun Huang played Fire Emblem his favourite character would be Caspar von Bergliez.
Caspar is a really small guy who wants to be a big tough strong guy one day, and I think Huang would identify with his wish to one day become a big muscular manly man. I like to imagine that even though Huang and Caspar appear quite different on the surface Huang would still relate to him because of how badly he wants to be buff like the real Di-Jun Huang.
Getting Buff Like President Di-Jun Huang
Well, maybe not buff, but at least as big as Di-Jun Huang. People can dismiss Huang as a useless bit character if they like, but even if he is a bit character I think we should look into his bit just a little bit more!
Just by eyeballing Huang, I’d say he weighs about 220 pounds. The Wiki says he’s 6 feet tall, and if we estimate his age as about 50 years old, then in order to maintain his weight he would need to eat roughly 2700 calories every day, which is a pretty respectable caloric intake.
When it comes to weight gain/loss, people tend to overestimate just how important exercise is compared to how important your diet is. Always remember, your muscles are made in the gym, your weight is lost in the kitchen. That is to say that your diet should be your first priority when managing your weight (not that exercise isn’t important too, of course!)
When calculating Huang’s required caloric intake I assumed that he would have a very light exercise routine, however not quite sedentary. As I already mentioned, if you want to impersonate the Fake-Huang and look like him, the required amount of daily calories you must consume is 2700. To put that into perspective, that’s 450 shrimp every single day, assuming you eat nothing else.
I pick shrimp because shrimp is the kind of food that you can eat forever and never feel like you’re getting full. I always thought I loved shrimp when I was younger, but eventually I realised I just like Old Bay. You see, my family’s from the US, but I don’t live in the US, and every summer when I was a kid we’d go to visit, and every summer we’d eat at this restaurant that served seafood and holy shit I fucking loved devouring those shrimp. But then back home whenever I had shrimp they tasted boring as hell? As I grew out of adolescence I came to understand that the reason that American shrimp that I loved so much was so good was because they were burying those fuckers in Old Bay seasoning.
What sucks is that Old Bay’s not available in stores back home, which means if I want shrimp that doesn’t taste like ass then I have to find my own substitute.
How to make homemade Old Bay Seasoning
You will need:

2-3 Bay Leaves (dry, no stems)
1/4 tsp of Ground Mustard Seed
1/2 tsp of Celery salt
1/8 tsp of Thyme
1 pinch of Nutmeg
1 pinch of Cinnamon
1 pinch of Ground Cloves
1 pinch of Ground Ginger
1 pinch of Ground Cardamom
1/8 tsp of Cayenne Pepper
2 pinches of Allspice
1/2 tsp of Paprika
1 pinches of Black Pepper
1/8 tsp of Fennel Seed

The only tricky part of this recipe is making sure you have all of this crap somewhere in your kitchen, but if not then one trip to the grocer ought to have you sorted. Once you have everything, it’s not hard to make that sweet, sweet Old Bay with no hassle at all: all you have to do is toss everything together and mix well!
It’s important to note that these ingredients have been sussed out by folks trying to recreate Old Bay, and it may not actually be the real recipe. But I’ve tried this myself and I can attest to the fact that it comes pretty damn close to the real thing. Also, since this isn’t the exact recipe, don’t get too hung up on the exact measurements: feel free to measure how much of each spice with your heart rather than a tablespoon!
If there are any extremely novice cooks out there, just a word of advice from someone who's made very dim cooking mistakes before: when a recipe asks you to put thyme in something, you’re supposed to just add the leaves, not the stem. When I was first learning to cook I would mindlessly do exactly what the recipe said, so when a recipe said to use a sprig of thyme I’d toss the whole fuckin sprig in there because that’s what the recipe told me to. My sister caught me cooking by tossing the whole sprig in and had to explain how you’re actually supposed to do it and that was embarrassing finding out I’d been doing it wrong for so long but like. Is it my fault I had gone through my life so long never being taught how to properly use thyme? Everyone is born without knowing anything, and we grow and learn by our experiences, so really it’s everyone else in the world’s fault for not cluing me in earlier on how thyme works.
Some people may want to blame me for my lack of culinary knowledge. I, however, prefer to blame God.
The Answer To Job
The story of Job (pronounced Jobe) is one that teaches that God should not be blamed for the misfortune of man.
For those unfamiliar, the story goes like this: Satan tells God that he thinks that his most devout followers only follow God because God rewards their faith. However, if God were to take away a good person’s happiness, then that person would turn against God and no longer be faithful. God sets out to prove Satan wrong.
Job is their test subject. Job is a holy and faithful man, who is happy with his life. He has a wife, many children, and a luscious farmland to live on. God decides to murder all of his children and livestock, leaving him destitute and grief stricken. His wife then leaves Job because he can no longer provide for her.
Some of Job’s mates then come round to Job’s place and are like “buddy, what grave unforgivable sin have you committed? We all know you’re being punished for something so fess up.” The catch, of course, is that Job has done absolutely nothing wrong: his misery is not a punishment. Job argues with his friends, but they simply don’t believe him.
Frustrated and angry, Job yells out to God and demands God explain why he’s torturing Job so much. And God answers by showing Job all of the universe: he takes Job to places that have monstrous behemoths and leviathans, to the farthest reaches of the stars, to all the little quiet places on earth. God says that he maintains all of it at once, and all of it is connected. Job realises that he could never maintain the entire universe the way God does, and so he learns his place in the world.
I think this story’s a load of bullshit. God hand waves away Job’s suffering by telling him it’s part of some grand cosmic scheme that he couldn’t possibly comprehend but. We know God’s fucking lying! God was just fucking with Job for the sake of it! The fable doesn’t teach us anything about why good people experience misery, it seems to imply, to me at least, that God does it for fun? To score points against the devil?
So this bloke called Carl Jung from a wee while ago decided this story was bullshit too. Fun fact, Carl was such a big fan of Dual Destinies and Athena Cykes that he invented analytical psychology in real life. Anyway, he looked at all the misery in the world caused by war and the like that he was like God what the fuck? Same way Job was that one time, and he writes a whole book about trying to figure out why God is such an asshole.
The problem with god, he says, is that he contains many contradicting traits. He is all powerful, all knowing, and all loving. If God is good, and God is all powerful, then the reason that misery exists must be because God is not omniscient. Or we could say that god is all knowing and all good, and in that case the reason that God does not prevent misery is because he is powerless to do so, ergo he is not omnipotent. The final combo is God is all powerful and all knowing, which is the most sinister scenario, because this means God has the means to prevent suffering and chooses not to do so. How can our hero Carl reconcile this conundrum?
His answer for Job’s question is Jesus. Job’s story was set in BC, before God had taken human form as Jesus so he could truly learn what it is like to suffer as a human being. When God realizes that being a person is actually very hard and painful, he chills out and stops being so needlessly cruel. What Carl is positing here, basically, is that God went through character development during the bible and he’s like, a top tier character.
Now, after God has come to understand the human condition first hand, he would never inflict suffering on people like Job again. Now all suffering is truly a result of God’s master plan for the universe, and none of it is out of place.
Everything is part of God’s plan, which is why it’s his fault I put the stems of my thyme in my egg stir fry that one time.
My Mandarin Teacher in Senior School was named Mr Huang
At my senior school everyone had to take a foreign language class. Most people there took Spanish or French, but I took Mandarin because. Well. Not sure why. Guess I was curious about how on earth those symbols work to make words. Plus I’ve spoken English my whole life, you think I want to learn to speak another romance language? Fuck off. If your language evolved from a bunch of latin tossers you can suck me.
Anyway, so my Mandarin class only had 5 kids in it including myself which was a bit of a laugh. Lessons were always very casual with barely anyone present and I enjoyed myself. Was in that class from S3 to S6, that’s four years, and I currently don’t know a lick of Mandarin at all. I tried to be a good student in that class since Mr Huang was an extremely cool teacher, plus it was important to not fall behind since every lesson felt like a competition against my few other classmates. Despite this, every word of Mandarin I used to know has seemingly fallen out of my head since the last time I used it, which was during my final exam for the subject which was three years ago now. Take this as a warning, if you’re learning a second language you gotta keep practising it or it will fade away over time. I also got a C on that exam, which was bullshit by the way, pretty sure I am amazing at everything and never get anything less than 100% on every test I take? Rigged.
So the thing is with Mr Huang, right, is one day we were learning about colours, and can you guess what yellow in Mandarin is? It’s Huang. Like his name. It wasn’t a homonym, it was literally the same character. (The character is 黄 for those curious) That’s at least one bit of chinese that stuck with me over the years, so I guess I didn’t totally waste my time trying to learn it. Immature 14 year old donuter and his classmates had a bit of a giggle at the fact that our Chinese teacher was literally named Mr Yellow, but Mr Huang was chill and thought it was funny too so no one got in trouble for being edgy and a teenager and mildly racist.
However, what isn’t chill is the fact that the I2 fan localisation team would use such a clearly inflammatory name for what is clearly supposed to be a Chinese character (we all know Zheng Fa is very obviously derivative of China). The characters who were localised to become American aren’t named Gunjamin Hamburger, so what gives? Racism is what gives. They saw an asian character and thought they would be clever and call him Yellow, very edgy, I applaud you fan localisers (I am being sarcastic). They literally renamed this character so he would be President Yellow, amazing.
What is even more sickening is that the Ace Attorney Wiki is complicit in their casual bigotry, electing not to divulge the fact that Huang is a common Mandarin surname meaning yellow. They try to hand wave away this discrepancy between the badass original name meaning KING by saying they “changed the pronunciation”. Yeah, they changed the pronunciation into a completely different word, you bellends.
But perhaps… my outrage may be unjustified. For you see, yellow can also be slang for cowardly, and Huang is for sure cowardly, resembling a cowardly lion in his deflated form. It is possible that the localisation team was only intending to make reference to this facet of his character, and provide particularly perceptive players with a hint about his true nature just by his name. This misunderstanding is not too uncommon.
So in the end, maybe it’s for the best that I chalk this one up to an unfortunate coincidence.
Anyway, the point I’m trying to make here is that if my high school Mandarin teacher Mr Huang had come into class one day and exhaled with superhuman vigour and revealed himself to be secretly very fat all along then I think that would have been quite funny of him.
In Conclusion
You know what I did last round? I wrote a cut about a character that just doesn’t matter. I wrote a short cut. But I realised that’s just not acceptable from this point on. Series defining characters are leaving the rankdown now, prosecutors whose characters cemented me as being a fan of the series, characters who have arcs spanning multiple games or who are so quintessential to Ace Attorney as a product it wouldn’t be Ace Attorney without them. Such characters deserve respect when they’re cut, and should be given a rigorous analysis when they leave, just as all my fellow rankers always do. And I realised that, if a character like Huang can outlast multiple franchise icons, as well as some genuinely richly written/multifaceted characters then, he too, surely, by the law of transitivity, must also be a series defining icon, a rich and compelling character with true depth, and thus deserves the same amount of rigorous analysis we would afford to them.
I don’t see how anyone could argue with Di Jun Huang in the top 50. He objectively deserves it. He’s that good.
I can anticipate the ugly comments that I will receive on this post from mouth breathers with no respect for the infallible opinions of us ten ordained-by-god rankers. They’ll say:

“Donuter, I don’t think you really believe that Di-Jun Huang is a masterclass of character writing. This cut reads as uncaring and dismissive, almost as if you believe that there’s some sort of problem with Di-Jun Huang outlasting Pearl Fey, Mia Fey, Trucy Wright, Ema Skye, Maya Fey, Franziska von Karma, and Nahyuta Sahdmadhi, when characters like Larry Butz are still available. I think that while you appear to sometimes approach Huang’s character with earnestness you still make enormous stretches in your analysis as if you’re trying to mock the idea that Huang could be seriously analysed. I also think the long meandering asides you delve into are meant to emphasise how little there is to say about Di-Jun Huang, and how one would expect that we ought to only be covering good or interesting characters by now if so many key character have gone out already (or at the very least if not good characters, characters that can spark any kind of edifying discussion at all, even if a ranker happens to dislike them). But I don’t think you have considered the fact that there are many huge Di-Jun Huang stans out there who will be saddened that his character has been reduced to an excuse for you to soapbox about your opinion about the state of the rankdown. It’s insulting to all of us who genuinely love Di-Jun Huang, and it’s disrespectful to the rankers who have worked very hard on cuts for major characters that truly believe they are inferior to Di-Jun Huang. I dislike how it feels as if you’ve been irony poisoned, incapable of truly appreciating the depths of Di-Jun Huang, and are unequipped, or worse, unwilling, to analyse those depths with a sincere and unbiased critical eye.”

To these people I say: sod off? You can suck my nads too if you like.
How dare you, how dare you insinuate that I’m not taking Di-Jun Huang’s cut completely seriously? I have never in my rankdown career received such unfounded criticism, such- such biased critical opprobrium that I can hardly contain my anger at the unjustness of the accusation.
Di-Jun Huang is fantastic. Amazing. I truly believe that with all my heart. So save your toxic, mean-spirited and conspiracy riddled comments to yourself, because I won’t read them. I always turn notifications off on all my posts. I have too much self-respect to engage with those who hate me blindly for no reason.
I think Di-Jun Huang is so good, in fact, that I only cut him as a form of self-hatred, because I was afraid that the rankdown was reaching levels of quality that’s entirely intimidating to spectators. When I said Huang was B tier at the start of this writeup I was lying, you gullible fuckin rubes! He’s S+ tier at the bare minimum.
This should be a lesson to you all: quality of character is never rewarded. If it were, my face would be on the stirling coins instead of the queen’s.
Ahem. Uh. What I’m trying to say is. Next ranker to cut a major character is having the top of their tier list scrapped off like shit off my shoe. At least two other rankers have agreed to cooperate with me on this so your revive will be pointless.
Di-Jun Huang is a character in Gyakuten Kenji 2. I like the part where he exhales and find out he has a gut.

I got questions about y’all’s education system

International , Chance me for Top 50 STEM (>20% acceptance rate?) (Dream College = MIT, lol)

Top Yell NEO 2020-2021 - 10th Anniversary Interview (All Members Interview Translation)

The latest Top Yell NEO - Please consider supporting the magazine.
Just after the live of "10th Anniversary Sakura Gakuin ✰ 2020: Happy Xmas" which is being distributed until New Year's Eve, we interviewed Sakura Gakuin remotely. We asked each student to look back on the turbulent year of 2020.
Sakura Gakuin 10th Anniversary Special Interview
Kokona Nonaka
3rd grade middle schooler and Student Council President. Born January 28th, 2006, from Nagasaki Prefecture. Favourite New Year's dish: Kakuni pork and crab hot pot.
In her last year at Sakura Gakuin, Kokona Nonaka has been elected as the student council president. She may have a strong comedic personality, but this year she’s taking on a leadership role and leading the group!
“I can show my true colours at my real school”
一When did you start your lessons for "10th Anniversary Sakura Gakuin✰2020～Happy Xmas～" ('Happy Xmas' for short)
Kokona: Mid-November. The lesson period was really short. Moreover we did twice as many songs as our last show, "10th Anniversary Sakura Gakuin✰2020～Departure～" ('Departure' for short) and also there were five songs we were performing for the first time, so it was tough.
This time, Miku wasn't able to participate in the lessons much, because it was during an exam period for her. However, the 8 of us were united in our commitment to level up all of our dancing, singing and MC skills.
ーWhen you first heard your new song 'Thank you...', how did you feel?
Kokona: The pitch and rhythm of the song is pleasing to the ear and the lyrics are full of memories of Sakura Gakuin, making it a perfect 10th anniversary song.
ーHow did you feel going towards the 'Happy Xmas' show?
Kokona: We've done two online lives before, "The Road to Graduation 2019 Final" ('Graduation' for short) and 'Departure', so I felt a lot more relaxed going towards this show. We aimed to give our very best performance, in order to send our passion to the Fukei on the other side of the screen.
We've all become more aware of our camerawork, which was a huge improvement, and we were able to look directly at the camera more often when it was on us. Also everyone understood their roles, and all 8 of us were highly motivated to make it work. Everyone has also been able to increase the variety of their facial expressions.
ーDid you feel a different kind of nervousness than you would for a show with a live audience?
Kokona: Yes, it's completely different. When the Fukei are there, they get hyped up from the moment we step out on stage, and it feels like we're creating the show together. But, with a no-audience online live, we can only get excited amongst ourselves, so there's sense of nervousness in that. Also, lots of different staff are involved with the show, so I feel a sense of nervousness that I might accidentally cause problems.
ーThere's also cameramen moving all around the stage, right?
Kokona: It seems like a tough job. Thanks to them, there's an opportunity for the members to have really close close-ups, which is only possible because there's no audience.
ーNonaka-san, you've been selected as the Student Council President for 2020, how did it feel when you were appointed?
Kokona: I was really surprised. This is the last year for Sakura Gakuin, so all I could think was "Is it really me....?" But now that I've been chosen, I thought about how I have to be a student council president that everyone can follow with confidence, and will help make Sakura Gakuin a wonderful place to be until the very end.
Even now, I still have doubts, but I feel that all 8 of us care and support each other in so many ways, so I'm beginning to feel more relaxed. I hope that everyone can open their hearts to one another even more.
ーSince there aren't any transfer-ins, it seems like you all began to grow a strong bond from the beginning.
Kokona: It's easy for us because we all understand one another, and know each other's strengths and weaknesses.
ーHas your frame of mind changed since becoming student council president?
Kokona: In 2019 Nendo, it was my 2nd year in Sakura Gakuin, and I heard from my seniors of previous generations that "Your 2nd year is the most difficult."
ーWhat's so difficult about it?
Kokona: Just when you think you've finally got used to Sakura Gakuin, new transfer-ins join, and you have to look after them, and you also have to support your seniors. Also, in your first year, it's easy to see where you've improved, no matter what you do, but in your 2nd year, even if you practice a lot, it's a lot harder to notice your improvement on a surface level. So I was really worried all year.
But now I'm a 3rd grader, I began asking the staff room teachers for their opinions, and I also began to give my own. It feels like I'm beginning to learn a lot more, rather than feeling worried or like I'm facing difficulties all the time. I'm a 3rd grader, and now feel I know more about Sakura Gakuin, I love it even more.
I've become student council president, and it's the first time I've ever done anything like this, so there are a lot of difficulties, but it feels like I'm working together with everyone to overcome whatever we face.
ーWhen you look back on the year at your real school, what was it like?
Kokona: I didn't really enjoy school in 1st grade, and my activities in Sakura Gakuin were much more fun. But in 2nd grade, we had a class change, and everyone there knew about my activities, and they often encouraged me, saying things like "Do your best today too!", so I began to let my guard down. Because of that, in my 3rd year, I've been able to show my true colours, just like in Sakura Gakuin.
ーWhat's been the most memorable event for you at your real school?
Kokona: It was a Sports Competition. I had an Sakura Gakuin lesson on that day, but the staff room teachers told me to just go, because it was my last one. So for the first time in my 3rd year, I was able to participate. Also, my class finished second place! We also performed a dance, and I was chosen to be the dance leader, which was a lot of fun.
ーHow do you plan to spend your New Years holiday?
Kokona: On New Year's Eve, I want to watch the archive of 'Happy Xmas', and then watch Kohaku, and spend time with my relatives. I have a lot of relatives who are the same age as me, so I'm looking forward to talking to them.
ーPlease tell us your goals for next year.
Kokona: It's Sakura Gakuin's final year, so I want to achieve perfect combustion and leave no regrets behind.
As for myself, I want to become a person who leaves a lasting impression in someone's heart and mind. I hope that my singing and dancing will remain in the hearts of the Fukei, so when they feel depressed, they will remember my performance, and it will bring a smile to their faces.
Shiratori Sana
Middle school 3rd grader and Talk chairman. Born 20th June 2005, from Kumamoto Prefecutre. Favourite New Year's Dish: Black soybeans made by her mother.
Shiratori Sana, who always has a smile on her face, when she was appointed as Talk chairman she secretly felt depressed.... How did she stay positive?
"There was a time I felt really negative when I wasn't selected to be student council president"
ーYour lessons for 'Happy Xmas' only lasted about 3 weeks, so you must have had a lot of trouble fitting everything in.
Sana: There were more difficult songs this time, so it was tough to get them right, looking back, I wish we had more time to concentrate more on each song. Regardless I think the 8 of us were able to join together and do our best.
ーDid you do anything to practice in your free time?
Sana: When I'd get back from school, I'd dance for an hour, and if that's not enough, I'd go for a run. I also practice in other ways, for example I use a mobile app keyboard to play different notes, and I try to guess what note it is to train my sense of pitch.
ーDid you find it effective for improving your sense of pitch?
Sana: The person that helps do our recordings for us told me "You're better than ever", and I feel like I can stay on key much better than before.
ーWhat did you think of the venue, when you arrived on the day of the 'Happy Xmas' show?
Sana: The 'Departure' show was in a live venue, but this time it was in a big hall, and the set was so beautiful, which made made me miss the Fukei-san even more than before, so I knew then that I had to do my best. It's the last live on the year, so I wanted to do my absolute best and go all out, and that made me feel ready to do the performance.
ーCompared to the 'Departure' show, in what aspects do you think you've improved?
Sana: Personally, I used to worry so much about looking good on camera that I only had one type of smile, and our dance teacher pointed this out to me, so since then I've tried to be more aware of using different facial expressions, and I think my repertoire of facial expressions has increased.
As a group, we have each grown emotionally and mentally, so now each of us are better at looking after one another. We haven't discussed it in particular, but we've managed to build a good atmosphere amongst one another that has formed naturally.
ーI'd like to ask about your council position, how did you feel when you were appointed as Talk chairman?
Sana: Honestly, when I was appointed, I thought "I wasn't chosen as the student council president, so I guess I'm not good enough" and I became really negative.
But my mum's friend sent me a message on LINE that said: "When I thought about who would be this nendo's talk chairman, it could only be Sana!" and that gave me confidence. And then I thought, "I have to lead everyone with my talk skills!" which made me feel more positive.
ーDid you plan what kind of MCs you were going to do for 2020 nendo?
Sana: The 2019 nendo talk chairman was Mori Momoe-chan, and she would decide on the contents of the MCs beforehand, and message it to everyone.
But for me, I discuss it with everyone in our meetings, and everyone is actively encouraged to give their input on it. I thought that this way, everyone's personalities can have a chance to shine, and it gives the MC a more chatty atmosphere. I think we did great with the MCs for 'Happy Xmas'.
ーNow there's 8 of you, there's a lot more time for each person to talk, right?
Sana: Each person has a lot of time to talk, so it's easy for me as talk chairman. It's easy to divide up everyone's roles, so for example Kokona can make a joke, and Miki can play off it, like Boke and Tsukkomi.
ーBefore the 'Happy Xmas' show, what was the atmosphere like backstage?
Sana: The 8 of us were really chatty, it was like we were all at school together. Just before the show, normally, the four 2019 seniors would usually give us all words of encouragement. But this nendo, we all encourage one another, saying "It's going to be okay!" regardless of age, or anything else.
ーThis year, what has been the most memorable Sakura Gakuin activity for you?
Sana: It was when we were practicing for the Graduation ceremony. It was a time where I was the most self disciplined I've ever been, and it also made me realise that the four 3rd graders were really graduating, so we would be trusted to lead the way.
ーWhat has your year been like at your real school?
Sana: Until now, there had been days where I couldn't go to school because of my Sakura Gakuin activities, and there was a part of me that felt like it was no wonder my test scores were bad. But the impact of corona had the reverse effect, I was able to go to school, which put more pressure on me to improve my grades.
So I was studying at home, but I haven't done that in for the past 2 years, and I wasn't able to make up for my bad grades. My grades pretty much stayed the same, and I felt like an idiot (lol).
ーWhat was the most memorable event at your real school this year?
Sana: At the Sports festival I danced the Soran-bushi. The 3rd graders were teaching the 1st graders how to dance, and I really enjoyed it. I taught them as if I was teaching someone at Sakura Gakuin, so I think I did a good job.
ーHow do you plan to spend the New Years holiday?
Sana: During New Years I always eat lots of my grandmother's cooking, but if I keep doing that I'll gain weight, so I have to exercise, right? I try to keep active every year, by going to shrines and stuff, but this year I don't know if we'll be able to do that, so I'm thinking I'll have to do a lot of exercise at home.
ーPlease tell us your goals for next year.
Sana: It's our last year as a group, so I want to treasure my time in lessons and live shows, while achieving perfect combustion, so we can create an unforgettable Sakura Gakuin.
For myself, that means leading the group. Looking back on this year, I feel like I relied on Kokona too much, so I want us to join forces as a duo so we can both do our best. Also I've been given more singing lines, so I want to put more effort into practising my singing so I can get better. I also want to grow taller.
ーIs there anything you do to try to grow taller?
Sana: I try to make sure that my diet is rich in protein and calcium. I've also heard that it's good to jump on your heels, so I jump every day (lol).
Tanaka Miku
2nd grade middle schooler and Spirit Chairman. Born 18th June 2006, from Oita prefecture. Favourite New Years Dish: Mochi with sweet soy sauce.
The lessons for "Happy Xmas" coincided with her real school exam period, Tanaka Miku says this made her feel a strong bond with the members.
"The time spent playing with my real school friends was refreshing."
ーTanaka-san, I heard you weren't able to attend as many lessons for 'Happy Xmas' as the other members.
Miku: It just happened to coincide with my real school's exam period. However, the members sent me clear instructions on where I was supposed to stand, and what I needed to be aware of for the performance. Thanks to that, I was able to keep up with them, despite being absent for my exams.
ーIt's an episode where you can really feel the bond between the members. While you were unable to attend the lessons, did you do any practicing in your free time apart from singing and dancing?
Miku: I have trouble building up muscle, and when I do, I lose it quickly. So to maintain my muscle tone I did sit-ups and squats. Also, I can't do push-ups, so I borrowed my brother's water-filled dumbbells to work out my arms too.
ーWas it effective?
Miku: The next day I had muscle pains, so I think it worked (lol).
ーWas there a particular difficult song for you to learn at practice?
Miku: There are three, first is 'Let's Dance'. The choreo is difficult at first, but also this 8 person version is different from last year, so there were lots of brand new changes. It was pretty tough.
Our new song 'Thank you...' is the highlight of this online show, but since the song is already available for streaming, the Fukei already know the song beforehand, don't they? Since it's our first time performing it, I didn't want them to think "I had high expectations for this, but this is what we get?". The first performance is so important, so I felt a lot of pressure.
ーWhat did you find difficult about it specifically?
Miku: 'Thank you...' has a cheerful melody, but the lyrics are packed full of emotions and sadness about how this is the last year, so it was difficult to express that. Also the song 'Merry Xmas to you'. With only eight of us, we had to do a lot more singing, and the order of singing and dancing changed, which made me panic.
ーHow nervous were you before the show?
Miku: I feel safe when there are Fukei there. You can hear them clapping their hands, and they make me laugh during the MCs, so naturally, it helps us get hyped up too!
But with a no-audience live, I get nervous every time because they aren't there. I'm not normally a nervous person, but the fact I now get nervous, makes me think that the Fukei really do save me from that feeling at normal shows.
ーIncluding the graduation, that's 3 online live shows you've done, in what aspect do you think you've improved since then?
Miku: We always try to make each show better than the last, so I think my dancing and singing have naturally improved, which is important, but I think the biggest development is that I've got better at quickly finding the right camera when I'm on screen.
I was frustrated when I rewatched the 'Departure' show, and saw myself not looking at the camera. But this time when the red "live" light is on that camera, I'm able to react immediately.
ーTanaka-san, you were appointed as the Spirit chairman, and I was surprised because you don't really have the "spirit" image.
Miku: I was surprised too (lol). On "Sakura Gakuin Ganbare!! FRESH Monday", before the announcement of the positions, there was a "New Nendo Orientation", where our physical abilities were measured.
For that, I was with Kokona, Miko and Sakia, all of whom are quite sporty, but I was the only one that wasn't. So I lost my motivation and was in low spirits......
ーSo you lost your fighting spirit.
Miku: It made me worried that I didn't know how to be the spirit chairman. I didn't even think that the position would be revived in the first place.
ーYou're the first since Taguchi Hana in 2014 nendo.
Miku: Hana-chan is a completely different type of girl than me, so even now I'm still wondering what I should do. But since I was appointed, I've done my best to have more of a fighting spirit than I did before (lol).
ーWhat's been the most memorable Sakura Gakuin activity for you this past year?
Miku: Things like the remote interview we're doing right now. I love doing interviews and shooting for things, I just really enjoy myself at times like this. I get so happy expressing my feelings in interviews.
I've experienced doing shoots ever since I became a Ciao Girl, so I've gotten used to it, and I always have a blast doing it with the other Sakura Gakuin members. I enjoy it because when you're singing or dancing, there are certain rules, but when you're shooting something, you have these short pauses where you can have more freedom.
ーWhat's been the most memorable thing for you at your real school?
Miku: Because of the ongoing corona situation, I couldn't go to Tokyo for a long time, so I was able to go to school every day without taking holidays or having to leave early, for the first time since I joined Sakura Gakuin.
I had a lot of free time so I'd go out with my friends. We'd go to a nearby shopping mall and eat Parfaits, take Purikura photos and go play in the arcade. It was refreshing to find out what it's like to be an ordinary middle school student.
ーHow are you planning to spend the New Years holiday?
Miku: Every year on New Year's Eve, the whole family sits together around the Kotatsu, playing games until midnight, and we eat New Years Eve soba.
At the start of the new year, we go around Oita to visit my relatives that live here, and I hope this year we can do the same.
ーFinally, please tell us your goals for next year.
Miku: I want us to push on through until the end, and cross the finish line side by side.
As for myself, I want to do more extracurricular activities. I haven't decided what I want to do in the future yet, so I'm hoping I can find out what I want to do by doing extracurricular activities.
ーIs there anything in particular you'd like to try?
Miku: I'd like to try voice acting. I'm not very good at performing using my body or facial expressions, but I love to express myself with just my voice, so I to want to try it.
Yagi Miki
2nd grade middle schooler and Student Council Vice-President. Born 11th December 2006, from Osaka Prefecture. Favourite New Year's Dish: All kinds of crab dishes.
Yagi Miki, a 2nd grade middle schooler who has been given the important role of vice president of the student council. What does she think is important in order to lead the group in the final year?
"My goal is to pass Level 2 of the EIKEN early next year"
ーWhat was the atmosphere like during the lessons for 'Happy Xmas'?
Miki: There was no tension, it was a peaceful atmosphere... Oh, I don't mean the atmosphere was bad up until this year (lol). We don't have any transfer-ins, and I've spent the past year with last year's transfer-in's, so we've got a great relationship where we can talk about anything to one another.
Going from 12 to 8 members means that there is no more hierarchy, and that we all have to work together, so everyone is free to speak their mind.
ーDuring the lessons what was the most difficult song to practice?
Miki: 'Let's Dance', because it's hard to do the your movements and also show a good facial expression. It's a song that changes rapidly - there's a snap here, then you show a smug look here, and it's hard to keep in sync with the music.
Also in our new song 'Thank you...' we have to sing with a lot of emotion, and I had a hard time expressing myself. But everyone gave me advice, and I was able to have a lot of fun performing it.
ーYou did twice as many songs than last time for 'Departure', did you do anything to build up your stamina?
Miki: I did core body training at home, and I went for frequent walks. I wore a mask and layered up in sweaters, and would end up getting out of breath by just walking.
ーHow was the 'Happy Xmas' show for you?
Miki: When I first entered the venue, it struck me how cute the set was, how it was overflowing with a Christmassy feel. Before the show, I went over my notes and watched the videos I had taken during the lessons to make sure I had reviewed them thoroughly before the performance.
ーIn what aspects do you think you've improved since your last show, 'Departure'?
Miki: I've gotten taller (lol). I've gone from 155cm to 156cm.
ーIt's not been that long since the last show, has it?
Miki: I've grown 1cm in about a month. Also this time, we were divided into 2 groups of 4 for one of the MC portions of the show, and I think my talk ability has improved. Until now, thinking of topics to bring up about wasn't really my strong point, but I was able to turn that around pretty well.
ーYagi-san, how did you feel when you first heard that you were going to be given the important role of Vice President?
Miki: I was so surprised. I wasn't expecting to be given such a position, so I felt really happy, but at the same time, as vice president, there's a lot of pressure that you have to lead everyone. I didn't know what the right thing to do was, but Kokona and Sana told me "You should support your juniors", so I want to watch over them while also leading them.
ーI've heard that you've been having long phone calls with various members during the period of self-restraint. Among which I heard you've had frequent video chats with Nozaki-san.
Miki: I was in communication with Yume everyday.
ーShe said that you've been helping teach her English personal pronouns.
Miki: I'm pretty good at English. And Yume said she didn't know them, so I taught her.
ーYou must be very busy talking with different members on the phone so often.
Miki: I'm the type of person who can't shut up even if I'm alone, so I need to be talking to someone or else I can't relax (lol).
ーWhat's the most memorable Sakura Gakuin activity for you this past year?
Miki: The lessons. There's no hierarchy in the lessons and that's a good thing, it means everyone has such a good relationship that we can always give each other advice. We were always thinking together about ways we can make things better as a group, and the atmosphere was really amazing.
ーIs there anything that you were 'into' during the period of self-restraint, other than calling the other members?
Miki: I'm taking the EIKEN [English proficiency test] so I've been studying for that!
ーWhat's been the most memorable thing at your real school?
Miki: Instead of doing a culture festival, we did something called a "culture presentation" to give to the class next door, where we performed dances and different acts.
ーWhat did you present, Yagi-san?
Miki: I danced. I watched a video by BLACKPINK-san, and did a perfect imitation of it. We did an 8 person dance version.
ーWhat did the class next door think of it?
Miki: Many of the students know I do activities in Sakura Gakuin, so I was happy when they gave me praise like "You can also do this type of dancing!"
ーI see, so you were able to show them a new side of you. How do you plan on spending the New Years holiday?
Miki: Every year, my relatives get together at my grandfather's house to eat crab, but this year I don't know if we can do that, so I'm going to eat crab with just my family instead!
ーSo eating crab is non-negotiable (lol).
Miki: The other day, someone came to our house, and there was so much Crab Miso on the table. It was so good, that we ate more than half of it before the guest arrived (lol).
ーI think I'd get sick of it, if I was only eating crab miso.
Miki: I can't get enough of it! Of course I like crab on it's own too, since I like trivial jobs, I enjoy peeling the crab apart.
ーFinally, please tell us your goals for next year.
Miki: As a group, I want to focus on our talk. Even after graduating from Sakura Gakuin, talk skills are so important, so for the activities we have left I want keep my head straight and improve my talk skills. As for myself, I do Rakugo in the Purchasing Club, and I want to do even more Rakugo.
ーDo you actually like Rakugo?
Miki: Yes! I regularly listen to Rakugo. Ever since I was in elementary school I've loved "Shoten", and even now I always watch it without fail.
ーBy the way, when is your exam for the EIKEN?
Miki: It's in January. I'm taking Level 2. I tried Level 2 when I was in 4th year of elementary, but I didn't study very hard for it....

exam jokes in english for school video

Exam Jokes; Randomness. Exam Jokes. By admin August 18, 2017. It’s exam season at the moment with lots of people getting their results, so here are some exam jokes. I remember getting my A level results really clearly, best wishes to all those who just got their results. Of course, these jokes as normal come with no guarantee of hilarity or ... Exam Jokes, here are funniest jokes on exams you ever read to cope exam stress. Celebrate your exam days rather overwhelmed with reading best exam jokes. We all love to laugh. It just feels good. We like a friend having a good sense of humor. You can share funny exam jokes images status memes with friends and girlfriend to show your humorous ... The doctor gave the man a jar and said, "Take this jar home and bring back a sperm sample tomorrow." The next day the 85-year-old man reappeared at the doctor's office and gave him the jar, which was as clean and empty as on the previous day. Exam jokes. 28 jokes about exams. Final philosophy exam: Is this a question? If this is an answer! 10 question jokes. At Sydney University, there were four students taking Organic Chemistry. They did so well on all the quizzes, midterms and labs, etc., that each had an "A" so far for the semester. These four friends were so confident with the ... Take exams a little less seriously with these these funny exam jokes. ... English Jokes. Number Jokes. Geography Jokes. Book Jokes. Biology Jokes. More stuff. Physics Jokes. Chemistry Jokes. History Jokes. Teacher Jokes. School Jokes. World Book Day Jokes. How to write jokes! Why We Love Jokes! Best Jokes 2021. Funny Google Jokes! Pie Jokes ... Best Exam Jokes In English And Hindi . The talk of exams always makes us serious. But here you will find some hilarious Exam Jokes in English and Hindi that will take away the exam fever and make you laugh out loud. Exam and test jokes and humor from schooljokes.com - School jokes, teacher jokes, pupil jokes and more Jul 23, 2018 - Explore Y A M E E N 's board "Exam funny quotes" on Pinterest. See more ideas about exams funny, funny quotes, funny school jokes. SCHOOL : Apni to paatshala masti ki pathshala. TUTION : Idhar chala mai udhar chala. MATHS : Ajeeb dastan hai yeh. SCIENCE : Aa khusi se kudkushi karle. GEOGRAPHY : Musafir hoon main yaaro. ECONOMICS : Kyu paisa paisa karti hai, paise pe kyu tu marti hai. EXAM : Zehrelein raatey ninde udd jati hai. RESULT : Jiya dhadak dhadak. PASS : Aaj mai ... Aug 4, 2019 - Explore MiR MaNaN's board "Exam quotes funny" on Pinterest. See more ideas about funny school jokes, funny school memes, fun quotes funny.

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There is a new teacher at our Joke Prank School. She wants to have real school but the silly students, Naiah and Elli, decide to play jokes on her. Mis CrayC... Slime School is out and it's time for the new Joke School. In Joke school the students learn in a pretend classroom how to play practical jokes and pranks on... Jokes about my PT sir from school, my troubles with hindi and the deep relationship between capital letters and small letters in the English alphabet.Thank y... a oral exam scenario.like and share this video.hope u all enjoy The days that we feared then are the days that we cherish in our memories now. Let us go back and live those anxious moments once again! Thanks toDivoThai Th... How Are you guys?? In this episode, KING presents you Funniest Final Exams Jokes And Memes That Everyone Will Relate To Exams are the undetachable parts of a... School Exams Jokes & Memes Funny Compilation Our new video out Presenting... JOKE ON - ONLINE EXAM IN LOCKDOWN - LET'S SMILE Funny School Classroom Cartoon ComedyIn LET'S SMILE we MAKE ANIMATED JOKES... Written,Directed and Produced By Vatsl SethCo-Written and Co- Produced By Shaeina SethCast- Vartika Chauhan FalakZeb Khan Sunny Esha Reehan SIdha... Lets go "Back to School" and sit in our English Class. What comes to your mind when you think of your English Class ??Poems..? Essays..? Leave Letters..? Gra...

Exam and test jokes and humor - School jokes

exam jokes in english for school

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My thoughts and experiences after 5 years in Switzerland as an expat.