00:11
All right. Hi, Len. Hi, Asami. It is a few days before Christmas right now. I feel like where
did November and December go? But yeah, it's the time of the year that's kind of, you know,
I feel like especially being in the States, like the time just melts after Thanksgiving
and nobody's really there. Nobody's really in their full throttle mode, unless you're me and
trying to do some deadlines to meet before Christmas. But I feel like my lab already has
fewer people because it's a very remotable lab, but I feel like it's just not helping all that
much that it's the time of the year. It's like, oh yeah, so-and-so has already left. Like my PI
left like two weeks ago. If the PI leaves, that means everybody else can leave. He has been
checked out for a while. Things you can do when you reach that level. Anyway, yeah, so we thought
we'll do some like, you know, general 2024 recap for each of us. And I'll start with me because I
brought this idea of the cruel idea of trying to remember what happened approximately 365 days ago.
Some might even say 365 years ago. Yeah, I did catch myself this time. Not years, although
I think it's pretty relevant. Yeah, who knows? Like you don't know if I'm like a 500 year old
witch and like, you know, just pretending to be human. You just don't know that. Okay, this is slowly
turning into some sort of like anime storyline or something. Be skeptical until otherwise proven.
All right, everybody is a 500 year old witch until otherwise proven.
Okay, what do you remember? If I were to summarize my year, I would say there was a lot of
movement in my year. Both travels, like you know, me physically in a different geographic regions
03:02
of the globe, as well as kind of moving like exercising wise, I think.
So start off, I, you know, had my New Year's, both the Gregorian calendar New Year's and
Lunar New Year's in Hong Kong. That was pretty fun. A friend of mine decided to visit me
very last minute for Lunar New Year's. She was like, hey, Asami, I booked a ticket that was
like four days before she arrived. Okay, wow. I was like, okay, I mean, I did say that you
are welcome anytime. And that ended up being really fun. And we did all of like the cheesy
touristy Lunar New Year things. And I'm glad that I did because shortly, a few months after that,
I found out that I had to leave Hong Kong. So my initial plan was to be there for a couple of years.
But for various reasons I'm not going to go into, it was cut short to a year. And
so I only found it out in end of May, beginning of June, that I'll be leaving Hong Kong
earlier than I thought. And then I actually moved out of Hong Kong in
end of October, beginning of November. So that, yeah, that's like, it was like a pretty fast
turnover between the time I found out that I might have to leave Hong Kong to me actually
leaving Hong Kong. Yeah, it was. But in between, like during the summer, I attended two conferences.
So once I went to DC and the other time, I went to this like mountain top ski resort
in Switzerland in July. That was so beautiful. So that was pretty fun. And
while I did wish I could like stretch my leg in Europe or in America, you know, during that time
to travel to other cities around the area, because I knew that I was like relocating myself
in like the next couple months, I wanted to also spend my good time in Hong Kong.
And I ended up not doing it. So that's my like one regret. But otherwise, there was like a lot of
travel. I did a lot more sort of smaller travel between Hong Kong and Tokyo.
Several times, I think. Yeah, yeah, that's true. Which is, after living in the US for a decade,
like such a treat to be so close to Japan and not have to break a bank every time I travel.
06:06
Sure, right. Right, right.
So, and yeah, so that was nice. I feel like I spent a lot of my time in airport is my short
answer. Which was, yeah, it's not bad. I don't mind airports, to be honest. I think a lot of
third culture kids can relate to me. Just to be clear, what I mean by third culture kid is like,
you grew up in more than two cultures. So whether you like grew up in the country or
cultures you were not born into, or maybe you were born into multicultural household,
some way, shape or form. And so you grew up with two cultures, but you're currently as an adult
living somewhere other than the other two cultures that you grew up with. That's when I refer to them
as third culture kid. And well, I guess I don't know how long I can call myself a kid. But I do
feel like a kid. So at this point, I'm like fourth or fifth culture kid. But
You just stopped counting after three.
Yeah, it's three plus culture kid. And there's a lot of privilege that comes with it. There's a
lot of amazing experience that only people who grew up this way can experience, I think. But
it's not without its drawback. And one of the things that comes with being a third culture kid
is just traveling a lot and spending a lot of your time in the airport. And to the point that I feel
like I like weirdly find airport to be calming place. I know it sounds weird, because most
people are frantically running to places, or they're tired, or they're like, kind of
tensed up a little because they're in an unfamiliar city or situations.
But I kind of find it calming to be in a room or giant concourse where everyone is trying to get
to somewhere, and no one's trying to stay there. And they all have places to go, whether they're
happy to go to or not so happy to go to. And it's very transient. And I like find it weirdly calming
to be in that situation. It's very similar to listening to, I don't know, your favorite
09:00
classical music on a really crowded subway. If you have not tried that, do it. Because
I realized this joy when I was in undergrad in New York, on like a dirty, not that clean subway.
It wasn't that crowded, but it was like plenty of other people in the subway cart. And I was just
shuffling my music on my phone. And because I do listen to a bunch of classical music,
I believe this was Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto that just popped up.
And then for like the next 10, 15 minutes of my subway ride, I was like, this is so fun.
Got it. Okay.
The contrast of what I'm hearing through my headphone and the mundane nature of what's
happening in front of my eyes, like the cognitive dissonance of it is so fun to like place myself
into. And it's kind of similar sensation like that in an airport. I'm like, everyone is,
the baseline chaos is a little high than all the other places, right? People are trying to make it
to the flight, or they're like trying to troubleshoot their lost luggage or something.
And you're just there, kind of more or less you know what you're doing, pretty calm. And like I
have uncanny ability to navigate through airports that I've never been to. And...
Okay, that's all right.
I'm really good at spotting.
Actually, yeah.
Yeah, I'm really good at spotting the signs, like airport signs. And not every airport
has well-placed signs. But I am really good at spotting like the critical ones that if I missed
this, I would have been in a different concourse kind of situation. Like, I don't know why my like
spidey sense gets really good.
Yeah, you got some sort of like asami radar or something.
Yeah, like, you know how some giant airports where you need to go,
you need to take like a little shuttle to go from different concourse to another?
Yes.
And sometimes that throws people off a lot, because if you've never been to those mega airports,
it's not every airport, right?
No, no, it's not.
If you've never been to mega airports, you like chilled in like the lounge area for a little bit
and then realize that your gate is actually like two concourses away, and you needed to take like
a mini subway.
Yeah.
And it's like 10 minutes before your boarding time or something.
Yeah, turns out you're screwed.
But like, I'm really good at figuring that stuff out. Like, I'd be like, oh shit,
12:04
I needed to take a train.
But I'm like weirdly calm.
I like know where to go for the subway, know which subway to take.
And then like, just like calmly stand there and then just like make it in time for the gate
boarding time.
Or like, I'll be a little bit late.
But they are like, it's like within the tolerance of, you know, like,
I can still enter the aircraft kind of thing.
So, yeah, I think it's, I don't know what it is.
I don't know if it's a talent or just like being accustomed to this kind of situation.
But I am weirdly like calm at the airport, which is a fun thing for me to be
when everyone is a little bit chaotic.
I, yeah, I'm glad that you went and finished the explanation on that, though.
Because I was trying to connect the idea of being on a crowded subway and listening to
classical music to like running through a crowded airport.
But I sort of see it.
It's the feeling now.
Maybe you feel more connected to the people in motion in the airport.
But the sense of like this unique space that you're within is sort of the same as being
on the subway listening to classical.
Yeah.
Also, subway, you know, it's a transient place.
Like people hop on and hop off and they all have places to go.
And the chances of me seeing the same group of people is extremely low.
And yet there's like, you know, like there's sometimes like a surprisingly pleasant
interaction, whether it's just like a small gesture to like give you a little more room
on your seat or like, you know, letting someone know when they drop something.
I like, I feel like my heart is warm when I like observe these kind of things.
And it's only special in my opinion.
It's only special when it happens in like unexpected places like airport or subway,
where like most of the time people don't give a shit about other people and just like
minding their own business, which is fine.
I also want to mind my own business.
But when like, you know, like I don't know, it's just like the hustle and bustle that's
happening in that space, like a higher level chaos baseline contrast with how calm I feel
is like a weird sensation that I only get in these kind of transit places or like big city
15:00
crossings or like things like that.
And I think I really like that.
I like that sensation in like a strange way.
That... I don't think you'd be alone with that.
I think a lot of people might say that they...
Well, I think it's like a very mixed bag opinion.
Some people find it just uncomfortable being in a crowd.
Sure.
There's a sense of being overwhelmed, right?
By essentially the, you know, a flood of people.
But I think...
Right.
Like I get scared when there's nobody on the street.
Yeah.
See, there's a...
Okay, there's something here about the way that we perceive like the existence of people
around us, right?
I think you've just pointed out one of those ways, which is recognizing that these people
are also underway, like trying to do things and like are existing in a space with you.
Whereas, you know, with nothing, it means that there's nobody else doing that thing
with you.
Like there's nobody else in that area if there's nobody moving.
And these, I think, I think there's a word and I think it applies to these sort of temporary,
transitory spaces as well, which is called liminal spaces.
It's like the spaces in between, essentially.
And there's a lot more to that.
It's like there's different places you might stumble across it, but liminal, liminal spaces.
And they can be really fascinating, just those kinds of spaces between.
But yeah.
This was your lesson learned observation.
Yeah, there's a lot of that happening this year, I feel, just because I spent a lot of
time in the airport.
Yeah, right.
And in a way, this lifestyle of hopping around places, it's not that new to me.
That's kind of how I grew up anyway.
But I feel that more intensely in the past, maybe not year, like more like couple of years.
I do feel like I'm like in a very transient places.
I read, like I keep, I always tell you and like my friends, like I really feel like I'm
a very, like you, Bokumin, like a nomadic state in my life.
And some people find that really cool.
And I do find it super, super huge privilege that I am able to do this.
Sure, right.
Yep.
But also, I'm not trying to be a nomad for the sake of being a nomad, you know?
I didn't choose this life, it chose me.
It really did, because some people are like that.
Some people do want to travel for the sake of traveling almost.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
Also, I just like kind of go after like what I think is going to make me grow, is going
18:04
to give me the experience that I'm lacking, you know, something that excites me as an
opportunity, like those are kind of like the places I go.
And it seems like for the past couple of years, it's like extra geographically spread
out.
Okay.
And perhaps it's because people, like many of my friends, our age, you know, 30-ish
years old, are like, you know, even the ones who were in like the nomadic phase at some
point in their life, like I find them settling into a job, a city, a family, like, you know,
whatever.
And I'm like still nomading, you know?
Sure.
This is an observation that I imagine many of the listeners might relate to, especially,
you know, those that are going through any type of grad school, right?
This is a lot of people who look at the ones that chose not to do grad school, and they
have that exact same experience, right?
A lot of their friends or colleagues or something.
Yeah, and I guess this is like the first time I'm aware of it as well, because I didn't,
I just like didn't really think it was that weird, given that I had a lot of my friends
who are also hopping around to different countries, schools, jobs, etc.
So, I mean, I still don't think I want to like settle for the sake of sense of security
or anything really, like that also gives me uncomfy vibes in a different way.
But at the same time, I do feel like, huh, like, I wonder how long I'm gonna keep doing
this, you know?
Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's a big question, right?
Like, what exactly does that turn into?
And I think I've thought about it multiple times at different points of this year about
this nomadic nature of the life I have chosen or the life that chose me.
All right, so you're exiting the year and entering the new year with a lot of reflection
over you being a nomad.
I'm just a very reflective person in general, but yes, I think it's a relatively recent
thought.
Sure.
Not like, oh, it only occurred to me a couple days ago, kind of recent, but like relatively
recent in my lifetime scale of things that I am made aware of this and how unusual it
21:01
is, perhaps, to even those around me who are probably more nomadic than average Joe
out there.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You find yourself in a position of you're always reflective, but you're carrying this
awareness into the next year.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I think I'll keep asking next year and the following year because, you know, of all
the things I've been planning and thinking about and other opportunities, it doesn't
look like it's going to stop.
So it doesn't look like I can.
I still don't know what visa I need next year, which country I'm going to live in for the
bulk of my time.
So yeah, we'll see.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, that's done.
Man, that's a whole level of serious things to think about.
Good luck.
I don't know.
It's like it's serious, but at the same time, like, you know, like there's not much point
pondering.
It just happens to you.
So, you know, like just have to deal with it every time it happens to you.
Yeah, I mean, but that really leans heavily into the whole it chose you type thing for
nomad life.
I mean, like talk about sitting in uncertainty like that.
That's what I've been trained my entire life.
I mean, it's certainly a helpful thing to be comfortable with, as I am well aware.
So boy, though.
All right.
That's it.
What a revelation.
Recap.
Done.
Yeah, that's it for the show today.
Thanks for listening and find us on X at Ego de Science.
That is E-I-G-O-D-E-S-C-I-E-N-C.
See you next time.
