Going to Germany and France (Tomorrow!)

12 December 2015 [link youtube]


En route to Göttingen, France & Nice on the Côte d'Azur.



This is the second time I've made a video immediately after writing a Japanese exam. I look exhausted in both videos… because I AM exhausted in both videos.


Youtube Automatic Transcription

hey I just got back from writing my
final Japanese exam for the semester and tomorrow morning I'm getting on the bus the bus takes from the airport and the airport takes me away to Germany it seems that in the next few weeks I will be in gutting in Germany and then also in Nice on the côte d'azur in the South of France the reason for the trip is to try to visit my daughter the current indications are that I may not get to see my daughter I'm speaking to my lawyer my lawyer speaking to a judge it is what it is for the last two years I've been a big proponent of voluntary cooperation communication etc I really did not want my ex-wife to have to go through red tape to get anything done in her life um and I didn't want her to have to deal with red tape but I didn't want have to deal with red tape and trying to cooperate and co-parent and do what's best for our child but the experience the last two years has ended sadly with lawyers and judges and my having to go through legal procedures to try to do the simplest things imaginable my ex-wife told me that I could come over and visit I wrote back giving her the details of when I was available in terms of my course schedule because I'm at university when my holidays were and so on she replied to that saying thank you for this information very vague non-committal answer and as is typical of her because if had the experience several times of setting up plans trying to meet trying to somehow contact my daughter and then at the last minute my ex-wife tries to sort of poison it cancel it or she makes threats and sort of demands in a sort of blackmail way that I sign away all of my right in order to get the visit and it's very strange because what she's asking me to do is sign away my right to see my daughter in exchange for seeing my daughter and by the way at the same time she's claiming falsely to the courts that I have no interest in seeing my daughter the same time CC discussions in this potations not so it's a bit surreal um I don't update you guys on youtube of this too often it is you know nice for me to imagine that one day my daughter could see what's on this YouTube channel I think it's very unlikely she'd actually want to read all the emails of who said what when but this comes back to the question of why I would be making this trip at all like okay so whatever your story is um why am I getting on the airplane tomorrow rather than canceling the ticket or trying to get a refund or something ultimately 10 years from now 20 years from now whenever it is whatever it is you don't want to tell your daughter i tried to visit you but your mom sent me a bunch of nasty emails you don't want to tell your daughter well i was going to come and visit you but the lawyer said this and your mom said that and you know now been trying to see my daughter for two years i have not been able to see my daughter ultimately the right thing for me to do the only choice that can make the thing i have to do is to get on the airplane fly to germany and if I have to spend the whole Christmas vacation sitting there in Germany doing nothing I never see my daughter once I'll be able to say to her look I crossed the ocean I wasn't all talk I showed up and whatever nonsense your mom says or whatever problems there were with the lawyers or what have you I was there I wanted to be a part of your life for your whole life the same way I was a partier life every day for the first ten months your life I did what I could and this is the first opportunity I've had to even be on the same continent with my daughter for almost two years this tuba toothpaste has lasted for about that length of time if you can read a bit of the Chinese language you can tell this is not from China this is from Taiwan i bought this tuba toothpaste back when my ex-wife my daughter and I we're all living together an apartment in Taiwan we moved from France to Taiwan together and I've used this same to a toothpaste twice a day every day for almost two years so it's lasted that's a funny little touchstone to remind me that in some ways it's been a long time since I've seen my daughter and in some way is not such a long time at all