Three parks, one day, no problem :)

3 parks in one today - was craziness :)

We started with a game drive on the way out of Tarangire park - more lions was the highlight of that one. We saw a recent kill last night w no predators around it, but this morning the happily sated lions were lounging around the area.  Great pics of that with the grown up camera ;).  Will share in future.
Also - this is when I learned that if I were stranded in this environment my time would be very limited. One of the lions took me a good five minutes to find, despite him being directly in front of me AND knowing he was there. I’d be the first one to step on a cub and set mama off. Lol all those years of hidden picture puzzles did nothing to prepare me for the reality of safaris.


— Chris and I at Lake Manyara lunch stop —

Anyways - it was a great start to the morning and then we drove to Lake Manyara. The environment was a complete change; deep forests and lush green colouring. We saw forest elephants within seconds of entering and all kinds of monkeys and baboons. Forest elephants, btw, are never going to sneak up on anybody. The noise of them navigating... Serious “get out of the way” warning.



Lots of very colourful birds, some super lazy hippos, a lone forest buck who moved far too quickly to get a good photo, and the usual multitude of zebras. When exactly did zebras become usual?

Sadly we were unable to find any tree-climbing lions, which I was quite looking forward to :(. Apparently none of the guides had seen any sign today. But other than that minor disappointment, was a good trip :)



We then headed to Ngorongoro - on the way we detoured through a cultural centre, which was really a giant gift shop. Tons of really amazing stuff, sadly none of which we could even pretend to afford ;)


— The view from our balcony —

So Ngorongoro park is huge — we’re focusing on the crater. And that view. The best photographer couldn’t do it justice. The best scenery I’ve seen anywhere in the world was in either Banff or New Zealand; this easily ranks amongst those.



It was a stunning drive up to our hotel. When we checked in they gave us one room, then randomly decided “no, we have one with a better view” and gave us another ;). The conversation was not in English so not sure what inspired the upgrade, but the room is incredible so win. It is much colder here - I’m bundled in my fleece as I’m waiting for dinner and was pleased the heater was on in the room. But I’m very much looking forward to star gazing tonight after dinner.

Update: stars are incredible! No light pollution and a clear view to the sky. AND turndown service includes a hot water bottle between the sheets. This is a new (or actually very old) level of service I could get used to ;)

The slightly-broken circle of life...

— If you look closely, you can see giraffes :) —

Gather round and grab some popcorn and I’ll tell you a story; it’s a true story - it happened today. One of life and loss and the endless struggle between clever scrappiness and confident strength.
First we have a family of Kudus - clearly Mom, Dad, and baby. Our guide emphasized that these are at risk - he pointed them out right away, mentioning he hadn’t seen them in about five years. Google is less concerned and seems to feel they’re doing just fine, but our story plays better with the guide’s version ;). I’m telling you stories. Trust me. Baby K is old enough to be eating solid food, but likely young enough to still be nursing too.

Cheetah

Then in the other corner we have the cheetah. Strong. Sleek. Very aware of its own power. We’re taking pics of said cheetah posing under the tree when she takes note of our Kudu friends. She nonchalantly strolls towards them, stopping to sit and watch for a bit before crouching low to the ground to stalk.

She waits, and watches...

The kudus seem entirely unaware of their potential impending doom. They continue their leisurely stroll while the cheetah picks a line that will intersect them. Interestingly, the cheetah just watches the first time their paths cross, and the kudu pass calmly.

On the prowl

But now she’s on a mission. Moving quickly but low to the ground, she rapidly closes the distance. Then in grass too tall for us to see exactly what happened, she made her move.

Break for freedom!

Mom and Dad Kudu flee for safety, but baby is nowhere to be seen :(. At one point Dad nearly crashes into Mom as she pauses and turns to search for her baby. Okay - I may be anthropomorphising a little here, but she definitely stopped to look back; I caught it on camera. With a last look, both parents continue their flight.

Where's baby?  I don't know - I thought you had him!

But wait! In the distance, Baby K is swimming! It would seem the cheetah in some way got him into the water. And, well, I guess she didn’t want to get her paws wet... Baby K swims about half a mile downstream before pulling himself, exhausted, out of the water. He lies on the solid ground, head up but otherwise unmoving, for what feels like forever but was maybe five minutes?

Taking a break with some bird friends

At this point I was strongly rooting for Baby K and very much afraid the cheetah would still be hunting...

But no - or rather she is... She is very patiently waiting crouched near where Baby K went in the water. Apparently unaware that he swam away.

A little wet and tired, but very much alive

We watched as Baby K regained his footing, took a few wobbly steps, and then bounded off in the direction of his parents. They had stopped and were apparently waiting for him.

As we left, Baby K was on his way to rejoin his family and the cheetah was still very alertly watching the spot where he’d once gone under water ;). I have no idea how long she stayed there - she was too well hidden for good photos so we went in search of our own lunch ;). But suffice to say that in true Disney style, Baby K escaped.

Wait for me!

So yeah - that was this morning’s adventure :). We also went searching for a leopard; we found his pray strung in a tree but no luck on the actual cat :(. Ah well - the cheetah/kudu drama more than made up for it!



Other animals today - a few hundred Cape buffalos all in a pack, a couple mongooses (mongeese? Lol), tons of elephants, zebras & wildebeest (which do live together it turns out - complementary species. They eat different parts of the plants so don’t compete for food, one has excellent eye sight while the other has excellent hearing, and there’s safety in numbers. So there you go - your educational moment of the day). Hmmm also warthogs, water bucks, antelope, ostriches, giraffes and lions...



Oh - and the hyrax, which I’d never heard of before. These rodents of unusual size are tail-less, fast, climb, and can jump impressive distances. They’re about cat-sized and actually somewhat cute. The ones choosing to live around the hotel are seriously fat - they almost seem a different species from the ones farther out.


— note the high water mark from rainy season.  The almost-canyons, a couple stories deep, that we drive across will be flooded a couple months.  Very impressive and almost surreal. —

Got some unbelievable photos of all types of critters! Alas they are all on my big camera which is not cooperating w my phone at the moment, so you’ll probably have to wait till I get home to see them...  All I can put here for now are the meh ones from when I remembered to use the phone camera :)


— We spent a fair amount of time by the marsh today; lots of fun watching multiple species play in the water :) —

Tomorrow am is our last game drive in this park, then off to Lake Manyara in search of tree climbing lions :)

And in other news - Chris’ luggage caught up with us right before dinner. Win!


— The elephants dig to the centre of these trees for water; somehow the trees can survive this.  This one is still alive, and likely several hundred years old. —

Titles should be catchy. I’m too tired for that right now ;)

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! No. Wait. That’s somebody else’s story... Lions and giraffes and zebras, oh my! Lol and elephants and monkeys and both the largest and smallest species of antelope. So yeah - it’s been an incredible day. And this is take two of this post so I suspect it’ll be much shorter. Please note - shorter in no way equals short ;). For the short version - see list of animals above. We did.

Still with me? So a lifetime ago, or maybe just this am, we met up with our driver/guide - Agustin - and after a brief check-in re still missing luggage, we were on our way!

Our way was, admittedly, quite a long and boring drive. Other than the clock tower that marks the centre of Africa, some Masai (sp?) boys who were heading out on their manhood ritual (impressively terrifying face paint), and the stunningly gorgeous purple trees that I wrote down what they were called but alas that too is gone the way of the vanished post. I slept through most of the drive to the park given that I’m on a combined combo of anti-malaria, anti-nausea, and anti-cold drugs (thanks airport cold!) — all three of which have drowsiness as a side effect. So yeah, I mostly didn’t have a chance.



We arrived at Tarangire national park and had a chance to stretch our legs before safari the first. When we got back to the vehicle, the guide had put the roof up. Literally cranked it up so we could stand easily (and in my case on a seat) and take unobstructed photos while still being covered from the sun. The am drive was cloudy so we didn’t really appreciate that till the afternoon which was all sun.

The first safari was incredible. Everywhere we looked more interesting critters were wandering about. Zebras everywhere! And with them their friends the wildebeests... I’m not quite sure what the symbiotic relationship is between them but I’m reasonably convinced after today that there must be one. Sadly I have no access to google so alas I must remain ignorant for a while... If or when I have a flash of wifi, I’m putting it to use uploading this ;)

The various guides share finds over the radio so everybody can see when something cool is happening; that’s definitely how we got to see the first lion, sunning by the tree...



The other one that was really cool was the baby elephant- followed shortly by baby everythings ;). Apparently google did well by us when I researched when to come for animals... Babies on the ground, and because it’s dry season, all the animals are hanging out near the water source. In the rainy season they scatter and apparently are very hard to see in the grass. So yeah, win :).

We eventually stopped at our next hotel - in the park - for lunch. Lunch was by the pool with some amazingly stunning birds and a neon lizard hanging out. A monkey stole one lady’s lunch nearby ;). Lol and we lost a butter lump to a sneaky bird. But all good.

The rooms are all ground floor and you go outside to get to them - as you’re in the park, animals wander freely. There were zebra and elephants our our balcony. Absolutely incredible. Chris just got sent back inside - we’re not allowed to be outside after dark; apparently the zebras are on the front lawn now :). I did promise one of the women I work with that I’d avoid getting squished by an elephant, so I will follow that rule *g*

Okay back to my story - after lunch was back out on safari! The sun came out over lunch so temps went up significantly. We saw more of all the things, but most impressive were the lions feeding on a wildebeest, even two cubs! Was... wow. The male lions here don’t have manes - too hot. Apparently the ones in the Serengeti will :). That’s in a few days. Saw many more elephants, giraffes and zebras - so many zebras. I find myself somewhat fascinated with the giraffes. There were some cape buffaloes too but we couldn’t get a good view of them. Hopefully more another day.



Amazing sunset and got to watch a whole troop (uh is that the right phrase? Google-less here...) anyways a troop of monkeys playing, incl a couple that were apparently only days old. And I’m loving the elephant families with baby and big sibling or two all still hanging with Mum.
Return to the hotel once we lost sunlight for supper and likely early bed given that both C and I woke up wide awake at about 1am this morn. This hotel has hot water from 6-8am and pm. Lol and hot was really more like vaguely warm, but I wasn’t freezing and did get to wash my hair so win. Power was a little questionable- Chris showered by the light of my flashlight.

Anyways - the day has been beyond words. Despite the number of them here, there’s no way I truly captured what I felt. I think I expected it’d be like when you go to Algonquin to see animals - you might find a few bears, a moose if you’re lucky, but mostly you drive around aimlessly or make friends with someone who knows. Well our guide both knows and has friends but far more than that is the sheer quantity of animals. And they all seem healthy and just going about being their animal selves. So incredible to experience. They have little to no fear of the vehicles so we can get super close. Only the babies and sometimes the zebras run from the safari vehicles.

Anyways - I’ve been told the other parks are even better?!?! But we luckily have one more day here before we go find out. Different parks have different animals (this one’s specialty is elephants) so we tried to plan a trip with as much variety as possible.

Not sure how I’m so tired after sitting in a vehicle all day, but I’m wiped. More tomorrow :). If the internet deigns to cooperate.

We made it! Mostly ;)

So for people following the story, our driver was, in-fact, exactly where we’d been told he’d be with our sign.  Sadly, Chris’ luggage was not.  Fail.

But before we even got to that...   Coming here we looked into what vaccines we’d need.  Our doctor, the CDC, and Google all recommended that if there’s any way to avoid the Yellow Fever vaccine we should.  It has not entirely proven but significant anecdotal side effects, and my doctor is pretty into any kind of preventative care, so for her to say she doesn’t recommend it is a pretty big flag.

Okay go home and do research.  Canada to Tanzania doesn’t need it.  Sweet.  BUT travelling through Kenya does IF you’re there more than 12h.  Even if you never leave the airport.  We were going to be there for 10.  I was going on the serious hope the flight would leave on time and/or Tanzania wouldn’t be too picky if we’d never left the airport.  Esp as we discovered they spray the airport for bugs at night.  lol.

Anyways - we got lucky and the flight left on time (albeit without C’s luggage).   We got off the flight in the tarmac and before we could even go to the visa/customs area we were stopped and asked how long we’d been there and challenged about our 10h.   Guess they take that pretty seriously.  We made it through no problem, the visa process was simple, although customs required fingerprints and two photos.  Sheesh.  But yeah - of all the things to go wrong, I’m pretty glad in this case that it was missing luggage and not a delayed flight.

So yeah - filled out the form for the luggage and then the representative from our safari company went and finished it out for us.  The trip to Arusha took about an hour, primarily due to the strictly enforced 50km/h speed limit.  I saw more speed traps in that drive than in 6 mths at home.  And yet they all had people pulled over.  An endless stream of tiny shops and tons of people - some working, some chatting, and a ton on bikes.  Our guide explained that the houses are built “by season” — as in over several years.  The buildings we were seeing with no roofs and apparently abandoned were, instead, just partially built.  I have no idea where people live during the years it takes to build their homes.  Lots of poverty with some obvious examples of extreme wealth sprinkled in.

We stopped at a tiny store so Chris could purchase a change of clothes.  Both our driver and the company rep seemed pretty convinced we’d have it in a day or two.  We shall see...

The area itself is more mountainous and cooler temps than I’d expected.  And yes, I’m well aware of Kilimanjaro, but somehow in my head I had a vision of a loan mountain thriving in an otherwise flat and dry landscape.  Yeah no.  Not so much.  Lots of hills surrounding said mountain, and current elevation is 1400m.  Netflix fail ;).  Lol it is only green in areas that put a lot of effort to making it that way however.  The desolate dry yellows and dust-swept browns I’d expected were prevalent.


- view from the plane as it rolled to our disembarkment point -

The hotel itself is tiny and takes customer service to an impressive level.  There was a miscommunication about our early checkin (although they acknowledged they knew about it, just couldn’t acccommodate) but even still they had a room for us within about 2h of our arrival, definitely ahead of regular checkin.   The rooms are interesting - a series of individual circular huts of sorts, each hit has two rooms, and the keys are skeleton style.  There’s a small balcony of sorts as well which I believe is the “smoking” area of the property.



There’s not much (read anything) to do here.  You can walk the entire resort in 10 mins w time to spare.  Basically the options are hotel lobby, pool, or room.  So after a significant nap and a cold shower (if there’s hot water as advertised, I haven’t found the trick to it yet!) we spent the rest of the day at the pool.  The road noise is significant but otherwise it’s lovely.  Suspect it will be an early night and then safari starts tomorrow!  Woohoo!  Super excited :)



Except of course we don’t actually know when or where we’re supposed to meet our guide...  hmmm ;).  Tomorrow Lauren can solve that one.

Almost there...

I’m sitting on the last of three planes - this flight is all of about an hour, and we took a bus to get to the plane ;).   No propellers but maybe one step up?   Actually the most leg room we’ve had of any flight...  Also the only flight w a screaming child.

So things I’ve learned in my travels.  First and most brilliant - the horseshoe shaped travel pillows?  You know the ones...  W the head rest behind me it pushed me uncomfortably forward.  Booo.   But then I clued in - turn it around...  lol you might look slightly ridiculous but honestly - enough hours into a flight you really stop caring.  And for me enough is pretty much as soon as I sit down ;).  Not only does this still offer the desired side support but on top of that it feels kinda like your snuggling with blankets tucked up to your chin (at least mine did w a comfy cover in it).  AND it gives a handy chin rest so when you do eventually manage to fall asleep in some incredibly cramped economy position, your chin doesn’t drop down and wake you back up.   Seriously.  All round win.

Flying over the wing sucks.  Can’t see anything but said wing.  Fail.

Serious win - the app “Lounge Buddy”.  We knew we had a 10h layover in Nairobi, so we wanted to upgrade to lounge access.  This let us do it ahead of time - but even more important, it let us know said lounge existed!  Cause I tell ya, it was an adventure finding it and no way we would’ve stumbled upon it or wandered that far randomly looking.   And the Nairobi airport is not one you want to spend any amount of time in without the lounge.  Technically we only had access for 3.5h, but we stayed all night and nobody was the least concerned.  It also had AC which the rest of the airport didn’t seem to. Win.

Air France has one of the more entertaining safety videos I’ve ever seen.  Lol so random, but to their credit - it kept our attention.

Kenya Airways slogan is “the pride of Africa” - that amused me more than it should :). Also, the murals on the windows in the airport were amazing.  Esp as I woke up to see a zebra looking at me that I didn’t know was there when I lay down in the dark ;)



I’ve been amusing myself by smiling at random people who are clearly stressed out by travelling - it’s amazing how many relax and smile back.   I’m considering this my good deed for humanity ;-P
In Nairobi I had the worst headache - undoubtedly due to a wonderful combo dehydration and lack of sleep.  Went looking for Tylenol or some variety.  Guy in the airport shop:  “Headache?  Take some from the red box”.  They sell them one bubble sheet at a time. Hmmm a little dodgy but at least the packaging was in English.  Whatever they were, they worked.  Also put me to sleep which prob helped too ;)

Plane’s taking off now - will post when I find wifi.  Our rather dubious instructions when we land involve finding the guy w our names on a sign...  hmmmm wish us luck :)


Kilimanjaro from the plane

On our way

I'm currently watching the sun rise while eating a croissant in Paris.  Yup, life is good :).  It's roughly 2am home time but somehow I'm not remotely tired.  Just as well as we have 3h to kill before out next flight.



Flight in left late but arrived early - yeah tail wind ;).  Only real down side is that moments after they served food both drinks slid off my tray and onto my lap;  then seconds later, Chris' did too!   I managed to catch the food but I was horribly soaked as was my seat.  Actually the most unpleasant experience.  And because I was wet, shortly thereafter I was freezing :(. Covered the wet seat w a plastic bag (not sure how useful that was as my pants were pretty thoroughly soaked by that point) and then buried myself in blankets and my heavy fleece *sigh*.  Not ideal, but if that's the worst thing that happens on this trip, things are good.  Fortunately wearing light summer pants which dried in a couple hours.  I don't think I've ever been so grateful to not be wearing jeans!

So I've discovered that the Spanish I've been working so hard to learn has bumped what little French I once knew right out.  I did manage the most simplistic of conversations in French, but my brain was going English-Spanish-French.   Lol brutal.  Ah well - I suppose the plus is that the Spanish is getting better ;)

The Paris airport is a fairly significant step up from Toronto's in design and comfort.  Although we were a little annoyed to have to take all our camera gear out to go through security- in TO they just opened the bag.  Ah well, at least it wasn't busy ;).  So now my phone is in a free charging locker and I'm tying this on my iPad while Chris is off hunting Pokemon - except my seat is a lounge so I may just snag a short nap in the sunlight.

Next stop: Nairobi.

New app required

Fun adventures coming - I need to be able to blog from my phone. Sooo...

Testing potential app.

Hmmm so can add a photo but apparently not a caption...   This was Chris and I at the Rock Garden a few weeks ago :)

Okay well pretty basic, but hopefully it’ll let me post stories ;). At least when we have access to wifi.

Friday Flash #71: The Magic of the Night

In the darkness of the night the trees rustled as the warm wind blew wildly.  

“Do you hear them?” I asked.

“Hear what?”

“The fey?”   

My boyfriend just rolled his eyes at me.  He had no time for magic and mystery, proud his feet were firmly planted in the cement of reality.   He couldn’t hear the whisper on the wind.   But I could – just beyond my comprehension.  I could sense it, but not quite make out the words.

Marc locked the recycle bin safely in the garage.  “You coming?”

“I think I’ll stay out a bit,” he rolled his eyes and went inside, tolerant of but not understanding my more whimsical side.

My gaze was drawn upward, captured by the brilliance of the harvest moon.  The clouds formed pictures as they passed in front of it.  I watched for a while, my imagination seeing images that weren’t really there.  A dragon. A cityscape.  A mother with her child.  

But then I realized it wasn’t my imagination, and I wasn’t seeing random images.  The coulds were forming letters as they drifted over the moon.   I squinted and furrowed my brow, struggling to see more clearly, but the letters dissipated leaving wisps of a cloud that faded from sight once they passed the beam of the moon’s light.

I closed my eyes and listened to the wind.  My hair whipped around my face, but I did nothing to contain it, enjoying the wildness of the night.  I felt my heartbeat slow; my breathing became deeper; I smiled, feeling utterly and completely relaxed.  

I opened my eyes and let them return to the moon, relaxed and soft I saw the letters form.  And in the darkness of the warm summer night, I read the message that would change my life.

And with a smile, I turned and entered the house.

Studies have shown that people who have more birthdays live longer.

Um wow.  So that was an amazing weekend J

Short version:  lawyers, house, wedding, house, birthday, house J

Long version:

Let’s see…

Thursday night we met with the lawyers to do all the paperwork re the new house, we also had our final walkthrough.   Friday we got possession of the house!  Woohoo!   The dogs love their new abode – or more accurately, their private park ;)   Ashley’s wedding was Friday afternoon, so Mum picked up the keys for us when they became available at the lawyers.  Wedding was super close to our place and was really nice – it overlooked the lake, but was high enough so the view wasn’t interrupted by beach goers *g*   Then Chris had to go to work so I took a load of boxes over to the house and started unpacking. 

So – Thursday – Lawyers and house walkthrough – Check

Friday – Ashley and Kyle’s wedding – Check.

Saturday.   Saturday started with house stuff, of course.   Moved some more boxes, packed some more stuff, and started prepping the bedrooms for painting (filling holes etc).  All good.  Then was my levelling up ceremony!  Woohoo!  Lol otherwise known as birthday party for *gasp* 40^th.  Oh my god, how did that happen?  Ugh.  Let me  refer you to the fact that I was ID’d not too many weeks ago ;)   

Birthday parties aren’t really my thing, and I was trying to remember if I’ve ever actually had one before (other than immediate family of course – that’s an always J)   But when we were kids, it was usually a friend or two over to do something (esp with a summer birthday – kids scatter in the summer), and once I was old enough it’d become not my thing *g*   But this one, mainly cause I was struggling with it, I wanted to celebrate.  My awesome husband was left to the planning and pulled it off – I was slightly overwhelmed and very honoured by the number of people who came!  Lol it was awesome.  

We had our own little room in the restaurant (our house(s!) being in shambles at the moment) so we could mingle and walk around a bit which was nice.  Lots of people from various social circles had met at the wedding, so seemed like there was some catching up going on.   She who only ever meets with her friends one or two at a time, didn’t get nearly enough socializing time with anybody, but I at least got some time to chat with everybody.  Amazing night!   And then to top it off – my Mum made me a scrapbook ranging from when I was a tiny child to now.  So cool to look through and so many memories!   Admit it made me kinda sappy.  Also, reading all the cards when I got home – very cool.   Aileen gets bonus points for the Spanish ;)  So yeah – the night passed in a blink; I was so surprised by how late it was when we finally left lol.  But it was amazing and I’m still grinning.  So thanks all J

Then Sunday, my actually birthday, started with blueberry pancakes – yum!  For the win J   Lol Em had spent the night so she didn’t have to drive all the way home after the party, and the three of us went out for breakfast.   Then was back to load up vehicles (my parents generously traded with Chris and I, so far fewer trips are required) and off to the new house to unpack and paint.  Feature walls are pretty much done, now we just need to do the neutral ones and we’ll be good to go.   Actual movers will do furniture on Friday.   I’m so excited – kinda love both the house and the yard.   Will be even better in a few years when we can do some updates, but even right now, it’s great.   And watching the dogs love the yard was even better!

And today, LIFT 4, the latest exercise program started.   Lol would’ve been a whole lot more convenient if it had waited till next week, but I’m still going to try!  It’s only four days / week instead of the six or seven most of them are, so may be more manageable.

Home is where the heart is... Even if you don't know which box you packed it in ;)

So…   We get our new house on Friday!!!   It’s also Ashley’s wedding on Friday lol.  Have been doing all the pre-move craziness, calling all the utilities and service providers, dealing with banks and lawyers, fun stuff like that.   Whether or not I managed it all?   Well – time will tell…   Actual move isn't till next Friday :(   Which is logistically good, but I Want It NOW!!! *foot stomp*  lol   I am pretty excited about the new house though J   Less excited about the new mortgage L

Duolingo released a whole ton of new topics the other day.   So for those not familiar, each topic, has 5 levels.  And each level has 3-20 mini lessons.  So that’s a TON of new content.   And once you’ve done level 1 of each, the next area is open.   So I promptly tested out of the first two checkpoints, which got me to level one of about 13(?) topics and reopened the whole tree so I can do whichever lessons I want.   All good.  Lol and I was pretty pleased to pass J

So then I discovered, that you can also test out of each level on any individual topic.  So now I’m working my way through those.   So what’s the point?  Well I figure if I test out of everything I know, I’m left with the ones I really need to work on.   AND I’ll tell ya, the low levels are pretty painful.  There’s only so many times you can translate “the cat drinks milk” before you want to throw the phone out the window.   The higher topics are complex enough that I’m still learning and won’t likely manage to test out beyond level 1 or 2.

But it is nice after much effort to see that I can pass a fair number of them with no errors and no effort.  Also nice to now be able to provide answers in the duolingo forum that helped me through the basics when I was starting J   Of course, I went and found an intermediate/advanced one and promptly got entirely lost again.  And heaven forbid anybody speak at native-speaker pace.  Even if I know every word I won’t understand any of them *sigh*  Lol but hey, baby steps right?