How much mental energy does it take to try a new bus stop?

We just came back from some extended travel and spent the day yesterday recovering from jet lag. Well, actually, yesterday was for just making it through until evening. Since I'm up writing at 12:45am, I guess it didn't completely work in my case.

It was chilly outside when we got out of the arrivals terminal, over-stuffed bags intact and import taxes on new kitchen knives and dog bed paid for. Autumn chilly. My sweater and scarf felt warm and cozy instead of headed straight to the laundry basket from a sweaty trip. Great weather - cool and sunny. The dog wasn't due to be dropped off for another 4 hours when we got home so we took a nap and then headed to town for some groceries. And it wasn't sad like I had thought it might be. I didn't miss the US as much as I feared I would (this is where we had spent the week, my first time back since the move here). Many things were familiar, some things were novel, but good.

Eventually, the pupper was brought home from the sitter around 5pm, and we realized there was no dog food, so off to the central train station! We took our usual bus plus tram route, but on the way I noticed, one stop from the usual place we switch, that some trams which go downtown leave from one stop earlier. And I mentioned to M that "maybe we should try switching at that earlier stop some day."

And even though we were both starting to feel tired, and hungry, and slow, this notion wasn't that stressful.

Not like it would have been a month earlier, or even last week when we were frantically preparing for a trip away. I know this point may be obvious for most people, but it really does matter how many new things you have going on at once. When you have 20 things on your list of to-do's and most of them involve health insurance, bills and taxes, taking a new tram from a new stop is just not in the picture. It is too much to keep track of. Same goes for when you have just moved to a new place. If I don't even know where the grocery store is yet, I'm not looking for the quickest way there, just for one, sure-fire way to get there.

Again this reminds me how much there is for people to learn in a new class or museum exhibit. And how the simplest little piece of information can feel like it is made of granite and not about to swiftly hop into your brain anytime soon if you're already saturated trying to learn the overall landscape of information. Context makes such a huge difference. There is no such thing as an "easy" fact.

I thought that this kind of thinking was mostly relegated to academia and high-power jobs (law, medicine), the putting down of someone for not having known something "so trivial." But the reason I bring it up here is that it is also all over one of the forums for expats in this country. I, and many new members, routinely get textually disciplined for having asked a simple question that we "should have taken more time to figure out yourself first." Just like in physics when a professor used to say "you should really go think about this question more and then come back and talk to me."

Great. I'll go do that. Shall we say I go for 17 minutes? How about 23? When does "more" get fulfilled and I have earned the right to come ask you again? I know, I know, sometimes a student hasn't engaged with a problem "enough." And apparently, sometimes a person new to a forum has not sufficiently demonstrated that they have paid some sort of dues. But these are pretty subtle distinctions. This doesn't mean that there won't be people who you feel try to take advantage of your answering questions. I guess, for me, this just means I'd like to stop assuming that someone doesn't deserve an answer or help. I can say that I don't have time to answer a question (although, writing that statement takes as much time as answering some questions), but I think that snap judgement that the asker hasn't earned the right to an answer....well, that is something I think is much less fruitful.

Good luck to me actually putting it to work.

I'll get some photos posted next time.