Three questions

[gonghoujun]

Dear Teacher,
I recently read a paragraph of an article: "I was hanging off a strap, staring without seeing through the window of the tram. The previous month, my relationship of fourteen years had ended suddenly and unpleasantly. I was at that stage of recovery where you wake at 4am to begin obsessively playing and replaying events and regrets on an endless tape loop in your head."
I have three questions in it:
(1) What does "hang off" mean?
(2) What relation is relationship?
(3) Why did the author use 'in your head' in "playing and replaying events and regrets on an endless tape loop in your head"? In addition, why didn't the author use 'I wake' and 'my head' here?
I am looking forward to your answers.Thank you!

[Anglika]

Originally Posted by gonghoujun

Dear Teacher,
I recently read a paragraph of an article: "I was hanging off a strap, staring without seeing through the window of the tram. The previous month, my relationship of fourteen years had ended suddenly and unpleasantly. I was at that stage of recovery where you wake at 4am to begin obsessively playing and replaying events and regrets on an endless tape loop in your head."
I have three questions in it:
(1) What does "hang off" mean?
(2) What relation is relationship?
(3) Why did the author use 'in your head' in "playing and replaying events and regrets on an endless tape loop in your head"? In addition, why didn't the author use 'I wake' and 'my head' here?
I am looking forward to your answers.Thank you!

1: The narrator is standing on the tram, hanging onto a strap/loop to keep his balance. Subway trains, buses and trams had these loops hanging down for passengers to hold on to.

2 A relationship in this context is the personal connection between two people, usually implying a romantic one. It has nothing to do with family.

3. Have you never lain awake at night worrying about something? If you have, then you too will have had "an endless tape loop" in your head. It is a metaphor for the way in which worrying thoughts go round in the mind, particularly in the early hours of the morning.