Yay, school finished! Well, more like I decided not to do another 3 month course. Going to school everyday was getting to be a little tiring and I lost a lot of motivation and actually started resenting Japan a bit. No matter how much I study, there's always so much more to learn and mistakes that I make.
I feel pretty proud of myself though. In 6 months of intensive studying my reading has improved, my written grammar has improved a lot and my vocabulary has increased. Funny thing is, my grammar used to be my weakest point and my speaking and listening comprehension being the strongest, but now its reverse.
I still have good comprehension, but my grammar is now much stronger then my speaking ability. No surprise though as I was concentrating on the grammar a lot in the pass 3 months and the school doesn't really give much opportunity for speaking. That's something most students have to actively try to do themselves.
So my plan now is to practice conversation with private tutor twice a week, go to a conversation class once a week and business conversation class a twice week. It'll round out to me taking classes daily, but it'll only be for an hour or so each day so I think it'll be more manageable.
I'm thinking I'll go back to taking the intensive course from Autumn after a little 3 month break to refresh and get some motivation back.
I might start teaching kid yoga during summer a couple of times just to get a little pocket money (yoga is really not a money making business though haha!) and I'm thinking real hard what I want to do as far as work goes.
I'd like to go back to work, but I'm not dying to go back to the children gym that I was at for 2 years. We'll see how it goes though, I'm meeting my boss tomorrow to discuss kid yoga and if he offers me a sweet deal for teaching regular gym classes then I might follow up on his offer.
No offense to the mothers/soon to be mothers out there, but the main reason I don't want to go back to teaching fitness to kids is that...well, I'm not crazy about working with kids. All my jobs were children related and the drama between mothers and their children is very tiring. Don't get me wrong, I like kids and I developed good friendships with the mothers, but there's always a few mothers or children who make me wish I wasn't involved in anything children related.
I think if I was a mother, I'd diffidently see it from a different angle, but I'd like there to be one time in my life where I'm not doing anything children related.
So, for the next few weeks I'm going to be evaluated what I want to do with my life and how I want to go about getting there. I know I want to do something fitness/nutrition related, but I need to figure out how I'm going to get there.
Speaking of nutrition, I've been a very very good girl! I've been a pretty strict vegan and have not bought any sweets from the combini! I do treat myself to a vegan chocolate pudding and sorbet, but its limited to 1-2x a week.
So it's been about 10 days since I started my 30 day challenge and I'm pleased it's been fairly easy. No major cravings that I can speak of, but from past experiences, I usually start getting cravings after a few weeks. I'll just have to see how it goes. Happily, I'm seeing some good changes in my body and mental frame of mind. I feel pretty clear, alert and have lots of energy. Physically, I'm feeling lighter and I've lost a little on the scale, but I'm pretty sure its mainly just excess water weight. Anyway, the main point is how well my clothes fit on me.
All and all, I'm feeling wonderful and hope to keep this healthy streak up!
I'm getting really excited! In 3 weeks I'm going to accompany Motozo to New York. We'll spend the weekend with his parents and since it's a business trip for Motozo, he'll be busy working from Monday so I'm going to Toronto for the first time to visit dear Joey and his family! I can't wait to see my little nephew, Jason!
And yesterday, Motozo and I were discussing what other traveling we'll do besides France this year and were def going to try getting to Australia to visit Lils and her new baby early next year! I cant wait!
Sorry, no photos today. I hope everyone is having a lovely lovely day!
ohhh yayayay! I knew you'd fit aus in your travels at one point. Nins should be coming down here in Jan so maybe it can all be at once and we can go...camping??? or something!!
ReplyDeleteSo proud of your achievements in the Japanese arena, You definetely don't need anymore stress if you're already proficient enough, specially when it's just the semantics of language, if you use it on a daily basis then that's all you need to know :D
Also good on the eating front, I'm struggling to put down chocolate cookies suddenly but I'm getting to replace it with icecream for the time being so that's slightly better LOL.
TOtally know what you mean about working with children (and it's completely different to having your own as far as I know) I never want to go back to that industry as long as possible, even though I had an overall good experience...it's draining! Hope you find your niche, finding a job that pays well and you enjoy is so difficult but definetely doable!
Pegs!
ReplyDeleteWhoa so cool! I wasn't able to read your blog for the past month due to China blocking blogspot, but now I can read all I like.
It's great seeing you go for the health and fitness, very encouraging because I'm thinking of starting up one of my many training programs again. I can see the need and geez, I'm tired of being tired, plus I want to regain my flexibility, so I'll def be incorporating yoga in it. :D
Traveling is so fun, and I'm sure you'll have a blast there.