Reminiscing forward

Have been reading my blog/diary...just generally looking at the ripples I've put into this big pond. I have had a pretty good life. Beautiful friends, good family memories. Worked through hard things (still doing that) and have reached a fairly good place.

This new positive/negative dialectic in my life is really applicable in this place, too. I look back and think about all the mostly good things and think about how I am really looking forward to making more of those memories in the future.

It's unbelievable how far I've come and how different my life is from 7 or 8 months ago...so much change!

Speaking of which, I applied for two jobs today. This is also the last week before school starts up again. So ready for it : )

Something good is going to happen. I can feel it!

Is/Isn't

Just got back from Amsterdam...it was a well needed pause in my current lifestyle of "gogogogo studystudy do everything ever".

My experiences there were pretty life changing. Good food (Indisches Voedsel, Fries with patay sauce YUMMM), good friends...it was very cold.

One of the many things I learned on this trip was that things hold the potential to be both positive and negative. Everything that exists, simply is. And it's up to me to interpret what's going on. Everything is good/bad and worthy/unworthy. Always too much but never enough.

I have realized it's possible to take get enjoyment (or at least something!) out of every experience.

I feel like this was a very big step for me. I'm excited to see what will happen.

Poem

I've wanted to start memorizing poetry...I think this one is a good one:


This Moment Yearning and Thoughtful

This moment yearning and thoughtful sitting alone,
It seems to me there are other men in other lands yearning and thoughtful,
It seems to me I can look over and behold them in Germany, Italy,
France, Spain,
Or far, far away, in China, or in Russia or India -talking other dialects,
And it seems to me if I could know those men I should become
attached to them as I do to men in my own lands,
O I know we should be brethren and lovers,
I know I should be happy with them.


Very relevant to my life. Way to go, Walt Whitman.

Slightly related: I've decided that I'm going to work towards a general well-being. My efforts have shown that I make progress when I put my mind to it (I've definitely surpassed my goals for languages/trumpet/working out this break) So, I think that if I strive for overall positivity, I should at least move towards a better direction : )

Opportunities/Problems

I've been thinking about getting better at things lately. It's just been on my mind, I suppose. One thing that caught my eye came from Benny the Irish Polyglot, who I strive to emulate. He was talking about his language acquisition and how he switches it up week to week to address the problems he has with his current language (which happens to be Taiwanese).

This made me think about metacognition: the ability to accurately access oneself from an outside perspective and how that can be key in the development of mastery. And I thought of all of the problems I have in the skills that I want to develop.

With German, I'm not perfectly fluent. I know a lot of words but can't use them in context with the fluency that I'd like.

Solution: Do things like the video I did a few days ago. Talk to people. Be mindful of using vocabulary words. Ask native speakers about context. Talk, Talk, Talk.

With Spanish, it's roughly similar but on a smaller scale. I can do everything I need to in simple terms and in isolation but I can't really hold a conversation about the past.

Solution: Tandem Partner. Listen to example sentences. Read my magazine. Talk to myself and talk to other people. Don't take it for granted that I can just plug verbs into formulas I've memorized

With Arabic, I'm still learning but I've gotten bored with just learning vocab and not (yet) being able to say anything.

Solution: Use the words that I can say. Describe my bedroom. Colors and numbers are the things we learn first for a reason. Practice.

With Trumpet, I'm frustrated that I can't play the way it sounds in my head. That's always been the problem. Not entirely sure what to do about that one but right now I'm working on getting back into shape.

Just looking at these "problems" and seeing them as opportunities to get better. Which is what I wanted to do anyways. SO THERE.

German vlog!

Hooboy. Putting my germanspeakingness out into the world

Goals achieved

I have reached the middle of the break. When I started in February, I said that I wanted:

60+ Hours of German
60+ Hours of Spanish
30+ Hours of Arabic
to Work out every other day
to Practice Trumpet every day

So far I have

71 hours of German
44.5 hours of Spanish
20.5 hours of Arabic
worked out every other day
only missed out on 4 days of Trumpet practice

I'm getting there : ]

Next goals will include:

Figuring out schedule for next semester. I'm hoping to have either a Spanish or Arabic class in the evening, Tandem partners and a German class to keep my mornings/afternoons open for work.

Asking about more opportunities to teach

Getting the Trumpet/Organ concert that I'm preparing with an organist up and running

using my newfound prowess to rock tests left and right.

This just in:

So I've been asking questions (MASSIVE ACTION) about what I can do to stay here and make it work. This is the response that I got from the nice and helpful program coordinator of my future department:

The programme is designed according to the “Bologna-Treaty” of the European Union. According to the scheme, one credit point equals 30 hours of work load. On average, 30 credit points are to be made during one semester, which is 900 hours of work load. If you place that on a regular weekly schedule, you almost arrive at regular working hours. It is thus difficult to work on the side, at least if it is more than 8-10 hours per week.

To which I cautiously say:

Challenge Accepted.