I'm adjusting to "working" forty hours a week again, and trying to figure out the best times to study. For a while I would get home, eat, and feel the need to go directly to bed; I learned that if I drink enough during the day, and have a light dinner, I do not have this problem. Restraint is the key! Related to that, I recently discovered that my sensitivity to gluten disappeared: I no longer get the brain-fog I usually get when I eat bread. On one hand this is a relief, on the other it makes sticking to a ketogenic diet more challenging, as now I have the regular thought " I can eat
anything!" Regular contact with patients with diabetes helps tame my food lust, however: avoid lots of carbs now so I won't be obligated to avoid them later, at a higher price. I also find my complexion is much better when I avoid carbs and dairy (no zits!)
I'm finally taming my French Anki stack again: currently there's only 94 cards to review. When I returned to the States, it was closer to 300. The Genki stack is slowing growing. My Genki books and other Japanese books from home are now in the mail.
I've been plugging slowly at the French in Action chapter 7. I've spent more of my French time during double-duty: studying for my medical laboratory science boards and using French vocab. Nucleoli are, expectedly, nucléole; however, nucleus is noyau (one looks like a more recent addition). I'm impressed with the Linguee dictionary app on my phone.
For Japanese, I've mostly reviewed the hiragana and katakana (kana). When I get my books, I expect to do more. Also some Pimsleur: I
love the Japanese Pimsleur course, it might be my favorite Pimsleur Course.
For other news, I'm working with a medical professions recruiting company to find a job in the Portland area.
I recently talked about my issues with Idaho and wanting to possibly leave the country, and the friend said, "you know, you just might have issues with your state, rather than the whole country". I had suspected this for a while, but the friend made it more obvious to me. Perhaps if I moved to a more populous area, with more single young people, more things to do and with native speakers, I would be more content. I've struggled with the idea, "moving somewhere won't make me more content: if I'm discontent, I'll be discontent anywhere I go". I've also lived with a Puritan view of Christianity for a long time, and I'm only recently breaking free of it. This past year and a half has really shown me that God
does care about my happiness to some extent. As to why I am allowed to live in a privileged country while others starve in others, I am still greatly puzzled, and probably will be for the rest of my life.