Postby Brun Ugle » Sun Mar 19, 2017 8:39 am
I’ve been a bit lazy (and sick) for the past week. I didn’t even feel like updating my log last weekend, but I thought maybe I should write a short update this weekend. I was planning to take it easy for a few days after the 6WC ended, but I actually started slacking a little before the end. Maybe I was getting a bit burned out, or maybe it was because I knew I had a slightly stressful week ahead, or maybe it was because I had finished what I’d been reading and started reading something I’d picked up at the library which turned out to be a little too interesting.
Up until last weekend, I was making good progress and so, my break hasn’t done too much damage as long as I get back on track relatively soon. I’m up to lesson 50 in FSI Spanish, but I’ve done almost nothing with it the past few days because I’ve had a cold and my voice has been too squeaky for doing drills. Although, it did make me sound a bit more like the munchkin/chipmunk voices on some of the recordings. I’ve really been slacking on Assimil Finnish. I think I’ve only done four or five lessons in the past two weeks, instead of my intended five a week. And I’ve barely touched my other languages.
Outside of languages though, I’ve gotten a little bit done, so I’m pleased with that. I did a bunch of paperwork that I’d ignored during the 6WC. I had my last therapy session, which is a bit weird and sad because I’ve gone to her since 2011. Usually therapy doesn’t last that long, but I was extremely bad when I started and she had to help me with a lot of practical matters as well as just regular therapy. We’d become almost like friends over the years, so it was a little bit of a shock to be at the end even though we’d cut down to every other month lately.
I also went to the doctor to find out about my lungs. My allergy tests all came back negative and I had to blow into a machine to check my lung capacity or something because he thought I might have asthma since I’ve been complaining about difficulty breathing. I wasn’t sure if it was worth taking the test now because the workmen came back AGAIN to paint and saw some more, just as I was starting to feel a little better, plus I caught a cold. But they had me do the test anyway. After all my complaining about my lungs hurting and feeling heavy, the doctor was a little surprised to find out my lungs function at about 120% of the average for my height, weight, age and gender. I was a little surprised too, because if this is 120%, how do regular people survive?! Anyway, he asked me if I work out a lot and I told him about that time I jogged for three whole minutes back in October or November or whenever it was. I hated every minute of it, but I guess it paid off. That must be it, because I’ve barely managed any real exercise this year. So, no allergies, no asthma. He says I seem to just have some sort of hypersensitivity, so he gave me some nose spray to get rid of my constant post-nasal drip and an inhaler for when I breathe in something my lungs don’t like and I get that stabbing, prickling sensation.
I’m starting to sound like my Mom, talking about all my trips to the doctor. Back to languages. I’m no longer sure that I will be able to finish FSI Spanish Basic before the end of March. It depends how fast I get back to it and how easy the last chapters are. (Don’t worry though; I’ll still start GdUdE in April.) I’m starting to think that while the beginning of FSI Basic is harder than FSI Programmatic, the end of the Basic is easier than the end of the Programmatic course. I’m on lesson 50 of 55, so I suppose they could still sock me with something unexpected, but so far, it’s surprisingly easy. The munchkin voices make it a little hard though. I downloaded the recordings years ago, so there might be better ones available now, but I haven’t felt like checking. I kind of just want to get done with it as quickly as possible.
Mostly this past week I’ve been watching TV, reading and doing stuff not related to languages. The book I mentioned in the beginning of this post was a Spanish translation of a Ruth Rendell novel that I found at the library. I got sucked right into it. After that, I read a free story that I found on iBooks, El perro negro by Mikel Santiago. It was a kind of creepy, supernatural story. It reminded me of when I was a kid, hiding in the basement reading my brother’s old Mystery Comics Digests. It was just spooky enough to be hard to put down, but not so scary as to keep me from sleeping. I might try some more of his stories later.
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