Started a new job on Monday and it is a couple hours away from where I live, so I travel up on Monday and stay 4 nights per week. So on the drive up I listened to some Pimsleur Mandarin and then tried to do my chunks of 20 minutes study per night and speak to people on Skype.
But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men
Gang aft agley,
An'lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!
I did manage to do 40 minutes of Mandarin study in a week, 40 minutes of Italian (clozemaster), and one 20 minute block of Setswana. I didn't speak to anyone via skype other then one Italian fellow who I spent an hour and half talking in English about politics. So, my "best-laid schemes" did "Gang aft agley". One saving grace however was that I did have a nice flatscreen TV in my room with a USB compatible media player. I watched about 3 hours per night of Italian TV shows which I have recorded onto a external USB drive. I basically binge watched 12 hours of Italian. It wasn't officially studying like I planned, but I'm sure it helped. Especially since I don't have subtitles on these shows and I'm forced to just figure it out.
I didn't get done any of the other things I'd promised myself I would do, nor did I manage to do this weeks podcast with Dave. I have to make up that time as well.
It wasn't really all that bad on the language front, since the binge watching TV was helpful, and to be honest it is enjoyable. Obviously by Thursday the TV shows were a lot easier to understand. I have a load of French TV shows on the external drive too, so wondering if I should alternate weeks of watching French & Italian. I seriously doubt that I'll be able to do the 100 minutes per day I need to do 20 minutes per language, and I don't count TV only study with a book, or with an app.
I haven't read my Italian book in over a week, so I'm seriously behind and I'll probably not complete the SC at this rate. Once again I could probably manage a double or triple SC if it was just watching films and TV! One of the shows I'm really liking is "Camionisti In Trattoria" which is basically a show about a guy who gets rides from truckers in Italy and they take him to their favourite roadside cafes. Gotta say there is some pretty damn good food being served up in these joints!