Done!

Hey there!

I submitted my last essay today. And had my Spanish oral exam too. I am done with my Bachelor degree (except for the Spanish written, but that'll be cool with the help of a study group :)!

Does this mean I can read as much of whatever I want now? Does this mean I can do as much salsa dancing as I can? Does this mean I can finally concentrate on my WiP???

No.

If this was a vlog, this is the part where I hunch forward and pout at the camera. Because guess what?

I'm moving. And I don't even know when. Due to some things (which I won't go into right now), my house is being put on the market this week. My housemate and her boyfriend have started getting the house cleaned and packed away. Now that I'm done with assignments, it's my turn to do as much as is left. The house could be turned over as soon as next week, or as late as the end of December.

No dancing (hopefully some though). No reading (except during breaks at work, or on the bus).

I will try and do at least 300 words a day though. There are no other (English) words taking up my brain so I think I can manage that. 300 always leads to more anyway. It's just a small amount so that I don't feel guilty about not writing more.

It's a great idea I got from Anne Lamott's writing book Bird by Bird. If you're ever feeling down about your writing or life (what writer doesn't feel this occasionally?), read it for some inspiration.

:D

Theme days

So, it's the first day of not-NaBloWriMo. And I want to keep blogging! If the month of blogging did nothing else, it made me realise that blogging is fun. I've always liked reading other people's blogs, but never thought I would have anything worthwhile to say. But thanks to you guys who followed and commented in October.

I have come up with an idea that will keep me blogging regularly. It's something a lot of bloggers already do, but I'm going to borrow ideas as well as start my own. And it will give me (and you lovely readers) some structure to stick to so I can write about the many things I'm passionate about, yet not worry I'm leaving anything out. It will also be a pirate rule (more of a guideline) just so I don't stress. The main idea is to get rid of rambling posts (like this one).

At the moment I don't have one for every day, but here's a list of my ideas thus far:

Wordless Wednesdays: Post pictures :D I got this idea from The Giraffability of Digressions and I'm Not Hannah

The Body Positive Thursdays: A bit wordy, but I wanted a day where I could write about the importance of positive body image.

Fiction Fridays: This was inspired by the idea in my last post, but I realised that with work and current WiPs, I wouldn't have the energy to post to another blog regularly. Hence, a once a week treat for you guys.

Swimming Saturdays: Where I can talk about what I learnt about swimming and the teaching of swimming that week.

Salsa Sundays: This one I won't start for a few weeks, as I've taken a hiatus from salsa dancing until uni finishes this year :( but keep a lookout.

And that's what I have so far. This is going to be fun.

It's me!

I'm the girl who starts off on the left and travels to end on the right :D

PureSalsa at the SSC10!

And in case anyone out in cyberspace is interested in learning salsa, these are the guys I dance with:

PureSalsa ACT

enjoy!

Brisbane!

I'm currently sitting at my Dad's house in Brisbane, where the air is hanging around me all thick moist. There have been storms every day since I got up here a few days ago - which I love, it makes the humidity ok.

It has been so nice being up here with the half of the family I don't get to see often enough. It's also been a really needed escape from my other worlds. I've been able to do some writing - which I've been so drained from work and salsa practice that getting home means food and rest - not creation unfortunately.

You can probably tell that I'm still a little vague from this apparently not-edited post. By the time I get back to the 'Berra after NY, I'll be all refreshed and coherent again.

If I don't post tomorrow, Happy Christmas!

Exhaustion, or I'm Going to be Busy

It's been another while since my last post.

But I'm done with assessments and exams! So glad, and trying not to think about the possibly dreadful results I'll be getting in a month or so.

In other matters, I can go to social salsa dancing again! I went last night (King O'Malley's in Canberra for anyone in the area) and had so much fun. And I slept like a baby last night becuse of it. The choreo for SSC10 is getting trickier though. We started partner work two weeks ago and I'm finding it harder than the shines.

Partner work requires both the follow and the lead to know what they're doing and sometimes it's hard to tell who's in the wrong (usually it's both though). Having said that, we have time to get it down, we haven't even learnt all the steps to the whole song yet. Polishing come later.

Uni finishes, and work begins! That exclamation mark is not enthusiasm, it's to accentuate how tiring and how much time it takes up. At the moment my schedule is 5 - 7 1/2 hours a day of swim teaching, and dancing four times a week. The only time I get to myself (and this is when I'm not visiting Sydney on the weekends), is two afternoons a week, and one day on weekends. I'm not exaggerating.

In this spare time I'll hopefully be blogging, continuing/editing my story/novel Los Peregrinos (and cleaning the house, blech) and reading as much as possible.

The aforementioned story can be found at FictionPress.com under the name aquizzle. I already have one review - not much but I'm excited anyway!

So after this wordy post, I'm going to go attempt to see what I can do with my little project.

Or sleep.

One down, two to go!

It's been more than a week since my last entry - which doesn't bode well for a blog just taking off.

But it's because uni is coming to an end for the year so I have assessments and exam preparation.

Handed in the first major one today! A 22 minute screenplay for a unit called Screenwriting in Teams. So glad to get it done because the story was just sitting in my head and I didn't want to read it again. That's not to say the story's bad, I just wanted a break from it.

Two more assessments - an essay and a creative writing portfolio - and a Spanish exam then I'm done!

Also, the team and I had our first training session for Sydney Salsa Congress '10 (SSC10)! (Lots of exclamation marks in this post!) We just worked on shines - solos - since two of our members were absent. Ah it's so exciting, despite an incredibly annoying cough that's lasted for the past week or so.

Oh yes! The Reader, I was going to tell you what I thought of the rest of it.

Since my last post, my opinion has changed. This is due to attending the Lit Studies lecture on the novel where I realised the lack of characterisation was due to Michael's wanting to distance himself from her after finding out her history.

Then I cried. I got to chapter 10 and felt like I'd been slapped in the face. Before reading it I knew that Hanna was a war criminal being tried for her crimes in the Holocaust; I also knew about her and Michael's cross-generational affair. So, a few controversial issues that I'm sure you've heard about - but nothing about the ending.

A bit of a shock. Sad. Sigh.

Getting Ready

For the end of year assessments and Sydney Salsa Congress '10!

Just quick for now because I've already procrastinated enough today.

But I just got home from a private class with my instructors. I'm in a choreography for the aforementioned congress, and consider myself the least experienced dancer. So I went and booked a private so I could brush up on my fundamentals. Within the hour I could feel myself dancing better and my instructors could see it. I'm happy about that.

Now what I need to do is Practice! Or I'll forget it all by next Sunday, our first rehearsal learning the choreography. So exciting! We're working with some of the best Salsa dancers in the world here!

So on another note, I'm supposed to be reading The Reader Bernhard Schlink for Lit. Studies.

Unfortunately so far I'm not connecting with it. I want to know more about the character of Hanna, rather than view her from the protagonist's POV, as if I were watching her in a movie with the sound off. The reader is told facts about her but there's little characterisation.

And the pace is quite slow.

But, I'll keep persevering (if only to have something to say in the tut) and let you know what I think when I'm done.