“There is not enough time to do all the nothing we want to do.” – Bill Watterson

“If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play.” – John Cleese

“To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time.” – Leonard Bernstein

Just a few topical quotes I came across about having enough time! There are 2 months left in the year, wow. This year, two thousand twenty two (2022), seems to have passed quickly now that we’re coming to the end of the year.

I try to toe the fine line of being productive & achieving what I want to get done, and trying not to push myself too hard and overdo it. Usually the end of the year creeps up on me, and I feel a bit adrift. But this year in October, I felt like I looked up over my pile of hobbies and saw the sunset of the end of the year approaching my horizon! I feel a little more aware this year, and a little more prepared as well. Not that I usually feel guilty that I haven’t gotten as much done, but I don’t think I’ll feel that way at all this year! Which is a nice feeling to have.

I’m catching up with my Chinese practice, and I think I’ll be ready to take the HSK2 exam in December! I’ve been slowly reading through the Path to Chinese digital magazine vol2, so maybe I’ll let myself buy vol3 for a Christmas present for myself. I’ve been trying to fully get everything out of the resource before buying the next volume haha.

There will probably be a Mini Immersion weekend on instagram/discord coming up in the next month or two, and I intend to take part in it again! So far I’ve done a multi-language weekend in Sep21 (this was fun, but didn’t work as well for the immersion part), a Chinese weekend this past March, and an Italian weekend in May. Not sure which language I’ll pick this time, I’ll have to think about it.

I recently signed up for a whole bunch of French newsletters! I’ve been having fun with these, and I’ll post about using digital newsletters for language learning practice soon.

I’m looking ahead to travel for 2023 and 2024. I’m planning on going back to traveling internationally for the first time since the pandemic! Next year, so far the plan is to travel to France in early December. Flights are cheap between the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, and hopefully the weather won’t be too messy yet. I’m thinking of seeing the Christmas markets in the northeast of the country and traveling around Alsace-Loraine, Strasbourg, etc!

For 2024, I might plan a trip to somewhere in Asia. The political climate and pandemic regulations still aren’t the best, but I worry that if I wait too long, things might change for the worse. I’m specifically thinking about visiting Taiwan so that I can practice my Chinese, and make sure to visit the country before leadership potentially changes and it becomes fully absorbed by the parent country. We’ll see! This is a bit far away, but it’s nice to be thinking about travel and having that as a reason to practice a language!

年底快乐! Niándǐ kuàilè!

Happy end of the year, xx