I feel the need to post something and the easy way out would be to just catch people up on what has been going on the past week or so.
Yesterday in iai, it was HOT! In the low nineties and the gym we practice in has no air conditioning. Sensei said "Excellent! This will be a great training opportunity!" and then he turned off the fans and turned up the intensity of training, working us harder than he normally does. I was drenched by the end of it but happy. I always appreciate it when we work hard and are sore and tired at the end of training.
I'm sore today and because of the change in schedule, the second class is on Fridays instead of Saturday mornings. I suspect I will be really sore tomorrow.
One thing that has been worrying me about iai is that I have developed "tennis elbow" though it is obviously related to my cuts (that's when it hurts the most). I'm doing something wrong and approached Sensei about it last night. He thinks I might be pushing my right hand too far forward during the cut and "breaking the wrist" in the process. He says he will watch my cuts more clasely to see if he can verify whether this is the problem. I think he is right. I probably developed that habit to consistently get the "swoosh" of a good cut...though it's NOT a good cut, as I am finding out.
Last night, Sensei also had us cut slowly (all of these cuts are kiri-oroshi, BTW), making sure to keep our chest pushed out/expanded and shoulder blades pulled back as we cut. That was when I found out I had been leaning forward a little during the cut as I extend my hands outward to make a BIG cut. That's cheating and very bad form. So, 3 years after starting iai, I'm back to relearning how to cut again. This seems to happen every year after the shinsa. I think this time last year, I learned how to hold the sword correctly...again.
I've been pretty busy getting the material for my online class posted and ready for the class. I could do it the easy way and just use all the material from the last time I taught the online course but NOOOOOOOOO! That would be too easy! I have to change the writing assignments, and the homework assignments, and (some) of the discussion forum questions. And I have to read each chapter again before I post the questions and PowerPoint lectures to make sure the material is still relevant and meets my (new) goals for the course. Damned work ethic. If only I didn't care whether or not the students enjoy the class and learn something in the process.
I had my first anxiety dream about the course on Monday this week.
ALSO, and this is a BIGGIE, I was contacted by my former advisor and asked if I could make it to Bulgaria a week earlier than planned. What is this about Bulgaria? Well, I am going to an Analogy conference the week of July 25 and am scheduled to participate in a symposium on
Analogy and Creativity. I was then going to go to Amsterdam to attend the
Cognitive Science conference and return back to the States the first week of August. Since I am teaching an online class, I could actually pull it off if I scheduled wisely.
My advisor was also going to present at that same symposia. He was also scheduled to teach a portion of the summer session class the week prior to the conference. Because of problems related to surgery (he wouldn't tell me anything else about it) he would be unable to teach the course and asked if I could fill in for him. The course material is pretty specific (
Creativity in Real and Virtual Worlds) and, frankly, there aren't a lot of people who could teach it and fewer who would be able to go to Bulgaria to do so. I, on the other hand, have actually taught some of the material scheduled to be covered in the course, have read many of the assigned readings and have actually been readings and thinking A LOT about creativity in virtual worlds lately.
I love to help him out but it isn't a simple decision for me. Three weeks away from the family? Not only would I miss them, could I trust them to keep themselves and my vegetable garden alive while I was gone?
I could teach my online class for the conferences but the extra week while I am teaching another course during the day is a problem.
Eh, who am I kidding? I can't pass up the opportunity to have my plane fare, meals, and housing for a week in Bulgaria paid for. It would give me time to actually see and experience Sophia, Bulgaria. It would also allow me to bring my husband along for the week that I teach, keeping him from being sad and jealous that I got to go to Europe and he didn't.
I officially agreed to teach the course today. Now I have to really kick things into gear so that I
1) Have as much of the online course up taken care of before I go as is possible
2) Prepare the week long course for Bulgaria (I asked my former advisor to send me his materials but I'm not holding my breath)
3) Get bills, travel authorization forms, etc. filled out
4) Buy some new summer clothes suitable for teaching a course in Mediterranean Bulgaria during July and buy a bigger suitcase to carry them in (all I have is a tiny carry on).
These are the kinds of problems I enjoy having to deal with though.