To sleep or not to sleep
After an incredibly epic sleep-in last week (well, epic for standards over here - I was supposed to meet my ride at 7.45 and I was woken by a phone call (one of many, I later realised) by my supervisor at 8.10) I've been a bit more wary about how I'm sleeping. Which is to say, not much.
Ever since a guy I talked to at a wrap party told me that sleep tends toward four-hour cycles, I've tried it out a few times and found that he's more or less right. If I wake after six hours, it's much harder to get out of bed than it is if I've had either four or eight hours.
So last night, after still not being able to get to sleep by about 1am, resigned myself to the fact that I should try the four-hour thing again. So I kept myself awake on purpose until about 2.30, by which time I actually was quite tired and feel asleep quite quickly, only to wake up to my mobile phone alarm on cue at 6.45 (My friends here in town gave me two joint presents over the weekend for my b'day, the most hilarious of them being a huge kinda old-fashioned alarm clock (the type with the huge bells on top)).
I had hoped that getting so little sleep would make me go to bed earlier tonight, but that hasn't quite worked as planned. :( Oh well - fingers crossed and all that.
I had my fifth Eikaiwa English Conversation class tonight. Class was tiny tonight, only seven people turned up (out of the original sixteen or so!), but it went well and I felt quite relaxed with everyone. I did a fair bit of prep today that I didn't end up using, so I already have most of next week's new stuff made, and I'll just do a giant round-up of everything we've covered over the course. Next week is the last week, and I'm relieved; but I am really glad I had this experience. In a lot of ways it has pushed me harder than most of the day-to-day teaching I do, and then best thing has been the coordinator at the International Centre, who has given me great feedback every week on my lessons, which helped me improve upon them. Next week is the last class, but I'm going to go out for dinner with the two women from the IC who have coordinated the course on that end - they're both very sweet, so hopefully we'll have a good time out in a fortnight's time.
Now: to bed! =D
Ever since a guy I talked to at a wrap party told me that sleep tends toward four-hour cycles, I've tried it out a few times and found that he's more or less right. If I wake after six hours, it's much harder to get out of bed than it is if I've had either four or eight hours.
So last night, after still not being able to get to sleep by about 1am, resigned myself to the fact that I should try the four-hour thing again. So I kept myself awake on purpose until about 2.30, by which time I actually was quite tired and feel asleep quite quickly, only to wake up to my mobile phone alarm on cue at 6.45 (My friends here in town gave me two joint presents over the weekend for my b'day, the most hilarious of them being a huge kinda old-fashioned alarm clock (the type with the huge bells on top)).
I had hoped that getting so little sleep would make me go to bed earlier tonight, but that hasn't quite worked as planned. :( Oh well - fingers crossed and all that.
I had my fifth Eikaiwa English Conversation class tonight. Class was tiny tonight, only seven people turned up (out of the original sixteen or so!), but it went well and I felt quite relaxed with everyone. I did a fair bit of prep today that I didn't end up using, so I already have most of next week's new stuff made, and I'll just do a giant round-up of everything we've covered over the course. Next week is the last week, and I'm relieved; but I am really glad I had this experience. In a lot of ways it has pushed me harder than most of the day-to-day teaching I do, and then best thing has been the coordinator at the International Centre, who has given me great feedback every week on my lessons, which helped me improve upon them. Next week is the last class, but I'm going to go out for dinner with the two women from the IC who have coordinated the course on that end - they're both very sweet, so hopefully we'll have a good time out in a fortnight's time.
Now: to bed! =D