Summer Holidays!
My summer holiday this year is going to be... slightly boring, I guess!
I spent most of last week staying with a friend in Shiga Prefecture, touring around Osaka, Shiga and Kyoto, visiting various castles (mainly related to Oda Nobunaga) and going to a fade concert. I have a holiday booked for September and will be heading to Niigata for the Kenshin Kousai towards the end of August, so all this added together means that August needs to be a quiet month. Luckily I have a lot of friends who are also staying at home for August, so we can get together and stop each other from getting lonely and bored!
The idea of a month without any work or large scale travelling was hell (I like to stay as active as possible) so I contacted job #2 to see if they have any projects for me over the summer and luckily, they have come good! Everything I've done for them so far, whether it's been large writing projects, smaller projects or voice recording has all been related to English learning. Specifically British English. This time, however, they've given me a project that I wasn't expecting.
It's nothing to do with language learning and is a cultural course instead. It's all about British business and the 25 lessons (and accompanying podcast scripts) I have to write are divided into five categories - finance, technology, agriculture and food, energy and manufacturing and media and entertainment. For each category I have to write about the major companies, influential thinkers, top CEO's and big corporate battles.
Er... what?
I have no idea who the top CEOs are in energy and manufacturing. Influential thinkers in finance? Top battles in agriculture and food?
So, I've spent the last four days frantically Googling and Wikipedia-ing everything I can think of in order to complete the course plan of these 25 lessons. It's been very difficult because I have no idea what companies are British and which ones aren't, I have no idea which company owns which and just.... arrrrghhhhhh. I think it's my own fault for bringing some business details into a previous project I did for them, but I included everything I knew and I guess they assumed it was the tip of the iceberg when instead it was the entire ice cube.
But anyway, I managed to get the course plan together ready for the deadline tomorrow. I hope they accept my choices because I don't want to research anymore!
I have a three stage plan for this month. Three things I want to consistently do and fit in around any other activities/days out with friends
1) Get as much of this project done as possible - the deadline to complete all 25 lessons and podcasts is mid-October with a few targets along the way. I want to get as far in advance as possible (especially as the 50% stage is early September and when that is hit, it means 50% of the fee gets paid!)
2) Studying - I've been good lately and have been consistently studying Japanese. I need to carry this on. I can learn quickly when I keep at it, but breaks kill me. I take too many breaks :-/
3) Exercising - I don't want/need to lose weight, but I'm unfit and I want to tone up. I've been reasonably good the last few months at exercising and I should really take the free time I have this month as a chance to solidify the routine I'm kinda following.
Yes.
That will be my summer.
As I write and study most effectively when I'm out of the house, I guess the staff at my neighbourhood Starbucks will soon be getting re-acquainted with me! I'd divide my time between Starbucks and Doutor, but Starbucks has free wifi and plugs and Dotour doesn't XD
I spent most of last week staying with a friend in Shiga Prefecture, touring around Osaka, Shiga and Kyoto, visiting various castles (mainly related to Oda Nobunaga) and going to a fade concert. I have a holiday booked for September and will be heading to Niigata for the Kenshin Kousai towards the end of August, so all this added together means that August needs to be a quiet month. Luckily I have a lot of friends who are also staying at home for August, so we can get together and stop each other from getting lonely and bored!
The idea of a month without any work or large scale travelling was hell (I like to stay as active as possible) so I contacted job #2 to see if they have any projects for me over the summer and luckily, they have come good! Everything I've done for them so far, whether it's been large writing projects, smaller projects or voice recording has all been related to English learning. Specifically British English. This time, however, they've given me a project that I wasn't expecting.
It's nothing to do with language learning and is a cultural course instead. It's all about British business and the 25 lessons (and accompanying podcast scripts) I have to write are divided into five categories - finance, technology, agriculture and food, energy and manufacturing and media and entertainment. For each category I have to write about the major companies, influential thinkers, top CEO's and big corporate battles.
Er... what?
I have no idea who the top CEOs are in energy and manufacturing. Influential thinkers in finance? Top battles in agriculture and food?
So, I've spent the last four days frantically Googling and Wikipedia-ing everything I can think of in order to complete the course plan of these 25 lessons. It's been very difficult because I have no idea what companies are British and which ones aren't, I have no idea which company owns which and just.... arrrrghhhhhh. I think it's my own fault for bringing some business details into a previous project I did for them, but I included everything I knew and I guess they assumed it was the tip of the iceberg when instead it was the entire ice cube.
But anyway, I managed to get the course plan together ready for the deadline tomorrow. I hope they accept my choices because I don't want to research anymore!
I have a three stage plan for this month. Three things I want to consistently do and fit in around any other activities/days out with friends
1) Get as much of this project done as possible - the deadline to complete all 25 lessons and podcasts is mid-October with a few targets along the way. I want to get as far in advance as possible (especially as the 50% stage is early September and when that is hit, it means 50% of the fee gets paid!)
2) Studying - I've been good lately and have been consistently studying Japanese. I need to carry this on. I can learn quickly when I keep at it, but breaks kill me. I take too many breaks :-/
3) Exercising - I don't want/need to lose weight, but I'm unfit and I want to tone up. I've been reasonably good the last few months at exercising and I should really take the free time I have this month as a chance to solidify the routine I'm kinda following.
Yes.
That will be my summer.
As I write and study most effectively when I'm out of the house, I guess the staff at my neighbourhood Starbucks will soon be getting re-acquainted with me! I'd divide my time between Starbucks and Doutor, but Starbucks has free wifi and plugs and Dotour doesn't XD