New Goals for the New Year

It’s been about two months since I wrote a quick entry at MIA Park. In the meantime…

Another Semester Done!

This semester has been busier than the previous year. I taught three courses, and overall it’s been a pretty good experience. The students were really pleasant and a joy to work with in general. I used iPads in one of the classes and adapted a ton of material for use by students in digital format. I’m even using the experience as the basis for a workshop at TESOL Arabia this March. I also got approved and funded to present at IATEFL in Glasgow in April!

Vacation Time!

I’m currently in Canada on vacation. R and I decided to visit my parents in Saskatchewan. We also managed a side trip to Banff National Park to check out Lake Louise and even get a small hike in. R was amazed by the Prairies, the Rockies and the scenery in general. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the -20°C weather I had hoped for. So R cann0t yet say that she knows what a Canadian winter feel like. We’re currently en route to Toronto for the last leg of our trip before returning to Doha. We’ll get a chance to see my younger sister and a couple of my good friends from Korea and other travels. Fittingly, we’ve found an Indonesian restaurant to try out called ‘Little Sisters.’ However, we decided not to go there because the restaurant isn’t accessible.

Rehab & Triathlon Prep

I’ve been slow to recover from a leg injury (torn quadriceps) I got last June. I was 82kg at the time it happened, and this injury wrecked my routine hand all those new habits that I built around it. So now I’m back to 96kg. With the extra weight, there are noticeable side-effects. For one, I get heartburn much more easily. The most frustrating aspect of this is that I let it happen. In the absence of my new healthy routine, I started eating junk food again, and I found all that weight I lost. I made a promise to myself last year that I would never weigh 200 pounds again and broke that promise. That said, I haven’t given up on doing another triathlon. The preparation this time though has been much different.

For starters, I’ve been doing rehab on my leg since December. The physiotherapist had me start with strengthening exercises. A month later, and I am now finally starting to run again. So far it isn’t much, I just alternate between jogging and walking. And while my right leg still feels a little weaker than the left, I am noticing a definite improvement. When the time comes for Abu Dhabi, I will still cross the finish line. From there I intend to do another Olympic distance triathlon during the summer break.

The Goals for 2017

1. Be debt-free by… May 2018! 
The Canadian debt is still gone, and the Doha debt is ticking away automatically. I have to increase my payment amounts to make this happen, but it is doable. This will give me more flexibility by the end of my contract in case Doha is no longer an option for work. I still hope to stick around, but the market for online diplomas isn’t very friendly at the moment, so I figure it’s better to be prepared.
2. Do three triathlons.  My leg is almost better now, after Abu Dhabi in March I plan to do a triathlon early in the summer and just before the end of the year.
3. Cook something new (at least once a month).  Last year I cooked a lot of stuff but most of it, about 3/4, was stuff I already knew how to cook. This year I’d like to try out more new stuff. Anything that turns out really well can be repeated for friends.
4. Continue with Arabic by finishing the university’s level 2 & 3 courses. This was a holdover from last year. I managed to do really well with the first level course when I repeated it last fall. So this year, I intend to do the level 2 course and maybe the level 3. The mistake I made in 2016 was that I did the level 2 course when I wasn’t ready. Almost everything that happened in that class was over my head, and I spent hour upon hour sitting through lessons without even a clue as to what was being said or happening around me. However, I wouldn’t say that it was a waste of time. I got to experience first hand what some of my lower proficiency students have gone through when learning English, making me more aware of their struggles and giving me insight into what they may feel during my own class. This has made me a better teacher.
5. Present at a TESOL Conference. Done twice over! I’ll be presenting at TESOL Arabia in Dubai and IATEFL in Glasgow!
6. Get Published! This one is also a holdover from 2016. I have spoken with some of the more experienced faculty at the University about some of my research and moves are underway to present to a journal for publication before classes start up in February.
7. Make a blog entry at least once a month. Another holdover from 2016! Last year I almost* got this one done. I missed my post in December, but I managed to post an entry for every other month last year.
8. Become healthier and STAY healthier. Last year, 2016, started off well. I accomplished a lot of things on personal and professional fronts. Then I felt a sudden and sharp pain just above my knee during the sprint portion of an interval run. The doctor would later confirm that I had torn my quadriceps. Unlike other mild injuries, this one has stayed with me for months. My rehab is going well, but I should not have let my old habits creep in. I was chatting with my physiotherapist about how my lost and gained back my weight last year, and she told me that a lot of the times, our old habits can become comforts to us when we are stressed or frustrated. So on this front, I am physically back to where I started when I decided to overhaul my lifestyle a year and a half ago. It’s time to push the rock back up the hill.