Mid-August resolutions

As the New Year is approaching real fast - only 144 days left! - I thought it was about time to make some resolutions. However, if I'm a bit more realistic, it's still a while till we reach January 1st, 2013, so let's call these resolutions "mid-August resolutions". Next week I'll be back in the Netherlands after almost 5 weeks of holidays spent partly in Belgium and partly in France. I think it's good to change a couple of things in my life when I get back. I'm already working on a few of them, but of course I'll have to persevere once I'm back in Leiden.  

First of all, I'll have to pick up exercising again. It's been a while since I ran my precious 5 kilometres, so I suppose I won't be able to do it anymore. I'll try to go to the gym more often, preferably twice or even three times a week. That would be just perfect! I've been thinking about picking up riding the bycicle instead of running, especially because of the fact that the possibility of running into a serious injury is by far bigger if you run than if you ride the bycicle. Still, I love running, but it seems that I prefer running on a treadmill instead of running outside. The problem is that the track that I usually follow is quite dangerous because of the traffic. It's not easy to find a 5 kilometre track that is perfectly safe where I live. If I'm going to ride the bicycle, it'll probably also be in the gym to start, because I have no idea if I'll like it or not. I already ordered the book "Start to bike" by Evy Gruyaert, and once I've read the book, I'll be able to try if I like it or if I still prefer running. My heart will always be with the "Start to Run"-program, no matter what happens, because that was the start of me getting back into shape.

Furthermore, and in spite of the strong meds I have to take on a daily basis, I want to get up at 8.30 or 9AM at the latest. For most of you that'll be late already, but considering I'm on those strong meds, that is quite early. I've already practised a bit, and it seems to work, but I want to get rid of this awful rhythm that allows me to go to sleep after 1AM and to wake up after 11AM. It's just no good! And then I hope that I'll be able to do something before 1PM, because during the past two or three years I've experienced that I could only start studying after 1PM, and then the days are very short, unless you study till 1AM and then go to bed, a rhythm I've had for the past two or three years. I've tried to change it dozens of times, but it just didn't work out, no matter how hard I tried. So no more snoozing in the morning!

Another important topic is reading. I've always loved reading, but since I got up so late and spent too much time in bed and studying, I haven't read that many books during the last few years. But now, after two weeks of holidays in France which included a lot of reading, I've changed my mind. I want to spend at least one hour a day reading, preferably even more, and, if possible, outside, on a bench in a park or on the beach. The fresh air gives me more energy, it seems. Lately I've bought a pile of books: the entire Paulo Coelho collection in English, the Millennium trilogy in English and the entire collection of le Petit Nicolas in French, among other things.

Speaking about languages, here comes another resolution: improve the foreign languages I speak. I've always adored learning foreign languages, but as I was quite good at learning languages in general, I never spent much time on them at high school. Now that I'm a university student, however, I realise that it's very important to master more than one language at a fairly good level, and I want to improve the foreign languages that I already speak. I'm a native speaker of Dutch, but I'm practically bilingual because I've been studying Spanish for a couple of years now, and sometimes my teachers gave me compliments by telling me that I had a native-like level. That's exactly what I want! Two years ago I decided that I also wanted to improve my English, so I took some courses in English. Until now, I've completed 4 courses, and I want to do one more. Besides that, I also want to improve my French. Now that I've been in France for two weeks, I can truly admit that I also love that language. Unfortunately and although I understood the French people talking to me most of the time, I wasn't really able to respond to their questions or utterances, because all the time my brain told me to use Spanish words instead of French ones. With a lot of effort I was able to produce something intelligible, but it wasn't easy and it cost a lot of time to think of a grammatically acceptable sentence. Another language that I must improve is (Brazilian) Portuguese. I've only completed two courses, and I can recommend the language to anyone who is quite a fan of Romance languages. Oh, Portuguese is so beautiful! Preferably, I'd go to Brasil and take part in some language courses there, but I'm actually short of time and... money. Anyway, the idea concerning the foreign languages is that, if I wake up at about 9 o'clock and if I'm able to do something about an hour after waking up, I study about an hour each day, maybe more if there is enough time. See how everything fits?

And then I finally get to my last resolution, that is, for the time being. When I was 16 years old, I started studying the sky at night. I read lots of books about astronomy and went to meetings a few times a year. I also was a member of a group of people who met at an observatory each week, and it was a lot of fun! I do miss these people, but nothing stands in my way to start all over again in the Netherlands. I'd like to invest more time in astronomy, not only in reading, but also by putting things into practice. It would be awesome to join a club of astronomers at the observatory in Leiden and meet once a week or so!

So, people, what do you think of my mid-August resolutions? I hope I'll manage to carry out all five of them, but it'll probably not work out that well. In any case, if you guys read a post written by me about this same topic on New Year's Eve, you can easily conclude that at least something has gone wrong. Still, I hope I'll be able to hold on to these resolutions and that I can change my life in a perfectly acceptable way. Fingers crossed, please!