mrveitch

mr-veitch:

Just yesterday, I was having a lovely conversation with a China 19 and asked her about her short term and long term ambitions. When she turned the question around on me, I fumbled a bit. Not too long before that, aclose friend of mine recently shared with me her list of goals for her time as a PCV. These two interactions made me realize that my own plans and goals weren’t nearly as concrete or well-thought out as I had believed.

Here and now, I will attempt to elicit, for you and for myself, exactly what those goals and ambitions are. From the small to the large, and the exciting to the mundane, superficial and meaningful, this post will serve as an exhaustive list for me, to look back on as a reminder, and for you, the reader, to perhaps find inspiration (and give me a kick in the ass if I don’t seem to be doing what I said I would).

So here we go:

By January 1st/ end of the first semester:

HoPC:C project  nvm

100 pushups (easy) Not easy. I just struggled through 50 on a messed up wrist 

Workout a practical FSOT study plan  I don’t see myself as an FSO anymore

Streamline my system of lesson planning. (absolutely necessary) Success!

Have 20, original, fleshed out lesson plans that cover a wide range of learners and skill levels. I definitely have plenty of lesson plans. Original? Not at all.  I realized the way to not feel bad about a failed lesson is to not create it myself. Good thing PC China has a massive database of lesson plans I can use and adjust to my classes.

Identify, and build guanxi with, the necessary people to create a Brazilian Jiujitsu Club on my campus. So this one is complicated but I succeeded in creating a BJJ club and found out shortly after that what I was doing was pretty much against all the rules of the Peace Corps and had to shut it all down. One hell of a disappointment.  

Complete plans for my China backpacking adventure  2/9-2/23, Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Wuzhen and whatever else I can stuff into those 2 weeks.

By the One-Year mark (June 2015)

Do a clean kick-flip

Do a clean kip-up

By COS (June 28, 2016):

Be confident in my ability to hold an intelligent conversation, in Chinese, on the 4 taboos: Sex, Race, Government and Religion. Gender roles and love too. 10/23, two down, 3 to go

Minute Mile

100 Books as listed on artofmanliness.com

Be able to navigate Taobao like a local  Decided against doing this one because I’m trying to save money lol

100 movies as listed on artofmanliness.com