Pt 1. Jewelry Making with Beads, Stones and Crystals

Freshwater pearl in red, lapis lazuli, rose quarts, amethyst
Some Czech crystals
Even more Czech crystals but smaller

I decided to enter into the foray of doing hand-made/hand-crafted goods that does not involve doing any form of typing. It needed to be small, compact, easy to travel with, something that I could make and then keep. Also something inexpensive. I decided to get started with jewelry making when I came across a profile of a designer, artist and jewelry workshop organizer. Had a look at her studio/home office for supplies (spent a good 60 minutes just talking about jewelry making!) and came home with some materials to get started with including a few starter tools.

I was quiet happy with the trip and result. First I need to do a few practice rounds with the bendable wire before I get started with the materials. I have in mind to do at least one ring and a bracelet.

Starting the first month of the Lingoda language marathon – French and German

Two one hour classes per day and another two hours of self-study (at least) for each language. That’s about 4 hours of language learning per day or 28 hours per week which is almost like a full-time job.

Some of my classes are taking part very early in the morning (ie 5am) and some very late at night (11pm start).

Read part 1: Learning French and German every day for three monthsD

Read part 2: Month 2 learning French and German every day – thoughts and advice

Disclosure: This is NOT a paid and sponsored post but I do have a promo code FYUVJH !

Reims

I went to Reims for the weekend. It was super cold – about -3 to 3C overall. It was also low season but nonetheless worth a visit, at least like me if you went during Winter to make sure to go during the warmer weather and also check out the champagne growing regions.

Photograph of two entrances to Palais du Tau and Palais Archi-Episcopal

Facade of Reims Cathedral https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reims_Cathedral (notice in the second photo what looks like canines running in slow motion)

A meal I had at a brasserie – it was really good! And a lot of window displays featuring champagne as this is set in a famous champagne producing region in #France

Learning French and German Every Day for Three Months – Lingoda Language Marathon!

Disclosure: This is NOT a paid and sponsored post but I do have a promo code at the end which you can skip.

So here I am, taking part in the Lingoda Language Marathon , full marathon for three months. That’s taking one hour of language lessons every day for three months, no excuses to miss it otherwise you are disqualified.

It has been less than a week since I decided to start learning. I started off doing an introductory ‘lesson’ 1-1 taking place on a video conference platform. This was not so much a lesson but more like a hour conversation with someone to talk about myself a bit, my motivations to take up the lessons, history, and we got into one of the classes. It turned out that I needed to start from the beginning A1.1 for French, so here I am.

I decided to go ahead and purchase the 3 lesson introductory week for 20 euros. This was a group lesson with up to 4 other people however in the two group lessons that I have been to, has been with one other person. You are provided with a PDF (generally about 30 pages) of study material to work on during the hour. The teacher is a native speaker, so you learn how to pronounce the words, the rules, and so on. With one other person, the teacher takes turn practicing although I don’t know what it will be like with 3 or 4 other people. It is recommended that you take 15 minutes at least to go through the material first, look up the objectives of the courses and what to learn, and also (of course) spend some time to learn in between the classes.

After each class, you rate the teacher and provide feedback and in turn the teacher provides feedback to you albeit it has been largely quiet brief.

So far, I have been quiet happy with the experience and was actually considering to take 30 lessons per month, or more. Then I ran into the Lingoda Language Marathon but only by sheer chance that I decided to one day look at their Instagram account as I don’t follow them on social media. I was really excited by the prospect and the fact that I had already taken the group classes and I was already considering doing a subscription made the decision making process easier to take part.

Tomorrow, I am sitting in the German introductory 1-1 conversation to talk to someone at Lingoda and determine where I sit, but since I have been on-off learning the language, I want don’t want to start from the beginning but I do have some brushing up to do. I asked their Support if I can take part in two languages for the marathon providing that I use two emails and two account without being disqualified and they said it is perfectly fine, so here I am, doing both French and German group classes.

It is quiet a jump, since I have never done language tutoring before. I’ve done self-learning using various resources but I just feel inadequate both in terms of skills and motivations. I think that having a social community, taking part in a shared common goal, and betting my money into the study has given me some motivation to better myself and hopefully we will see more results in a few months’ time!

Below are my promo codes:

FYUVJH for a discount off – feel free to use it, I will also have a few free lessons in exchange also.