New Film by my friend Synthian

My friend Synthian is an amazing activist, and this is his most recent project. I will be buying this video and I'm trying to spread the word while here in Korea since many teachers vacation in Southeast Asia where elephant riding is popular.

I will never ride an animal that has been broken.

Gifts and Cards

I really want to send out gifts and cards, I'm searching for the cards now but the gifts will have to wait until after February since I'm paying off some credit debt until then.

Email me your address to receive goodies!

<3
Sarah

Goals Revised

Before the New Year:
~ Continue practicing the violin at least six days a week, but shoot for seven
~ Drop the last 15 lbs
~ Have wrist completely healed (carpal tunnel)
~ Develop a fitness routine for maintaining my goal weight
~ Study Spanish more
~ Learn a bit more Korean
~ Add meditation and mindfulness into my life

Before I Go Back to the States:
~ Continue being awesome (violin, fitness, meditation, just general awesomeness)
~ No more white spots on nails
~ Have a conversational and practical hold of Spanish
~ Have credit cards and most of the private student loan repaid
~ Go to Thailand and bathe elephants!
~ Go to the Philippines and eat fresh mangoes!
~ Go to Vladivostok
~ Go to Japan
~ If there's time and money left, go to Nepal and Viet Nam
~ Stop being so angry
~ Loosen up my hip flexors
~ Strengthen my abs
~ Be able to drink beer without Candida flaring up
~ Have a job lined up for when I get back to L.A.
~ Be able to play Bach's Double Violin Concerto and Czardas at tempo and well.


Before I Turn 25 (2012):
~ Pay carbon offsets for trips to Australia, Korea, whatever other travel I do.
~ Take my sister to France
~ Bike the West Coast from Vancouver to San Diego
~ Be fluently bi-lingual in Spanish and English, and conversationally fluent in French
~ Find a place to settle for a while
~ Dance in a performance at least once.

Before I Turn 30 (2017):
~ Be fluently tri-lingual in French, Spanish and English, and conversationally fluent in Russian
~ Live in a Spanish speaking country
~ Live in a French speaking country
~ Be proficient on the violin

I figured it would be more practical to focus on Spanish than French, since there are more Spanish speaking people than French speaking in my area (well, where I was and will be after Korea) of the world. I love Spanish, French and Russian but never really got to the fluency I wanted. I know better what to look for in a teacher and a program, here's to hoping that I can get things going again!

I've got more discipline with the violin now than I did before, I just need to keep it up. I record myself playing and listen to it after practicing so I can pick out the passages that need work. I'll post my progress on my other blog (and I guess here if you're interested) after I have the first movement of Bach's Double Violin Concerto cleaned up at 40 bpm, then again at 60 and so on until I have it at tempo. Same for any other music I work on.

I'm going to take some "current body" photos to try and motivate myself to work to get past this plateau I'm so comfortable on.

As far as the anger, mindfulness and chilling out of my mind, that's more difficult. I'll have to figure that one out as well as a way to motivate myself to continue the practice--though hopefully it won't feel like work once I implement it.

~Sarah