new beginnings

I'm starting a new chapter in my life. Yesterday was the first day of my masters degree program. I'm not entirely sure I can balance work and school well right now, but I'm determined to make it work. I'm getting an MA in Early Childhood Education. I'm excited about the end result and being able to move back to NZ and work in a school there (plus I miss NZ terribly). I'm doing an online program so I can continue working and living in South Korea to save money for moving again (I feel that is mostly what I do...work so I can save to move to the next place...). So I have to buy a daily planner because I can't budget my time well right now to do without it. This weekend is going to be a push to get on top of my schooling. Day two and I'm already behind in my reading. Curse my crazy schedule this week with drama competition and extra rehearsals.

I've also started yoga again. With all the added stress of the next two months (until Christmas) I realized that I can't discipline myself to do yoga alone but neither can I make time to get to a studio for classes...so I've hired my yogi friend Amillia to teach me at home! It works well since she's gone independent recently and has a much more flexible schedule and I get a personal yoga routine that works with what I can and cannot do. She's wonderful and even after just 4 classes, I can already tell a difference. My feet are nearly flat again in downward dog pose as opposed to bent knees and balls of my feet that I've been doing for over a year now. So twice a week I get to spend an hour with her stretching and making faces as my dog attempts to join us in class. He doesn't really understand that he can't do yoga with us. It's funny though.

I'm also starting a weekly menu planner so I eat better to balance my yoga and avoid stress eating. Tonight I had a tuna melt, tangerines, and walnuts for dinner. Yummy. Tomorrow is a salad since I can finally get to the grocery store after work. I really don't have time to cook real meals during the week now (and especially since I'm taking on an extra class twice a week starting in November) so I've decided that I can do a big meal on Sunday and then get a couple days of leftovers out of it to help me get through the week. This Sunday I'm doing Fish Pie. I'm salivating just thinking about it. It's cold here now and I am dying for a good casserole. Next Sunday is Pumpkin soup. Already looking forward to making my apartment smell of roasted pumpkin.

On a lovely note- I heard the music class at school today playing Jingle Bells on their recorders. Yes, it's almost that time again. :-)

Pray for me as I take on all these endeavors simultaneously. I hope I can make it to Christmas where I'll be given Christmas Eve off and then I'll also be finished with all my extra work. Then three weeks after that I'll be headed to Nelson, New Zealand for three GLORIOUS weeks. I love it and am already dreaming about it. No really, I had a dream about it two nights ago.

ps- I'm getting a tattoo on Saturday. I thought I was done with them, but apparently am not. :-)