10 August 2014

ROW80 2014, Round 3, Week 5

"A Round of Words in 80 Days is the writing challenge that knows you have a life."

I've been in Vienna for a week now. The 15+ hours of travel on Sunday and then starting my German course on Monday kind of took it out of me, but I've been slowly adjusting to the new environment...and to the fact that it's even harder to get things done here because I don't speak the language. But somehow I'm hobbling along and even managing to get some writing done!

August - Vienna:

  • Finish first draft of pseudonym's WIP2. My intention was to devote at least 1 hr/day to it Mon.-Thurs. and at least 2 hrs/day Fri.-Sun. What *actually* happened is that I spent 1 hr on it Tuesday, 1 hour on it Thursday, and 2 hrs on it Saturday and am in the process of doing self-timed, 30-min writing sprints today. (One sprint down, five to go.) I at least thought about the WIP on the other days.
  • Learn some German. The German course is going well, though it's disconcerting to be at such a low level after speaking Spanish and French for the past couple of months. My French may not be great, but at least I know prepositions and verb tenses. The only prepositions I know so far in German are von (of), bei (at) aus (out of) and als (as). Actually, I'm not entirely sure what bei and als mean; I'm guessing from context. But I like my teacher a lot and my classmates are fun. I've also faithfully done at least 1 German Duolingo lesson per day. In terms of practicing real-life German, it's been mainly limited to ordering food/coffee/beer so far (and telling everyone I don't speak German), though today I did chat with a couple people in the cafe next door for a bit, partly in German and partly in English. That felt successful, considering how little Deutsch I know, so yay!
  • Get out & about on weekends (Friday-Sunday) for at least a couple hours a day. So far so good. On Friday I did a little exploring in my neighborhood and found an outdoor market with cheap produce, meat, cheese, nuts, spices, etc. as well as vendors of prepared foods. For example, I can buy an enormous hunk of cooked ham on the bone for €4 that will feed me for at least two, if not three, meals. Yesterday I went with a classmate to the Prater, which is Vienna's amusement park. And later today I plan to take a walk down by the river and check out that area of town.
  • Participate in/keep up with the DIY MFA Conquer the Craft challenge. Um...no. I get the emails and read the prompt every day, but because my WIP takes priority over this challenge, what limited energy and time I have for writing goes to the WIP. I think this may just be too much right now, but we'll see how I feel now that I'm a little more settled here.
  • Continue publishing two blog posts per week. Yes, I published my ROW80 post last Sunday and posted on the travel blog yesterday.
What's your strategy for making sure you have time and energy to write every day?

This is a blog hop! Check out other ROW80 participants' updates here.

2 comments:

  1. Considering you're settling into a new environment writing pretty consistently, even if it's every other day, is pretty impressive. When I first moved to Madrid it took me ages to settle my head down enough to work on anything.

    I read about your goal to speak seven languages fluently. Which is so ambitious it blows my mind. I love languages, I feel like anyone who makes the effort to learn more than one really likes languages.or they just wouldn't do it, but my goal is four just because I feel like that's probably my max. I like what you said, though, about how disconcerting it is to have a low level of German after speaking Spanish and French for a few months, because the next language I want to learn is French, but it's so daunting after developing a high level of Spanish. I thought feeling kind of unsettled by starting a new language at step one was just me being weird or overthinking or something like that. So I'm glad that someone who actually knows languages shares those sentiments.

    Being in Vienna must be so amazing, though. I can't wait to read more about it and how well you start to develop your knowledge of the German language.

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  2. It's so much fun to read about your adventures. Congrats on your linguistic studies. That's fantastic!
    I took a couple of years of German in high school and took French throughout elementary school and high school. Most of it, however, has slipped away. The only Spanish I ever learned was from "Dora, the Explorer," so it doesn't count. ;)
    All the best with your many endeavours.
    TTFN

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