Today I went with my cousin and her boyfriend to a pretty nice BBQ! It was pretty nice. I guess I learned more Chinese, since everyone at the BBQ couldn’t speak a word of English. Although there was an old man there who had a electronic dictionary. Which translates English to Chinese and vice versa. I was in fact teaching them how to say words since their pronunciation was wrong. They also helped me with some Chinese words and helped me with my pronunciation.
I feel that living with my cousin and her boyfriend (Gary) will excel my speaking ability. I still need to practice the writing, which I consider to be the easier task, since I can do that all on my own, considering you purely just have to copy characters and memorize them. Although I am still a little confused with the grammar, but it doesn’t look at that hard. I believe English grammar is much more complicated, so once I gather more of an understanding of the language I will understand the grammar side of things.
Gym/health update
Haven’t talked to anyone but a gym instructor and the two people I am living with; my cousin and her boyfriend. I worked hard today in gym. I pushed myself on the weight lifting equipment. Hopefully I will be able to see a few more results from my working at the gym.
However I have put on 1 kg. I believe that is like 1 kg of muscle, since I have been working out a lot. Or if it is fat, then I haven’t seen anywhere on my body where there has been added fat. All I have seen is growth in my arm muscles and the toning of my breasts; they are both becoming rather large and more muscular.
I still I haven’t got the 6 pack that I am aiming to get. But in due time, I believe I can easily get there. I just need to do more muscle building exercises. I also still do need to lose a bit more weight. I am thinking in the region of around 3 or 4 kg and my body will look great. Though I am focusing on muscle building first, since I have heard if you try to lose weight, but also gain muscle, there are technical problems with that. I have already lost in around 3 and a-half months of training 10 kg. I think that is quite a significant amount of weight to lose.
Tomorrow I will go to the gym and do more weight training and also running. I’ve read that running helps loosen up your muscles, so when you do weight train, you won’t stretch any muscles or hurt yourself. I really want to go swimming, it seems more logical considering everyday the weather is around 30ºC. – Though I just don’t like the look of my body right now or don’t have the guts to show it publicly to people. I mean I don’t mind others in the shower room looking at my body, but in the open in public, it just seems more challenging.
Whatever the case, my exercise regime is going well. I don’t go everyday, like I used to, but I have definitely seen the effects of my weight loss. – I like much better and have had comments such as “have you lost weight?” these types of comments are very encouraging. However I’d rather people saying, “You look a lot stronger than before!” though I understand why someone wouldn’t say that, where the weight loss remark is sort of a general remark!
Since moving in with my cousin, I feel a sense of more freedom and being on my own in this world now. I always have them as back up, if things go wrong, so I am pretty content with the way things are at the moment. Though I always hate thinking about the future. I will eventually need to find a job and finding a job in Taiwan that doesn’t involve English teaching will be hard. I would like to do something more enjoyable and something more permanent.
