Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Learnin' 'n' such


I recently canceled my Netflix membership, not because of anything they did, but because I realized that I wanted to do more with my time this year.

If you know me or have read this blog for any period of time, you’ll know that I like to learn stuff about things. That may seem flip, but it’s true: I enjoy the process of learning, oftentimes regardless of subject matter.

Take this past weekend for instance. I took a glass blowing sampler class (http://www.thirddegreeglassfactory.com) with a friend of mine. I learned that I’m really good at using the torches, okay at making paper weights* and horrible at cutting glass. And I also learned that my friends think it’s funny that I took a “glass blowing” class**.

After the class, I drove up to Chicago for a friend’s birthday. I saw this as the perfect opportunity to learn some Japanese for an upcoming trip. Using the Pimsleur system, I was soon saying “domo arigato” with the best of them***. But I also learned that you can only learn so much of a language at a time before your**** brain turns to mush.

My friends and I also learned that you can, in fact, sleep 8 adult humans in a single one-bedroom apartment*****. It's a lesson everyone should learn once in their life.

*Happy birthday/Merry Christmas/Joyous other event
**I suspect they just wanted to get me to use “blow” in a sentence
***Other people learning Japanese, duh
****my
*****Chicago hosts: you rock