Since I'm not really doing much today, I may just go on a bit about random stuff. Starting from my return to Sydney, I'm going to work, work and work. Work number 1 priority is school, work number 2 priority is piano and work number 3 priority is earning money. I'm taking this opportunity overseas to get into a good mindset for next year. I haven't been focusing too much on school this year, and as usual procrastination has always been my downfall.
Next year, I'll be able to start fresh for the third time in my entire high school life. I screwed up badly at my first school, went alright at school number 2 I suppose but definitely not as well as I would've hoped. School number 3 is hopefully going to provide me with the opportunity to do well. New teachers who don't know me and a new environment are going to help me, I think. Hopefully all that newness is not going to backfire instead. So, like everyone else, I want to start fresh and get really good grades next year. As I told the principal and deputy at my interview, I'm going to somehow work out a way to balance piano with schoolwork and obviously my dream is to finally get that diploma next May that I've been working towards since I was 4, even if the fail rate is 70%. I hope Music 2 isn't too hard next year. My piano teacher is pushing me to do Music Extension in year twelve, and if I pull that off it could get me lots of bonus points for my HSC score. So I guess my goal for piano is to actually be into it and enjoy it, and not just practise like a zombie because I have to, although that's certainly hard when I've been playing 3 of my 6 songs for about 2 years. I wish it was possible to force yourself to enjoy something. But I'm not complaining about piano, it's given me more opportunities than anything else I've done. It's provided me with no school fees and a fresh start next year (I don't care that it was meant to be for my grades, I wouldn't have gotten it if it weren't for my piano), currently 2 but soon-to-be 3 bonus points for HSC and a nice, easy source of income (well, compared to Maccas). So I guess I have a lot to thank for it, and maybe that's why now that I've realised this I've been practising more. But I still wish I enjoyed it.
The only thing I've been happy about this year in regards to my progress with not procrastinating is my non-procrastination with piano. Last year I was practising for an hour about 4 days a week, and this year I've somehow upped it to 2 hours daily. Unfortunately I can't say the same for my assignments. In fact, I think I've been procrastinating worse this year than last year in terms of school. WHICH I HAVE TO STOP, because there'll be even more pressures next year (I'll most likely actually have to do co-curricular activities).
And then there's the thing with money. I want to go to France on exchange next year, and I've had a look at the scholarships they offer for it, but every single exchange company only offers (partial) scholarships for a 1 semester exchange, and it sure won't look good for me if I skip out on school for 2 terms. There's a 1 month exchange scholarship for French-speaking Belgium, but no, I don't want to go to Belgium. I want to actually go to France. So looks like I'll have to skip the scholarships and pay out of my own wallet for my trip next year. I currently have 8 kids next year so I calculated that it would take me SEVEN MONTHS to save up about $6000 for an exchange to France. So yeah, I guess I really will have to work hard.
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| Lunch. I'm not entirely sure what this pasta was called but I think it was Papa John's signature pasta dish or something. It was kind of tasty. Not as good as Red Dot opposite the Bund, though. |
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| My uncle's apartment building and where I've been living for the past 3 weeks. He lives on the 8th floor and the location is pretty good, it's kind of in the heart of the city and a 20-minute walk to West Nanjing Rd which is one of the main streets in Shanghai. |
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