jenpri

 Many people have their own ways of relaxing after a long days of work. So many, that more than a page can be filled up and still remain endless. However, this isn't about different ways of relaxing, this is about what do you do for your self-care and relaxation.  Now is the time to find that one thing (or maybe 2 or 3) that will help you to feel less anxious and just to feel completely stress-free and to be WITH yourself. Yes, this is the MAIN idea. Find something that YOU can make a connection with, that YOU can feel yourself and that YOU can just be YOU.  Relaxing can bring about many things to light, be it a creative mind or ideas may pour into your brains cell. BUT relaxation is a MUST. Without this, you as a human, aren't respecting your body and yourself. You owe this to yourself. Go find that one or maybe two or even three (not more), to help your system to be able to help you, for the next day and the years ahead.

I have no idea what’s going on, where and how did this thing for art started. Just woke up one fine day and there I was looking at some posts from Instagram and youtube and that got me started to try my hands on some art creations.  I can’t even recall my first art work and that’s the best part. When we begin a friendship with anyone, we don’t set it in our minds to say this and say that- friendship just happens. And the same with art, it just happens. Here are some pieces of my initial creations. More to come They are called zentangle. And I just copied or rather followed his instructions from his YouTube video. 

Starting a new academic year is always stressful, to us teachers. But this new academic year would be tooo NEW, this I never expected. I have been a homeroom teacher for more than 6 years, and worked as an assistant for 2.5 years. Last year my new role was to be helping and support students during some specific subjects. I initially found this challenging, as the teenager students wouldn’t really ask for help, nor wanted to be corrected. So after many falls on their faces, they relented and allowed me to help and interact with them.  But after sometime, I found it boring and not challenging enough. Until this year landed on my lap.  This year, I teach students from year 2 up to year 7. Some are high and some low. 

 I never thought I would get a or many tattoos done on myself. I have always admired those who have them and also wondered if they were painful or people just do this to prove something to the society. Like calling themselves DIFFERENT. But they aren't. They are the same as US NORMAL people. They MAY think that they ARE different and if anyone who reads this post may even say that I am crazy to even say that tattoo people are SAME. But they are.  Anyways, I am diverting from the main gist here. I am going to show you that I am the SAME as NORMAL people and not DIFFERENT. But I still have tattoos on myself and I feel fine, great and yes, have over-come that fear of NEEDLES-- or almost.  This is my first tattoo. Most memorable.    Most painful.  Different.  People with tattoos, you are still the same from inside, same flesh and blood. We are all the same-HUMANS but just with different personalities and that makes us different, everyone has their own ways...

So I am teaching during this summer at a friend's summer school. Its a 3 weeks program. I got tired at the end of first week and just wanted to quit and enjoy my break. But I still persisted and am glad I did so. During one of the lessons, we started discussing about money. This topic was to get over within 2 days, but it seemed unlikely with the kids. They enjoyed it so much, that every morning we had to talk and share currencies from different countries - both paper bills notes and coins.  Hence, one of my student decided to bring in his special ring made from 1 dollar bill. When he told us about it, I never created nor imagined what he had in reality, until I saw it today. It completely zapped me.    It's a ring made from a real one dollar bill.  Then he took me back into the past by showing me currencies from Egypt. I just went into the past. I had visited Egypt with my dad, mom and sister, and I was the only one who climbed inside the pyramids at almost 90 degre...

Now I always knew that our smart phone wasn't just made like that, it had a purpose. We can use it to click pictures and short videos, but putting them together to TELL a story, is another way of thinking. My friend here in my city, just casually mentioned that this course was coming and if i interested. of coz i was, since i love photography and always wanted to be as good as my favorite uncle. Even my sister is fab in this field but it isn't something we took on as a career. My best friend S, loves photography and would send me pictures and video shots of other photographers and that got me intrigued as to how, what app and when will I also achieve this.  I am not completely there, YET. And not even half way there yet. But at least i have started somewhere and onto something.  I learnt how to maneuver iMovies by myself, a long time ago. But kind of lost interest in the middle. With each update a new feature was introduced into the app. Not hard to understand and follow, just...

I had started this Tesol course during the lock down and had about 3 months to complete it. Of coz, silly me, thought I would complete it before I returned back to school. But I got lazy and dragged my feet. However, I did manage to complete over half of it before I resumed work. Once I went back to school, I would still read through the modules and answer the multiple choice questions and also finish up the 100 words write up. I finally achieved this. Below is my certificate in TESOL.  This is my third certification in this course.  Why did I do this?  Well, its good to keep upgrading yourself, your CV and every TESOL course I have accomplished, is a little different from another. Each of them imbides different methodologies of teaching, which is necessary for every teacher to adopt and use in their teaching practices.  Below is another course I completed in essential oils. You may ask what is "Essential Oils". These are specific oils we get directly from plants wit...

Human minds are so funny. When we were on our regular flow of daily routine, we were so involved in work and daily routines at home. We always desired to have the time to do something different, something extra for ourselves, BUT never had the time. After CoVid set-in, we had time and became totally lost how to handle and make use of this precious time. We became so confused that it took us some couple of weeks to set in a new daily routine. This was so, coz rules of where we resided, kept changing and we had to adapt to these new set of rules. Hence, the delay in getting ourselves fixed or create a new routine. But finally, we did it. We set for ourselves a new schedule, a new daily routine, and a new set of rules to live by. We have finally made our desired precious time to come to us. Now what do we do with this TIME? Routine has been fixed. Schedule has been set-in. NOW it's the time to give to YOURSELF. Now is Now is the time to build on that hobby. Now is the time to create a...

This is a special time for everyone. This is the time for all teenagers to finally get their freedom. This is the time for the teenagers to finally move out. And this is the time, for the teenagers to finally say, we are entering into adulthood. But are they really ready for adulthood? Are we as parents ready for this change to happen? Are we as parents ready to let go? Many might say, yes, and some may even say, we are relieved, and some may even say, no. Every parent is different, just as every child is different. But this isn't about them. It's about, where, and when and how did time fly by soooooo quickly. It's amazing, when we usually say, one-day you will be in a university. Well, that time has FINALLY ARRIVED. Did we have to say this, over and over again. It sometimes feels that, time was listening to you and has finally fulfilled your request by arriving. And now you have no choice but to send your child or children off to their own ways of life. For some, this may ...

Its been 2 (this is 3rd) weeks now that we are back to school. Feels good but just very different. At school, we all teachers AND students have to wear MASKS. Wear them while walking down the corridors, while going from one building to another and sometimes inside the classrooms. For now, its still alright, since the weather is cool and pleasant. But it will be horrible once the heat begins. Some heaty days showed up and we all were quite desperate to just discard our masks. Then comes in the windy and cool days, and our masks become our saviors. Wearing these masks have indeed become mandatory but not necessarily part of our lives. In our minds, we really WANT to get rid of them ASAP, but its equally necessary to wear them, just to be on the safe end. It won't help to protect you from the Covid, but it will surely act as a barrier in some small way. Along with this addition of maskful days, there are also some additions of some other routines which are interesting and "...

While all this Covid 19 is going on, some newspapers are using their creativity skills to come up with comics that are realistic and at the same time silly and funny. At the beginning, I couldn't even comprehend their meanings, until I read them second and third time. Silly, funny, realistic and comical in its own way.

There is faith and hope still in this WORLD. Humanity still exists. People still have feelings. Why do I say this? During this current situation when CoVID 19 has hit the WORLD, people are thinking about the people from all around the world. They have made access to teaching resources free. Yes, I also know  that this could be a way to gain their membership for a later date, but for right now, its FREE. Some websites have given a time limit for free access, and some haven't given any specific details. While some also have hidden messages, which is usually made aware to the world users after a certain point of usage. Despite this, we also have Amazon hiking up their prices in some essential commodities. China had their remembrance day on 4th April, 2020. This was to honor and pay tribute to all the passed away souls in their country. Its sad that this had to happen, but somehow, its a way of Mother Nature retaliating back. Then on the 5th April, 2020, the Prime Minist...

We had completed our self-isolation, when husband decided to arrive from India via Thailand. Of coz with the current situation going, he was asked to quarantine himself at home. Along with him, we also had to be quarantine AGAIN. Oh Boy! We just completed our self-isolation and not this FORCED stay at home for 14 days. Day1: was ok Day 2: was still ok Day 3: humm, getting there still Days 4: ok, now still getting there Day5: almost used to this Day 6: now its just beginning to get to us Day 7: daughter is finally getting restless Day 8: its slowly getting to me as well now Day 9: finally the blast off from husband Day 10: a bit calm but blast offs from daughter Days 11: another blast off from husband Day 12: no one is speaking, getting a bit depressing (our wedding anniversary) Day 13: enthusiastic Day 14: very chilled and relax Day 15: FREEDOM and OUT with FRIENDS  (Husband still stuck at home-didn't make any dinner for him- I rebelled). Daily Routi...

We had already returned from our trip and spent 2 weeks in self-isolation (well, not completely), and rarely went out in those 2 weeks when we (my daughter and myself) returned from Jakarta.  During those two weeks, we slowly built our routine of entering home, whenever we stepped out.  1st. Someone from the inside would open the door and spray the other person outside with an alcohol liquid.  2nd. Take off the SHOES. 3rd. Wash the HANDS with soap and water. 4th. Remove the jacket, pants and masks to be air-dried in the balcony.  5th. Wash the HANDS AGAIN.  6th. Disinfect the PHONE. 7th REST.  This had become our set rules while entering the apartment. Not only did we disinfect ourselves, but each and every package, grocery bag, umbrella, would be disinfected and left at the entrance of the door, to be touched and put in place after 12 hours.  How crazy can one get? Well, we got crazy and why not! It is a crucial time to th...

Swimming in the clouds. This link is about my travel into the clouds of the mountain and not the clouds of the sky. Awesome Beppu Its a pity I wrote this as a PAGE instead of a link on its own. I am not able to connect this wonderful post of the various HELLS I visited in Beppu. See the pictures to believe it and to appreciate what is a HELL in Beppu. Sauna Huts Our concept of what a Sauna is and what is pictured here, are totally different. Have you ever heard of a Sauna in a HUT. Now thats something to see, but here its only in photographs. All pictures taken by our iPhones XR, and very minor editing was done. Most of it was taken by my daughter and me holding the umbrella for her. 😉😉

My travel adventure.  I left for Jakarta on 31st Jan from Japan, in a state of emergency. Both my friend and hubby, didn't want me to return back to home (Ningbo), due to the C-Virus, and so forced me to go to Jakarta. While there, my girl was upset and quite insistent to go back home. I contacted an agent to help me book tickets for 17th Feb only to be told later, that the flight has been cancelled. So again I went into a state of panic and had to cancel that airline, and re-book to another airline. Date was 29th Feb. If you are wondering why couldn't I extend my visa for Indonesia? Well I tried that, only to see that the stamp of entry stated that the visa was non-extendable. During the last weekend of my stay in Jakarta, I messaged my agent to re-check if flights are flying or any cancellation or postponing. He contacted back to me with bad news that the flight has been cancelled. I was super upset now and almost going into a state of anxiety. Again for the third...

I was a bit apprehensive before embarking onto this journey into Japan. Thinking about the language and the inconvenience of traveling by trains, drove me nuts with anxiety. But after arriving here, I was proven wrong. People are super friendly and helpful. Trains are easy but still needs some close looking at which platforms to get them. Most of your expenses will be on traveling- be it long distance or local buses, they are all pricey. Trains here are super fast-faster than the ones in China.  However, this all said, it’s super quiet too. I guess it’s part of their culture-to not be LOUD and express their feelings OPENLY. So one needs to respect this aspect and appreciate being in a meditative state of mind constantly.  Love the look of their transport-old from the outside but still modernized from the inside.  Japan is known for their Cherry Blossom flowers. This usually bloom in the spring and that’s a big travel season and boom in the tourism perio...