Summer update

At a quick glance, my time right now is divided between job search stuff, exercise / self-study for fitness stuff, and pleasure reading. Nothing really new with the job search stuff (except dealing with unemployment compensation). Actually, I did participate in a paid research study for the psychology dept at school which was interesting.

I used up my month of membership at campus rec (the school gym – which you have to pay for if you're not enrolled for classes during the summer). But I was able to take most of the group exercise classes I wanted. I took yoga, pilates, cycling, cardio, step, kick & step, zumba, hip hop, and one called total domination which was a mixture of cardio and weights. Now I have a few free guest passes to use at Shapes, the gym where one of my other classmates works. I emailed her (and another one who was telling me about the GFIT program in the fall) asking what else I could do to prepare because I'll have to audition for the program and I wasn't sure if simply taking classes would be enough. The classmate from Shapes told me what classes she taught and said I could come to them which was pretty cool of her. I went to one yesterday which was aqua core – yoga / pilates / tai chi in the pool. Even though aquatics is a separate certification (as is kickboxing, cycling, yoga, and some others), I thought it'd be cool to see what a water class was like. I used to love swimming as a kid. Then as I got older it went by the wayside and I got really sensitive to water temperature – as in I freeze if it's not super warm. But the pool was fine and I had no trouble getting in, so that was cool.

And self-study. I went through the health promotion and risk management stuff, but now I'm on to the study materials that go along with preparing for the group fitness instruction certification. I don't know why I just now became aware of them and the fact that I could read about how to teach classes. Maybe I thought learning how to teach was something I'd just get with the GFIT program? But I knew there had to be some other way of learning for people who didn't do that program or who weren't in a university degree program for exercise science! Duh. Maybe it was partly my fear about what would happen if I didn't get in the program that made me look more closely at the AFAA site to see what they had. I knew from a quick glance that they had 1-day workshops for various things, but they had this study package for the certification I'm going for which is perfect. It'll help me prepare for GFIT (in a way that simply taking classes wouldn't have) and if for some reason I didn't get in, I'd still be able to take one of the other workshops and get certified anyway. Win.

As for other goings-on that don't fall into the above categories, I got my hair cut (just a little, nothing major), had my physical, bought some new exercise pants and sneakers (I could've kept wearing my old ones except they were at least six years old and I figured I ought to look professional), and went to a general meeting on campus about scholarships. It didn't do too much good considering that most deadlines for getting money for this coming year already passed. But I did find one on their website that I could do – an Atlas Shrugged essay contest :) I just wrote it this week and might submit it next week. I also confirmed that I did, in fact, miss the deadline for applying to grad assistantships for my dept too. How crazy is that? No one told me about it, there was no announcement or anything. I thought I could apply in the summer because my advisor last year said to apply in the summer. Nope. But I'm trying not to go crazy about it because I still have my loans and I'm still in the program and that's what matters. I've got the fall, spring, and internship next summer and that's it! (Oh, and comps - as in comprehensive exams - in the spring. *gulp*)

And though I don't normally talk about personal life, I had a great weekend get-away last weekend with my best friends from FSU for one's bachelorette party. Now in another week, my boyfriend will visit for a week (during which we'll have another short get-away for the 4^th of July at a friend's party in Havana) and then two weeks after that my dad will visit for a week. So even without officially being in school or working, I still have a lot to keep me busy this summer!