Find a new hobby. That was what my other half rejoined earlier this year when I complained that I had nothing gainful to do with my time. That was at the end January.
More breathing space
End of January is generally the start of the second half of the academic year in France. Over the nine years that I have taught English in France, I find the teaching load lighter in the second semester. The reason for the lighter workload is mainly because of my employment status: working as a freelance teacher in the French higher education system.
With a freelancer status (and the precarity that goes with it), I have to teach at various teaching institutions in order to earn my living. For instance, I am currently working in Grenoble at one business school, one university but for 3 of its units (composants), and also a private language centre. This translates to juggling five separate timetables. In the first semester, the different places start and end around the same time (mid September to early December), meaning that my weekly timetable is packed (25 hours teaching hours per week or more). However, in the second semester, these places stagger their starting/ending dates. It means I have more breathing room.
Less commute time
The second reason, but not less important, is my recent move to Grenoble from the Parisian region (well, recent as in less than a year ago). Living in a city definitely has its advantages—time saved on commute. Depending on where I teach, my commute in Grenoble spans from 10 minutes to 80 minutes, round trip. Two of the places where I teach are just across my apartment while the farthest one is a comfortable 40-minute tram ride away (including walking time). Imagine the tons of hours I save when compared to the 4-hour commute (train, metro, walk) that I had to make, three to four times a week when I used to live in the Parisian region.
More me-time
Less commute time and more evenly distributed timetable means that I have more me-time. In the last two years after we bought a house in Gometz-le Châtel, I spent whatever free time I got diddling around the garden. However, moving to Grenoble means that we have to give up the house and the garden. Of course, I do read and I love reading. Nevertheless, there is a limit to how much reading my brain cells can take every day. Then, there is running. Due to a chronic leg injury (and also laziness), I spend less time pounding on roads and trails. What can I do with the free time?
That explains my husband’s rejoinder of “Find a new hobby”.
Hobby exploration journey
Find a new hobby. It’s easy to find a new hobby but hard to maintain it, as least in my case. Building a running-events website, teaching English website, blogging, podcasting, photography, learning new languages (including programming) and orienteering. These are the activities I have started over my past nine years in France and they usually end up like how my mum used to describe the past pursuits of my much younger self —五分钟热度 (literally five-minute of heat), meaning short-lived enthusiasm.
Start and maintain a hobby
Once a spark of interest in a hobby is ignited, I will jump heart and soul into turning the spark into a flame. At the initial stage, I will spend hours poring websites, researching on the latest hobby, often getting stuck down the rabbit hole. The frequent outcome of the research is that I have convinced myself that a set of decent gear is the fundamental step in embarking and embracing the hobby. Subscriptions (Duolingo, Adobe Photoshop, website domains, cloud services etc) expensive photography lenses and its paraphernalia, a compass etc are witnesses to my hobby exploration process.
Oftentimes, I will drag my other half into solving the technical aspects that I encounter the way: building up the websites, installing and understanding the convoluted Google analytics, customising the website templates, and yes, explaining how to read a compass. Despite his continuous support, the sparks just fizzle out, eventually. I think the reason for giving up so soon a new hobby is that my impatience in seeing results or progress. If I don’t see a pick up in the number of subscribers, readers, an improvement in my skills,
From time to time, guilt and extra time on hand will get me back to one of the abandoned hobbies. Guilt of not persevering. Guilt of throwing money on gear occupying the already limited living space and gathering dust. Extra time like NOW writing this post after an absence of EIGHT months.
Reignite an old passion
Like what the French would say, “Revenons a nos moutons (literal translation “let’s come back to our sheep”)” meaning let’s get back to our subject. Find a new hobby, as suggested by my husband. So, I picked up a new hobby three months ago: drawing.
Why drawing? The main reason being the barely scratched Clairefontaine sketch book and the set of Faber-Castell graphite pencils that were lying around in the apartment, unloved. Ironically, it was actually my other half who purchased the set of sketching material more than a year ago, when he first moved to Grenoble on his own. He had only used the first page: his attempt to sketch his foot.
Drawing is technically not a new hobby for me. I spent a bit of time on it when I was a kid but was later abandoned in my early teens. Looking at the sketching material brought back nostalgia. Why not? Let’s see whether I can reignite my passion.