Judo begins

I had my first beginner Judo class. While it was just exercise, demonstrations, and practice breakfalls, it was nonetheless a reminder of mortality. It has been a long time since I have done pushups or situps, especially in 20-repetition sets between other exercises. Furthermore, some of the Judo-specific warmups are both unfamiliar and challenging. In the first session, we got as far as practicing straight-back breakfalls and the preliminaries to O-goshi.

I’m confident that I never thought about my dissertation, or even climate change activism, during the 90-minute class.

Author: Milan

In the spring of 2005, I graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in International Relations and a general focus in the area of environmental politics. Between 2005 and 2007 I completed an M.Phil in IR at Wadham College, Oxford. I worked for five years for the Canadian federal government, including completing the Accelerated Economist Training Program, and then completed a PhD in Political Science at the University of Toronto in 2023. View all posts by Milan