Exams and British Dramas
Perhaps you've noticed all the book reviews I've been posting. I am proud to say that I've kept up with my reading goals for this year. I did hit a snag this week, though. I started reading Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas and BLECH that book is terrible. I read so many good reviews and so many people seem to love the series, but the writing is pitiful and the story is confusing and dull, not to mention the main character is completely moronic and not at all a well-developed character. I think the author tried to make a cool assassin girl to prove that girls rock but really she just jumbled a bunch of characteristics together and none of it worked.
However, I started reading 12 Years a Slave and it is fantastic. I'm taking it slow even though it is a short book, and I plan on watching the movie and doing a Mook review. Reading has taken a backseat, however, since my mom persuaded me to watch Downton Abbey. My mom and I are in love with British novels and movies, and when I was younger she would put in the entire cassette collection of Pride and Prejudice and we would watch them all while doing house chores. Downton Abbey is a fantastic show with so many great characters and so much drama and romance. At work lately I have started fantasizing about running home to watch another episode (or four or five).
I have been trying to keep up with my Korean studies, and I recently went on a Memrise kick and racked up a ton of points in only two weeks. I need to keep up with memorizing vocabulary, and I want to learn a new grammar point or two a day, but this week was so hectic and I had 5 or 6 classes a day at each elementary school I went to. Today I was so exhausted and it was raining so after lunch I put my head down on my desk and tried really hard not to fall asleep and miss class.
After school ended, though, I had to come home and take a grad school test. My education courses are going really well and I have a 4.0 in grad school right now, so each test and assignment is really important to me because I intend on keeping up my perfect GPA. Proctored tests are frequent with online courses, and it always freaks me out to have someone watch me and watch my screen through my webcam while I take a test or write an essay. Today's test wasn't too bad, and I was proud of myself, but my cheeks are still burning from the knowledge that someone was watching me enter questions and write my essay answer.
My house is sparkling clean and Junkyu and his family are coming tomorrow! I am so excited to see him again and even though it will be stressful guiding 10 Koreans around Japan, translating things into English (for Junkyu to translate into Korean) and sometimes Korean when I can manage it myself, I know it will be a fun trip. My mom and grandma are also coming in March, and I saw that the cherry blossoms should be blooming by the time they arrive. Japan is prettiest during sakura season, but the blooms only really last a week or even a few days when the weather is bad.
Now that my exam is over and my homework is turned in, I can enjoy my weekend with people I love without worrying about studying or reading or work for a few days. Last weekend we had a warm, sunny few days, and it was starting to look like winter was already over, but today reminded me that we are still very much in January. It's hard to believe the first month of the year is already over, but I think I've keep up with my resolutions and commitments well and I'm optimistic about the rest of 2015. Have a great weekend!