I just woke up from a little nappy nap at the desk at my new school. It’s weird how things sort of happen in this way. One minute you’re in Thailand with your little sister, the next minute you’re alone in your apartment, and the minute after that you’re sitting in a new place surrounded by new people. You’ve got a good feeling about it all. Despite being a little tired, I’m also a little excited about this new thing in my life. I’m happy to get back to properly teaching. I’m eager to make connections with my students and my co-workers. I think I got a good thing going here.
As per usual, there are so many ideas and thoughts bouncing around in my head. I’ll try to get through them all.
YouTube
I need to post a new video. Not only do I need to post a new video, but I also need to film said video and then edit said video. I say that I need to do all this despite having at least eight videos waiting patiently to be edited because the next video I want to post is special. I’ve lived in China for one WHOLE year. That’s another post (and yes a video) in itself, but I can’t believe how quickly the time has come. There were like a couple weeks in the beginning when I was adjusting to a new school year where things felt like they were taking forever, but for the most part, this time has zoomed by.
I think part of the reason that revelation is under the YouTube section is because I feel like I’m not doing a good enough job of honoring (and capturing) the time I’ve been here. I want to post weekly. I want to share the things that are popping up during my time in China. I know i want to record these things for when my memory fails me because I know it will. I want all these things and I’m not doing a great job of following through with them. Hopefully, year two is my time.
Reading
Ugh, as soon as I wrote that I thought of the two ARCs I have that have since been published that are desperately waiting for my reading and review. I feel so BEHIND. I will not say reading has become a chore, but I have so many goals for my reading that I feel like I don’t have time to accomplish them all. Maybe the long and short of it is that I don’t have time to accomplish them all, but I don’t feel like giving up that easily. I haven’t thought to check in on them recently but let’s see how I’ve been doing.
The OxFam Reading Challenge
So far, I’ve fully read 5 books out of the 12 months of prompts. Considering we’re in the eighth month, it could be better, but I guess it could be a lot worse. I STILL haven’t finished Siddhartha from April’s “A Classic” prompt. I totally forgot about this challenge in July. The prompt was “A Dystopian”, so I suppose I’ll have to find something to fit that bill as well.
Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge
It was very ambitious of me to attempt this challenge when I told myself I needed to limit myself to one challenge, but I just can’t help myself. Out of the 24 prompts of the challenge, I’ve successfully crossed off a whopping 5. Uhhhh, not the best, but I just thought about it and realized there’s some books I’ve read that a I haven’t added yet, so maybe i’ve read at least six. That’s 25%!
ARC Challenge
Uhh I wanted to read and review 10 ARCs. I’ve done two let’s walk quickly past this train wreck shall we.
All around Yearly Challenges
This year, I wanted to read 104 books, and with 79 down, I’m well on my way. I also added a page challenge from the Storygraph and at 25,080 out of 25,000, Briana finally has a WIN! I’ll take it. If I think about the fact that I have 25 books left to reach my number goal, and that I have exactly 25 books left to complete my other challenges, it seems like I’ve got this in the bag, but I just can’t count on myself that much.
Oh the Places I Want to Go!
Okay, I’ve written waaaaaaay more than I expected to today. It’s been a while since I’ve last written, so the words are pouring out. I’ll just ruminate on one more topic, and that is TRAVEL!
I’ve been so lucky this summer to head to some new places both in and out of China. I went to Thailand again and LOOOOOVED it and similarly to how I felt last time, I can’t wait to return. Still, I’m here living in China, and I’ve barely scratched the surface of all the things there is to see and do here. I NEED to see more of China! There’s just so much here. I have to make a bucket list soon, so I can narrow things down and start planning my visits.
Okay it’s almost time for my break to be over and I want to post this before then soooooo
Love you! Bye!