Books I've read 2010

I just looked on my dashboard on this blog, and I realized I have 7 followers. WOW!!!

Do people actually read my blog??

That's amazing.

Well, so I clicked on each persons name and saw this one person had some other blogs they were interested in. I clicked on those.

I got to this really interesting post where the person wrote all the books they've read this year. WOW!!!!

It's nice to keep track of what you've read. I tend to forget after a while.

So, I'm going to, just for this post, write down the books that I've read since January.

Here we go:

Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer:

Book1: Twilight

Book2: New Moon

Book3: Eclipse

Book4: Breaking Dawn

Book5: Midnight Sun

True Blood Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris:

Book1: Dead until Dark

Book2: Living Dead in Dallas

Book3: Club Dead

Book4: Dead to the World

Book5: Dead as a Doornail

Book6: Definitely Dead

Book7: All Together Dead

Book8: From Dead to Worse

Book9: Dead and Gone

Book10: Dead in the Family

Otherworld Series by Kelley Armstrong:

Book1: Bitten

Book2: Stolen

Book3: Dime Store Magic

Book4: Industrial Magic

Book5: Haunted

Book6: Broken

Book7: No Humans Involved

Book8: Personal Demon

Book9: Living with the Dead

Book10: Frostbitten

Book11: Waking the Witch
Book12: Men of the Otherworld (short stories)
Book13: Tales of the Otherworld (short stories)

Love at Stake Series by Kerrelyn Sparks
Book1: How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire

Book2: Vamps in the City

Book3: Sugarplums and Scandal

Book4: Be still my Vampire Heart

Book5: The undead next door

Book6: All I want for Christmas is Vampire

Book7: Secret life of a Vampire

Book8: Forbidden Nights with a Vampire

Book9: The Vampire and the Virgin

Easy way to stop smoking by Allen Carr

The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

Bounce

I've bounced back.

When I get back from any vacation I seem to have a few weeks of feeling crappy. Maybe because I'm leaving a wonderful place. Maybe because I'm going back to a place I'd rather not be in. Maybe it's both. Probably it's both.

In any case.

I've bounced back.

I've started working out.

I've gotten back to cleaning my apartment.

Next I've got to get back into cooking.

I just have to learn to get through these emotional and mental ups and downs, and keep going, because things always work out in the end.

Illusions

I think people are attracted to people who are happy, or can easily fake happiness.

How can you fake happiness you ask?

Fake it. People are loud, exaggerate, behave over-the-top.

But faking it doesn't take you far, because people always see through it in the end.

Or, like me, just don't interact with people. Be quiet, retreated, introverted.

I know that's not me. It's just a coping mechanism.

When I'm in a different place (not in Korea), I'm incredibly outgoing and friendly and HAPPY!

Why am I happy there and not here? What about this place makes me unhappy.

I don't think I like being in a place for such a long time. Especially not having people around to hang out with.

It's been over 3.5 years now. And I'll be here another year. Hopefully my last year.

I hope I get out of this head space soon...

Who are you?

I think part of being happy is accepting who you are.

Knowing who you are.

Knowing there are things about yourself that you just can't change.

Know that there are some things you can change.

What is Happiness?

I just realized that I'm not happy.

It's an amazing realization. I always love figuring out why I feel the way I feel.

The times when I'm happy is when I leave Korea and go travel. When I meet people, enjoy the warm sun and eat food that is not Korean.

The rest of the time I cope, I manage. Here, the little things make a difference from day to day.

I think I knew this, but not very consciously.

But now I get it. I don't belong here. I've been here for way too long. This has to be the last year here.

Even if my plans after this year don't work out, I'll have to get out.

I'm too young to be bitter and miserable. Seriously!!

Early next year I'll have finished paying off all my debt and I won't have this burden and responsibility weighing me down. I can afford to take off some time and go somewhere and do something that I truly enjoy.

I think I need a long vacation.

I've done a lot of work on myself here, and I've grown and found out a lot of things.

But, I need to do more and I feel held back here. The usefulness of the situation is gone. I need to be somewhere else so I can keep growing.

People

After being in Thailand, and actually, after repeated traveling and meeting a variety of people with whom I've been able to develop over a pretty short time a really good connection, it's REALLY difficult to interact with people here in my region. I don't share anything with them, I can see right through their fake attitudes and exaggeration and showing off to impress mannerism. There was one person like that on my CELTA course and I just steered clear of her. I didn't feel the need or obligation to interact with her. Why is it here in Korea, in Geojin/Sokcho, that I have to interact and deal with people that I REALLY don't want anything to do with.

I can't stand people who are two faced. AH!

Back in SK

So, I'm back.

The last month seems strangely surreal.

Abby was so cute when I got back. She was all cuddly and affectionate.

I also got Chessea now. It's the cute little Pomeranian.

Abby and Chessea have to learn to like each other. There's some tension, but I think they'll get along in a couple of months.

I haven't unpacked yet. On Monday I went to school and lesson planned. It was great. I got it done so much faster than usual.

Today I taught a few classes. I did it the CELTA way. It was partially great. I think it's difficult to get the students here thinking. They are used to just memorizing, repeating, and multiple choice stuff. It will take a while to get them going, but I think eventually they'll be fine.

I'll post some pictures soon.

I'm mentally done!

I passed 7 out of 8 lessons. I've got one more lesson on Wednesday and I'm sure I'll pass that one as well.

I passed 3 out of 4 assignments. I've just submitted #4 and I expect to fail that one.

I done!

I don't want to do this anymore. I'm tired, exhausted, moody, tired...

I'm done trying. I just want to be done now and relax.

I'm glad its the last week, with only a few more days to go.

It's been a great GREAT learning experience. I've gained a lot from this course and I would recommend it to anyone interested in teaching English.

But for now, I'm done!

Update

1st assignment - PASSED

2nd assignment - SUBMITTED, waiting for it to be returned

1st lesson at the intermediate level finished. It went great :)

2 more assignments to go, 3 more lessons to go... WHOA!!!

I'm almost halfway through the 3rd week.

Time is going quickly, but it feels like I've been here a LONG time!!

Thank you for the dance

Thank you Ryan, my English friend from Japan!

I'll come visit you soon!!

After finishing the first 2 weeks of CELTA, this was an absolute treat.

1 dance floor

1 DJ

1 dancer --> ME

He got it right in the end and I danced like mad for almost 2 hours!!

That was a worthy evening!!

I hope we do it again soon!!