Well, recently I've been in a rather negative state of mind that I can't pin a reason to! Perhaps its the abundance of time I have to myself that keeps me in my own thoughts most of the day whilst my roomates and friends are all out and about working and doing things. Or perhaps nerves over my upcoming trip to the US, or perhaps sadness over the idea of people I've grown rather fond of moving back to the US this summer, and other changes to come after summertime with new school schedules and classes, etc. Or perhaps my attempt to drink less coffee is also coming into play, although I've been not doing so well with that lately! In any case, whatever's causing my negativity, it hasn't been fun to feel unhappy and irritable all the time. And wouldn't you know it, Aaron is exactly the opposite of unhappy and irritable. All. The. Time. He's always happy and joyful, smiley and laughing, always seeing the positive side of every single situation you could ever think of, and always keeping a very positve and realistic perspective of things. Perhaps this is one of the reasons God brought us together, because I need a large dose of Aaron's positivity and perspective very very often! In light of trying to change my own perspective to one of positivity instead of negativity, here is a nice list of things I am extremely grateful for and reasons why the little things that bother me are actually Nothings:
-I was raised right by Godly parents who love me unconditionally and taught me to know Jesus and how to be a good adult with biblical values, including a strong work ethic which I don't see in a lot of other adults my age!
-I've taken many varied opportunities to travel and live in different parts of the world and befriend many different kinds of people. In Taiwan, a lot of people dream of the opportunity to live or work abroad, but many of them never leave the country and spend their entire life wishing. I'm blessed to have gotten to live my dreams.
-I have a job at undoubtedly the best school in this city, with a godly boss and co-workers who actually love each other.
-I'm healthy!
-I have all the things I need, from an apartment within my budget, a scooter to get me around, easy access to fresh and healthy foods, lots of entertainment options within walking distance, and great friends.
-I have a happy church family for support.
-I have a happy, loving, and supportive boyfriend who loves God, makes me laugh, makes me feel special, treats me and all my friends with utmost respect, and helps me be a better person every day.
-I have a cat who may or may not love me back, but makes for nice company in the afternoon while everyone is gone. :)
-I'm not rich, but I have enough to take care of myself and even a little extra for things I want.
And that's just a start. So you see, there's no reason for me to feel negative and unhappy! I'm a work in progress, but I think a daily tab of things to be thankful for is putting me on the way to a more healthy and positive perspective. Reminder to self: happy or unhappy is a choice. So, choose happy!
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Oh my!
Oh! Oh my! It's been two months since last I posted! I'm terribly sorry! I sort of forgot I had a blog! You people who check my blog ought to poke me on Facebook and remind me to write stuff sometimes. :)
However, nothing fantastically interesting has happened in the past two months, so you need not fear you have missed super important details of my life. You have not. I assure you, you have not!
Here's what I recall:
-I finished my Chinese class and received a passing grade of 92, which considering how I studied for terrifically difficult exams and managed to range between 80 and 95 on most of them, I think is pretty good.
-I finished tutoring my two business English students last week *sniff*, which I will miss somewhat. It was a nice class and a nice source of extra income, but I don't want to continue next year while I will be teaching more hours. This week they're treating me to dinner at Outback steakhouse across the street from my house, as a thanks. Whoo hoo!
- I just noticed I can't 'block' the text of a blog entry, which bothers me greatly, as I much prefer all my sentences line up on both the left and the right sides. :(
-I caught a Cockroach (with a capital C for bigness of size), in my room last night, which I sprayed to death liberally with Doom.. er, which I sprayed liberally with Doom while screaming, and my roommate actually came to finish spraying it to death, and it died in a grisly dance in Samson's litter box. As both Samson's littler box, and his water/food bowls had by then also been sprayed liberally with Doom, I went to the pet store and bought new litter, scrubbed the box, scrubbed all the dishes, and cleaned everything up. This was at like 1 in the morning. O the joy of a tropical climate in rainy season..
-Now I continue to have the creepies at the thought of more Cockroaches potentially being present in said room.
-I got my new ARC which means I'm legal to stay here until July 2013. Whee..!
-New ITPS family is arriving in a week and a half, with two small children. I'm in charge of teaching them a few introductory basic Chinese words and phrases. Oo!
-Finished my US taxes, and since THIS year I haven't got ANY bank accounts/credit cards open in the US, I had no way to pay TurboTax (which I always use), and couldn't use free TurboTax because I had to file a form 2555 for foreign earned income and it wouldn't let it do that free, so I went to the IRS website and downloaded the two forms I needed and filled them out all by my little self, and mailed them in hoping they would forgive any potential mistakes because I am a little person making little monies in a little country. You think?
-I won 400 NT dollars in the Taiwan Receipt Lottery! Google that if you want, it's too long to explain here!
-No more subbing, everyone stayed healthy. Aaron and I leave in two weeks for the Cape. We catch a bus from here at 3:30 in the morning to Taoyuan airport. THAT will be unpleasant, but once we get there it'll be great fun!
-I had some good meatballs tonight.
That's all! Here's fingers crossed hoping I remember to blog sooner than two months away next time. :)
However, nothing fantastically interesting has happened in the past two months, so you need not fear you have missed super important details of my life. You have not. I assure you, you have not!
Here's what I recall:
-I finished my Chinese class and received a passing grade of 92, which considering how I studied for terrifically difficult exams and managed to range between 80 and 95 on most of them, I think is pretty good.
-I finished tutoring my two business English students last week *sniff*, which I will miss somewhat. It was a nice class and a nice source of extra income, but I don't want to continue next year while I will be teaching more hours. This week they're treating me to dinner at Outback steakhouse across the street from my house, as a thanks. Whoo hoo!
- I just noticed I can't 'block' the text of a blog entry, which bothers me greatly, as I much prefer all my sentences line up on both the left and the right sides. :(
-I caught a Cockroach (with a capital C for bigness of size), in my room last night, which I sprayed to death liberally with Doom.. er, which I sprayed liberally with Doom while screaming, and my roommate actually came to finish spraying it to death, and it died in a grisly dance in Samson's litter box. As both Samson's littler box, and his water/food bowls had by then also been sprayed liberally with Doom, I went to the pet store and bought new litter, scrubbed the box, scrubbed all the dishes, and cleaned everything up. This was at like 1 in the morning. O the joy of a tropical climate in rainy season..
-Now I continue to have the creepies at the thought of more Cockroaches potentially being present in said room.
-I got my new ARC which means I'm legal to stay here until July 2013. Whee..!
-New ITPS family is arriving in a week and a half, with two small children. I'm in charge of teaching them a few introductory basic Chinese words and phrases. Oo!
-Finished my US taxes, and since THIS year I haven't got ANY bank accounts/credit cards open in the US, I had no way to pay TurboTax (which I always use), and couldn't use free TurboTax because I had to file a form 2555 for foreign earned income and it wouldn't let it do that free, so I went to the IRS website and downloaded the two forms I needed and filled them out all by my little self, and mailed them in hoping they would forgive any potential mistakes because I am a little person making little monies in a little country. You think?
-I won 400 NT dollars in the Taiwan Receipt Lottery! Google that if you want, it's too long to explain here!
-No more subbing, everyone stayed healthy. Aaron and I leave in two weeks for the Cape. We catch a bus from here at 3:30 in the morning to Taoyuan airport. THAT will be unpleasant, but once we get there it'll be great fun!
-I had some good meatballs tonight.
That's all! Here's fingers crossed hoping I remember to blog sooner than two months away next time. :)
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