Holiday Reality

Your last journal entry was to be about what you would like to do for your holiday. Today you will write about what you actually did over the holiday. Then, write a brief compare and contrast essay discussing how what you wanted to do was like what you actually did, as well as how what you actually did was different from what you hoped to do.

Over Chinese New Year break, I did what I usually do at this time of year: go down to my grandparents' house with my aunts (on my mother's side of course) and uncles. There what usually ensures is a lot of TV-watching, smaller kids running about, food, dishes to wash, and daily sightseeing trips around the local area. Although I brought a couple of textbooks down to Tainan with me with the intent of studying, I did not even open the textbooks, let alone read them. They just became extra luggage weight. In addition, there was a small power struggle over the one computer with internet in the house between my sister and our cousins and me (and, occasionally, some of the adults). Apart from the (dusty) mattress on the floor (uncleaned, because my uncle and my aunt are too busy working and my grandparents' years are preventing them from climbing up three flights of stairs) that my sister and I slept on for the night that triggered my asthma, it was a relaxing time.

The best laid schemes of mice and men go oft awry. This quote perfectly describes the situations in which I often find myself in. I make plans and intend to do them, but circumstances change and motivation is lost, and the "schemes" I laid go "oft awry". Ah, well. As according to Murphy's law, "anything that can go wrong, will go wrong".

Not everything I planned to do went off. In fact, I accomplished the one thing I hoped to accomplish most - relaxing and doing close to nothing, as well as spending time with the family. Sleep, though, was a problem.

In addition, I am proud (actually no. Try guilty) to say that I accomplished zero schoolwork over the break. I would have liked to, but at the time I seemed to lack the motivation or the physical space to do it (my grandparents don't exactly live in a mansion). Or I might just be making up excuses. Either way, it only meant that I spent the entirety of my Tuesday finishing as much work as I think I possibly could have. It also doesn't make me much happier to learn that generally, schools don't require students to study over Chinese New Year. They honor the festivity (which obviously PAS does not... Or some of the teachers don't, anyways).