And if happiness should surprise you again, do not mention its previous betrayal.

Hi, hi—you should probably get used to this, because I don't think I'll stop saying it anytime soon. I also noticed I use it in my blog posts.

For some weird reason, I write more newsletters when I'm in school than when I'm on holiday. I planned on writing only once this month, but here we are, I'm about to share my story once again. I can't keep greatness to myself and you shouldn't too. Share the subscription link with someone today. 🫵🏾

Subscription link: https://graceandbooks.beehiiv.com/subscribe

This week has been really crazy, crazy as in, I had to spend money unnecessarily. Infact, I honestly don't know how I'm not losing my mind, because I don't have money anymore—ohmigosh.

I was supposed to have a test on Tuesday, but they cancelled it, and the craziest thing is, I didn't have anything till 2pm that day—I had a practical by that time, but I wasn't exactly bothered by the long gap in between, because I already had plans to read for my remaining tests this week during that break and fill my manual too.

I don't know if I have said this before, but I hate filling these practical manuals. I'm so tired of it. I can tolerate doing the practical, but the manual?! Jesus. It's like doing the same thing over and over again.

Date, title, aim, introduction, drugs, materials, result (calculation and table), discussion, conclusion, precaution, post lab questions.

Rinse and repeat. Every week.

Anyhoo, I stayed back at school to read and wait for the practical only for the time to reach and they cancelled the practical. I didn't even know how to feel at that point. I literally went to school for nothing that day (I would have still read at home). Wasted transport!

On Wednesday, I had a test, so it wasn't a waste. I also had a class too—I got there late. Thursday pissed me off the most. We were supposed to have a practical by 10am, but this week is our faculty week and they were doing this event that students had to attend, so classes didn't hold, but for some weird reasons, the course rep insisted that the practicals were going to hold that morning.

When I was at home, I almost didn't want to take her seriously, because it's possible that they just said that so that the students will come to school, but on a second thought, I was like, this is practical we are talking about o, what if it actually holds? So, I just settled on going to school, but I was still having second thoughts, so I decided to leave my house 30 minutes to the time.

Lo and behold, they cancelled the class immediately I got down from the shuttle. It really pissed me off. Infact, I was so upset that I knew that I couldn't attend the ceremony with the way I was feeling.

I just went straight to the park and entered another shuttle to take me back home, but I somehow ended up going to church. I helped with administrative work and had a good chat with the pastor, so I just forgot about it.

I was feeling under the weather earlier this morning, so I didn't go to school today—we had a class in the morning, but I also have a test today, it's an online test and it's by 6pm. I'm not sure how I feel about it 😂, I'm honestly just hoping I don't forget. I have set 3 alarms now to remind myself that I have a test I need to read for and not forget about.

If you know me, you'd know that I read dark romance a lot, but, um, I don't think I want to read them anymore. 😭

I started reading this particular series by Penelope Barsetti (also Penelope Sky, same person), and it's a fantasy novel. Vampire falls in love with a human.

I've read the first two books in the series (it's the Dirty Blood series, her latest series) and when I started reading the third book that came out this month, I couldn't do it anymore. 😔

I couldn't get past the fact that whenever they talk about how much they miss their partner when they're separated for whatever reason, it's just the sex. And it's so… omg.

Like, what about her personality? Doesn't she make you laugh? Like, bruh, you could have sex with anybody that doesn't mean you're deeply in love with them, and you haven't seen your partner for months and that's all you're thinking about. It was just really cringe and uh, weird.

The worst part is when the author tries to make it make sense by trying to describe the woman's/man's [redacted] as this very special thing you can't get anywhere else. Like, if that's the only thing you can think about, it's just lust.

I understand that the sex is the main part of the story, but it's supposed to be a dark romance, where's the romance?! 😔

The man could do the most insane thing and when he's apologizing to the woman, he would probably tell her something like how their separation is causing him pain, and the next thing that comes out of his mouth is; he could have had any other woman in his bed, but he didn't, infact, he even looked up her pictures online and jerked off to it (I'm so sorry 😔) , and the woman would fall to her knees.

That's insane. It's insane because most of the time, it's the man's fault and he could have just apologized like a normal person, but no, the only time they apologize is when they see the woman with someone else and then they get really jealous and kill them (or just harass them).

It looks nice on paper, I guess, until you think about it and realize that if someone tells you that kind of thing irl, you'd run. The craziest part is, when they apologize they never apologize for what they did directly, it's almost like it doesn't matter anymore, but the issue is still there. This happened a lot in Fifty Shades of Grey.

I just couldn't do it anymore at this point, I realized that I was just making myself go through pain, and I didn't have to do that. Like, what does that paragraph even mean? 🥲

Not all dark romance novels are bad, I guess. I think. I don't know. They're all the same 😭, like that's the reason they're called dark romance in the first place. I don't even know anymore.

Anyhoo, moving on to brighter things, I read a really cute book recently. I enjoyed it so much that I gave it 5 stars. It reminded me a lot To All The Boys I've Loved Before and that's one of my favourite series of all time. It was just really cute.

It's about this girl who's Chinese (?) and has had to move around a lot because of her mother's job, and so she's never really had a stable life.

The book starts from the point where her family moved back to Benjin, so she had to start at a new school and she wasn't looking forward to it. Things happened, and then she eavesdropped on this popular boy's conversation, more things happened and then she needed his help, and then, they start fake dating. I swear, it's way more than what I just summarized. 😂

I liked the fact that she was a writer and there was something she said in the book that really resonated with me a lot and reminded me of this newsletter.

Just read the book. ✋🏾This Time It's Real by Ann Liang was actually one of my top 3 books for September, the other two were:

🐇 The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang.

🐇 Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa with Eric Ozawa (Translator).

I posted my September wrap up last week (or was it this week?), I can't remember. Do well to check it out.

Link: https://graceandbooks.wordpress.com/2023/09/30/september-wrap-up-never-again/

So, surprise surprise, I'm actually watching a movie, and gasps it's a k-drama. I must confess, I'm your typical “I prefer reading books than watching movies” person.

I can spend a whole day reading books, but if I do the same thing for a movie, I'll just feel like I'm wasting my time. I can't explain it. Don't even ask ✋🏾, but I'm curious to know if I'm the only one who feels this way.

There's actually no special reason I don't watch k-dramas, it's just because I don't watch movies generally. I don't have any bias towards it—although, I think they're all the same 🫣, girl meets boy, they hate each other, one starts falling in love first, the other one refuses to admit it, then something happens, then they admit it, movie ends.

It's funny because I would read 100 books with that same storyline and it would still hit me in the same spot every single time, so my bias (if there's any) towards k-drama is just because I don't watch movies generally.

My favourite movie is Pirates of the Caribbean though, I love love love it. I've watched it like 3 times now and I'll probably watch all the parts in December, or whenever I want to, but definitely before the end of this year.

Anyhoo, I decided to watch this movie because I wanted to improve my Korean. I went back to learning the Korean alphabet, kinda like starting from the beginning, and I just wanted to practice pronouncing the Korean words based on the alphabets I know.

The name of the movie is Law School (I think it's pretty popular, if you send me any spoiler, I'll never forgive you for it 🫵🏾).

It's a legal drama, also a mystery thriller. I like the fact that it's in a school setting. I'm done with episode 1 and I have 13 questions already. I don't know anybody's name yet, but it's exciting because someone is already dead, someone else is already arrested, they're law students, I like their class conversations and there's a girl I like already. There's a guy, but I keep mixing him up with someone else (🥲).

Maybe by the time I send out the next mail, I'll be done with the movie or at least, halfway done with it, and I'll know all the characters' names and be able to tell them apart.

Like I said before, I want to improve my Korean. Why did I suddenly decide to improve my seriousness by 45? No idea.

There's this girl I see on X and she's really good, I like it and I want out for me too. There's no grand reason why I'm learning Korean, like I don't want to live in Korea anytime soon or whatever, I'm just doing it because I can. ✋🏾😂✋🏾

I've been using Duolingo for about a year now and I actually like it, it keeps me consistent, something to go back to everyday. Tbvh, if not for the app, I probably would have given up a long time ago, but with the app, I get to take it one day at a time without feeling overwhelmed or like I need to figure out anything, I just need to follow Duo's instructions. 😂

The thing with Duolingo is that it keeps you consistent, but there's only so much one app can do. Duolingo doesn't teach you about verbs, adjectives, grammar, or sentence building. You'll have to do the work yourself, but you'll learn something everyday. 😂

Not like it doesn't teach you sha, it will just tell you X is an apple, but it wouldn't tell you why X is an apple, so you can apply it yourself in another area. That sort of thing.

Anyhoo, I found a textbook and a workbook—it's a level 1 textbook and workbook, and another textbook that focuses on just hangeul, korean alphabets. I like that the lessons are short and beginner friendly. There are about 25 lessons in this book, so I think I should be done with the textbook this month.

Whenever I say things like this, people usually ask me how I'm able to do these things consistently everyday, and the answer is, I honestly don't know. I just do. I like the idea of doing something everyday, I can't explain it more than this. 😂 

I think consistency (maybe routine?) is what keeps me stable and gives me something to look forward to each day. I don't know, there's this rush I get when I say I'm going to do something and I end up doing it, and also something about challenging myself yada yada.

I mean, I'm currently doing a squatting challenge for October. Why? No idea. I just want to. I mean, if my ass gets bigger that's a good thing (🤩), but the fact that I'm doing something consistently everyday till October is over and I get to celebrate that I did it at the end, it's what driving me. I'm vain.

Also, I'm a very spontaneous person. The way I can just wake up one morning and decide I want to do something needs to be studied. I just remembered how I decided to cut my hair. 😂😭

I edited some of the blog posts on my blog, you should check it out (and share 🌚). I'm really proud of the interview posts especially, I should do more of them and post the ones I already have—I will do that, definitely. I already have someone in mind for the next interview.

Anyhoo, here are the recently edited blog posts. Do well to check them out and share. It means a lot to me—why did “if it means a lot to you, wetin concern us?” immediately come to my head. Plis. 💀

🐇 Book Review: Out Of Love by Hazel Hayes.

https://graceandbooks.wordpress.com/2022/03/17/book-review-out-of-love-by-hazel-hayes/

🐇 An interview with Orellana: I'm the original all of you are mid.

https://graceandbooks.wordpress.com/2022/10/04/im-the-original-all-of-you-are-mid-an-interview-with-orellana/

🐇 An interview with Ernestine: I don't really go for African literature.

https://graceandbooks.wordpress.com/2022/12/27/i-dont-really-go-for-african-literature-an-interview-with-ernestine/

🐇 An interview with Sunshine: Language is everything.

https://graceandbooks.wordpress.com/2023/01/28/language-is-everything-an-interview-with-sunshine/

🐇 My favourite quotes from Vagabonds! by Eloghosa Osunde.

https://graceandbooks.wordpress.com/2023/03/15/my-favourite-quotes-from-vagabonds-by-eloghosa-osunde/

I've been listening to the GUTS album and Taylor Swift's collection on Spotify. I've been using that Spotify DJ feature too, so it's just my old songs.

I'm looking forward to finishing the Law School OST album I found on Spotify, I already like this one, I think it's the theme song, I don't know, they sha sing it a lot.

I'm done with my test now (💀) and my only plan for the rest of the day (it's 6:37pm) is to watch Law School, then I'll start reading for more tests (next week) tomorrow. What a life.

Alright, alright. This was fun. I had a swell time writing this one, and this where we part ways. Don't forget to share the subscription link and read my blog, and send a reply, too. 🙈

Like the subject line says, whenever happiness surprises you again, enter into it and burst! Bye! 🧚🏾‍♀️