Getting it together/ The land of Jacks

I have been rubbish these past few weeks. I've been ill 2 times (about to be 3), I've been behind on marking these oral exams, haven't done any work on my Chinese or Japanese, haven't finished knitting my Christmas presents, haven't written any blog posts, haven't read the Economist... I'm a hot mess. And I need to get back on top of things.

Especially with my *drum roll please* holidays coming up! Yes, China has finally relented and told us when we're on holiday, and it's a looong time. But that doesn't mean I can just lag behind on stuff because I'm chillin' in London. Oh yeah, I'm coming back for a while. Thank. God. So I need to get on top of things.

First of all, I need to do some more applications. This is probably the most pressing thing for me at the moment, mainly because I currently have no future, but also because it encompasses a lot of other things I need to stay on top of. I need to keep up my languages so I can take some exams, but also because I have a nagging paranoia that I'm gonna get to one interview and someone's gonna break into Chinese and I need to not look back at them like a child that has no idea what's going on. I also need to stay on my reading, and therefore the law blog.

Secondly, I really need to book my flights. Getting the holiday is only half the job, and now I know that it's so much earlier than I thought it would be, flights are that much more expensive. My parents are making out like I'm going to have to pay for the flights, but to be honest they're the ones who want me, and if I tell the truth which 'I don't earn enough money for round trip flights to the UK' (my mum keeps talking abou Premium economy as well, like, what planet does she live on), I'm sure at least half the fare will sort itself out. So I need to get on that ASAP.

You may (or may not) be wondering about the double title. This is kind of a personal funny for me, because one element of the oral exam allows the students to pick an English name for themselves. Now, there are gender confusions all around, but the girls tend to be pretty good at it (except for a few stripper-esque names that I'm gonna have to let slide and hope they never leave the country).What I have discovered is, boys pick 1 of 3 names:
- Mike
- Bob
- and, of course, Jack
The boys aren't doing as well on the girls in the exam in general, but you can tell when someone comes out with an original name that they're probably gonna be slightly ahead of the game. Although, 'Macbeal' and 'Insert-a-series-of-indiscernible-syllables-here' were probably just as average as the other 800+ kid that did OK.

And that is the update. That, and Chinese medicine tastes a.w.f.u.l.