(Time for another...)

BOOK RECOMMENDATION:

OF SNAKES AND BIRDS

I've decided to stick with the fantasy genre again this week in recommending a couple of my favorite books (both in the same series). I was actually introduced to this series by one of my younger sisters, and now it's my fall back book if I need a quick romance story (not steamy romance, just FYI). The first book in the series is called Hawksong and the series is written by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. She is amazing at creating believable cultures, and in such short books.

The first book revolves around the princess of the avians—Danica—and the prince of the serpiente—Zane. Quite obviously, these two characters end up together in an attempt to unite their kingdoms. Predictable, I know, but the essence of this book is not in it's over arching scheme, but in its minute details. It is not just that the two end up together, it is why and how they cope with the situation that is what is so intriguing to me.

The second book, Snakecharm, follows close on the heels of the first, this time detailing the struggle, not to unite the kingdoms, but to unite the two races. I don't want to delve too deeply into these stories, in part because they are so short and I would run the risk of giving too much away. There are more installments in the series, but I didn't find them nearly as compelling as the first two (maybe I'm just biased toward Zane and Danica), and the first two can stand alone without the support of further books.

Hmmm, now I want to read them. But I can't because they're back in Idaho, and I'm in Korea :( Sad day! You have no idea how sad I am I had to leave my books.

Anyway, leave a comment about your favorite fantasy books or about a genre you want me to write a book recommendation for—get as specific as you want, but remember, although I'm fairly well read, I'm certainly more familiar with certain genres than with others. Hope to hear lots of recommendations from you guys!!!

                                                                                              A book is a dream

                                                                                                            that you hold 

                                                                                                      in your hands.

                                                                                                                      -Neil Gaiman

BOOK RECOMMENDATION:

PERN

This piece was designed by Michael Whelan for Anne McCaffrey's Dragonflight.

"Books are the carriers of civilization.

Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled,

thought and speculation at a standstill.

They are engines of change, windows on the world,

lighthouses erected in the sea of time."

Barbara W. Tuchman

  

I've decided in order to properly represent the "bookworm" part of my blog, I will post a book recommendation/review/critique every week or every couple weeks (and maybe throw in a couple posts about writing). Keep in mind these are my opinions alone and do not necessarily mean everyone will enjoy the books I decide to recommend. Reading is beautiful precisely for the reason that people's tastes are so varied and diverse and there's something out there for everyone. That being said, keep in mind I will pull largely from Fantasy, Sci-fi, YA, Dystopian, Apocalyptic, and Post-Apocalyptic. There will be a few from other genres, but not many seeing as the genres mentioned before are what I mainly read.

I decided to dedicate the post today on a book series that first introduced me to the genre that would consume my reading life for the next dozen years: The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey. My mom was a fan of the books, which is what first propelled me into the world of fantasy (she is classified as a Sci-fi author--but we won't get into the technicalities of genre classifications and overlaps). Anne McCaffrey is a well known and respected author in the fanatsy/sci-fi genres and has written multiple series that take place on the world of Pern. Two of my favorite books of hers include: Dragonsong, and The White Dragon.

For those of you who are not familiar with Pern, I'll give you a quick rundown (hopefully without too many spoilers). Though Anne McCaffrey is detailed in her descriptions of the world of Pern, it's inhabitants, cultural and social makeup of the different populations, the basics boil down to this: Pern is most well known for dragons and dragonriders (as you see in the depiction above). There are five kinds of dragons (color indicates rank/size): Gold (queens), Bronze (largest males who most often mate the queens), Brown (next largest males), Blue (smallest males), and Green (smallest female dragons who are infertile). There are two main continents that the books revolve around. The Southern Continent is renown for its lush jungles and grasslands but also its tectonic and volcanic instability. The Northern Continent, on the other hand, is what you might call infertile or barren, though it is far more tectonically stable. The planet is chronically plagued by what Anne McCaffrey terms "Thread," a thin, silver, stringy organism that falls from the sky and devours anything living including people, dragons, animals, and plant life. Thread is the main reason for the social and political structure of Pern. Dragons were, in a sense, domesticated and used to combat Thread by burning it, thus protecting the various populations that inhabit the planet. 

Dragonsong is the first book in the Harper Hall series and revolves around Menolly, a girl with a dream of becoming a Harper. Thwarted by her father, Menolly runs away and stumbles upon a group of fire lizards, undomesticated ancestors of the dragons. She is able to connect with the fire lizards through music and teaches nine of them to sing. The story progresses from there, but I don't want to spoil it for any who haven't read it. 

The White Dragon is the third book in the Pern series. In this book, Jaxom, the young Lord of Ruatha Hold, accidentally impressed a white dragon (not a normal dragon color) named Ruth. Jaxom grows up with the challenge of being both a Lord Holder and a dragonrider. Together, the pair battle Thread and rebel against Oldtimers who attempt to steal a golden egg. Jaxom comes down with an illness called "Fire-Head." While recuperating he discovers some mysteries of who the people of Pern call the Ancients, or the ancestors of the Pernese.

Anne McCaffrey is a master of world building. She blends fantasy and sci-fi elements seamlessly with stories of action, mystery, and drama. I think my dreams of becoming an author began with reading her books. Her spin on dragons is unique and fresh. Keep in mind this series was begun in 1967, so the writing style will be different from modern fantasy books (especially from the increasing popular YA fantasy genre). But that didn't stop me from enjoying them wholeheartedly. There is a special place in my memories for these books.

Feel free to comment about either your opinion about Anne McCaffrey's books or books that have made an impact on your life.

And just as a little side note, my flight to Korea is booked!!! I leave early Wednesday morning and will arrive in Korea Thursday evening. Isn't it exciting?! Keep an eye out for my first post from Korea (and many, many pictures)!

"It is what you read when you don't have to

that determines what you will be when you can't help it."

Oscar Wilde

 

A LONG, HARD ROAD 

TO A DREAM I NEVER KNEW I HAD

 

I was wondering what I should start off with and thought, why not start from the beginning? So here goes nothing...

I'd been missing Hawaii terribly since graduation (almost two years ago now), and I missed my tutoring job more than I ever thought I would.

Who wouldn't miss this?

All through college—mostly because I was a tutor—people asked me if I wanted to teach, and I always denied it. Teaching was not for me. No way would you ever see me in a classroom; it just wasn't going to happen. I took a job as an English tutor mostly because I felt English was something I was adept at and which I enjoyed, though I was very dubious about the whole teaching concept that tutoring encompasses. Tutoring came less naturally to me than I would have liked—though I can't say I was surprised—and on more than one occasion I found myself struggling to teach certain concepts that came naturally to me but unnaturally to non-native speakers, but I enjoyed tutoring nonetheless, and eventually my skills and confidence grew. My tutees were fabulous (most of the time anyway), my coworkers were just as nerdy as me (if not more so), and my supervisor was like a second mom.

Too soon it came time to graduate and leave my island paradise. I relocated to the Las Vegas area to be closer to my sister. My new job was enjoyable, mostly because of the people I worked with, but it was nowhere near any field I was interested in. Only a few months after I left Hawaii, I realized I needed a plan, I needed to figure out where I wanted to take my life (career-wise anyway). It was a little over a year ago—right around Christmas 2012—that I had a crazy idea: teach abroad. This was something more than one of my friends had done during college, though I had never considered it in the slightest while I was at school (remember my aversion to teaching?). I had friends who went to Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, China, and Hong Kong. The answer of where to go was almost immediate: South Korea. I'm still not sure what it is that attracts me more to Korea than anywhere else, maybe it's the culture, or the friends I made at college, or maybe it's just where I was meant to go.

So the decision was made, but how on earth did I get started? I knew I didn't want to do it right away—I was still pretty settled in my job and was enjoying time with my sister and the friends I had made in the area. Maybe in a couple years or so, was my thought. Turns out The Lord had other plans for me. Randomly, one day I started chatting with one of my Korean friends on Facebook, and though I had just barely made the decision to teach in Korea, I mentioned it to him. Lo and behold his sister was a recruiter for English teachers! He put me in touch with her, and she gave me the basics of the process I would need to go through to get started. Only a few weeks after that, a former roommate came to visit me in Vegas, and what do you know, she was leaving to teach English in Korea in less than a month! She put me in touch with a Facebook group that was set up for those who wanted to teach in Korea.

A few months passed and things at work got crazy and stressful for me. Everything started feeling wrong. It felt like I was somewhere I didn't belong. Over the course of a weekend (it was late August 2013) I did a lot of praying and soul searching. What was wrong? Where was I supposed to be? The answer came and within a month, I moved back home, getting in gear to prepare everything for Korea. This just goes to show that your timeline and The Lord's aren't always one and the same.

The list of paperwork was long and not exactly cheap. But to me it was worth it. I was going to Korea, and nothing was going to stop me. By this time, everyone knew my plans (and some of my friends, I'm sure, were getting tired of my excitement and constant updates on every tiny detail). December rolled around and my recruiter contacted me with a possible job offer, so we set up a day and time for a phone interview. The time for the interview came and passed and still no phone call. The nerves were setting in. Maybe they had all of a sudden found someone else or just plain didn't want me. Only after a prank call from my sister and two and a half hours of waiting did they finally call (turns out they forgot they had parent/teacher conferences). The interview was fairly short but went well, and my recruiter informed me the next day that they wanted to hire me. I was so stoked! I would be teaching in Incheon, which is right by the capital, Seoul, and by the ocean!!! I think I'm most excited to live near the ocean again. And oh my goodness, I will finally have humidity again! After living in Vegas and Idaho, I'm ready for some moisture in the air again (although come the Korean summer, I might take that back).

Now it was time to finish up the paperwork and send it in. Even before the school received my paperwork, they sent me a contract, which I reviewed, signed, and returned. Along the way, there were a few hitches (I can imagine this process is rarely smooth). I had to contact the post office, because it seemed the lady at the post office had given me the wrong type of tracking number. They had to do an investigation to see where my package had ended up. By this time it was late January, and I was scheduled to begin teaching February 20th. I was a little anxious (after all, I still had to apply for my visa before I could schedule my flight and head out). Long and stressful story short, after many many many calls to various departments, we concluded that either the package was taking longer than usual to get to its destination or it had disappeared into oblivion (I will never use USPS again, and I suggest everyone going through this process learn from my mistakes and keep a safe distance from USPS too). In a panic, I started the process all over again. Thankfully, a few months back I had begun an FBI background check through the FBI itself before realizing I had less time than I thought and changed to an FBI approved channeler (more expensive but so much faster). So I had two FBI background checks in the works. By the time I had realized my package was lost, the second background check had arrived. So all I had to get were my school transcripts, a copy of my diploma, and the apostilles for my diploma and the background check (still a ton of money I would rather not have spent, but you gotta do what you gotta do).

With all this trouble, I started to doubt that Korea was the right thing. But as soon as I stopped fretting about everything that was going wrong and prayed, I knew it was still right. Things may not go smoothly, but it is where The Lord wants me, and what other reason do I need than that? Sure, it's a risk, but seeing as I've avoided risk most of my life, I think it's time to trust the Lord and take a risk.

Now January has passed and February is beginning. The school knows by the time I recollect all the paperwork and mail it to them (by UPS or FedEx and NOT USPS) that there won't be time for me to get my work visa in the States. So we have concocted a plan. As soon as I get the paperwork together (I should have the last of it in the next couple days) they will fly me to Korea where they will process everything to get my visa number, which I can then take to the Korean consulate in Japan to get my work visa (a story I promise to post after I get back from Japan). The cool thing about that, I get to say I visited Japan! The downside, the cost and time. We are currently working on finding a flight for early this coming week. So this time next week, I should be writing my next blog post from Korea!!!

Well, here's to all the adventures ahead (I promise to include a lot more pictures in the posts to come)!

Sorry for the never-ending post. I hope all of you are looking forward to all the stories to come of my explorations, my challenges, my mishaps, and all the hilariousness that ensues in between!

Twenty years from now you will be more

disappointed by the things that you didn't do

than by the ones that you did do.

So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor.

Catch the trade winds in your sails. 

Explore. Dream. Discover.

-Mark Twain

17 Random Facts
About Yours Truly

Just a quick intro for those who don't know yet, I'm planning on teaching English in South Korea, which will be the main focus of this blog. But before I start in to all the travel stories, I just wanted to do an introductory post, just so those who don't know me well have the opportunity to understand me a little better. So let's just jump right in and start with the most obvious, shall we?

1. You must have been able to deduce this from the name of my blog: I am a bookworm. My favorite thing to do is sit down and get lost in tales of adventure, danger, mystery, and magic. My favorite genres include fantasy (Lord of the Rings, anyone?), dystopian (shout out to all my fellow Hunger Games fans out there!), and apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic (I love me a good zombie book—emphasis on good). I always have a list of recommendations if you're ever looking for another epic read.

2. I'm not just nerdy about books. Anyone ever heard of Firefly/Serenity, Sherlock, Merlin, Star Trek, Star Wars? The list could go on and on, but I'll stop there. Surprisingly, and please don't hate me for this, I have yet to get into Doctor Who, although it is on my list. There's hope for me yet...

3. When people ask where I'm from, I usually tell them the place my family currently lives (which is Idaho for now). My family moved around a lot when I was young, though not as much as others I've met, so I've had a hard time calling any particular city/town home. Home is where my family is.

4. My favorite place in the world is Hawaii, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. Hawaii is where I grew the most and made amazing memories with even more amazing friends. It was my first home away from home where I felt completely comfortable and accepted. If the chance ever arises, I'd move back in an instant.

5. I'm a ninja! Haha, just kidding. I tend to be on the quiet side so people often don't notice when I enter or leave a room. The two most common things I hear: "When did you get here?" and "I didn't see you leave."

6.That leads me to the next one: I'm an introvert. As you might guess from the stereotypes, I'm a fairly quiet person, except on the occasion I get together with family and very close friends. I'm not the most social butterfly, and most often I prefer a quiet night in, though I do enjoy the occasional party. I feel far more comfortable in a small group of close friends rather than a large group of people I don't know. I tend to morph into a wallflower in groups of considerable size.

7. Spontaneity is not my thing. I like to know what's going to happen and when it's going to happen. I'm a planner, and I make sure I plan for the what ifs. Going to the beach on a warm sunny day...what if it rains? I'll take a jacket and umbrella just in case. I'm sure you can probably imagine what this whole trip to Korea is doing to my nerves...You'll understand even more when you read the next post.

8. The worst job I ever had was working on a dairy. It was hard work and, as you can imagine, the smell wasn't all that pleasant either. Never doing that again. Ever.

9. I've never actually been out of the country before; Korea will be my first trip abroad. Going to Hawaii was the first time I'd gone anywhere completely alone, without friends or family, and it was only the second time I had ever been on a plane (the first was a one hour flight from Seattle to Spokane). At least everyone in Hawaii spoke English. That's a luxury I won't have in Korea. I'm sure you'll all get to laugh about some hilarious situations that will put me in. 

10. I'm well aware of my faults and weaknesses (some of which I hope to overcome on my trip to Korea). To list a couple: I'm not very self-motivated when it comes to things like exercise and learning. I have to have an outside motivator (a teacher, a coach, etc.) to help me. I've learned that I

Exactly how I feel when I read.

perform better when I'm trying to please a person. I'm timid when it comes to situations that make me uncomfortable. If I don't know anyone at a dance/party I would rather turn around, go home, and get absorbed in a good book than stay and try to make new friends.

11. But I am also aware of my strengths. My ability to keep things in perspective has saved me from completely breaking down on more than one seemingly hopeless occasion. I am a dreamer, but I'm also a planner. In the beginning, teaching in Korea was just a crazy idea. But because I worked hard to plan things out (even if there were some hitches along the way), I am able to fulfill that dream.

12. In general, I don't connect with people quickly. But after we connect, just know you have a friend for life. We may not see or talk to each other very often and in some cases we may lose touch altogether, but I will still consider you my friend. Often, I find myself reminiscing on certain memories with certain friends I've lost touch with and wonder if they remember it too, even if it was just something small.

13. I'm a writer! Writing and reading both run in my family. My mom, two of my sisters, my brother-in-law, and my cousin all write as well. Even a couple of my younger siblings are starting to get the writing bug. I fell in love with the idea that I could create worlds of my own in high school and haven't stopped since. I even decided to do a creative writing minor in college, and I can't say I've ever regretted it.

14. Chores are not my favorite, and I'm sure most of you would heartily agree with me. One thing I like to do to make the job more fun and enjoyable, put on some awesome music and dance! I doubt many people have seen me dance (I mean really dance), but I love to dance. I dance when I do the dishes, when I cook, when I'm bored, when I clean, and pretty much anytime I hear music.

15. I never know where I'll end up in the future even though I'm constantly making plans. BYU-Hawaii hadn't been in the plan at all, but I'm forever grateful I went. Korea wasn't in the plan either, but I'm sure I'll learn and grow from my experiences there, maybe even more than I did in Hawaii. After Korea, my plan is to go back to school to get a teaching degree so I can teach English in the States (maybe go back to Hawaii for that?), but seeing as my plans tend to change unexpectedly, it's a mystery even to me where I'll be in the years to come. I might even end up in another country teaching English (maybe Japan or Taiwan?).

16. Even though I have no talent in this particular area, I have three languages I want to learn: Korean, Japanese, and Mandarin. I don't just want to learn to speak them, I want to be able to read and write them. Dreamin' big here, guys, and probably setting myself up for a lot of frustration in the future. Anyone want to volunteer to tutor me? Korean is first on my list, obviously. I've done a little self studying but haven't gotten too far. Bad with languages, remember? Watching Korean shows and listening to Korean songs has helped a lot (and I definitely recommend anyone learning a language do the same).

17. Cooking is something I started learning early in life, and in college I discovered I love cooking for people. I started off cooking for myself, and on occasion I would cook for my roommates. That eventually evolved into Sunday dinners at my house where my roommates and I would take turns cooking for friends. I got more than one friend addicted to my sausage rolls (just let me know if you want the recipe; I'll be more than happy to send it to you). I'm looking forward to trying Korean food, and I'll make sure to post any awesome recipes I stumble upon. Hopefully you're looking forward to it as well!

There you have it! Now that you know me a little better, I hope you're looking forward to reading about all my adventures to come.

"Not all those who wander are lost."

 -J.R.R. Tolkien