Hey it’s Sunday!

It’s Sunday! I really have nothing of substance to write about, but I’m in a phase where I’m trying to follow a fixed schedule of getting things done, and Sunday just happens to be the English blog.



I went to my Pilates and Yoga Dance class yesterday. I arrived early so that I could get a good spot. Pilates was great, as it’s an early class and not many people joined up. But the Yoga Dance after that? Some moron decided to squeeze in a tight space (I thought no one would try to squeeze in there) and then because it’s Yoga Dance so there were some crazy moves that half the people (me included) couldn’t really do, and of course I got kicked in the head because moron squeezed in so there wasn’t enough space. Damn it. I’ll probably skip Yoga Dance going forward though. It’s very casual, but the half the time the dance moves the guy shows us are like super hard, and since it’s a dance, it’s all flowing, so it’s just “you can do it you do it, if you can’t then you can’t” kind of way to go...

I’ve started reading (yet another) book. Hopefully I do manage to finish reading it. This time it’s a non-fiction. A River in Darkness: One Man’s Escape from North Korea by Masato Ishikawa. I decided to read this because a book club in Hong Kong (no known book clubs in Macau that I know of, after searching around) that I stalk is reading it and I thought I’d just follow some book club recs. So far so good, isn’t that bad a read as some other books I’ve read before.

I was also pretty diligent this morning and I did spend an hour working on my German! Granted, classes are over and I can’t do much, but I did go over some verbs and I copied them down and tried to conjugate them myself (exceptions to the rule suck) and I guess it was a good exercise.



Yesterday for lunch I tried out some technology stuff out. This restaurant did WeChat (a China social platform thing like a combination of Facebook and WhatsApp and messenger and PayPal and everything) ordering and I paid by a local e-wallet system called MPay (Macau Pay). Cool. I didn’t really have to talk to anyone. Introverts can go out now!

Book: A River in Darkness

A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea
Masaji Ishikawa
Amazon Product Link

The harrowing true story of one man’s life in—and subsequent escape from—North Korea, one of the world’s most brutal totalitarian regimes.

Half-Korean, half-Japanese, Masaji Ishikawa has spent his whole life feeling like a man without a country. This feeling only deepened when his family moved from Japan to North Korea when Ishikawa was just thirteen years old, and unwittingly became members of the lowest social caste. His father, himself a Korean national, was lured to the new Communist country by promises of abundant work, education for his children, and a higher station in society. But the reality of their new life was far from utopian.

In this memoir translated from the original Japanese, Ishikawa candidly recounts his tumultuous upbringing and the brutal thirty-six years he spent living under a crushing totalitarian regime, as well as the challenges he faced repatriating to Japan after barely escaping North Korea with his life. A River in Darkness is not only a shocking portrait of life inside the country but a testament to the dignity—and indomitable nature—of the human spirit.


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I was lurking or stalking a book club in Hong Kong and saw they were reading this book for March. I wouldn't be able to join their meet up but I thought I'd give it a go and try this "team reading" thing (despite the fact that I'll not be having any discussions with anyone). Not a bad read at all.

Very straight forward recounting of his life and eventual escape from North Korea. Really sad that he even after having escaped from North Korea he was worse off emotionally, what with being alone and the governments not acknowledging his pleas.