Happy Chinese New Year! Over the weekend I saw so many Asian parents on campus, and it warmed my heart to see that they came all the way to visit their kid for this special occasion. I’m not big on celebrations myself, but it still touches me to see the happiness it brings other people.

1. The week started off with an email congratulating me for being selected to attend the Philly Women in Tech Summit hosted by TechGirlz in April. “The summit inspires, educates and connects women in the technology industry. There will be (beginner friendly) hands-on workshops on UX (how to think like a designer), PHP/Wordpress, CSS, and talks on different career paths, like how to get investors on board for your startup. The conference will also address other areas in technology, like Exploring the New Frontiers of Technology – Using Virtual Reality for More than Games and security/cryptography.”
2. My photo got onto the Tumblr Radar and Staff Picks! (is Tumblr Radar and Staff Picks the same thing?) The photo is from Shin-Sen-Gumi Hakata Ramen-Gardena when I was in LA over winter break. It’s a completely average aerial shot of food taken with my iPhone.
3. This semester I’m taking Intro to Semantics with my ex-Advanced Chinese professor (she still teaches Advanced Chinese, but I don’t take that course anymore). Interacting with her in this environment is very different and I’m still trying to get accustomed to it. I’m used to seeing her in a Chinese class of about five people. It was one of the few classes I actually spoke up in because it was so small and so heavily discussion based. Despite the linguistics class being six times larger, she still expects her students to speak up at least once every class. This terrifies me, because I really, really, really do not like speaking up in large classes. For the first week, I managed to slip by, but towards the end of the third class, she asked the class a question and then especially asked for students who hadn’t spoken up yet to speak up while looking pointedly at me. I stared hard at my desk, but she didn’t relent. I learned my lesson and spoke up at the beginning of the next class when she asked us to review what we went over last class. Working on my participation grade this week, I spoke up in class and got the answer wrong. And it wasn’t a big deal. A few other students pitched in to answer the question as well, and most of us missed. And it wasn’t a big deal. It wasn’t a big deal. I’m slowly making my way towards becoming more comfortable with speaking up in large classes.
4. The weather has been so random. It was snowing during my Friday morning walk to class. Well, I think it mostly snowed overnight, and a lot of it got caught in tree branches, and when the sun came up, the snow started dripping and floating and plonking down. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, the berries were bright, and winter had never looked so alive.
5. Somehow I made it through my first lab for Intro to Data Structures. The due date was pushed back a week, but somehow I still managed to procrastinate until three days before it was due. I never would have been able to complete it in time without the patient guidance of my classmates. It was such a stressful Friday of working on my lab from 2PM to 11:30PM (labs are due every Friday at midnight). I definitely do not want to do that again, so I’m determined to get my shit together and work on my labs throughout the week like I’m supposed to.
6. Chaverim, the a cappella group I’m in, always makes me so happy. Admittedly, there are times when I don’t want to go to rehearsal, but after rehearsal I always feel so much better. At the end of rehearsal this week, I headed out to the van to go back to campus, and these four Chavers trailed behind. The view was so picturesque, so I told them to go back up the stairs and walk down them candidly so that I could snap a photo. Without a moment’s hesitation, they went back up and down the stairs for me. Gotta love photo compliant people. Not pictured was a determined student waddling down the stairs with a full keg of beer a few minutes later.
7. My high school team has just finished APAC swimming, the biggest varsity meet of the year, and a bunch of photos have been floating around Facebook–some new ones and some old ones, thanks to Facebook’s “this time last year” notifications. I spent at least an hour looking at my old APAC swimming photos, which made me both happy and sad at the same time–happy because that’s what I was, and sad because that’s what I was. This Sunday morning, I swam for the first time in forever with Ami. It feels so good to swim again, this time without a coach yelling from deck. The only thing was that I forgot a towel and she forgot sandals. It was inconvenient, but we were amused and pleased that we hadn’t had to swim for so long that we’d forgotten how to pack for it. I think we’ll be trying to make Sunday morning swims a thing this semester.

I want to make an effort to remember the little joys in life, so my 52 week challenge for 2016 is to write weekly Happy Lists.

PS: 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.