It’s beginning to look a lot like spring! Quite a few people managed to scrounge up a free hour or two over the weekend to take pictures around campus, including me of course.

1. As I hinted at last week, Poonie came to visit me on her spring break for the first time, which means it was her first time seeing the beautiful campus of Bryn Mawr College. A trip with me is not complete without a detour to Chinatown for bubble tea from Kungfu Tea. Well, it wasn’t a detour. Bubble tea is always the destination. The detours included egg waffles, Asian pastries, and noodles. I also took Poonie to my favourite local coffee shops (not too many local ones to choose from): Green Engine Coffee (rec: Spanish hot chocolate) and Hothouse Coffee (rec: iced chai latte). Afterwards, we watched The Lady in the Van (featuring Maggie Smith) at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute, which is right next to Hothouse. Despite being to Hothouse several times, that was my first time watching a movie next door.
2. Evenings are rough. You feel the clock tick-tick-ticking down the seconds left in the day, tick-tick-ticking down the seconds left before your assignment is due. And once it’s reached, it rewinds and goes right back to tick-tick-ticking down to the next one. On Wednesday night, this became altogether too much, and to top it off, I had a cherry of a skin emergency, so I was feeling all-around horrible. I headed back to my room early, took a shower, did a face mask, cleaned my room, turned on the diffuser, played some music, boiled a kettle for tea (I love the sound of hot water pouring), did some independent reading (currently reading Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan), and then went back to work in a much better mood. It was a practical version of a spa-night for a school night, and I’ll definitely be doing this again the next time I’m feeling down.
3. Thursday was a gorgeous day. I had most of my Intro to Data Structures class outdoors where we did an activity relating to trees and sorting. The Compilers class also came out, and they were working out their problems, chalk on pavement. Sometimes it’s nice to get away from the computer to do computer science.
4. Chaverim is the tri-co[llege] (Bryn Mawr College, Haverford College, Swarthmore College) a cappella group I’m in, the only only tri-co a cappella group in the Tri-Co. You’d think that that means we have a leg up, being integrated at all three campuses, but sometimes it feels more like we’re drifting between them. So on Friday, when we had our own concert at Haverford College, it was a very special moment indeed (not a joint concert, but one of our very own, which hasn’t happened in a very long time!). Our set consisted of Pakkanen by Rajaton, Sexotheque by La Roux, Folket Frän Ea by Riltons Vanner, Ievan Polkka by Eino Kettunen, Oh So Quiet by Bjork, Titanium by Sia (in which I soloed!), and Radio by Wise Guys. The set was a great mix of English and non-English songs, and we were probably the most prepared we’ve ever been, with seven songs nonetheless! As if that weren’t enough, many of our friends across the campuses came to watch us perform, and Kat even congratulated me with a cup of bubble tea afterwards, which is a breath of fresh air from traditional flowers, but Ami got me those too (daffodils!) so I have the best of both worlds and the best of friends :’) To see more from the concert, check out a little photo essay over at the Haverford Clerk.
5. I’ve been meaning to get a little coffee table, pouf, or rug to furnish my room so that people have a place to rest when they visit my dorm room. We’re well into the last quarter of the school year, and I still haven’t gotten around to it. Here I am still in the process of getting set up, and there are seniors who are already starting to sell all their stuff on the For Sale or Free Facebook group, preparing to move on from college and into the real world. Senior sales are the best, because they just want to get rid of everything, which means they tend to sell at lower prices. And that is how I obtained this beloved Ikea chair for $20. This chair is perfect–Scandinavian modern style minimal [Ikea] aesthetic, small (great for small college dorms and small people like me), and light (summer storage optimal). Never too late for dorm decor!
6. Currently listening to this playlist on 8tracks.

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: 12. 11. 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.