If you’re keeping up with the blog, you’ll know that I’m living off-campus with Kat next year and we’ve found our apartment! Meanwhile, this summer I’m renting out a different apartment from a friend with Victoria. And, well, I briefly ranted about the state of that apartment in last week’s post. Since then, we’ve come up with a better plan. We’ve negotiated with the people we’re renting from to buy us heavy-duty cleaning supplies, but for the past few days, Victoria and I have been hanging out at Starbucks to use their bathroom and then have been walking down to Haverford in the evenings to shower at their gym, but their gym isn’t open on the weekends, so over the weekends we need to walk further down to Bryn Mawr and get Julia, who is living there over the summer, to let us into the dorm and shower. This blogger’s life certainly isn’t all glitz and glamour. On the bright side, we’re doing a lot of walking, so hopefully we’ll have really nice legs by the end of summer, and also this is the beautiful view we walk by every evening on our way to Haverford’s gym.

1. I finally launched Brunch at Audrey’s 2.0! This has been long awaited and highly anticipated by me, and it’s definitely the most “drastic” blog makeover I’ve done. Changing up themes is a lot of fun for me, and I did a ton of it with Tumblr, but migrating over from Blogspot to WordPress.org and changing up my look definitely took a lot more planning. I’d write down my ideas and let them rest in my planner so that I could focus on my school work instead of daydreaming about the perfect blog, but as soon as I was off for summer break, I sat at my computer and schemed away. Blogging has never felt so real; I have my own domain and it’s self-hosted and everything!
2. It feels so good to wake up early in the morning and not have any appointment I need to rush to make. For most of this past week I’ve been waking up before my alarm, like around 7:00AM or 8:00AM. Normally I get tired from just thinking about having to wake up that early, but when it’s summer, it feels good to know that you have all this time to do exciting things. I start my summer job next week, so I don’t know how much longer I’ll find mornings so magical, but hopefully for awhile! If I keep naturally waking up around 7:00AM, maybe it won’t be so bad.
3. It feels so good to have time to waste, but time enjoyed wasting is not wasted time 😉 I can afford to spend my morning catching up with the latest Game of Thrones episode I missed. I can afford to spend my whole afternoon reading. I can afford taking long walks. I can afford getting lost. I can afford exploring.
4. Finding shortcuts. Victoria and I are getting ourselves acquainted with the town we’re staying in this summer. All we really need to know how to get to is from our room to the laundry and the trash, and from the apartment to the grocery store, the bank, Starbucks, Haverford College, and Bryn Mawr College.
5. Victoria and I got free samples at Starbucks! This was especially welcomed by me, because of all the times I’ve gone to Starbucks this week, I haven’t bought anything there. I’m a big fan of their free water and free wifi.
6. Okay I lied. Yesterday I was at Starbucks again, and that time I bought a tall hot chocolate. But c’mon, one time out of four isn’t bad right? And really, I probably needed to buy a drink otherwise they’d kick this freeloader (me) out eventually. I purposefully got a tall to save money and also purposefully got a hot chocolate to save money because that’s cheaper than coffee I think. I’m glad I got that hot chocolate though because Starbucks is so cold. I shouldn’t be freezing all afternoon when it’s technically summer out! T_T I don’t get why* they turn the a/c on so high if they’re trying to promote their frapps. Plus it was raining outside so it was all around gloomy. Having a hot beverage cheered me right up. I cupped it in my hands for at least a full minute before taking my first sip.
   *afterthought: OMG I THINK I KNOW WHY. They don’t want people like me to loiter around so they make it too cold to bear for too long 😮
7. Victoria left me for ten days in Korea and at first I thought it’d be fun being alone and having the apartment to myself, but it has actually been quite lonely. Which is like, duh, but I was surprised because as an introvert, I’m very comfortable with being alone and often prefer it. I was moping around and scrolling down Tumblr (scrolling down my own downward spiral) when I stumbled on THIS POST. #mood. That is me. I love it when I find relatable posts like this. I start work tomorrow though, so I won’t be feeling like that for long!
8. When people ask me what my favourite colour is, I always say it’s olive or I’ll elaborate on my preference for neutrals. When people ask me what my favourite book is, I always say Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. I’m bad with favourites, so I stow away my answers and regurgitate them whenever someone asks. But to be honest, I haven’t read that book since fourth grade and can only remember what it was about in a very general sense. I’m the same with the Harry Potter series. In the back of my mind, I keep thinking that I need to reread some books but I never do. This week I finished rereading Where the Red Fern Grows, which is the first book I’ve reread in a long time. While this book still has a place in my heart, I think I can now say for sure that my current favourite book is The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. I feel disgustingly mainstream for saying that, but I love that book, I do. Anyways, since finishing that book, I’m now reading When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, and I already know that up next I’ll be reading The Martian by Andy Weir. Keep up with me on Goodreads!
9. Oh how I’ve missed reading from physical books! For the past few months I’ve been reading from my iPad because it’s so much easier for me to acquire e-copies of books I want to read, and it’s so much more convenient to carry an iPad around than a book. But after my last final exam, I spent the evening chilling in Canaday Library (you’d think that the library would be the last place I’d want to be after a final exam, but there you have it), or more like was sucked in. There were so many books I wanted to check out, but I also knew that I’d be working this summer, so I distilled my check out to three books: When Breath Becomes Air, The Martian, and The Strange & Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton. I figured that I could always return for the rest of the books later, especially as I’ll be working in the library this summer (though at Haverford’s Magill Library, not Bryn Mawr’s Canaday Library, but the perks of the Tri-Co is that I have access to the libraries at all three campuses).
10. I didn’t get ticketed on the train when I went into the city to meet Jennifer for brunch at Day by Day! I’ve been trying to budget my money better, and you know I’m really trying because I’m not buying bubble milk tea every time I’m in Chinatown. I won’t be seeing my family until the end of summer, which means my wallet won’t be replenished until then ;P Hopefully the money I earned this past school year and this summer will be sufficient! I’m just nervous because I already spent most of that money on rent for this summer and on revamping the blog.
11. A security guard just rode by me on his segway. Those things never fail to crack me up.
12. Currently listening to Dearly Departed by Marianas Trench, Wake Up With Me by Gabrielle Aplin, and Save Me by 방탄소년단 (BTS)… and 똥싸야돼 (Dong Saya Dae) by BgA… and also watching all the behind the scenes videos.

In other news… I’m back on Instagram. I know, I know, just two days ago I said that I’d be off Facebook and Instagram indefinitely, but life is a fickle thing and so am I. So now the only social media platform I’m not on is Facebook, but that’s a big one for me, so whatever, I’m still proud of myself. (I didn’t announce this, but I’m back on Pinterest due to excitement for my new apartment.) The reason I’m back on Instagram is because I want to find local (for me that’s Philly) Asian-American creatives, not even necessarily to connect and make things with them although I certainly wouldn’t be against that, but just simply for my own inspiration and maybe to share on the blog too. I asked my creative friend and idol Kristy how to do that because she’s doing amazing things in Toronto, and she was adamant about utilizing Instagram. After my social media cleanse, I think I’m now at a place where I can have a healthy relationship with Instagram, so here I am!

What was the highlight of your week?

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: 20. 19. 18. 17. 16. 15. 14. 13. 12. 11. 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.