I’ve been loving Mondays. Mondays over summer break mean that I have a whole week ahead of me to do awesome things. Fridays over summer break mean, oh gosh, we’re getting closer to the end of summer break, and I am not ready for that yet! Mondays during the school year meant that I had a whole week I needed to get through. Fridays during the school year meant freedom at last. Once school starts again, I hope that I’m able to keep up my summer attitude. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves; there’s still summer break ahead of us! In other news, I’ve finished Seasons 1-5 of Downton Abbey and I need to figure out how to obtain Season 6.

1. Podcasts aren’t anything new to me, but I’ve been especially loving and appreciative of them this summer. They jazz up my 30 minute walk to work every weekday (20 minutes from my apartment to campus, then 10 minutes across campus). You’ll see me walking to work, laughing and smiling to myself with my earbuds in. Well actually hopefully you don’t see me laughing to myself on my commute; I try to stifle it because I don’t wanna look like a crazy lady! I keep the smiles though. Who Weekly and Dear Hank and John never fail to make me laugh. I just wish that the podcasts I subscribe to uploaded more often! Podcasts once a week definitely aren’t enough to cover my daily commutes.
2. I feel like I’m finally doing real work at my summer job! Before I was just watching video tutorials, updating databases, exploring potential concepts for various projects… basically just little housekeeping things. But this week I started doing front-end development. Web design is what got me interested in computer science in the first place, although the only experience I had prior to declaring myself as a computer science major was fiddling around with my theme on Tumblr, which is nothing compared to doing actual web design. Web design combines my interests in computer science and graphic design, so I’m really excited!
3. I used to write summer bucket lists, but I never actually tried to tick anything off of them unless it was convenient, so this summer I decided that I wasn’t going to write a bucket list, and instead I would just write down a few things I wanted to accomplish this summer outside of work, which was to update my blog and update my LinkedIn profile. Just two things. The strategy was to make it doable, and I’d say that two things are totally doable, and I’ll still have time for work and more than enough time for fun. I revamped my blog during the first week of summer break, and this week I filled out my LinkedIn profile, which was previously empty. Once my profile was filled out, I started making connections. I hadn’t done it previously because I didn’t want people to see an empty profile and have a bad impression! I connected with my winter externship sponsor, and later in the day she sent me an email, giving me updates and catching up. I’m so glad we reconnected!
4. We had another workshop at work this week, and this time they had coffee from Bruegger’s Bagels, bagels that I assume were also from Bruegger’s Bagels, and orange juice. I’m always happy to see free food, but I was especially happy to see orange juice, because it reminded me of the scene in Downton Abbey when Baxter served Cora orange juice because she “heard Americans drink orange juice” lol.
5. At the workshop we talked about values and time management strategies, and we also socialised. I think they really want us to socialise because most of us are working individually or with like one professor. Anyways, we were talking and socialising, and from a conversation I learned that if you download the McDonald’s app and your home team scores a home run, you get a free McDouble! So I downloaded the app and got a free McDouble.
6. I’ve had another Chinatown discovery! I’ve located pandan cake! This is sure to be added to my list of Chinatown musts, including bubble tea and egg waffles.
7. Kathleen came down to visit me this weekend because she was hired to photograph a wedding! On our full day together, I invited Julia and Ami over to the apartment for some brunch at Audrey’s 😉 We cooked up bubble tea, the fluffiest pancakes, snacked on grapes and cookies, and then went into town for some window shopping. It’s always so exciting bringing friends together, and a day of friends and bubble tea is a day well spent.
8. Currently listening to The Echo & The Shadow by The Well Pennies.

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: 24. 23. 22. 21. 20. 19. 18. 17. 16. 15. 14. 13. 12. 11. 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.