I really needed this past week. It’s been so long since I’ve been able to rest properly, to wake up and feel refreshed, rather than wake up and feel like I have just enough to run on to make it through the day. It’s been so long since I’ve had this much fun and this many laughs. It’s been so long since I’ve seen my girlfriends and I love them so much (:

I’m gonna format this week’s happy list a little differently. Each bullet will be a day of my break, starting on Friday and all the way to Saturday. At the end, I’ll show you how much of my original Fall Break plan I actually accomplished!

1. I don’t have any classes on Friday, but I had one last assignment due, so I worked on that until I needed to turn it in at 4PM, and then I spent the rest of my day going on an Amanda Bynes movie marathon: What A Girl Wants, Sydney White, She’s the Man.
2. Spent the morning reading. Finished the book and drafted a book review, which you can read here. Victoria came over in the evening and we cooked ddeokbokki for dinner. Ami joined us afterwards. This was the first time I’ve seen these two in weeks. We hung out, chatted, caught ourselves up with drama, and made plans for Fall Break. Love myself some girl time!
3. Got a free venti green tea latte from Starbucks, courtesy of stars. Got my phone fixed at the Apple store next door. My battery was swollen. The guy that helped me out at the store was an interesting dude. He replaced my phone with a new iPhone for free! It’s the same model as I had before (6S). In the evening, Victoria and Ami came over again, and this time to help me dye my hair black! Blog post is already scheduled to publish, so look out for that. While we waited for the dye to set, we cooked up a dinner of dumplings and samosas. Shout out to Trader Joe’s mini chicken tikka samosas! Delish. I washed out my hair just in time for all of us to tune into the second presidential debate, which was stressful, but we cosied up with citron honey tea and matcha monaka.
4. Tried out a new recipe and cooked up a fancy brunch of asparagus and eggs. Blog post already scheduled to publish. My Daniel Wellington watch arrived in the mail, so I spent a good deal of time photographing that. Blog post already scheduled to publish. So in love with their new collection. Then I walked to Bryn Mawr to meet up with Victoria and Ami, and also stopped by Staples on my way over to pick up command strips. We took some fun autumnal photos, and I have a blog post drafted. It’s not done yet, but you can get a preview from my Instagram. Afterwards, we cooked up a dinner of curry and sweet and sour chicken, and jammed to Closer by The Chainsmokers ft. Halsey until a neighbour came over and knocked on our door, whoops.
5. I woke up at 6:30AM and cooked too much pasta. Victoria needed to go to her UPenn class because UPenn’s Fall Break isn’t the same as ours, so we decided to both get day passes for the train and make the most of it. We popped by Ulta, Lush, Free People, and Bath & Body Works. I bought three candles: vanilla snowflake, warm apple pie, eucalyptus mint. I’m pretty sure that this was the first time I’ve bought candles before! Before Victoria left for class, we got tie-dye bagels at Chestnut Street Philly Bagels. I got mine stuffed with cake batter cream cheese, and Victoria got her’s half stuffed with honey pecan cream cheese and half stuffed with pumpkin cream cheese. While Victoria was in class, I settled down at Joe Coffee to work on my linguistics assignment. Before heading home, I made a pitstop at Kungfu Tea and picked up an oolong bubble tea for me and an almond bubble tea for Victoria.
6. Had a blogging day. Spent a good chunk of time replying to all the lovely comments you all had left for me, caught up with my Bloglovin’ feed, and edited some of my new photos. I also wedged in a bit of time to keep working on my linguistics homework.
7. Spent most of my day replying to emails. I wish I had got more done that day, but alas, it was not so.
8. My iPhone glass screen protector arrived in the mail, and so did my new laptop accessories! Finally got that marble laptop case and rose quartz keyboard cover. Am I blogger chic yet? While wiping down my iPhone with the kit to put on the glass screen protector, I also gave my laptop screen a quick wipe; it was in dire need of one! Feels good to finally have a clean screen. Let’s see how long I can keep it like that. Then Victoria and Ami came over to make freakshakes! If you follow me on Snapchat, you would have gotten a preview of all that food porn ♡ Blog already scheduled to publish. I left the house to shop for ingredients at 11AM, they came over at 2PM, we decorated and photographed until 3:30PM, and then demolished the freakshakes (or tried to), which subsequently put us all in food comas (it demolished us).
9. Finally finished that darn linguistics assignment. Tried out a new recipe and made some watery carbonara. The plaid crew sweater and plaid waisted dress I ordered off Abercrombie arrived in the mail. Realised I had forgotten to watch the latest episode of How to Get Away with Murder. Remedied that quick.
10. Currently listening to Chemical Kids by Major Myjah.

Fall Break plans: update

• Homework: Finished linguistics (#9 on happy list), but didn’t get a head start on programming languages or algorithms.
• Review and read textbooks: Nope.
• Reply to emails: Yes! #7 on happy list.
• Sleep by midnight: My average was probably 2AM, welp.
• Morning runs: Not a single time. How do people do this when the sun rises later and later?
• Get SEPTA week pass: Elected not to, but went on plenty of adventures without taking the train into the city every day, so I count this as a success.
• Get my PennCard: I tried to but it didn’t work. Darn! Shoulda gotten it before I dropped my class hah. So much for my scheme. I still count this as a success though, because I got it off my to-do list.
• Draft blog posts: I have six blog posts scheduled and one blog post being drafted, which means I have blog posts ready for every Wednesday until Nov 23 yeeeee.
• Finish reading The Heart of Henry Quantum by Pepper Harding, write a book review, and maybe get another book in: Yes, yes, no. #2 on happy list.
• Photoshoots: Yes! So many! ♡
• Tidy up, design, and photograph apartment: Yes, no, no.
• Buy candles: #5 on happy list (:
• Buy a lint roller: Yep.
• Fix phone and update number: #3 on happy list (yes), no.
• Learn LaTeX: Yes! I typed up my linguistics assignment with it and I feel like such a pro.
• Learn C++ (via Lynda.com), and maybe get more Scheme in: lol no.
• Look into summer plans (jobs): *cries* no.
• Learn how to use eyeliner: Elected not to.
• Learn new recipes (and at least one Taiwanese one): asparagus and egg (#4 on happy list), carbonara (#9 on happy list), but no Taiwanese dishes.
• Make a freakshake: Heck yes. #8 on happy list.
• Dye hair: Black. #3 on happy list.
• Watch Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children: Nope. Will probably stream it in a few months.

15/22. Ehh, not bad.

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: 41. 40. 39. 38. 37. 36. 35. 34. 33. 32. 31. 30. 29. 28. 27. 26. 25. 24. 23. 22. 21. 20. 19. 18. 17. 16. 15. 14. 13. 12. 11. 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4.