This was my first month of not writing weekly Happy Lists and it felt weird! A happy moment would occur, I’d make a note to make a note of it, but then I’d remember that I was no longer writing weekly Happy Lists. (This year I’m doing monthly reviews instead, if you recall me mentioning. This post is the first of them.) I think I’m going to start noting down my happy moments again and share them in my monthly reviews, starting with next month! I’d start this month, but I’m writing this post at the end of the month and I can’t remember the little joys and triumphs that happened in between.
Books
I was not productive at all this winter break. I started freaking out about it come my fourth and last week, so I decided that the least I could do was do some independent reading. I read six books that week, including two classics, and started and finished another book on my flight from Beijing to Philly. Keep up with me on Goodreads! (Also, if you want to see my favourite quotes from these books, check out my Goodreads reviews!)
My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella | ★★★☆☆
A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo | ★★★★☆
Sundays at Tiffany’s by James Patterson and | ★★☆☆☆
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald | ★★★★☆
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee | ★★★★☆
Lotus by Lijia Zhang | ★★☆☆☆
Eveningland by Michael Knight | ★★★☆☆
The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker | ★★★★☆
A Cast of Vultures by Judith Flanders | ★★★☆☆
Deaf Again by Mark Drolsbaugh | ★★★★☆
Blonote by Tablo | ★★★★☆
Incendiary by Michael Cannell | ★★★★☆
Movies & TV Shows
TV shows are why my circadian rhythm always goes to shit over winter break. It all started when the family started binging White Collar together. I was always the first to fall asleep while the rest of the family would stay up until 3AM together. I’d go to bed earlier than they would, but I was still sleeping in the wee hours of the morning. I’d try to stay up for as long as I could because I didn’t want to miss anything, but soon enough exhaustion would take over. I still need to watch Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Arrival, Moana, Hidden Figures, Split, and Sherlock.
Everything Before Us | Reminded me of Black Mirror S03E01. (but I liked Black Mirror S03E01 better)
La La Land | The transitions were so beautiful. I loved the ending.
Reign | I ship Mary and Sebastian. Mary is beautiful. Also I got a lot of music from this show.
White Collar | “Matt Bomer is so unnecessarily attractive” -some Youtube comment. It’s true. It hurts. (love this outtake)
锦绣未央 (The Princess Weiyoung) | Binged with my dad. This show is so visually appealing. Pretty colours.
도깨비 (Goblin) | Grim Reaper is my fav.
Riverdale | Watching it for Cole Sprouse.
Music
I was playing my music out loud when my brother asked if I was playing one artist. I said I wasn’t and that I was playing one of my playlists. He asked me what I was using, and I said Spotify. He asked me whether anyone could view my playlist, and I said yeah. So basically, my little brother likes my music, yesssss. The playlist we were listening to was my sun emoji playlist , which is my playlist of upbeat/mainstream songs (all my playlist titles are emojis because I can’t come up with names whoops). Anyways, the music I newly find are usually saved to my sprout emoji playlist, and you can find most of the songs here in that playlist.
I Still Love You – Josh Jenkins
Sabotage – Amy Stroup
Sons and Daughters – Allman Brown, Liz Lawrence
Love is War – RUNAGROUND
Petals – Bibio
City of Stars – Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone
Caroline – Aminé (Drew Tabor cover)
잘 지내길 바래요 (I Hope You’ve Been Doing Well) – 담소네공방
Cafes
The blended chai latte is a classic that my friends and I would always get from Jamaica Blue back in high school. New on the radar is 鲜芋仙 (Meet Fresh), which my family and I went to almost every day! But my all-time absolute favourite dessert is 焗荔茸西米布甸 (baked mashed taro sago pudding) from Honeymoon Dessert. I don’t come across this shop often, so when I do, I always order one of these to eat there and another one to take home.
The English Tearoom
鲜芋仙
Gregorys Coffee
Kobrick Coffee Co.
Shopping Haul
For the last few months, I’ve been trying to grow into an all-black wardrobe, but this month has shown me that I love colour too much, especially coral, mustard, and emerald.
Costa Coffee Christmas mug
Dolce Vita “Ohanna” over the knee boot
Uniqlo Sanrio graphic t-shirt
Uniqlo fluffy yarn fleece jacket
Lately
A frosting competition with my brothers. Outtake from an at-home family photoshoot. A day with Kathy and Gloria. Several days with Sheena and Ray; my sanity saved by them. A day trip to NYC with Stephanie, Kat, and Julia. Philly with Jennifer and Kat. Brunch at Audrey’s 😉
During our adventures, Kat, Jennifer, and I got inspired to collaborate on a new project to share our foodie adventures on Instagram @nomsterz.
I’m excited for this semester. But isn’t that how we all start out? I’m hoping that it’ll keep up. I’m taking Concurrency and Co-Design in Operating Systems and Computational Linguistics at Haverford, and American Sign Language and Structure of Navajo at Swarthmore. Originally I considered auditing Theory of Computation at Haverford as well, but seeing as I’m already taking two 300-level computer science courses, I decided against taking a third.
I’ve been sleeping early and waking up around 6:00AM. I think it’s residual jetlag, and I’m hoping it’ll stick! Waking up early in the mornings has given me time to cook up proper breakfasts like potato hash or avocados and poached eggs on rice crackers, instead of just having cereal, though I love that too. I quite like waking up at 6:00AM actually, though it is annoying that I start getting sleepy around 9:00PM.
How has your month been?