Though I started going to classes last week, this was my first full week of classes. As it’s the beginning of the school year, there’s lots of new and exciting and good things, as you can see from the length of this weekly update! I’ve been spending a lot of time doing work in my sketchbook and on Illustrator for my Art, Design, and Digital Culture course at UPenn. Honestly, if that was my only responsibility, I would be totally fine spending the majority of my days working on it. Most of the rest of my time has been spent launching Her Campus at my campus and establishing its structure. This is a lot of fun for me too, but again, I spend more time on it than I should! On the other hand, what I don’t spend enough time on is thinking about my senior thesis. The linguistics department really gets on us about our timeline, so my linguistics senior seminar is actually the “course” I’m most stressed out about. It’s only the first week and I already feel behind on my thesis?? The computer science department is a lot more lax, so I’m not as stressed about the computer science senior seminar. And the only other course I’m taking that I haven’t talked about yet is Speech Synthesis. It’s only the first week, so we’ve just been going over introductory linguistics, which I’m familiar with, and we haven’t gotten any homework yet!
// Seeing the squad on Sunday, right before school started. (vlogged!)
// You know how some people really cherish their morning ritual of making coffee? Well, I really cherish my morning ritual of walking to a coffee shop to get my coffee, even if it only takes me two minutes! On slow days I might walk to the one 30 minutes away. Summer/autumn morning walks are so refreshing!
// Ordering warm beverages. The first sign of autumn! I am so ready for autumn. I started wearing autumnal clothing even though it’s not quite cool enough for it yet and subsequently melt. (this is currently my #mood all the time)
// Beams of light that seem almost solid.
// Sketchbooking in coffee shops. There’s something so calming about it. Part of it is the soft energy of the coffee shop, part of it is the coffee, and part of it is not having technology out. It’s been too long since I’ve done any kind of hands-on art!
// I’m enjoying my UPenn class (Art, Design, and Digital Culture) so much! Because 1) art, and 2) not computer science haha. But seriously. When I took my first computer science course of the year, I was like, oh boy, all these people again. I also love that my UPenn class gets me out of the Tri-Co bubble (Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore) on a regular basis.
// I made two good friends in my UPenn class, and we have each other’s numbers and everything! I feel potential for a close friendship??! They’re both super chill and one of them is a foodie.
// I can finally use my microwave cover! Funny story: When Kat and I moved into our apartment last year, we had planned to get a microwave, but we never took the plunge. But since I had expected to get a microwave, I bought a microwave cover… which we never used, for obvious reasons. But at the end of last year, a senior friend gave me his microwave, so now I have a purpose for my microwave cover!
// I don’t have any classes on Wednesday! It feels good to have a break in the middle of the week.
// Victoria got me an awesome graphic tee from South Africa. It’s light blue with a white print that looks like Joy Division’s album cover, but instead of the regular pulses, the pulses draw the landscape of South Africa, featuring Table Mountain. Not only was receiving the shirt awesome enough, but quite a few people geeked out over it when they saw me wearing it. Story time: I walked into my UPenn class as the previous class (same class, different session) was getting out, and they had the Joy Division album art on the screen. I’m not sure what they were talking about. But then the professor saw my shirt and was like, your shirt! And I was like, haha yeah my friend got it for me from South Africa! And then a nearby student was like, what? Did you say South Africa? I’m from South Africa! And then he also geeked out over the shirt. And then the professor asked him to take a picture of my shirt and put it on the class blog, if it was okay with me, which it was. And then later during my class, my professor also geeked out over it.
// In almost every class of my UPenn class, we have an in-class review, where we pin our work up on the wall and all discuss it. I get really nervous and self-conscious about it, but it’s really helpful, and everyone always shares different ideas that give me more ideas. After one particular review session, a classmate leaned over and said to me that she really liked my design as an art history major because it looked vaguely vaginal. And like, wow?! Thanks?! Like, I didn’t think I’d appreciate this comment so much but I did??!
// In my UPenn class, we briefly talked about semiotics, signs, and symbols, and during that study, I read about how the semiotics we’re studying for art originated from linguistics, and I thought it was really cool to see my interests overlap like this (I’m a computer science and linguistics double major) (with an interest in art/creativity).
// The plumber came to fix the leaky faucet in our apartment (after two weeks of incessant leaking)! Just in time too, because I thought I was about to go mad.
// There was a dude painting the windowsill right at the exterior of my room, and I was sitting in bed with my laptop doing homework right across the window. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to acknowledge him or ignore him or close the blinds or what. I was telling my roomie about this dilemma from across the room until we realised that the painter could totally hear everything we were saying because the window and walls are so thin. It was a funny moment. We shouted hi from inside and waved at him and it was all chill.
// There was a Bryn Mawr Day celebration in town this weekend, which I hadn’t checked out since I was a frosh (briefly blogged about it here). I bought two bunches of dried lavender (2 for $5!), and hot spiced apple cider and a cinnamon doughnut from Firehouse Donuts ($3 total!). I am satisfied with my haul.
// I was a VIP at a J.Crew x Her Campus event! It sounds more important than it was; Her Campus sent out an email and I was one of the first 50 to respond, so I was a VIP, which meant that I got a $50 gift card. And on top of that, the event was offering a 25% discount with student ID, as opposed to the usual 15%. I ended up buying this $88 colourblocked corduroy shirt for $16! I’m also loving these polka dot boyfriend chino pants.
// I bought my first lighter ever. For candles. For MAXIMUM AUTUMN!
How was your week?