It was a rough week man! I’m just glad that it’s finally fall break! I spent my previous weekend working on finishing the “zeroth” draft of my senior thesis, which meant that I didn’t do any work for any of my other classes, which meant that I was playing catch-up throughout the week and staying up late to complete assignments. I was looking forward to recovering this past weekend, but my schedule has been packed, what with everyone wanting to celebrate and hang out before they leave for their fall break trips. I’m just staying in Philly though–got lots of things to do! Did you see my fall break plans?
// I swam with the president of my college?? For the second time??? It didn’t seem like a crazy thing when it happened because our president is very involved and our campus is small, but I realised that not everyone has that kind of relationship with the president of their college. Anyways, I was at the pool for a morning swim but all the lanes were full, and the president offered to share her lane. The first time it happened I didn’t realise it was her. It’s hard to recognise people in swim suits, swim caps, and goggles! (Honestly, swim suits, swim caps, and goggles are a better disguise than Superman’s glasses.)
// I had a rough Monday man. It seemed like thing after thing went wrong. I almost wrote a whole blog post about it, but imma just stick it in here. So remember how I swam with the president of my college? Well, in the lane next to me was my ex-swim coach so that was terrifying. (I used to swim competitively for the team, but I quit on bad terms with the coach. She’s psychotic. Okay fine maybe she’s not psychotic, but she’s definitely manipulative.) I couldn’t focus during my swim for some reason (not because of my ex-coach), so I didn’t feel all that fulfilled after my workout. After that, I headed to Hothouse Coffee to be productive and had to walk through the rain. By the time I arrived at the coffee shop, my pants were completely soaked through. My umbrella was useless except for shielding the top of my head from the rain. I wanted nothing more to take off my pants, but alas I could not. I was going to treat myself to a hot bowl of oatmeal (I love Hothouse’s oatmeal) but it was the only item on their breakfast menu that they didn’t have available. Finally I left Hothouse to grab lunch with Kat, and it wasn’t until we finished lunch and got back to campus that I realised that I had left my planner my LIFE at the coffee shop, so I had to walk all the way back to retrieve it. I called Hothouse first to make sure it was actually there and the barista saved it for me. When I arrived, I realised that I left not only my planner but my pencil case and my earbud case as well. The barista handed them all over to me and offered a paper bag to carry all the things in (“it’s raining out”)–God bless his soul. There were some other things that went wrong on Monday, but they were just small things, so I won’t bore you with the details. In conclusion, I’m thankful for my noise-cancelling earbuds that block out the world and for kind baristas that save your things and give you paper bags to carry them in, and I’m going to hibernate the next time it rains.
// Caught up with Austin over lunch in the dining hall–honoured that he used a swipe on me because he’s not on an unlimited meal plan. I was telling him to update me on his life because I felt like I had no idea what was going on with him outside of classes, of which we only share one (well, we also share computer science senior seminar, but that class is almost always cancelled so that doesn’t count). He said that there wasn’t too much going on with him. I said I was glad I didn’t miss anything *glare*. But then he shot the question back at me and I realised that it was a harder question to answer than ask. Something to think about…
// Her Campus sent our chapter a bunch of products and the packages arrived this past week!! I feel like this must be what it’s like for big fashion/beauty/lifestyle bloggers/vloggers every day haha. Christmas all the time! We got sent 40 pounds of sparkling water and 50 pounds of other products, included but not limited to Erin Condren planners, Aeropostale accessories (six pairs of sunnies in three styles??), Freeman face masks, Steripod toothbrush covers, Bedhead by Tigi hair spray, L’Oreal self-tanning towelettes and spray, and Hi-Chew (so much Hi-Chew). Our chapter needs to write and photograph a bunch of sponsored content, which is kinda exciting, because I don’t do any sponsored content for my blog.
// If you read my September recap, you might know that I’m obsessed with green velvet this season. WELL, I got my green velvet fix! One of the items sent to us from Her Campus’ brand partnerships was an Aeropostale green velvet scrunchie, which I claimed. (There was also a red and a navy, which other people took.)
// My advisor said my thesis draft was very well written :’) The last few hours before I turned my thesis draft in, my brain was all jumbled up. There was so much information that I had to learn and process and organise. I mean, it’s a better situation to be in than not having enough information. But anyways. By the time I turned in the paper, words had lost all meaning. I had a lot of them typed up, but I didn’t know if they meant anything. It was a relief to hear that they did!
// Had lunch with Louise at Houston Hall before class. She used her meal points on me and got us both chicken teriyaki bowls. It was delicious. Whilst chewing away, we half-heartedly studied for our “pop quiz” for our design class by just talking back and forth and randomly inserting vocabulary words. Who knew that art classes had quizzes too??
// Made an impulsive trip into the city with Georgina to check out the Made in Philadelphia market. It was a small artisan market and Georgina bought a scarf, so it was a productive trip. Afterwards, we strolled over to Chinatown and stuffed ourselves with noodles and bubble tea. I also bought a bottle of ice tea from my childhood (after seeing my younger brother post a photo of it on WeChat) and a box of instant milk tea.
// Marjorie (my roomie) invited her friends over for Friday night to kick off fall break! Marjorie did most of the hosting and took care of all the food prep. She was trying out new recipes throughout the week and I was an eager taste-tester. Come Friday, the get-together was a lot of fun and I got to properly meet Marjorie’s friends! They’re chill, they’re funny, and it was a good time.
// Had breakfast with Reina at Co-op! Afterwards she showed me around Penn Law and showed me her apartment.
// I found a pretty leaf (in the photo, behind the mooncake).
// Reina gave me the mooncake.
// Had dinner with the squad (Georgina, Victoria, Ami, Grace) at Bonchon, followed it up with bubble tea, and ended the night with drinks at Graffiti Bar. It’s the first bar I’ve been to in Philly! One of their yuzu cocktails was pretty good. I also liked their music. But omg I was so sleepy. I am a grandma.
How was your week?