For the most part, I’ve been pretty good about making time for friends and I’ve been more spontaneous with our time together. But lately I’ve been turning down activities because “I have to work on my thesis.” I don’t really feel bad about it because I do need time for my thesis and I also need time to myself, although I could definitely be more efficient with my productivity. But anyways, I mention this because my friends are always asking me how my thesis is going, especially around times I have deadlines. For example, I had my thesis presentation last week, so my friends would ask me how it went and stuff. If you read my weekly update last week, you’ll know that it was rough. But when my friends asked me in person, I’d reply with, “It was chill. It was fine.” And then maybe a few days later they would check in with my blog, then come back to me, lay a somber hand on my shoulder, and be like, r u ok. I think the contrast of my feelings and expressions online vs. in real life is interesting and kinda funny. I think I respond more superficially in real life because it’s tiring to go through those emotions again and explain them, whereas online, I have time to sort out my feelings and it feels clarifying and cathartic.
Morning meetings
I had a short and easy meeting at 9AM on Monday, which sounds evil, but it was actually a great way to kick off the day, and it put me in the mindset to be productive with the rest of my day. Without that morning meeting, I might have laid in my bed for too long and taken my sweet time drinking tea and reading blogs — who knows when I would have gotten on with my actual school work?
Fresh soy milk + thermoses
Grace made fresh soy milk, made too much, set some aside in a thermos for me, and delivered it to my room piping hot :’) (We live in the same apartment building.) One of my favourite things about the holidays are hot beverages made with love!!
Christmas albums
ALL THE CHRISTMAS ALBUMS. I put together a Christmas playlist on Spotify, which is basically Daniela Andrade’s Christmas album + Michael Buble’s Christmas album + She and Him’s Christmas album + Justin Bieber’s Christmas album + Ariana Grande’s Christmas albums + Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” + more songs. I like modern Christmas music (like pop music and smooth/chill(?) music), but not Christmas carols. If you’re the same, give this playlist a listen! You can also save the playlist and/or follow me on Spotify!
Christmas
Me every evening: all the Christmas albums + hot cocoa + candles.
Bruno Major
I was listening to Christmas albums (as per us[ual]) and thought, Bruno Major should have a Christmas album. And then I stalked his Instagram. (His latest post at the time of my stalking was a guitar cover of “White Christmas” but he doesn’t have a Christmas album.) And I saw that he was on tour. And I saw that he’d be in Philly on March 3! I texted my friends to see if any of them knew him and might want to go with me, and Louise replied immediately, so guess who’s seeing Bruno Major on March 3 in Philly??!
cHRISTMAAAAS
I had to refrain from titling this post “CHRISTMAS // weekly update.”
Jim’s Steaks
Philly cheesesteak with whiz from Jim’s Steaks on South Street. This wasn’t my first Philly cheesesteak experience in Philly, but I haven’t had it in awhile. Gotta do all the touristy Philly things before graduation!
Rothman Cabin at Dilworth Park, City Hall
I love Dilworth Park at City Hall, especially around the holidays; it’s so festive! This weekend, Kat and I popped by Rothman Cabin, next to the outdoor skating rink at Dilworth Park, and shared a s’mores bread pudding and hot toddy. It was my first hot toddy experience (also my first s’mores bread pudding experience). I didn’t taste the alcohol, but I did get warm and either got a headache from that or from being tired, but it wasn’t too traumatizing because I’m used to getting headaches from lack of sleep or stress (everything is fine). BUT. The little cuppa hot toddy was more expensive than the s’mores bread pudding. Because of the alcohol 100% probably. DUMB. Alcohol is dumb. It didn’t even taste like alcohol. Gimme my tasty and cheap hot apple cider. Or bubble tea.
Her Campus holiday survival kits
Our Her Campus chapter received our second package of products (every semester we receive two “HC Survival Kits”)! I spent 1.5 hours shooting sponsored content for Her Campus Bryn Mawr’s Instagram, which was time consuming but fun. Can’t wait to start posting them next week! (I briefly mentioned the excitement of receiving our first package in this weekly update, and you can see a timelapse of me shooting sponsored Instagram content for that first package in this vlog.)
PS: How do you guys feel about me using headings? It seems like the responsible blogger thing to do.
PPS: last week’s updates