The last month of college has been absolutely nuts, and for the first time in forever, I took a step back from the blog. I definitely needed it, because I couldn’t have given the blog the time it needed, and I would have been further and further disenchanted by my careless blog posts. But now that I’ve finished off college (though graduation isn’t until this weekend), I’m back to the blogosphere! Even though we’re midway through May, this April recap is very much needed, especially since I haven’t been doing my weekly check-ins.
Books
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by JK Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany // ★★★★☆ // Beware, Harry Potter fans will not be a fan of this play. But maybe it’ll be a fun read to hate. It’s fast and I needed something like this to get myself out of my reading rut. I’m not a hardcore Harry Potter fan myself, but I totally understood the critiques given in the Goodreads reviews, which I won’t get into in case you still plan to read it.
Movies
I finally watched Coco! It was screened on campus and I almost cried three times–almost. I watched with a few emotional people and they brought a tissue box to pass around. I stayed strong though! On my to-watch is Lady Bird, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, and Isle of the Dogs (I know, I know, I’m so behind).
Music
The Bryn Mawr Concert Series managed to get Aminé to perform at our campus at the beginning of the month. Small schools like ours don’t usually get popular artists like him, plus it was a free concert open to the Tri-Co (Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore Colleges), so there were a ton of people. I don’t typically listen to Aminé’s genre of music, and I’m not a fan of big crowds, but I decided to go anyway, because I figured that it was part of the college experience. I used that logic to convince my friends to go too.
As anticipated, there were a ton of people, and everyone was pushing and shoving and I felt so gross and sweaty. There was a dude snorting a line of coke whilst lining up for the concert and I was so shocked. I mean, I guess I know that people get high at concerts and parties, but I didn’t know that people were so blatant about it. Anyways, I’m still glad that I went though, because Aminé was a great performer and I loved his intensity, which you only could have gotten at a live concert. “Wedding Crashers” has made it into my playlist!
At the end of the month, I saw Echosmith on behalf of Her Campus; Echosmith partnered with Her Campus and saved two tickets for each concert of their Inside A Dream tour for Her Campus in return for promoting, attending, and covering their concert, and Her Campus Bryn Mawr claimed the tickets for their Philly concert! I added a clip of every song of their setlist to Her Campus Bryn Mawr’s Instagram Story. Normally I try not to have my phone or camera out during concerts, but this was for work!! I’m so impressed that Echosmith is all siblings. Other than the obvious “Cool Kids” and “Over My Head,” I loved “Future Me” and “Get Into My Car.” You can check out the recap article I wrote for Her Campus here.
Cafes
United By Blue collaborated with Oxford Pennant and True Hand Society to bring out a limited edition collection of pennants. There were a few that I eyed, but they were super expensive.
Louise and I had brunch at Hungry Pigeon. Last semester we took Art, Design, and Digital Culture together and would try to do a special brunch or dinner after every project, but we didn’t take any classes together this semester, and we had missed our brunches!
Kat visited one random day (she graduated last semester), so she, Steph, Ann, and I got together that day, and we basically went from one food place to another one to another one. One of these food places was Parc, which we went for afternoon coffee, and which I had wanted to visit for the longest time. It’s a Parisian cafe with both an indoor and sidewalk setup, and it overlooks a park (Rittenhouse Square), so it’s quite the scene. Admittedly, the sun was blinding and the wind made everything a bit dusty, but it was so picturesque and the complimentary bread was so delicious.
Georgina and I kept up our Sunday brunch at Green Engine Coffee, and for one of them, we got a rainbow cake for her birthday. It was sickly sweet but beautiful.
Her Campus Bryn Mawr closed the semester with brunch at Sabrina’s Cafe.
Wishlist
Floral print dresses out of my comfort zone but exactly the refreshing excitement I need for spring | Mango floral print dress, Mara Hoffman lace-up dress
Spring bag that I definitely don’t need but want anyway | Clare V pot de miel
Pretty gowns I’ll never have the occasion to wear | Hello Molly champagne maxi dress, Aidan Mattox star-embellished gown
Lately
Kicked off the month with Senior Dinner at the President’s house! The food was aight, but it was post-dinner when we had the most fun. Leaving the President’s house after dinner and headed toward the dorms, we passed by picturesque parts of campus (I mean, what part of campus isn’t picturesque??) and couldn’t help but stop for photos together. We tried to take some proper photos at first, but we’re too silly for that.
After the Aminé concert, we ordered delivery from Campus Corner and all got milkshakes to cool down from the sweaty concert. I had mint chip and it was so refreshing. One of the things I love about college is having your friends around to order late night delivery and then eat on the floor.
Campus bloomed! Spring came out in all its glory for about a week and then gave way to summer. It was so uplifting to see the beautiful flowers and see everyone on campus hanging out outside with their friends. Good vibes~
We’ve had a lot of rain this season. Georgina and I took a ten minute walk to El Limon for dinner, and in that process, our pants got completely soaked. It was absolutely miserable. We walked in and the host handed us a stack of paper towels, God bless him. The burrito and the company made it not so bad though. I mean, if we could redo the night, we would have rather stayed home and ordered delivery. At least it was funny in retrospect.
Bryn Mawr College at dusk.
After brunch with Louise at Hungry Pigeon, we headed to Penn to kill some time before Steph T’s ballet performance in the evening. We brought some work and intended to be productive, but ended up spending all our time taking and editing photos of campus, and sharing Spotify playlists. There was a pretty floral installation outside our classroom building. I’m so thankful to have met Louise and Steph last semester in our Art, Design, and Digital Culture class, and I’ll miss our weekly coffee dates!
Her Campus had a collaboration with Bliss Beauty, and Her Campus Bryn Mawr was one of the chapters selected to participate in this collaboration. I was trying to take a selfie of myself using the product, but I don’t often take selfies, so I took one practise selfie first, so that I wouldn’t waste any product, it turned out alright, I tried to take a selfie with the product, and 300 selfies later, I finally got a shot. I need to practise selfies man. I’m really loving that flatlay I took of the Bliss products though. That cupcake mug I bought at a random market during my senior year of high school in Beijing finally came into good use!
Twinning with Steph C: Daniel Wellington classic black, denim jacket, pop of yellow. I don’t know when it happened, but all of a sudden my wardrobe has a ton of yellow and also has a ton of forest green. I’m not mad about it tho (: My friends associate me with those colours now haha.
A sleepy photo and polaroid with Steph C at Goldie for tahini shakes before we headed to Parc to spend the rest of the afternoon, with Kat and Ann too. We’re nap buddies.
Late nights in studio with Georgina. Or I guess not always strictly in studio.
How was your month?
PS: march 2018, april 2017