Summing It Up: May 2016

Hi, friends! Last month was so, so lovely. My last final exam was the third of May and I got all my results for the semester by the fifth. After that, my summer holiday officially began. And I’ve literally been such a bum cleaning the house, exercising a little more, hanging out with friends I haven’t seen since the last summer, and eating yummy local food all over the state.

But anyway, come along with me to recap my May adventures with and outside Xingsings!

May Blog Posts*

*in publication order, not by favoritism

• Summing It Up: April 2016 [Wrap Up/Favorites]
• Book Haul: January – May 2016 [Book Haul]
• The Intelligibility of Nature: How Science Makes Sense of the World  [Book Review*] 2.5 Stars
• Summer Says: The Things That Make (Book) Blogging So Worthwhile [Discussion]
• Summer Days and Summer Nights [Book Review] 3 Stars
• Eligible [Book Review] 3.5 Stars
• Iron to Iron [Book Review*] 4 Stars
• The Vegetarian [Book Review] 2 Stars
• The Winner’s Kiss [Book Review] 5 Stars
• Me Before You [Book Review] 4 Stars
• Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Books I Plan to Read on the Beach (or This Summer) [Bookish Meme]

*I’ve decided to not cross post all of my reviews from my Goodreads anymore. Just because some of them are more school related and/or probably not as relevant to share on here.

May Events

Well the biggest thing was that I finally finished my undergraduate studies! However, it’s sort of complicated, but I have not graduated. I don’t get my bachelor’s degree until my P2 (second year) of pharmacy school and it’ll be a degree in pharmaceutical sciences, which is pretty much useless unless I’m a practicing pharmacist, haha. But I’m not complaining, being in school for six instead of eight years is still a blessing to me (got to save time and money, you know?). But to honor me technically finishing all my undergraduate work I thought I’d add a throwback photo of me in my robe and cap… when I graduated high school in 2014. And I know it’s really Tuesday and not Thursday for a #TBT but, please, just humor me.

It hasn’t even been too long ago, but me and my friends look like such young nuggets. Our height hasn’t changed much; I’m still the shortest. 😂 And I must have been happy because so much gums. >.<
L to R: me, my BFF since we were 9, and our friend

Favorites

I learned about Amazon Smile this month and I highly, highly suggest you all that use Amazon to start using it if you haven’t already. Basically if you use smile.amazon.com instead of regular Amazon, part of your purchase price goes to a charitable organization of your choice. This explains everything I’m try to say much better. And this is at no cost to you! Also if you use Smile it doesn’t change the usual price of your items!

I tend to be okay splurging on bookish stuff but I’m not really that way when it comes to jewelry. I like buying cheaper watches since the battery often dies on me and I’m usually too lazy to get it changed. In May, I saw this owl watch at Aéropostale, and I knew I wanted it. (Honestly, I don’t shop there but my local one was closing down and everything was 40% off in store so I thought I’d check it out).

This may seem absolutely mundane but I love these jars (bathroom ware) I bought (the picture shows the bigger one that I’m currently using to encase my magnetic bookmarks). They’re so much more chic than mason jars, in my opinion. I got them at Target in the section that sells the bathroom sanitary ware.

(Warning! Lots of videos this month!)

WHO ELSE IS EXCITED? Because I am! Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney original (my favorite modern one is Tangled, hehe). And I think Emma Watson fits Belle’s role perfectly. She’s so beautiful, smart, and inspiring. Just, gah, she’s totally my woman crush. 😍 And the producers better replicate the library scene or there’s going to be at least one angry fangirl. >.<

I always look forward to 1 Million Dance Studio’s daily uploads, and sadly their Youtube account has been terminated because of third party claims, which really sucks because all their choreos were originals and they had so many views (they were at 2M subscribers, sigh). I guess it can’t be helped when you use music. However, I noticed on Lia Kim’s Instagram that she was a World of Dance judge this year. So here’s the video of her showcased performance. The Queen has slayed once again!

In May I fell in love with The Garden of Words’ OST. The story of the animated film was pretty interesting. It’s about a boy that dreams of becoming a renown shoemaker and on rainy days he skips school to work on his sketches. When he sits under the canopy of a gazebo-like structure, he meets a woman always drinking beer and eating chocolate. And they only meet when it rains. The art was breathtaking (the video has clips of the art from the film), but the soundtrack was what drew me in. This video is of the entire soundtrack but it starts playing at my favorite track, Greenery Rain.

I obviously spend a lot of my time on Youtube, lol. Along with dance and music videos, I love to watch cooking channels. And my favorite, SortedFood, recently uploaded a tea video for their weekly FridgeCam. I really want to try the third floral one!

My favorite baking channel for cupcakes is The Scran Line. The baker, Nick, is always so sweet and he’s really helpful with his tips. He occasional posts some fantastic macaron recipes as well! But anyway, I chose his vegan recipe for Cookies and Cream cupcakes to highlight this month because lately I’ve been craving that flavor. (I bought a box of Cookies and Cream Pocky actually.) XD

The album cover makes me feel awkward to share this with you all… Like what is this pose. 😮 But I’ve been listening to this song a lot!

Those that are familiar with Girls’ Generation or SNSD, you’ll know this singer, Jessica. She went solo from the girl group a few years ago and I believe this is her solo debut. I don’t really care for her other songs but I like this one! And the cute story of the MV (even though I don’t really know what’s going on most of the time).

I discovered DΞΔN sometime last year, but recently my in real life bff learned of him and totally became obsessed. So I revisited this song, which came out earlier this year, and it went back on replay. XD

Since literally everyone was raving about the Korean drama, Descendants of the Sun, I gave it a go and… I didn’t seem to like it. I had a difficult time identifying what the message or overall plot was even after the fifth episode, which is where I decided to put it on hold (I may just drop this one actually). However, I can see why so many viewers loved it. The romance and action was pretty good-after all it is written by Kim Eun Sook, who has written many popular dramas in the past (The Heirs (which I didn’t like) and Secret Garden (which I loved)). But I did like one of the OST tracks! One of the members of Exo, Chen, sings it as part of the duet.

Scheherazade has been the classic piece on repeat for May! I discovered Scheherazade a few years ago but I was listening to this a lot when I was studying for my last final earlier this month. It’s beautiful, haunting, and emotional all at the same time.

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So, yup, that was a glimpse of my May! How did you guys spend last month outside of reading and blogging?