Just June - pieces of the summer

The noteworthy parts of my week have been pretty detached so I'll just do short recounts of some of them!

☂︎ Lab Lunch ☂︎

I went out to lunch last Thursday with my lab, which was nice and thankfully less awkward than I thought it might be. We went to Viva, which I've never been to before! They have really nice pasta so I would recommend except that it's pricy... (Adam was paying though haha). I really do like my lab mates although it's usually strictly business (as in we don't hang out outside of lab or anything).

☼ Summer Solstice ☼

Friday was officially the first day of summer aka the day with the longest time with daylight! I believe Dan the Math Man taught us that that the Vernal Equinox would be the day with the greatest rate of change in daylight (like gaining the most sunlight)?? So I feel like that would mean the Summer Solstice would be at a peak of some graph... Please help me @math proficient people.

Anywhose, I went with Jackie, Cassie, and Chaia to this lowkey summer solstice gathering thing under the willow of Hopkins. It was such a cute little scene! I've never been under that tree, but it's cool because it truly is very secluded even in the middle of Center Campus. It was a potluck, but I'm trash, so I didn't bring anything. Still, there was a ton of good food leftover, so it's ok.

check out that spread

the mega strawberry (pc to cassie)

☞ Poetry Reading

Yesterday pretty last minute Jackie asked if we wanted to go with her to this poetry reading thing that she's covering for the Hampshire Gazette. It was the inauguration of Easthampton's poet laureate for this year, María José Giménez so they read their poetry along with other poets I'm pretty sure were chosen to read by them. Honestly I get a bit distracted in live reading situations, but I nonetheless enjoyed it. The setting was this interesting co-op guitar shop/bar situation. If you've never been to Easthampton, I would recommend going because there are some cute shops! It's funny because my dad was actually visiting this past weekend for work so we got food and it was in the same area.

Also afterwards, Jackie and I went to Mimmo's in downtown Northampton. I had never been or even knew about it but wow, it's a great deal! They have the hugest pieces of pizza for like $5 and they're open late, so if you're ever in need of something like that, I'd check it out.

that's María José!!

ice cream in Easthampton!

✉︎ Special Delivery ✉︎

Something that always makes my day is getting mail, and this past week I feel like I've gotten relatively a lot of it! Also, I have a pen pal from France who I've written to sporadically since about 10th grade, and I just got a letter from her :-)

Movie Recommendations

- Billy Elliot: I rewatched this recently and remembered how good it is! It's about a boy who does ballet. Classic dad wants one thing but kid wants another because he's supposed to be going to boxing lessons. They have British accents, but I swear it's so hard to understand sometimes lol.

- Gook: This one was interesting because it addresses Black/Asian race relations in the context of the 1992 LA riots over Rodney King. I really haven't ever watched anything like it, and I did like it. If you didn't know, gook is a slur for Asians because American soldiers would hear Koreans saying it (meaning country). Since America is 미국 (miguk) they took it as like "me gook" 😡

- Ingrid Goes West: I really like Aubrey Plaza so I was inclined to like this. The story is funny in my opinion though, and it is very true when it comes to Instagram life.... In French the movie is even called Instalife (I'm pretty sure)

- Mermaids: I just watched this last night, and it surprised me how good it was! Considering it's Cher, Winona Ryder, and Christina Ricci, I guess I shouldn't be so surprised. The 60s aesthetic definitely drew me in. It had all the ingredients for a type of movie I would like, so it's my fav out of all the ones I've mentioned.

Stay tuned for hearing about my adventures to Boston and New York!!