photocred N

It's crazy to think that technically, I finished the fall semester a week ago. While I am glad to be done and "free", the end of November/beginning of December was absolutely insane to the point where there were moments where I was actually unsure whether it would be physically possible to get everything done. While the idea of not having everything during exam season makes sense, when all your professors decide to finish everything by the end of term, you don't even get the benefit of an actual study period. Basically, it was a packed medley of Starbucks, library and sleep deprivation.  

In response to assumptions that I now have much free time, I informed father that I was, in fact, still swamped with lots of things to do. And while some headway has been made on said things, it's not nearly as much as I would've liked. However, I've managed to squeeze in a fair bit of time just chilling with people, so it's all worth it. In all fairness, I think the two years we spent in residence, we were spoiled a little in that more hours of the day were spent in the presence of other people than not. With everyone moving off res this year, while we've still managed to congregate a decent amount, it's just not the same/it's rarely everyone at once. And let's face it, cramming/napping together at the library doesn't exactly fill the quota.

After a crazy day Wednesday (no doubt chugging an energy drink first thing in the morning didn't help), S, M, A & I went to a ramen place and then a dessert shop for S's birthday. It was actually my first time at a ramen restaurant (I know, don't judge). All the yolo froyo tho!

Friday night, after volunteering at a soup kitchen, a bunch of us (M, A, C, J, M, E, N, A, M, L & I) surprised S for [another] birthday celebratory dinner at Don Don Izakaya. It was wonderful to have so many of us together for great food and even greater company. (first photo)

Saturday night, J & I attempted to go out. It was kind of a flop, but let's not talk about that.
Sunday morning we went out for an early birthday brunch celebration for J, with A, M, M and S at Dessert Trends, which is a super cute bistro/patisserie. We meandered our way through the main course and then dessert (pictured above is the 'chocolate symphony') in a brunch that spanned multiple hours and sparked great lifechats.

In the evening/night M, J & I headed over to J.L.'s apartment for board games and cookies (unfortunately her boyfriend's bus got into town late and they weren't able to make it to brunch). We hadn't seen her since the last time we were over at her place in the beginning of the semester, so it was nice to catch up. And the cookies were delicious! D made it out later in the evening too, which was nice - hadn't seen him in awhile either.

I may or may not have gone shopping on Monday. Heh. Buuut it was necessary, ok? Running errands/picking up holiday gifts had to be done. I also got a multi-colored poster of Einstein's face with the words "Imagination will take you everywhere" watermarked over it. It's hanging on the wall behind me. Five seconds after putting it up, it struck me how... creepy that is. Like he's watching or something. But putting it up was such a struggle that it'll just have to stay up for awhile.