Week Note #34: April 24 to April 30
2025-05-01
📚 In my last week note (from four weeks ago), I mentioned how I started reading Three Lives by Gertrude Stein. I am pleased to announce that I finished reading it last week. My opinions have remained largely unchanged since I began the novel. However, it has left me wondering more about Stein's influences, namely art. One thing that was repeated many times in my poetry course was that Stein was influenced by cubism. One of the stories in Three Lives was inspired by Paul Cezanne's "Mrs. Cezanne" painting. I just want to know what the connection is there!
🎓 The semester is over!! I submitted my final paper and finished a final exam for two of my courses. I am relieved. But the work is never over. This is my last semester at an American university. I am strangely sad about it. I had a lot of professors and TAs that I really connected with, and I'm sad that there are no opportunities for me to take more courses with them. But, I ultimately decided to transfer to a Canadian university. Firstly, it is quite cheaper. USD to CAD exchange rates really do a number on my bank account. Secondly, the future of American education seems to be tenuous at best. I didn't feel comfortable staying at that institution, and decided to jump ship.
🎙️ Ever since Couchella, I've been listening to music instead of podcasts while I journal. However, I did manage to sneak in a coupe of podcast episodes here and there. Mainly, I've been listening to old Get Real podcast episodes, which is a podcast hosted by K-pop idols, where they literally just talk about anything under the sun. Honestly, it's really "turn your brain off" stuff, but sometimes you need that.
🥳 Over the weekend it was my parent's anniversary so we celebrated with a party. We also celebrated someone's birthday, and the anniversary of one of my aunts and uncles! It was a lot of fun. My cousins, my brother, and I just sat around talking the whole time. The main thing I remembered was that we talked a lot about K-pop, hah. And we also talked about how one of my cousins is doing his master's at my alma matter, and how he might see our other cousin (who is a freshman) on campus. My brother and I, just kept asking questions about the university, and what things have changed since we attended. I miss going to university in person!
💿 On the music front, there's not much to report. I'm still going pretty hard on CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso at the moment. I'm exhausting two of their latest albums before moving onto their older stuff. Honestly, I'm still recovering from Couchella, hah.
🎵 Top albums from the last week:
- BAÑO MARÍA (En Vivo - Buenos Aires) by CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso
- HOT by LE SSERAFIM
- KINEMA by DPR ARTIC
- BAÑO MARÍA by CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso
- jams by Luna Li
- Wet Leg by Wet Leg
- フェイクワールドワンダーランド by きのこ帝国
- Preacher's Daughter by Ethel Cain
