Summer Reading

Hello, all! As my super-long summer vacation finally draws to a close (it's lasted almost 4 months), I thought I'd share the list of books I've read since graduation. As we all know, I had lofty goals for the summer and had several reading lists that were about a million books long. True to form, I didn't really follow those lists, but still managed to read 40 books. Here they are! Asterisks denote books that I've read before.

1) A Clockwork Orange. Not my favorite. And I believe it was on the Rory Gilmore reading list.
2) A Brief History of Montmarary. Such a great series!
3) The Lady and the Peacock. A biography of Aang San Suu Kyi, one of my favorite women.
4) A Season of Gifts. Richard Peck wrote a companion novel to A Long Way from Chicago!!
5) The FitzOsbournes in Exile. Montarary book #2.
6) The Great Gatsby*. I also read part of it in German, but I didn't finish it that way.
7) Rather Outspoken. I miss Dan Rather anchoring the CBS Evening News.
8) The Fault in Our Stars*. The movie's about to start filming! This book is the reason why I'm obsessed with visiting Amsterdam.
9) Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way
10) Islam: the Religion and the People.
11) The FitzOsbournes at War. The thrilling conclusion to the Montmarary saga.
12) The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
13) Bossypants*
14) Madam Secretary. Madeleine Albright is my hero.
15) The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. Such a good read!
16) The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. Not as good as I was expecting.
17) Pope Francis: His Life in His Own Words.
18) The Mystery of the Purple Pool*. Who doesn't love the Boxcar Children?
19) Top Secret America. This was on Kentucky's recommended reading list for their IR grad program. Although I'm not going there, I figured the books were still worth reading.
20) Dreams From My Father.
21) A Farewell to Arms. This wasn't as depressing as I expected!
22) Shakespeare's Sonnets. From the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge
23) The Wisdom of Compassion.
24) From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler*. The reason I'm convinced my time in NYC would've been better spent at the Metropolitan Museum of Art than at MoMA.
25) Lean In. Another Kentucky pick.
26) Matilda*
27) An Abundance of Katherines*
28) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone*
29) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets*
30) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*
31) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire*
32) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix* I read my British edition that I bought in Rome in 2007.
33) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince*
34) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*
35) Paper Towns*
36) 13 Little Blue Envelopes* Seemed like something a girl about to venture to Europe on her own should re-read...
37) Anna and the French Kiss* Same reasoning as the above.
38) Lola and the Boy Next Door*. I'm waiting for the next book, Stephanie Perkins.
39) Perfect Scoundrels*
40) Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City*

I also read Currency Wars, but I'm not quite sure when because I didn't write it on my list. It was another Kentucky pick. So it's looking like 41 books with a week to go in my summer vacation.

I moved back home around number 27, which is the reason for all the re-reads. I also read portions of Let's Go - Europe (while taking notes) and keep looking at my old German textbook.
I was in a bit of a funk after re-reading the entire Harry Potter series. I'll probably pull out my Beedle the Bard, Quidditch Through the Ages, & Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them sometime in the next week. I also stole and am wearing a t-shirt that belongs to my sister and reads "don't let the Muggles get you down," although I finally got over the series enough to change out of my Luna Lovegood-inspired earring combination (owls and purple stars). I'm currently reading Kiki Strike: The Empress's Tomb.

I'm leaving for Germany one week from today. I think I should be more anxious than I am; I've got a pile of stuff in my room, but I haven't actually started packing. I'm going to do that on Tuesday or Wednesday. Besides that, I'm mostly trying to eat a lot of Mexican food and pizza (German pizza is...underwhelming) and I'm drinking a Dr. Pepper any time I take a notion to! (But caffeine-free because it tastes better and doesn't keep me up all night. I don't really drink much caffeine.) I'm also trying to get up half an hour earlier each morning, which I doubt will make my jet lag any lighter, but makes me feel like I'm doing something AND makes me feel like an old retired lady because now I'm getting up early enough to watch CBS This Morning and the Today Show.

Finally, an important note: I'm going to try and blog on my Fulbright blog about things that relate to moving to Germany and experiences I have there, so I'll probably be posting on that for most of the next year.

Sun Rice.

While searching for something in a box of souvenirs I brought back from Italy (I went in 2007), I found this baby bar of chocolate. Although it looks like a typical fun size candy bar, it has such a deep symbolic meaning for me. I got this bar of chocolate while flying from Rome to Frankfurt on a Lufthansa airplane. It was during this time (and during our layover at the Frankfurt airport) that I was first exposed to German. I was fascinated by these incredibly long words and the funny dots over some letters and the fact that "Dusche" meant "shower" and that the McDonald's served something called a "McRoyal." I also thought it was wonderful that the stewardesses wished us all "Auf Wiedersehen" as we exited the aircraft. This short exposure to German language and culture has defined much of my life and my future plans.

When I received this bar of chocolate, I never thought that I would major in German or even that I would return to Europe (much less move there for a year!). Since this product expired in 2008, I believe I will keep this forever in my shoebox of memories, untouched as the day I decided to keep it because I wasn't hungry for chocolate at 9 am.

"New Girl" knows my life

Except you don't grow bangs...you cut them.

Current Feeling

Taylor Swift lied...or maybe her life was amazing at 22 because she was rich by then. This is real life.

Things Methodist Girls Like

Buzzfeed had lists of "Things Catholic Girls Like" and "Things Mormon Girls Like," so I figure it's just a matter of time before "Things Protestant Girls Like" rears its ugly head. It's bound to be inaccurate because Protestant goes from Episcopal to Primitive Baptist (it's a real thing - that's where my Grandma goes!), so I figured I'd make a list of things that Methodist girls like, based on my limited life experiences with other Methodist girls.

1) The Cross & Flame.

Seriously, it's like the coolest denomination logo ever. I absolutely love my FUMC shirt because it has a huge cross & flame on it.

2) Grape Juice

And we can tell when you're skimping during communion and didn't buy Welch's.

3) Harry Potter

4) Crosses on the top of tall places

Always the best day of church camp...

5) Advent

Because sometimes there wouldn't be little kids so your family got to light the candles.

6) Chacos

I know all Christian girls like this one, but Methodists are no exception.

7) Queso

8) Collecting loose change for Lent

And guilt-tripping our friends into giving us their loose change as well.

9) Any song written by Charles or John Wesley

I don't know what other churches sing because our founders wrote most of our music...

10) Friendship Bracelets

11) Lord of the Rings

And talking about how handsome Orlando Bloom was in the movies in the time between Sunday School and church.

12) Traveling

And visiting a lot of Catholic churches.

13) Cardigans

The sanctuary is always cold! Also this picture = travel + cardigan. 

14) The kite commercial.

The best commercial of all time.

Foods I Can't Wait To Eat

I depart for Germany in 63 days, and I'm getting excited to eat food that tastes amazing and I believe is cheap because the Euro is worth more than the dollar.

Here is my list of foods that I will want to eat as soon as I hit the tarmac in Frankfurt:

1) POMMES. Americans don't know what they're doing here, I hate to admit. And for those of you who speak French, Germans have abbreviated Pommes Frites to Pommes and pronounce it with 2 syllables. THEY ARE SO LECKER. (Without anything to compare it to, it's hard to tell that I selected the "groß" photo because I plan to eat it all.)

2) Eis. German gelato. So amazing, and it costs 1 Euro per cone.

3) Apfelschorle. Fizzy apple juice and the apple juice doesn't taste like pure sugar like in the US!

4) A proper pretzel. Although I LOVE American soft pretzels a la Auntie Anne's, German pretzels are something else. Also it's acceptable cut them open and slather them with butter.

5) A McFlurry and a McChicken. It's nice to know that I'm just looking forward to eating a sophisticated meal at a train station...

The McFlurries have TWIX in them there. TWIX, people. I actually haven't eaten at an American McDonald's since before I left for Germany last June...so this could be a thing in the US by now. 

6) German Food. Probably should be higher up on the list, but whatevs.

7) Rittersport and Milka. Available in the US, but I don't feel like paying that much for something that coasts less than a Euro in Germany.

 

8) Bread. Bread that you would give up your first born child to eat again...you get to eat it for breakfast and sometimes dinner and make open-faced sandwiches with it.

9) Delicious spreads for your bread. Nutella, Karamell Zauber, and weird thin peanut butter that you have to stir before using.

 

10) Doener. I ate fake Greek food in NYC and it broke my heart because my two favorite things about Doener are the tasty lamb meat and the bread. Fake NYC Greek gyros are 99% weird veggies (not proper Doener veggies like tomatoes and cabbage) and are on pita, which doesn't even taste good. 

Meeting Arthur Darvill

Ah, New York City. Full of pigeons who don't understand where to defecate and foreign tourists. Although this city also made me feel like a foreign tourist. Anyhow, I went and saw Once and I MET ARTHUR DARVILL!! (I also did many other things, including seeing Mamma Mia! and Jersey Boys, hitting a guy with our bus, visiting the Empire State Building and MoMA, and eating the best pizza ever in the Village.)

This is how I felt when he walked on stage, then again when he started singing, then when he played the guitar, then again when I saw him, and finally when he signed my playbill:

I did not actually do this because there was a security guy there...presumably to keep the herd of nerd girls at bay. And there was quite a nice, orderly herd that waited patiently for Arthur to say hello to each of us. Our herd was unapologetically nerdy. I'd say it was about 150 people...about 15 people were waiting for Matthew Broderick to emerge from Nice Work if You Can Get It across the street. But we stood and talked and made friends (I mentioned that standing on my tiptoes to get signatures was bringing back my band calves and the guy next to me said "Oh, I miss marching band!"). I also heard a conversation start at "Who's your favorite companion?" and progress all the way to Starkid before the leads came out.

I have no picture to prove that I met Arthur Darvill; I'm trying to live in the moment and not let technology get in the way of my life. However, I did watch him take a selfie with another girl on the trip and it was adorable.