Monthly Recap: May 2018

This is what I got up to in May!

Places I Went

West Highland Way, Scotland
London, UK

What I Read

China's Second Continent by Howard W. French. I read this book because I had started it hoping it would be relevant to one of my exams. I wasn't able to finish it before the exam - and in retrospect it wouldn't have been that helpful. It was a really well-written book that was part-travelogue, part-journalism. French seemed to have a really good knowledge of both modern China and various countries in Africa. He interviewed Chinese people living in The 15 or so countries in Africa he visited. It's amazing the common themes he found among very different people doing all kinds of things. It was also an interesting way of learning a bit about various African countries I didn't know that much about.

Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton - This book is fantastic and I recommend that anyone and everyone read it. It's so well written and so personal. It's very emotional - funny in some parts, sad in others. I am amazed by how crazy Alderton's life is and by how well she expresses lessons learned in her life.

The 39 Clues by various authors - I started reading these books in London, because we were doing a lot of things related to secret societies and I remembered I used to like these books as a kid. I decided to just read a few of them just to see how they held up. I'm currently reading the fourth book (and I will probably stop once I finish it). But it was nice to read something really different from the kind of books I normally pick out. I'm looking forward to reading something for adults next though.

What I've Been Listening To

I've been listening to a lot of podcasts - nothing new. I've really been enjoying the China in Africa podcast in particular.

What I've Been Watching

West World! The new season has started and I'm really enjoying it. I was worried it wouldn't be as complex or well planned as the first season, but it has not disappointed me yet. I still feel like there's a lot too learn about what's going on and there are definitely going to be some plot twists - I can tell!

Challenges
I had some ongoing issues with my health. I was feeling nauseous all the time and in the end my doctor said it was caused by stress. So unsurprisingly my symptoms didn't start to go away until a week after my exams. They're still not completely gone, but I do feel almost back to normal! I just need to keep listening to my body and not eat or drink anything that could upset my stomach. That means to coffee!

Exams were the main challenge in May. I sat my final degree exams. I had five exams between April 30 and May 15. It was the worst exam diet I've ever been through. I'm so glad it's over. I hope everything went okay - I'll find out mid-June. Either way, I'm glad to be done with exams and be done with my degree!

Highlights

That brings me to the main highlight of the month: FINISHING MY DEGREE! I am finally free from uni and I can enjoy the summer (read: unemployment). All the stress from my four years of uni culminated in just over two weeks of exams which will entirely determine my degree classification. It feels so good to be done and to enjoy life outside the library again.

Travel is another highlight of the month. Right after my exams were over, I did the second half of the West Highland Way. Shortly afterwards I went down to London for a week. It has been so nice to go to new places and see the world outside of the route between my flat and the library.

Up Next

I've got even more travel coming up! I'm actually writing this from China. I'll be in China for the whole month of June. I can't wait to start writing blog posts about my trip!