April 4-10, 2021

The two weeks I have in between a final and the beginning of another semester is my favourite time of the year because it’s the only time of the year when I don’t feel guilty about not studying (because there’s nothing to study). That said, I still don’t really study as much I should when the semester is ongoing, I just feel way more guilty about it.

I had so many grand plans for that first week. Extra long walks after work, finishing up the books I had queued up on the Kindle, and starting a newsletter (heavily inspired by Haley and Diana).

Well, seeing as I’m writing this the week after (as a blog and not a newsletter) goes to show how that week went.

I started the week off saying goodbye to some friends moving back to Vancouver and attending a funeral service via Zoom three nights in a row. I didn’t realize how sad it’s been not to be able to hug people until this week, and I’m not even a big hugger!

Here are all the things I ate, watched, read, listened to, and ate to make my week ten thousand times better.

1. “Why are we here?” – Code Switch This episode struck a chord because these Filipina nurses could easily be a tita we know our a mom.
2. Change The Rapper’s Golden Year from the book ‘They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us’ – Hanif Abdurraqib I came across Hanif when I read his Strategist list of things he can’t live without. He had this to say about black tourmaline crystals: “I am someone who believes in otherworldly properties of healing or protection because I am not sold on this world’s ability to heal or protect me as it is currently constructed.” That was a heartbreaking sentiment to read; but in that moment I knew I needed to read more from this guy. In this essay, he talks about the magic of Chance The Rapper and his Magical Coloring World Tour in 2016. I was so fortunate to be able to watch his show when it was in Toronto so I understood what Hanif was talking about when he described it. But what I didn’t realize was how much hope he gave to people who felt persecuted in America for being Black. I can’t link the exact essay here, but I will leave you with this write up he did for Chance.
3. Stand Up Against Street Harassment Bystander Training- Hollaback I came across this organization when a friend posted about the free training they were providing. I have witnessed and have been personally victimized by street harassers; for being Asian, for being a woman, and have even been chased down four blocks because I was by myself. After each time it’s happened, I’ve felt guilty for not doing or saying something earlier followed by immense anger. What this training does is it gives you both confrontational and non confrontational tactics to handle that type of situation. Does it make misogynists, racists, and assholes disappear in real life? Of course not- we can’t control those things. What it does do though is empower us to respond however we see fit to the situation instead of freezing in fear and then beating ourselves up afterwards. I can’t recommend this training enough. There are multiple sessions being hosted weekly so keep checking their calendar if you don’t find one that fits your schedule initially.
4. Forgotten (Netflix) – My co-worker talked about this film to our entire team last week and since she and I have the same taste in movies, I took her recommendation seriously. Do yourselves a favour and watch this without reading up on anything about it. Truly a great movie.
5. A breakdown of the RH incident by @accordingtoweeze – I came across Louisa “Weeze” Doran after someone reposted this video in their IG stories. Clocking in at a whopping 74 minutes, this video dives deep into why RH’s tiktok response (that she then uploaded onto Instagram and then obviously deleted) was so damaging and tone-deaf. Even if you don’t care about RH, I’m sure you will pick up some really useful insights from this video.
6. Onyx Chocolates and Wong’s Ice Cream – Every time we go to Wong’s we leave with three to four pints of ice cream. It’s so dangerous! This time around I added fuel to the fire by picking up a four pack of Onyx bonbons and it looks like I’ll be upgrading that to a 16 piece box the next time we go back. Both these companies make awesome Asian inspired flavours. Their flavours change weekly (and they announce what they’re serving that week on Instagram) but a mainstay ice cream fave is the Coconut Mango Sticky Rice and for the bonbons I really love the Hojicha Mochi and Coconut Pandan.