My mom came all the way to DC from Hong Kong to spend the week with me, which was absolutely lovely. Aside from graduating (!!) we also celebrated Mother’s Day together and went up to the Pennsylvania/Delaware area to visit family and friends. In Pennsylvania, we got dinner with my relatives. I never realized that I rarely see my two uncles together (one lives in Chicago, one lives in Pennsylvania) so it was quite amusing to see how they interacted.

In Delaware, we saw family friends, some who knew my dad before he even met my mom, and some whose kids I grew up with. (I saw some of the kids, too ) We also drove by my old house, which was incredibly nostalgic. We drove up the road where I kept tumbling down on when I learned how to ride a bicycle, and all I could think of were the times I had in the neighborhood as a little kid. The house has changed, now – my beloved daffodils (which my dad planted) have been replaced by other flowers, the white front door has been replaced by a snazzy-looking red one. It sounds silly, but despite all the changes and not having lived there in over ten years, it still feels like my house. I wonder what my room looks like, now.

I also have big news about the “e” word (employment): I HAVE A JOB! I have accepted an offer to work over the summer at a communications firm that specializes in health, healthcare and social issues. My start date is May 29. EEEEEEEEE!

Uncle 1: Hey, you and our sister fiddled with my computer last time you visited and now the sound isn’t working. What caused that?
Uncle 2: I dunno. Probably something our sister did.

I can see my brother saying the same thing about me no matter how old we become!

That still doesn’t sound real to me. More updates on graduation later in the week!

*cue freakout*

Now, if only I could get post-graduate employment squared away and sorted in the near future. But, I’m hopeful on this front.

My lifelong love for Ferris wheels was not disappointed by my experience at the London Eye.

I’ve also been starting to hear back from potential employers regarding my job applications, which is promising. Up until this past week the job search was more disheartening than anything else, but now I’m trying to be positive about the whole search. I’ve got some good leads, so hopefully something will come together soon. I will say though, if nothing else, the job search has taught me more about what I should and shouldn’t do as an employer interviewing a potential candidate than anything else! But, more about that another day.

Since I’ve started to have some more free time now that everything is wrapping up for the semester, I’ve been enjoying reading leisurely once again. I love the feeling of getting into a really good book and how, even in the intervals where you are not reading it, you’re still thinking about the characters and the story. That’s what I’ve felt like with THE DESCENDANTS, which I’m currently reading. I’m not very far in yet, but already the characters are sticking with me, which is a great sign of a wonderful novel.

From the few reviews that I’ve read of THE HUNGER GAMES trilogy, there seems to be a general consensus that the best book of the trilogy is the first novel, with quality (for lack of better term) gradually declining throughout the series. I can’t say I disagree. I did enjoy MOCKINGJAY, but there was something about the pacing of the storyline that was terribly off. Collins devoted a lot of time – perhaps too much – describing the planning and such in the first two thirds of the novel, only for things to happen crazily fast in the last third. I did like how characters such as Finnick, Joanna and Peeta were further developed, but there were times when it felt as though Katniss was in a rut and, therefore, so was the book. Having said all that, MOCKINGJAY is definitely worth a read and I was happy with how the series ended.

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin by Erik Larson (2011)
Summary: The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history. A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the “New Germany,” she has one affair after another, including with the surprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance—and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler’s true character and ruthless ambition. Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre Göring and the expectedly charming–yet wholly sinister–Goebbels, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror. (from Goodreads)

IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS was fascinating. I’ve always been drawn to the history of the years leading up to and including World War Ii, and this novel was a great insight to pre-World War II Berlin. Larson does a great job of allowing documents and accounts of the era tell the story, and it truly is like being there alongside the Dodds are horror after horror occurs. Both Ambassador Dodd and Martha frustrated me at times (Martha in particular, especially with her affair with Boris, the Soviet diplomat) but what frustrated me the most was how no one would act upon the early evils committed by the Hitler regime. I’ve studied the era a little and know about appeasement and all that, but reading actual accounts of the time period just reinforced this frustration for me.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)
Summary: As a child, Kathy–now thirty-one years old–lived at Hailsham, a private school in the scenic English countryside where the children were sheltered from the outside world, brought up to believe that they were special and that their well-being was crucial not only for themselves but for the society they would eventually enter. Kathy had long ago put this idyllic past behind her, but when two of her Hailsham friends come back into her life, she stops resisting the pull of memory. And so, as her friendship with Ruth is rekindled, and as the feelings that long ago fueled her adolescent crush on Tommy begin to deepen into love, Kathy recalls their years at Hailsham. She describes happy scenes of boys and girls growing up together, unperturbed–even comforted–by their isolation. But she describes other scenes as well: of discord and misunderstanding that hint at a dark secret behind Hailsham’s nurturing facade. With the dawning clarity of hindsight, the three friends are compelled to face the truth about their childhood–and about their lives now. (from Goodreads)

This novel is deceptively simple at first. There is no hard-and-fast plot; Kathy narrates the story in a nonlinear fashion as her memory recalls different events of her childhood and youth. While I didn’t clue into the fact as to what made Kathy, Ruth and Tommy’s lives at Hailsham so unique and what set them apart from the rest of society until about halfway into the book, it really jolted my comprehension of the story and made me rethink everything I had assumed about these three and those like them in NEVER LET ME GO. The novel ends when Ruth is done recalling her memories, and while there is no grand statement or sweeping generalization made in regards to the overarching themes of the story, Ishiguro writes in such a disquieting manner that Kathy’s story sticks with you long after you’ve finished reading the book. NEVER LET ME GO is definitely a worthwhile read.

Now I have breakfast and snacks covered for the next few days, woo!

Also, graduation is in 12 days.

HOLY. CRAP.

The semester is winding down, which means everything is wrapping up. I’m done with classes, and this week I will be done with my internship as well as my on-campus job. It’s hard to think that it’ll be all over, but I know I won’t have any time to dwell on it because then everything will be consumed by graduation. I can’t believe that graduation is only two weeks away.

Till then, my life will be consumed by finals and that pesky job search. Ugh, the less said about the two the better.