I've moved to Kaya on Brioche!

This past year, I had no idea what direction this blog was taking. I posted photography, study abroad experiences and personal musings sporadically. I felt like I was growing out of it and was losing interest.

So over break, I decided to stop this blog and move on to another one. I will now be writing on Kaya on Brioche (yes I love spreads on breads apparently). Instead of a jumble of everything, Kaya on Brioche will just focus on cool finds in cool cities (you could call it more of a travel blog). My sister and I are working together on this one, which makes this blog a bit more fun for me. To my few followers (looking at you mother), I hope you'll follow my musings over at Kaya on Brioche and find it helpful!

:) Kathryn

Holland Village

 

It’s been about three months since moving to Singapore! They have flown by, and I’m slowly getting used to working weird unconventional hours, having a monthly income, eating amazing cheap food for lunch and sweating constantly and profusely. A month ago I moved into my apartment, a place I’ll be living in for at least 18 months. Every time I sign something for a set amount of time (be it the phone plan, the internet plan, the lease, etc.) I have a mini panic attack. Ok maybe not so mini. Day to day I’m excited to live here, but when I see long term, how far away I am from people I love, I get overwhelmed. But overall, I have been extremely lucky with this whole process. 

After living for two months with relatives (with maid service!), I recently moved to Holland Village, which is known as being expat central. My HDB building (Singapore public housing, which I doubt is anything like US public housing) is mostly filled with older folk, so I feel quite safe. I’m still not quite used to calling neighbors “Uncle” or “Auntie.” Across the street there’s a supermarket, drugstore and a 24 hour café that sells good kopi and curry puffs. Behind my building (seen from the window in our living room) are the streets that most people associate with Holland V. It is only about two to three streets separated from the main road with tons of restaurants, high end and low end. However (other than the food courts) these restaurants aren’t known to be the best, but good for expat taste buds. For my birthday, we celebrated at a Mexican restaurant and while the atmosphere was great, the food was as quite subpar (compared to US Mexican food). Often on a Friday or Saturday night the small street will be filled with people, locals and expats alike, outside grabbing a bite, drinking a beer or watching a football game on the television (no, not American football). And during the day the street will be filled with the Ang mo (white expat) wives and me on my day off. It’s a fun atmosphere. This photo is the view from our apartment window.

I guess I'll have to learn to love shrimp now

A few months ago, I wrote this post, not knowing where I’d be next year. Well I still don’t know which bed I’ll be sleeping in, but I do know the country. After a year of trying to be in Southeast Asia, I just about gave up hope and graduated about a month and a half ago without any prospect of a job or relocation. However, an unforeseen job opportunity arose a few weeks ago and, in possibly the most rash decision of my life, I decided to take it. So here I am, preparing to move to Singapore tomorrow and start work next week. I wobble between extreme excitement and nervousness every ten minutes.

I have a lot of goals for myself for the coming months, one of which is to write. To write on this blog, to write creatively, to write privately and to write to friends and family. I’m hoping to visit all these coffee shops, sit down with kopi and write everything I’m seeing and learning.

Singapore has been a country I’ve visited countless times but never lived in. It has been one of my deepest regrets, having gone almost every summer growing up but too young and naïve to care. I always complained about leaving my dad for too long, about the heat, about the lack of spaghetti and burgers, about Singlish. I’m so happy to have a second chance, to see the same country through different eyes -- older and hopefully slightly wiser eyes.

While I am not a fan of Ted Hughes (because of his moral choices not his writing), I can’t help but love his encouragement to his son, “As Buddha says: live like a mighty river. And as the old Greeks said: live as though all your ancestors were living again through you.”

Illustration by my sister, Lauren Monaco.

If we start there

"The sun is perfect and you woke this morning. 

You have enough language in your mouth to be understood. 

You have a name, and someone wants to call it. 

Five fingers on your hand and someone wants to hold it. 

If we just start there, every beautiful thing that has and will ever exist is possible. 

If we start there, everything, for a moment, is right in the world."

Beautiful words by Warsan Shire. Photography by Jennifer Causey.

Oh this heavy heart is missing you around

This following seemed like an apt thought to describe the current and upcoming post grad life.

Post title from from My Live, My Love by Family and Friends, a lovely band I saw in Chicago last weekend.

Where the lights don't move and the colors don't fade

The southwest corner of Foster and Orrington. I hated that one corner during the wintertime. Those darn students renting that house never ever shoveled and it left a build up of ice looming in front of the sidewalk. Actually I preferred when it was frozen because then my feet didn’t get wet. Every single time I needed to go anywhere I had to cross that stretch of ice/slush. I'd do anything to avoid it, walking on the ice around it or crossing the street a good amount to avoid shoe damage.

Last week when I left my college apartment for the last time, I realized that the ice puddle wasn’t there anymore. It hadn’t been there for a long time. That one corner, the bane of my existence in the winter, had slowly returned to concrete and grass. Yet I hadn’t given it a second thought when the snow was melting. I’d forgotten to be thankful for the easy walking that warmer weather had brought.

Lying in bed in my old room. Post title from Stay Alive by José González.

I watched as the clouds began to part

I had a plant named Marzipan for a few months, but then it died. The plant looked nice against my green walls with all the maps and postcards and photographs. It sat on my desk where I sit and do homework and eat an inordinate amount of dark chocolate berries. My window is right next to my desk; it doesn't lock but it is often open, bringing air from the alleyway.

Last year at this time I slept in a red room filled with photos and antiques that weren't mine with a small window overlooking a garden. There was a table at the foot of my bed that displayed a train of small elephants. I would always knock the little one down by accident when I moved around the room in the morning, but it never broke.

I wonder what space I'll inhabit next year at this time.

Just some thoughts.








Photography by Kate Chausse and post title from Isaac by Bears Den.

Can you feel it under your skin?

Can we just talk about this weekend. So much goodness.

Friday, I went to The Happy Show at the Chicago Cultural Center.  It is free and runs until end of September, so if you are in Chicago, you must must go. I loved the simplicity and truth, and there were interactive elements as well, including riding a bicycle and free gum. Always a plus.

Saturday, my high school friend visited me and somehow scored two free One Direction tickets! We joined preteen girls screaming over five boys who were not all that enthusiastic about their songs and seemed slightly hungover and grumpy. However seeing my friend for a day and dancing was so much fun. It made me slightly jealous of these preteen girls who seem to have no worries in my eyes, but then I remembered they were in middle school and all jealousy vanished.

Sunday, I went to see the Oh Hellos. Let me tell you, the Oh Hellos are great live! Maybe the best I've ever seen. They danced, laughed, jumped, and seemed so genuinely enthusiastic and joyful to play music with each other. I would definitely see them again, and I've been listening to their songs on repeat all day at work. The Lament of Eustace Scrubb was amazing live. Oh man that energy. The post title is from Second Child, Restless Child.

So that was a high. After reading my friends' blogs about their summers in Athens, Greece and cross country biking, I gotta be proud of my little moments of excitement even if they pale in comparison :)

I am weary from the restless heart inside of me

Wednesday night I heard Fun. perform at Taste of Chicago, and they were excellent. It did make me miss my friend who is studying abroad in Greece this summer. We went to their concert last year, and my button got stuck on her sweater while we were dancing up and down in the mosh pit singing along, and we had to stop in the dancing to fix it. It was a funny moment, two girls struggling to untangle their clothes surrounded by enthusiastic jumping people.

However this Wednesday there was no mosh pit or sweat, but rather fresh air and the Chicago skyline, which ain't so bad if you ask me.

On our walk to the bus, I passed one of my favorite Chicago bloggers! We passed each other at an intersection, and I didn't realize why she was familiar until a block down. And then I freaked out. I think I scared my friend with my intensity of happiness and shock. I wish I said something, but oh well.

Anywhoo the girl I passed has the lovely fashion blog Avant Blargh. Do check it out, she is very classy.

Blog title from Hide Away by Ben Rector.

Both were climbing for a higher cause

Yesterday one of my friends performed in Millenium Park. Yeah that's right. I met up with some of my friends after their various internships and jobs to hang out and listen to some very odd music (I've never warmed up to electronic music). However it hit me that I really love these people. These talented intelligent kind people. Maybe it is being exhausted from work or getting a glimpse of what life after college is like that is bringing this on. But whatever it is, I have had the blessing to find people like me in college. People with whom I can have theological debates one minute and then joke around the next minute.  People with whom I can discuss the latest This American Life or the latest buzzfeed article. People who inspire me to write poetry and to watch Parks and Rec. People I admire.

I guess this first week of work has been a little overwhelming. But that's ok. I am happy to have another year to spend with people who know me so well before we go off into our different directions. Cause let's be honest, its really people that make life all the better sometimes.

Post title from Michicant by Bon Iver.

This mystery only leads to doubt

Today I get the keys to my new apartment! It is so odd that this now empty apartment will contain some of my future and final memories of college.

Enough sentiment. This lovely apartment belongs to a textile designer who lives in Brooklyn. Look at that bookcase. 

Post title from Say it To Me Now by Glen Hansard from the movie Once.

Find your smile now

Welp... it has been a week since my last post. I wanted to get in the habit of posting something three times a week, but then life happened. I had a week off after exams before my internship, and it was glorious.  That week was filled with boating in Door County, seeing the fam, watching movies, and wandering through farmers markets.

But now the daily grind begins. Today was my first day at my internship, which as we all know never is the best day ever. Meeting new people is scary, not knowing anything is awkward. By the end of the day I was cursing the rain for being relentless and myself for wearing heels. It only gets better from here, right?

Post title from Slow Your Breath Down by Future of Forestry.

Ode to junior year.

I am 
a series of
small victories
and large defeats
and I am as
amazed
as any other
that
I have gotten
from there to
here

-Charles Bukowski

Everybody will be dancing when we're feeling all right

My friend, Chrissy, visited me from Texas this week! She was passing through Chicago by train on her way to Brooklyn for the summer. She writes a blog too, check it out :)

I tried my best to convince her that Chicago is the best, but the weather and the el did not help my case. However we did find a used bookstore, Bookman's Corner, which sold novels for $1.50! Now I'm armed with Joyce Carol Oates and Toni Morrison for the summer. We also went to Let Them Eat Chaos, a Second City show, and analyzed a couple that seemed to be there on a blind date. She hit up a few other places: the bean, Dollop Coffeeshop, the Art Institute, Molly's Cupcakes, and of course the lovely Northwestern campus.

She left last night for her 24 hour train to NYC. The picture below is how I imagine she sleeps on the train. She's pretty badass.

Post title from Doin' It Right by Daft Punk.

You be the match, imma be your fuse

At the end of the month I'm moving to a different apartment a block away. I'm living with four girls during senior year, and I am so excited. By the time we move in, we will have lived for a few months in a different country (France, Germany, Greece, Uganda, and Australia). We plan on placing maps of where we've lived on the walls of the living room. But that's all we got so far, so I've been looking at a lot of interior design blogs lately. Eefje de Coninck, one of my favorites, takes pictures of female artists' homes. I love the simplicity and color of these apartments (1, 2, 3). Well done.

Post title from Sure Thing by Miguel. So good.

It was the moment

I remember one morning getting up at dawn, there was such a sense of possibility. 

You know, that feeling? And I remember thinking to myself: So, this is the beginning of happiness. This is where it starts. And of course there will always be more. It never occurred to me it wasn’t the beginning. 

It was happiness. It was the moment. Right then.

The Hours

Words to live by

"The really important kind of freedom involves 
attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, 
and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, 
over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day."

David Foster Wallace ~ This is Water

I'll be here til the colors fade

My friend and I have recently started a wordpress for writing (Waiting for an Echo). Basically we are trying to write more. My friend Jody is actually quite talented, so do check it out. Side note, reading and writing writing poetry is extremely therapeutic. Everyone should do it.

Hope you enjoy your Wednesday! I be wishing I was outside in this beautiful weather instead of writing this paper.

Post title from Sing Loud by Alpha Rev. They are great live. Beautiful art by Richard Leach.

She's up all night for good fun

Midterms are stressful.  Coffee is beautiful. Get Lucky by Daft Punk is glorious.

A collision of atoms that happens before your eyes

I recently received an amazing marketing summer internship.

I'll be workin' in the John Hancock building this summer.

What the what the what the what is life.

Looks like I be in Chi-town (or really Evanston) this summer again :) 

So between that and general springtime giddiness, I feel pretty darn good about life right now.

So it is hard to find motivation to do homework. 

I waste quite a lot of time.

This Time Wasting Experiment recounts how people actually spend their time. 

It pretty much sums up my weekend.

Post title from Bravado by Lorde. She is great.