May Wrap-Up

Life Events

Defended my thesis and got a top grade! Now I am officially a cosmologist!

Together with my husband and my family we celebrated one year of my marriage by eating a piece of wedding cake that we preserved in the freezer for that occasion specifically (Danish tradition).

Books

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas - I enjoyed it.

Man in the Dark by Paul Auster - really good read.

The First Three Minutes by Steven Weinberg - a classic popular science book in cosmology. Since it is from 19.. It is a bit outdated but it is still a delightful book to read.

Cruel Crown by Victoria Aveyard - two novellas Queen Song and Steel Scars as s prequel to Red Queen series. Both stories had potential that in my opinion hasn't been explored. I like the concept and ideas Victoria is presenting in those stories but I lack in depth description and dimensionality of characters. We are being informed that the heroines are interesting and unique personalities but we get to know way too little about them to really believe that it is true. 

Movies

I watched obscenely many movies on youtube. Here is a few that I saw first time:

Not Another Teen Movie - horrible but might squeeze from you few cheap joke provoked laughs.

What's your number? - funny enough if you really have nothing else to watch or if you want to watch Chris Evans playing a charmer.

The Switch - bearable.

The Accidental Husband - sweet and funny enough.

Hot Pursuit - funny enough. 

The Prince and Me - I thought it was funny and sweet but I am biased because I like one particular Danish man a lot ;)

Bad Teacher - horrible movie but it has a moment when the teacher played by Cameron Diaz checks tests of her pupils and probably most people who ever were checking tests/homeworks/exams will find it funny!

I also saw:

Money Monster - pretty good.

The Dressmaker - I liked it a lot. If you liked movie Chocolate then this one has a bit similar vibe, maybe a bit more dark.

The Intern - nice movie to watch with family excluding kids (they might not find it very interesting)

Deadpool - it was totally different form what I expected. At first I really didn't like it and couldn't understand why people loved it so much but in the end I got used to the format it was made and my final conclusion is that if I see it again I probably like it a bit more.

Travel

Keukenhof flower garden - spring garden. I was very lucky to have spectacular spring weather! It was a very nice bike trip :)

The first weekend of May I have biked to Scheveningen beach and Katwijk beach because it was truly "summerish" weekend. Together with the trip to Keukenhof I have made 90 km on bike in four days!

Delft - engineering town of Netherlands ;)

June wrap up

Books

The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski - already half way through this book I had to order the next part of this trilogy. This book paralyzed my life for 2 days. The book is inspired by the Greco-Roman period after Rome had conquered and enslaved Greece. Kestrel is a general's daughter in a vast Valorian empire. One day she buys Arin a Herrani slave. Kestrel pity slaves as Arin, Arin hates Valorians. It is very well paced book, with good action, nice dialogs, emotional and mind games between two young people that had to play grown ups because of being born in uneasy war times.
...
I was a free person until the second book The Winner's Crime has arrived.
...
The Winners's Crime by Marie Rutkoski - I really liked it and I wish I didn't have to wait a whole year for the last book of the trilogy The Winners's Kiss to be published (spring 2016). This fantasy romance, probably aimed for younger readers than me (but I do not care ;)), is just beautiful. I like that the choices are difficult for Kestrel and Arin, and how much they are afraid to trust each other despite the love between them. Although living in emperor palace Kestrel is desperately trying to stay true to herself but she knows the price of the smallest mistake and she is being watched very very carefully.

Love Letters by Katie Fforde - it is fine chick lit. Characters are likable and they develop thought the book. It is about romance between Laura and Dermot. Since Laura is a bookaholic organizing a literary festival and Dermot is an Irish most famous living writer whole book plot is placed in literary atmosphere. It wasn't very informative book but still I guessed I learned something about book industry. The only think is that "the truth" is so obvious that at some point stubbornness of the female protagonist towards Dermot is a bit tiresome. It is forgivable mostly because romance is some how a side part of the career progress that Laura's goes through. All in all, it was an entertaining read but it definitely won't go on a list of my favorite chick lit books.

Movies

While We're Young - it is good movie but I am not sure what type of movie it is. It is not a romantic comedy that I was hoping for, it wasn't an action movie that is my favorite to watch... It was a movie that discuss some issues from different perspectives and introduces interesting characters... I have enjoyed watching it but I had a weird feeling in the end that it was a bit about nothing. If one likes one could probably discuss it and analyze human behavior in it for very long time and have some interesting conversations about growing up, getting old, being young, getting kids,... The movie touched a lot of life stuff, it didn't fully discuss any. I wouldn't recommend it to myself.

Jurassic World - it definitely was entertaining. I am normally quite forgiving when it comes to movies. For me if there is good action or adventure, a bit of sense of humor an romance it is enough. However, the way Claire Dearing release a Jurassic Park veteran Tyrannosaurus Rex to fight the genetically modified dinosaur Indominus Rex is too silly. I still liked the movie but I think comparing how well they did with having a bit of science and psychology in the movie this scene is disappointing. Btw. Chris Pratt as Owen the raptor trainer was really good.

Travel

I have spend the last weekend of June in Warsaw, Poland. Warsaw offers all that big city should but still is very affordable destination comparing to other capitals in Europe. It has a lot of historical sites and beautiful parks.

one day in traditional Japanese kimono

While traveling in Japan I have visited Kyoto. Kyoto is a fantastic city with infectious cultural vibe. People even from Japan go there to experience Japanese traditions. One way of letting oneself immerse completely in the culture is of course to wear traditional clothes, in this case it is of course a kimono.

I have rented kimono for a whole day and got a bit of makeup and hairstyle done to create a coherent look.
I wasn't alone. Kyoto is a city filled with people wearing kimonos. It was a great experience and brought me closer to people around me.
I am glad I did it.

Kimono is still worn to special occasions like weddings, birthdays, etc.

May wrap up

Travel

With my husband we went to visit my friend from high school near London, England. Since I have been not once in London before we haven't done much of sightseeing except of a trip to Stonehenge and Cambridge.

I went to Japan for my honeymoon and it was amazing! :) I visited Kamikochi mountains, full of culture Kyoto, and breathtaking Tokyo. I hope to write some more about Japan in separate posts.

Books

Firefight by Brandon Sanderson - fantastic sequel to Steelheart. A bit slower in pace than Steelheart but every page is worth reading because of final "battle". Sanderson is amazing writer and he created very rich universe. In Firefight he is expanding the universe, introducing a lot of new characters and the only sad part is that the next book Calamity is coming in a year time, and trust me when you get to the end of Firefight a year to wait for more will seem like eternity.

Your Fathers, where are they? and the Prophets, do they live forever? by Dave Eggers - I loved this book. It is a fast read, written only with dialogs.  It is about desperate man searching answers about his country (US) in a very extraordinary way. Very tense, well paced book.

Movies

I watched a lot of movies this month. It was my holiday month, and I had two 11h long flights during which at least for me it is pretty hard to sleep. All in all, I feel a bit excused ;)

Far from the madding crowd - I haven't expected much from this movie but I actually think it was good. Soundtrack is very nice and pictures are beautiful. Story is interesting and I am really looking forward to read the book one day to get to know the characters a bit more. I find man-woman interactions from nineteenth century very interesting. The story is settled in the British countryside and follows a "relationship" of Gabriel Oak a young shepherd with a loan and leased farm and Bathsheba Everdene a proud beauty who arrives to live with her aunt. Gabriel falls in love with Bathsheba but when he makes her an unadorned offer of marriage, she refuses. When next they meet, their circumstances have changed drastically. An inexperienced new sheepdog drove Gabriel's flock over a cliff, and after settling all his debts he emerged penniless. On the other hand, Bathsheba has recently inherited her uncle's estate and is now wealthy...

Ex machina - movie about survival and intelligence. Artificial Intelligence versus humans in a very basic set up of a house in a mountains. Very disturbing movie and that is why I loved it.

Still Alice - beautiful story about alzheimer's disease. How it is when you define yourself through your intelligence and richness of your language skills and suddenly your memory do not work and you cannot express yourself anymore. From being one of most bright people an independent woman Alice becomes sloppy, forgetful, dependent on others. This movie is very touching.

The signal - it is not too bad teenage movie. The idea is interesting and I guess it was shown as good as they could taking into account it is a low budget production. I liked the little mind games played in the movie. Anyway, movies about research mostly appeal to me.

Epic - family movie, I liked it. It is a sweet story about civilization of little people that move much faster than we do therefore we cannot see them.

Big Eyes - very interesting movie based on true story of a painter Margaret Keane. I liked it a lot.

Mad Max - crazy, violet but really cool. I haven't seen the old one with Mel Gibson so I have no comparison. But this one is very entertaining and I liked it a lot. As far as I know it is a trilogy so there is at least two more movies to come in this anti-utopian universe.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron - as always Avengers are very entertaining to watch. Movie is full of action, and the action movie type of sense of humor, that I personally really like.

Tomorrowland - very inspiring Walt Disney movie. I loved it! The better world demands smart people that do not give up and want to make a difference. I thought it was uplifting but I guess one can also feel depressed afterwards. In the end, it is a movie about utopia.