Doing:

Being outdoors really. I work in an air conditioned office building where it is hard to even notice the changing of seasons. So usually I can’t wait to get out, breath some fresh air, and have some fun! I had some of it this August (not nearly enough, though), in the form of late night walks, short trip on the country-side while at home in Nagykálló, even a Danube cruise-trip.

Learning:

I have already written about Learning How To Learn, I took the 4-week course throughout August and it was so much fun. Highly recommended! Besides that, I was also working on my Spanish, just a bit every day. For that I will need to find a routine and also some people I can practice speaking with. Any volunteers here?

Reading:

I have been reading Hillary Clinton’s Hard Choices. I am going slowly with it, since I only read a couple of pages every other night. It is such a huge  and heavy book that I cannot drop in my handbag to be able to read while traveling or something. It is really good, though! I have been reading for Learning How To Learn, Barbara Oakley’s A Mind For Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra), it’s a great one I most definitely recommend whether you have a mind for numbers or not. While on a short summer holiday after our national holiday on the 20th, I have read The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. I am afraid I am not in the targeted age group of the book, but I was really curious about its huge success. I’m telling you it is a must read, should be prescribed against excessive sense of self-importance, surely helps putting one’s problems in perspective.

Meeting:

My family! I had a chance to spend half a week at home again in August that turned out to be really good. Summer is my favorite time to spend at home!

Planning:

New things for this blog! You will see some new recurring features like this monthly round-up of my favorite things. Other than this, I have some on-topic ideas for blogging more about world affairs. I hope you’ll like them!

Watching:

This month I finally got around to finish most of my favorite TV shows from last season, just in time for the new seasons to start. Recently I binge watch Hart of Dixie, and I haven’t finish the second season of House of Cards yet, either. I can’t wait for Scandal and The Good Wife to return, and there will also be a bunch of new shows that seem worthy of following, like this one from the creators of Scandal. 

Listening:

My running playlist (i.e. what I listen to when going for a run) consists of La Oreja de Van Gogh and Mariah Carey songs these days. I am listening to LODVG for language learning reasons. Obviously. 🙂 But I love them so much! Besides their latest live album, I have this and this and this on repeat currently. And of course the latest Mariah Carey album! Regardless of the rumours about her personal life (for a) I don’t read tabloids and b) it has nothing to do with her music too) I can’t wait for the European leg of her tour to be announced! Probably it’s only going to happen in the first months of 2015, but still, I put all my traveling plans on hold until this announcement.

Capturing:

I finally launched my Instagram account recently. I read an article about instagrammers who have a huge mass of followers and how much time they spend on making picture-perfect scenery out of everything around them. I don’t really have that kind of time, so if you are on Instagram, feel free to follow me, but note that if I don’t post for long I am not dead or something, it is just not very high up on my priority list (to say the least).

That being said, I’ll leave you with some of my favorite moments of August in pictures:

Sunset from the window of my room in Nagykálló. I miss this view every day.

Then took a cruise trip to Szentendre on a Sunday.

Budapest sightseeing by boat when we got back. The Parliament looks spectacular from the Danube!

Hope you enjoyed, see you in a month!