My Favorite Stationery

Hello, friend!

My notes from stats class!

I love stationery.  Having cute notebooks and good pens makes studying so much better for some reason! When I was in China, I went to a store called Muji, which is a Japanese "lifestyle" store that sells everything you could ever want in a house, from clothes to lots of storage, utensils, and even toothbrush holders. Oh, and stationery. They don't sell food, though. The whole store is extremely minimalistic! I bought four 0.38 mm pens from Muji(a normal pen is size 0.7 or 1.0),  and used them in my first semester of college, and they instantly became my favorites.

First off, the pens are so small that they make my handwriting look 10000x nicer. Second, they're actual pens and don't have felt tips(those can break easily). And third, the packaging is sleek and not too heavy.
 When I was in New York, I had to go to another Muji store. They only have stores in New York, California, and Massachusetts, but you can easily buy things online.  I bought these notebooks.  They only have 30 pages in them, which is actually perfect for taking notes in college because your classes are only a semester long. Plus, if you have smaller handwriting, this allows you to finish a notebook instead of continuing to use old notebooks that are only halfway full by the end of the semester.

Only $3.50 for a pack of 5!

Finally, I have my planner, Staedtler pens, and my new washii tape that I love! I got the washii tape recently from the Line Friends store, and it has a cute bunny print on it. Staedtler is a German brand that has created wonderful felt-tip pens, which I love to use for color-coordinating reasons. However, I will mostly reach for my Muji 0.38 pens if I am taking notes. My planner is from Anthropologie, and it took me two other planners to finally find one that worked for me! I first had a planner from Barnes and Noble, but it was wonky with the layout. Then I bought a huge academic planner from Amazon that was super cute and had so much space, but since it stopped after June, I continued to search for another planner. I found this one on sale from Anthropologie, and it's perfect. It has a monthly layout, tabs, an attached string of the bookmark, and isn't weirdly formatted!

I think some people might think- why do you care so much about your stationery? My answer is- well if I am using it everyday, I want to have stationery that I really like!

It's the little things that can add up to make a big difference in your life! Do you enjoy stationery? Have any suggestions of brands to try? Leave a comment! 

Have a great weekend! 

Joy :) 

New York, New York!

Hello, friend!

I just got back yesterday from the most wonderful trip to New York. Almost everyone we met was so kind, it was so strange(New Yorkers are known for having quite the attitudes)! In December, I had the  idea one night to go to New York to watch Anastasia on Broadway with my mom and it turned into a three night trip. Luckily, we found extremely cheap plane tickets on United Airlines, and I'm 100% sure that it was God that kept us safe and made this trip flow smoothly. I'm also grateful to God and my family for the opportunity that I had to even go, I know that for some it can be a luxury to travel at all.

"Welcome to New York"

I planned our itinerary before we left and made a long list of everything that we wanted to watch and eat, and we got right into our schedule when we landed. The first night we had dinner at Ellen's Stardust Diner. This diner is unlike any other because the wait staff are all Broadway star wannabes (some have even come back from Broadway and are serving), and they sing while they serve and in between! 

We walked around Times Square and took pictures, and also visited the Line Friends Store, which was super cute. I purchased a little roll of tape that had bunnies printed on it for my bullet journal. 

At the Line Friends Store!

We decided to head back to the hotel early because we were tired from traveling all day and wanted to get a bright and early start the next morning.

the view from our hotel! yay!

After quickly getting ready, we went to lower Manhattan and tried matcha tea at this cute pink-themed store called Cha Cha Matcha. If you like matcha, you'll love it! It tasted kind of like fruity pebbles.

Literally after getting drinks, we walked to a cute place called The Butcher's Daughter and had an açaí bowl as a little before-lunch snack. This place is decorated very well, and the bowl was so yummy! 

After shopping in SoHo, we walked to the Museum of Chinese in America. This museum was amazing. I didn't know that much about the history of Chinese people in America since it's not taught as well in schools, but I learned a lot. We learned about the struggles that Chinese people went through, and about the major breakthroughs that they had as significant events occurred in America.

Did you know that originally Chinatowns were made to keep Chinese people in there, and away from other people? I thought that that was so interesting.

A chair that a Chinese immigrant would sit on to answer questions about America or else they were deported.

There was a special exhibit about the Golden Venture, which was a cargo ship that smuggled illegal Chinese people into New York. Some of the illegal immigrants who went to jail made paper folded crafts, otherwise known as zhézhī  (摺紙) as thank you gifts for the people who were trying to help them attain freedom. 

We then hopped on the subway to go back up to Times Square. We ate pizza and then went to see Anastasia! It just so happened that we were seeing the show on my Spirthday(spiritual birthday), which was so cool. I felt like it was quite the gift from God! After the show, we waited outside the stage doors and got a picture with Christie Altomare, the girl who starred as Anastasia.

By then it was late, so we walked to Shake Shack across the street and got shakes and fries for a snack. 

The next day, we went to the New York Public Library. We had been to New York before, but we had never gone inside the library, gone to the Museum of Modern Art, or seen the Flat Iron Building, so those places were the goal for this day. 

My mom and I first went to Good Morning America at 7 am and were on tv!! Woo hoo!! 

When we got back, I saw myself on TV!

It's so flat!

We also went to the Museum of Modern Art. The Museum is free on Friday nights, which was a bonus! My feet were hurting from walking like 11 miles, so we didn't spend too much time there, but saw the things we really wanted to see: Monet and Van Gogh. 

We took the Ferry to Staten Island that night and visited our friends, the Schefflers, in Staten Island. We got lunch with them and then headed back to the Midwest!

This trip to New York was jam-packed, and so much fun. We had pretty decent weather, too. It warmed up on Friday and Saturday for us, and anything above zero is warm! I start classes in two days, and am feeling refreshed and motivated to take on second semester. 

Shoutout to my mom for coming on this trip with me and for making it so much fun. <3 

I hope that  you all have a fantastic week!

Joy :) 

Welcome, 2018!

Hello, friends!

IT'S THE YEAR OF THE DOG!

I hope that you are all having a wonderful start to the new year. My family and I just got back from driving home from Florida, and I have had a lot of time to think about this blog post! 2017 was a great year overall. Here are some events in no particular order:

• I visited China and my orphanage
• I graduated high school
• began college at UW Madison
• baked my first ever pie!
• went to my first-ever campus conference as a campus student
• picked up classical guitar

Last year was great, but I'm still ready for a fresh start. 

I have more of a "focus" for this year instead of a goal. I'm going to focus on NOT forcing an identity onto myself that isn't me. I watched a Youtube video last year about a guy who was also Asian American, and I found that I could relate to a lot of struggles that he went through. It basically was not fitting in with certain groups because he wasn't "Asian enough," or, "American enough," but at the end, he discovered that he didn't have to force himself to fit in with any group. He just had to wait patiently for the right people to come along that became his own friend group(I could do a whole other blog post on being Asian American, will save it for later)!

Anyways, last year I found myself doing things that weren't necessarily making me happy. It ranged from listening to music that I didn't actually like, wearing clothes I didn't like, or hanging out with people who weren't helping me spreading JOY(wink wink) to others, and I decided that I want to be more real with myself this year. 

Certainly, it is good to push myself and to try new things. Some experiences in life take more perseverance and may take more time adjusting to them. I plan on taking full advantage of the diverse environment that I'm in at UW and trying different activities. I'm going to have a different mindset and will enjoy the people I'm surrounded with and enjoy the place that I'm in right now, not waiting for the future or tomorrow, but making the most of every day.

It's going to be fantastic. Do you have any goals?

Joy :)