Simply Joyful: September 2017

Hello, friend!

School is back in full force and I've had half a week of classes and a lot of fun so far at UW-Madison. Luckily, I've made it early to all of my classes so I've gotten good seats and made some new friends. It's so easy to just meet the person next to you, and it's interesting seeing how everyone really is quite friendly the first year of college.

One of the things that I especially love about our campus is that we are right by two spectacular lakes. It's so amazing how you can just stop and set up a hammock right next to the water and enjoy the view. My friend Allie and I just did that a couple of days ago, and I just ordered a compact hammock to bring with me to campus as well. It's coming tomorrow(thx too Amazon student prime), and I hope to get a lot of use out of it before it gets too cold. Maybe I'll do homework in it. I've probably spent a good five or six hours doing homework so far, which isn't that bad, considering that I have four classes and one guitar class.

love Wisco

College is so strange because you really have a different schedule from all of your friends. So even if you do have free time, you might not have time to get with the people you want to get with because they might be in classes. Also, since I'm commuting every day to school, it's a tad bit more difficult to hang out with people later because I don't want to be on the bus super late. Shoutout to my parents, though, who help drive me places because paying for parking is expensive!! Speaking of modes of transportation, at UW-Madison's campus there are bikes everywhere that are put there by the brand, "BCycle." Funny story- I used a bike ONCE for like, an hour, and was charged $54 dollars for it because the system didn't register that I put the bike back, even though the light blinked three times and the box beeped three times. Luckily, I got my $$ back!! I learned that you should receive an email approximately 30 seconds after you put the bike back confirming that it's been returned.

There are many little things here and there like that^, that you learn by just being on campus. For example, when you're wandering around a building that is unfamiliar to you and you ask a staff member if this door leads to a way out and he replies with, "Yes, but I don't know where it leads to," DON'T GO OUT THAT DOOR. You may find yourself trapped in a courtyard but then realize that there is a way out (the opposite way) after five minutes.

Another random tangent- I've discovered probably the coolest bathrooms at UW. They're located inside the Ecology building. You walk in and the dark blue ceiling is covered in twinkling lights like the stars in the sky and there are chirping noises and the bathroom stalls are decorated like phone booths from London. Say whaaaaat?? There are so many random fun and free things to do at UW too, like painting at the Terrace! It was the perfect weather for us to paint and relax the night before school started.

There was also an event called, "The W Project," where someone took a picture of us students on the field at Camp Randall making a "living W." It started to rain while we were standing in the bleachers, waiting to take the picture. About 15 minutes after the rain though, there was the most AMAZING double rainbow. It was worth standing in the rain for + the free t shirt.

Oh, and the fooootball games. They're reeeeally fun and reeeaally exhausting. You're standing for three hours straight and yelling and jumping around until your legs are stiff, but I definitely 10/10 WOULD RECOMMEND getting football tickets freshman year if you're at a university with a good football team! These are pictures from the first game.

Bucky!!!

Learning all of the cheers and when to clap at the right times and yell, "rah rah," is all apart of the "freshman experience," and it's super cheesy but I think that it's best to accept it and just go with the flow. I can literally already feel myself learning so much academic-wise, too, and I'm excited to see what the next four+ years bring.

Have a great week!
Joy :)

Hello, friend!

It is ALMOST that time of year again, yup my favorite time of year! Happy September 1st!

fall autumn leaves winnie the pooh blustery GIF

Fall is just around the corner and I am OH SO READY. :) I have so many plans for this fall, and I can't wait to see how many things I can accomplish this season. Last year, I didn't make a bucket list but my friend Jessica did, and I decided that I want to make a bucket list this year for fun and then do a couple blog posts later about how I'm going about finishing them all.

Okay, let's get into it:

1. Go apple picking