Counting from today, there are a total of 9 days until the last day of classes. This means that hell week, for me, is about to commence - a project due in each class plus production week for ADT. I'll be spending all of this week trying to finish as much work as possible in order to focus solely on ADT next week.

Before all that, however, I was able to go home and spend time with my family during my (all too short) Thanksgiving Break. Since I don't really have any other updates - I will be writing blog posts about my projects that I'm working on once they're complete in the coming weeks - I thought I could write about my break!

When I first arrived in Ottawa, my mom picked me up and we went to the school and I got a special treat: I got to see my sister playing the cello! She'll be performing for her Christmas Concert so she's been putting in a lot of hard work.

Hera and her teacher with a normal cello and a baby cello

Since my family doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, we didn't have any fancy food. Also, my mom's not a fan of Thanksgiving food. Personally, I've experienced the whole Thanksgiving works, and I will say that I am a huge fan of cranberry sauce.

The next day I spent working on a project for a class which I later ended up scrapping because the project idea was too ambitious. I'll probably make it a side project for IAP or next semester, because I still think the idea is super cute.

I did spend some time showing my mom and her employees my project for a different class, however. I've been working with a friend to prototype an augmented reality application, and while we're still super beginners and we have a lot of kinks to work out, the image tracking that we're using is really good and quite impressive.

And then we had sushi for dinner.

I love sushi.

Saturday was a shopping day, even though we didn't really take advantage of any of the Black Friday (Weekend?) sales, and resulted in quite a bit of shenanigans with my sister!

We found giant present toppers and decided to put them on our heads because we're obviously the most precious presents

Saturday night = baby cuddles for hours

My sister is literally precious

While my break was disappointing in that I spent basically three days working on a project that wasn't progressing quickly enough so I had to scrap the entire thing, I did have a really fun time with my family and relaxing and eating nice things. While I'm at MIT I sometimes wonder if I romanticize my family a little bit because I'm away and stressed out all the time, but going home I tend to realize that for all the faults my family may have, they're still a really great source of relaxation for me.

Although, Hera promised me one thousand billion hugs this break. I only got 11 and about an hour of cuddles. I want more baby hugs.

How was your Thanksgiving? Did you take advantage of any of the sales?

I moved away from home - at the time, that was China - to go to boarding school in Connecticut when I was 13. I have lived away from home for the bulk of every year ever since. I am very familiar with being homesick, and you'd think that having lived away from home for 7 years and running now should mean that I'm very good at being homesick.

I'm not.

Actually, I don't really remember ever being super homesick during high school. I did begin listening to a lot more Chinese music, because it reminded me of China which in turn reminded me of my family. When my family moved back to Canada, I stopped listening to so much Chinese music and instead started binge listening to a lot of childhood music - Disney music, musical music, et cetera.

This is my ridiculous mom who got really excited being at NASA.

And this is my ridiculous little sister and my dad waiting in line for Disney tickets. My family is adorable. How could I not miss them all the time?

Homesickness really became a thing when I came to college. I think coupled with the stress of being a student at MIT, a lot of the time I just wanted to run home to my family. Obviously, this wasn't something possible, so to deal with homesickness I did some of the next best things. Here they are:

1. Skype my family. I skype call my family every week, and if we miss a week I start feeling really awful. My sister is the number one person who can cheer me up - last semester, when I was really sad most of the time due to numerous reasons, she would stick her (slightly stinky) little feet in my dad's face to make me laugh. When I called her this past weekend, she told me she was going to give me "one hundred - one thousand - one GOOGLE hugs!" when I got home for Thanksgiving.

2. Watch a childhood movie. I almost always had a lot of "down" time where I was building models and didn't really need to think when I was taking studios, and so I would just play all of the disney movies back to back. Classic Disney is the best kind of Disney. Also, Mufasa's death scene always helped me cry out all of my frustrations. I also watched all of the Harry Potter movies about a million times because that was also a token of my childhood.

3. Last but not least, go find the people who are the next best thing: my friends. My friends are my family at MIT, and I know I can always fall back on them when I'm feeling down and awful and homesick. While none of them are adorable 6 year olds (sorry, guys) they're almost just as good at making me laugh and smile and forget my worries.

I doubt that I will ever be "great" at being homesick. My mood gets pretty affected when I'm missing my sister who will run around and pull my hair and give me "one google" hugs, or my dad who makes weird faces at me, or my mom who never fails to feed me all the nice things when I get home. These are ways that I've been managing.

How do you deal with being homesick? Let me know!

Anyone who knows me knows that I am practically obsessive in my organization. I am that person that writes copious to-do lists, will block out everything - including break time - in my google calendar (to the point where it gives my roommate anxiety, oops), and has had a long standing love for anything paper.

It's no wonder I chose to study architecture. What other discipline would allow me to utilize my organizational skills in order to accomplish everything that's needed to be accomplished - building overly-complex models (my professor once said that I was a masochist because I would plan out the most complicated and intricately beautiful models even though they were way too time consuming), creating beautiful and minimalistic and informative drawings - and still, somehow, succeeding to sleep more than most of my classmates? And most importantly, I got to play with nice paper and nice pens all the time.

One of the things I've regretted the most about my past few years here at MIT is that I never took the time to document my experiences here. Sure, I still have my memories, but memories are fleeting and easily forgotten. Writing things down on paper or drawing them out or blogging about it on here makes it all so much more memorable and tangible. For example, most of what I remember of the past few semesters is all of the struggles and long nights in studios and arguing with studio professors trying to explain to them why I thought my ideas were valid and good. But I'm sure those semesters weren't all awful - I was probably spending time with friends, watching TV to relieve anxiety, learning to dance - but I don't remember because often the miserable memories outlive the happy ones.

I've been making a push towards documenting everything this past semester in a forgotten sketchbook that I have - making it kind of a planner-journal hybrid, where I've been drawing weekly spreads, making to do lists every day, and journaling a little bit of what I did and how I felt that day. It's really helped me notice trends in when my anxiety flares up but also it's helped me remember all the little things that I do to make myself happier. The sketchbook is really fun to flip through - the other day when I did so I realized that I had totally forgotten that I had gone to the New England Aquarium with my class and I found how nice it was to be able to bring back that memory.

I've been slowly coming to the end of the sketchbook - it most likely will only last until the end of the semester - and so I have been looking at replacement notebooks. As a child, I hoarded notebooks and would write in them a little bit before abandoning it for a newer, prettier, better notebook, and now that I know I actually will use up this first sketchbook I'm letting child me come out to pick out the newer, prettier, and better notebook. I happened upon these Midori Traveler's Notebooks the other day and child me (and grown up me!) fell in love.

here's an example of a Midori Traveler's Notebook from the blog True Life on Earth

I love the flexibility that these notebooks offer and all the different types of inserts that you can purchase to go inside, and the mission statement is something that really speaks to me. These notebooks seem so nice and sophisticated and timeless, which really aligns with my aesthetic as someone who prefers minimalism, like many other architecture students who have been immersed in architecture for so long. It's been taking a lot of effort for me to not immediately go out and buy one, but I promised myself I had to use up my sketchbook first. Grown up me can't succumb to all my childhood whims, and I definitely don't have the space to be hoarding more notebooks.

I have, however, promised myself that if I don't finish my current sketchbook by the end of the semester, I'm allowed to buy this Midori notebook for myself for Christmas and also to document my Christmas vacation in its own separate little notebook. Especially since, if I'm not wrong, I might be crossing off another continent on my list.

What have you guys been into recently? Do you also think it's important to document your memories?

There's less than 5 more weeks of the fall semester (!!!) which means it's time to start thinking about all the final projects. We just got the constraints for the final project for my Advanced Visualisations class, and I thought this week's blog post could be about exactly that.

For a little background, I took this particular class because I thought we were going to be able to do a lot of animation. Unfortunately, this was not so much the case - we explored a lot of different ways of visualizing architectural projects, but less so storylines and characters.

It was no surprise, then, that the final project had to revolve around an architectural project (existing, non-existing, a studio project, etc). However, I had already thought about this project and how I wanted to make an animation about a little girl and her pet, and I was really disappointed at first because I thought that my dream wouldn't come true.

During class, while I was desperately thinking about how I could come up with a way to showcase a building while also doing the animation that I wanted to do, I was able to come up with a storyline that I think will work.

I will be using a studio project from two semesters ago (read about it here) which was a fitness center that was all about manipulating a user's view. I think this works well because it will be a fun project to showcase, but also because I have the model for the surrounding area, which will help introduce the project. The building and surroundings will be 3d rendering, but the people and characters will all be 2d. A little girl will be walking her puppy down the street when suddenly, the puppy hears something from inside the center and decides to take off into the building. The little girl will then have to walk through the entire building to find her puppy.

I think this way I will be able to showcase the building (as the little girl explores it in order to find her puppy) while also doing a fun, cute animation about a girl and her pet as I wanted to do previously. The little girl will obviously be my little sister, Hera, who I already have a character designed around, but we don't have a puppy so I'm not sure what to model the puppy off of or what to name it (I did recently come across "Fifi" as a puppy name which I think sounds adorable).

Here are some of the inspirations I have looked at which helped me come up with my idea:

Both of these shorts show characters who explore different situations - the little blind girl who explores the city in her own way as she finds her dog, and the dog in Feast who explores life, food, and human nature. Both of these shorts will be helpful for me because I can learn about different styles of animation and explore what I'm more comfortable with, while also showing me how I can tell a story with minimal dialogue.

All in all, I'm super excited about this project and I will definitely update you as I work on it! Even though my professor said that the final project was "small" I really want to do something above and beyond, especially since I think it will be a fun addition to my portfolio.

What are you guys working on? Are there any projects that you're excited about?

Last year, I bought red and gold fabric and red and gold face paint because I wanted to dress up as Iron Man for Halloween. Last Halloween. I've always liked Iron Man - someone who was more or less a normal human being-turned superhero. I suppose I'm also biased, considering Tony Stark went to MIT, and a product I helped design ended up being shown in Iron Man 3. (I will always show off about this. A product I designed is in a movie. A superhero movie. A movie about an engineer from MIT who becomes a superhero.)

I HAVE PROOF. The tablet the kid uses to charge up the suit is called the Vinci Tablet. I designed the handle. I'm cool. :P

That never happened. I got busy and never ended up making a dress in time... so I made it over the summer. I self-drafted and patterned a dress inspired by Iron Man's armor - so here's some pictures of the process.

I first came up with a sketch for the dress. I wanted it to be mostly red with some gold elements and, after looking at some inspiration on google, I decided to add pleats to mirror the armor plates on the actual armor. I kept the skirt simple mostly because I knew I was going to spend forever on the bodice.

This was the first sketch I made and worked off of! The skirt actually ended up not being a circle skirt - it was a rectangle that I box pleated at a few points.

I had to self-draft a pattern out of tissue paper because I didn't have any patterns premade to fit my body (and also because I'm too cheap to pay for patterns). I gave myself a lot of allowances on the sides because I know from prior experience that I have a tendency to make things too small.

And so, the fabric manipulating commenced.

I spent literally years pleating. Well, not literally, but like, at least a couple hours.

Here I have laid out some of my (janky made out of wrapping paper) pattern pieces onto my pleated fabric.

I totally forgot to photograph some steps, but here's the front of the bodice coming together!

And a close up of the side pleats.

The dress came together in a few nights, although I had some trouble with the zipper (I hate zippers but I hate buttons more, so I opted for a zipper) and because the pattern wasn't perfect, I had some weird fabric bunching around my sides. I decided it wasn't a huge deal to me - The dress was only going to be worn for Halloween anyway. The one thing that was a little sad for me was that the pleats, when pressed down, aren't super visible - I don't know if it would've worked out better if I had made them deeper.

Also, the skirt on the dress differs from the original sketch because I ended up opting for a box pleated skirt - I thought the pleats on the skirt would look more cohesive with the pleats on the bodice.

I also painted on the Iron Man crest on my chest. It's a little higher than where it's supposed to be (canonically), but whatever. It gets the point across.

I was originally planning to also paint my arm to look like the armor, but I decided it was going to be too hazardous since I was working in the library (hence the books behind me). I didn't want to chance getting red face paint everywhere. I opted for wearing my brass rat (which I wear all the time anyway) because Tony wears his.

All in all, it was a super fun project and it was my first time trying to pleat anything or self-draft something that was more complex than like, a t-shirt dress!

What do you think? Do you think I got the idea across? Also, did you dress up for halloween?

Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to go apple picking with the Architecture department at MIT. I had never been, and the department was paying for the transportation (and I later found out, the apples too), so I jumped at the chance. There were 8 of us in total plus two adults (for supervision?).

So without further ado, here's 10 things I learned about apple picking:

1. It's really fun!
2. Apples grow in weird bunches. It was very strange to me, and now I am questioning if I have ever seen an apple tree before. Also, apple trees don't look like orange trees. I know because we had one in California. Apple trees are much wimpier.
3. There are a lot of different varieties of apples that look exactly the same.
4. There exists a weird foamy-textured apple. It was really unappealing. We didn't pick any of those.
5. Climb all the trees for all of the prettiest fruit.
6. It was also really cold, which made it slightly less fun.
7. Don't go at the same time as every person in the house. We now have more apples than we know what to do with. (But actually, I think across us all we have maybe around 100 apples?)
8. Apple cider donuts are probably the best thing I've ever tasted.
9. Scratch that, hot apple cider when you're shivering is probably better.
10. I UNDERSTAND THE HYPE NOW.

When we first got there, Frankie got very excited. There she is in the tree, munching on apples like a maniac.

I didn't know apples grew in like, clusters? It was very bizarre to me at first.

My roommate is on the prowl for the best apples!

Doh is also on the prowl but didn't forget to throw me a thumbs up for the picture.

My roommate and I both got two half-bushel bags of apples. Mine were free (Thanks, MIT Architecture!). I love free things.

Overall, definitely a fun experience and I would love to do it again!

This list has been something that I kind of always had in my mind, but finally decided to write up. I plan to continue to return to this list and update it as my life progresses. Hopefully, I'll be able to blog about most (if not all) of these things, so I can link back to everything!

• Visit all 7 continents (6/7, track my travel progress here)
• Backpack in Europe
• Visit every country in the European Union (4/28)
• See the New 7 Wonders of the World
• Pyramids of Giza (honorary)
• Colosseum
• Great Wall of China
• Taj Mahal
• Machu Picchu
• Chichen Itza
• Petra
• Christ the Redeemer
• Visit Greece and fangirl over all the mythology-related things
• See the windmills in the Netherlands
• Eat chocolate in Belgium
• Pay for an overseas vacation on my own
• Visit Tibet
• Go see the Harry Potter stuff in England
• See the Leaning Tower of Pisa
• Visit the Amazon
• Go see the Hokkaido lavender fields
• See the cherry blossoms in Japan
• Visit Korea and eat yummy food
• Eat yummy food in Japan
• Try street food in every country I visit (purple markers are places where I have eaten street food: track my progress here)
• Get paid to travel
• road trip across the US
• Explore Pompeii
• Live in another country (aka not the US, Canada, or China) for a few months

• Go out sketching at least once every two months
• Paint a painting every year
• Create a travel journal (Made one on Ecuador!)
• Send 20 hand-painted cards 
• Learn to throw on a pottery wheel
• Learn to play a song on an instrument even though I'm musically challenged
• Crochet a pixel blanket
• Sell a painting
• Open an Etsy shop
• Make a Youtube channel
• Write and illustrate a children's book 
• Design and code an app
• Redesign this blog and make it responsive
• Get my artwork published or in a gallery
• Create my own t-shirt design
• Learn calligraphy

• Do a Pay-It-Forward at a coffee shop
• Volunteer for a good cause
• Volunteer at a pet shelter
• Donate $1000+ for an important cause
• Knit for charity

• Take a self-defense class
• Learn to speak a new (fourth!) language
• Learn to drive
• Take a ballroom dancing class
• Take a martial arts class
• Graduate from MIT (without pulling any more all nighters please)
• Take a bartending class
• Learn to quilt (and then make one)
• Take a cooking class
• Take a baking class

• Dance in the rain with someone
• Adopt a pet that can snuggle (aka not a fish)
• Swim in an infinity pool
• Read a book every month (and blog about it)
• Get an elephant massage
• Go to a concert
• See a musical and pay for the ticket myself
• Go ziplining
• Get up to see the sunrise 
• See the Northern Lights, bonus if I photograph and paint it!
• Have a plant without killing it (I have now managed to kill both a cactus and a succulent)
• Grow a food that I can eat
• Enjoy a wine tasting
• Fold 1000 cranes for grandma and bring it to her grave
• Be an extra in a movie
• Go to ComicCon
• Go to BeautyCon
• Meet someone famous
• Eat a ridiculously expensive dessert (Like the 1000 dollar ice cream sundae in Vegas)
• Go apple picking (I've never been!) read about my experience here
• Build a blanket fort with someone I care about
• Ride in a hot air balloon
• Attend/be a part of a wedding of someone I care about
• Teach someone a skill
• Take my parents out for a nice dinner
• Get a penpal

On Thursday last week, I had a bit of a meltdown.

I got back a test that did not receive a grade I would've liked (don't worry, I didn't fail) which I had studied fairly hard for, and somehow became irrationally upset about it and ended up crying for most of the day. The meltdown, thinking back, must've been about more than a poor grade - I think the stress of job hunting and MIT started to get to me again, even though I purposefully chose to take a lighter semester with only 3 classes instead of my usual 4 or 5 (For reference, 4 classes is standard at MIT).

I'm not a stranger to meltdowns like the one I had this past week. I had them frequently last year, which was arguably one of the most stressful years I've ever had. However, I have learned how to deal with stress and meltdowns better. I sought help last semester, which helped greatly, but I do not feel like I'm in that poor of a state again to warrant another series of meetings with other people.

Instead, I chose to take the weekend off. I managed to get all of my immediate homework done by Friday (apart from a few last minute things on Saturday which took all of 20 minutes), so I could afford taking the weekend off. On Saturday, other than dance and work, I watched a movie and went out for brunch with a friend where we talked about everything other than classwork; Sunday, I spent baking.

So here are my top 10 ways I reduce stress, and I hope at least a few are helpful for you too!

1. Knitting and Crocheting: crafting has always been a source of stress-relief for me. My hands don't do well when they aren't used, and knitting and crocheting are easy for me to do while not really paying a lot of attention. It also helps because I make things for people for Christmas, so I also get to cross things off my Christmas To-Make list!
2. Doodling: As shown in a post here, I've recently gotten into my DIY planner. In the extra space per day, I like to draw a little picture of me and what I wore, or what I ate, etc., and I also take a few notes on what happened during the day (i.e. today was so cold, I bought food today, I had a lot of fun with my roommates today... etc). Super mundane, super simple, but it's surprisingly fun to look back on.
3. Watch a movie or a TV show: I especially like to watch kids movies and tv shows to destress. Recently I have been watching Steven Universe (Cartoon Network) and Gravity Falls (Disney), both of which I greatly recommend. They are now both on hiatus, so I will probably return to watching all the classic Disney movies on repeat.
4. Take a Youtube break: I like to do this when I don't necessarily have time for a longer break. I've been ridiculously into watching planner videos - they're really good for white noise, and I don't really have to pay attention!
5.  Cleaning: I hate mess and cleaning makes me feel like I'm being productive even though I'm really procrastinating on doing schoolwork. 
6. Put the stressors away: I am very bad at doing this, but it's so helpful to do. Put whatever it is that's stressing you out away for 20 minutes (or a full day, if you can afford it). This includes closing all related tabs on your computer! It really helps to take your mind off of it, and it makes you feel a lot more rejuvenated when you go back to it.
7. Baking, Cooking, Eating: I like to stress bake. I like to stress cook. I like to stress eat. I also like to feed other people. This all works out very well for me.
8. Take a nap: Personally it's really hard for me to fall asleep when I'm stressed out because my mind doesn't turn off. Taking the time to take a 30 minute nap without distractions helps me clear my mind. Also sleeping is great.
9. Call my sister: My sister is adorable, as exemplified about a million and a half times prior. She's really good at cheering me up! The last time I called her crying, she stuck her feet in my dad's face to make me laugh.
10. Dance: Taking breaks to practice my choreo helps me get out all the negative energy and also helps me learn choreo, which I'm sure my choreographers don't mind me doing.

For those of you who have no idea: I'm Canadian, and my Thanksgiving was yesterday. While I have many issues with the historical implications of Thanksgiving especially since this year, it coincided with the US's Columbus Day (*cough*genocide*cough*), I do think it is a good habit to take time and be thankful of what we have, especially since as a MIT college student, it is all too easy to get sucked into the black hole of anxiety (*cough*jobhunting*cough*).

So here goes:

1. I'm thankful for my family, but especially my sister, who is adorable. They have always been supportive of me in my endeavors, even though sometimes the way they show love is somewhat questionable. Thank you to Hera, who as a six year old little girl, is already capable of noticing when I'm sad and knows how to cheer me up and make me laugh. I strive every day to be a good sister (I even don't swear in front of her!) and a good example for her. Also, I'm thankful for mom and dad for always buying me fancy food.

I strive to be a better person every day for this adorable little one right here

2. I'm thankful for my roommates. Even though we're not all completely sane, we do try to keep each other grounded and we are always here for each other. Thanks Emma for being resident baking mom, and thanks Caitlin for always being there to remind me to slow down, calm down, and also for giving me all the meds.

Say hello to Emma, our resident baking mom. Caitlin, it's your fault for not coming to Maine with us and me not having any pictures of you from this summer :(

3. I'm thankful for Julie and Stephen, my best friends (apart from my roommates, who are now basically family). Thank you (especially Julie) for providing me with a safe haven to go to on campus, and being there to watch ridiculous episodes of Steven Universe with (since she's the one who got me into it in the first place). Thanks both of you for being there for me during my worst times last year, and remembering to check up on me when others forgot about me. Also, thanks for Arlong because he's an addition to our family and somehow all three of us in the apartment have gotten attached to him (it?). I hope you're both proud he's still alive.

I hope you know that you are adorbs

4. I'm thankful for my dance group, ADT, and the relationships I've forged there. I joined ADT late, but I have been forever thankful that I did. I forgot how much I used to enjoy dancing as a child, and ADT helped me regain that passion. My rehearsals have been an amazing outlet for my anxiety and stress, and I love every single one of my choreographers - even the ones I didn't know long. Thank you to everyone who offered a hug and didn't question or pry when I burst out crying before and after rehearsals. I have become friends with some of the most amazing, quirky, ridiculous, and adorable people at MIT through this dance group, and I couldn't be happier about it.

ADT has hands down been one of the best experiences in my life so far and has kept me from sinking at MIT

5. Finally, I'm thankful for the people who have managed to stick with me. After I moved out of my dorm last year, I realized that people I once thought were friends had never actually truly cared about me. I made a bigger effort to stay friends with them than they did, and when I disappeared from their lives, not one sought to contact me, ask me if I was okay, especially during the time when I needed that reassurance the most. So thank you to the friends from Pomfret who have stayed with me (Alyssa and Lydia!) and the friends at MIT who have always been there to offer a hand or a listening ear even when I was too scared to ask for it (apart from the ones mentioned, Rosa especially, for letting me cry on your shoulder too many times to count).

Thank you Rosa for letting me cry at you literally all the time last year

Now that I've finished being all sappy - now that Thanksgiving is over, it's time to look towards Halloween.... and Christmas! Christmas is my favorite holiday, so don't mind me as I start watching Christmas movies a few months too early. The argument that "Thanksgiving isn't even over yet!" doesn't apply to me.

What are you thankful for?

So, confession time: I'm an organization freak. I am the kind of person that likes to block out times on my gcal for everything in my day when I start getting really busy, to the point where my roommate mentioned that looking at my calendar gave her anxiety. I like to make to-do lists for everything and I like checking them off and feeling ridiculously accomplished. When I had a paper planner in high school (because they gave us planners), I would run out of space to write all the things I wanted to do (apparently I was a very busy high-schooler).

I also am a hoarder when it comes to pens and notebooks. I'm pretty sure my grandparent's home in China houses the majority of my notebook collection - all these cheap, pretty, Chinese notebooks in which I wrote maybe two or three pages and then promptly abandoned for another pretty notebook. I used these notebooks for everything: writing stories, journaling, making lists, doodling...

Over the summer I became ridiculously addicted to these "plan with me" videos on youtube. These are girls who have these ridiculously expensive planners and who decorate them with stickers to the extent that the planners are really actually scrapbooks. While things like that are not my cup of tea - the main aim of having a planner for me remains being organized - the videos themselves were somehow really entertaining to me.

Now mind you, ever since I began MIT I switched to digital planning. I have a huge reliance on Google calendar, but I never really liked how Google Tasks was set up (basically, it's ugly). I remembered how obsessed with my paper planner I was back in high school, and I became a little bit obsessed with trying to find a paper planner for the coming school year.

During my search for a cheap, pretty planner, I came across the concept of a "Bullet Journal" on Tumblr. It's a system designed by this guy named Ryder Carroll, and essentially it's a giant running to do list that you make every day. It's very customizable, because it's basically all DIY - you can use any notebook you have on hand and make it a system that works for you. And, since it's in an unstructured notebook, you can insert anything you want other than to do lists - journaling, doodles - and you will never run out of space.

I mean, until you use up the notebook.

Have I mentioned I have a thing for to do lists? And journaling? And doodling?

It was a match made in heaven.

The one issue that came up with the original bullet journaling system is that there isn't really any space for future planning. If you're making to-do lists every day for the day, it's kind of hard to see what you're going to do in a few week's time. Ryder Carroll has a way to combat that, but it's in a list format (of course) and it's only for the month.

To fix that issue, I decided to make weekly spreads instead of daily spreads - that way, I could at least plan out an entire week at once. For spans over a week, I continue to utilize my Google Calendar. I preferred it anyway, for writing out my class schedule, so I wouldn't have to write the repetitive events in my bullet journal / DIY planner every week.

Without further ado, here are the spreads I have since I started this whole bullet journaling adventure:

The notebook I used is actually a sketchbook I bought eons ago (remember I mentioned I hoard stationary?) and I drew a couple sketches of my family (mostly Hera) just so it can make me happy when I open the book

I started trying out this bullet journal thing over the summer and ended up doing more doodling/journaling which I really liked!

This was when I was still trying out future planning with only a paper planner

again, future planning with a DIY paper planner. this got abandoned fairly quickly.

I drew in a calendar for the month and with things I wanted to do but I never went back to reference it, which is how I realized this particular part of the system wasn't going to work for me

and the listing commences! This is my first spread, the week before school started

School starts! I had a couple stickers that I added in and also some washi tape. This was when I started also fake-scrapbooking and adding in ticket stubs and things like that

This is an example of me being able to use parts of the planner for, well, not planning. I took notes for my Designing Interactions class and also decided to start (late) the Lister's Gotta List challenge that I found!

My first Lister's Gotta List spread - I doodled out all the lists but I gave up doing this as I got busier

Still trying out this spread layout, but I became curious to try out a few different ones. The most exciting part of this week was going to the Boston Museum of Science's Pixar Exhibit for a class project!

More notes and Lister's Gotta List

I tried out a different type of weekly layout spread! I liked how the horizontal layout gave me more space to doodle, even though technically area-wise its the same amount of space

Moooore Lister's gotta List. You can tell I got really lazy.

I did another horizontal spread layout! This was the week where I really started adding in more doodles and writing in how I felt during the day, etc.

I emailed a bunch of places where I dropped my resume at during the MIT Career Fair and then was like, what do I do with all my pamphlets? Obviously, cut them up and tape them artfully in my bullet journal. I also added notes about the companies and their contact information.

This is this week's layout! I'm trying out a new layout where I have more space for the weekend so I can add in more memorabilia and stuff - I'm going to DC this weekend so I'm probably going to tape in my plane tickets, among other things. The notepad paper has all the specific homework I have for French.

I also decided to start trying out this habit tracker thing, mostly so I could stop writing "Feed Arlong" on every day of the week. It was getting kind of tedious.

So far, this whole bullet journal venture has been really fun! It doesn't take a lot of time to set up weekly, and drawing in or writing in how I feel or things that happened during the day really helps me wind down at night. It's been really good for destressing, and I get to fuel my hoarding into something kind of productive. I don't know if it's making me particularly more organized, but I do know it's already really fun to look back on and see what happened in the past month! Eventually, I'm hoping this will become a really cool log of my senior year.

Well, part of my senior year. I've already used up around 1/3 of my sketchbook and we're not even 1/3 of the way through the semester. I already have plans for what I'm getting to replace this, when it's used up!

How do you feel about paper planning versus digital planning? Do you journal, or doodle? How do you like to keep memories? Let me know!

For those of you who have been either living under a rock or don't have nearly as much of an obsession with beauty products like I do, you may not know that Sephora is now coming out with a monthly beauty subscription box (think Birchbox or Ipsy but from the mothership).

I've always been hesitant to sign up for subscription boxes - what if they gave me things I wouldn't use or wouldn't like? Was it really worth spending 10 dollars a month - 120 dollars a year? For some reason, when I found out Sephora was coming out with Play! By Sephora, I didn't even hesitate before ordering. I think I was just looking for an excuse to jump on that subscription box bandwagon, and the fact that it was Sephora - which I was hopeful would give me lots of very reputable fancy products - and that I could cancel my subscription any time just sweetened the deal.

It arrived two days after Sephora emailed me to let me know that it had shipped out, so A+ on fast shipping, Sephora! I've been so spoiled by Amazon Prime, so I'm glad Sephora managed to match the shipping speed.

First of all, the box and the packaging was super cute. I'm definitely planning on keeping this box and maybe using it to organize things - maybe my growing collection of sticky notes and washi tape?

Look at how adorable the packaging is!

In the box I got 6 products: the Marc Jacobs Highliner Gel Eye Crayon in Blacquer, Sephora Rouge Infusion in 19 Peony, Ole Henrikson Sheer Transformation face cream, GlamGlow SuperCleanse Daily Clearing Cleanser, Elizabeth and James Nirvana White fragrance, and Bumble and Bumble Bb Haidresser's Invisible Oil Primer.

So let's go through each product.

The Marc Jacobs Highliner sample I received was 0.01 oz. The full size is 0.1 oz and $25, so my sample was worth $2.5. This eyeliner is SO BLACK. I tried it on yesterday along my lower lashline and today again on my tightline, and so far it hasn't budged at all. I have always been a liquid liner kind of girl - stila stay all day liquid eyeliner is my holy grail eyeliner because it's easy to use and also doesn't smudge and I will never use anything else - but I have never found a pencil liner (I guess technically Marc Jacobs markets it as a gel? It's a pencil form, whatever) that didn't move on me. Even my NARS Larger than Life eyeliner that I got as a freebie smudges more than this one!

Full size of the Marc Jacobs liner - the sample has the same packaging, which I really appreciate!

The Sephora Rouge Infusion in 19 Peony is 0.068 fl. oz. The full size is 0.152 fl. oz. and 14 dollars, so my sample is worth approximately $7. I've worn it once and all I can say is it applies easily, it's not blotchy, and it's a pretty color. Since Peony is kind of a MLBB (my lips but better) color, I'm not sure if it hasn't moved all day but I think it hasn't?

Full size of the Sephora lippie. It's a pretty color and I think I'll get a lot of wear out of it! The color of the product is pretty true to color to what it shows here.

The Ole Henrikson Sheer Transformation face cream is 0.25 fl. oz. It comes in multiple sizes, but the 0.5 fl. oz. is 14 dollars, so mine is worth $7. To be honest, I was wary about trying out this product because I have a very strict cleansing/moisturizing regimen because my skin is sensitive, combination, and has a tendency to break out in painful cystic acne. I did try it last night and this morning though, and it doesn't leave an icky residue, moisturizes well, and my skin hasn't broken out yet! I will definitely keep using this product - I think it feels nicer as a day moisturizer because my regular one is a lot thicker.

This stuff makes my face feel fancy.

The GlamGlow SuperCleanse cleanser I got is 1 oz, which is a full size product and priced at $14! I haven't tried out this product yet, again because of my skin problems - I didn't want to introduce multiple new products all at once. I did use it to wash off swatches on my hand earlier - it foams up nicely and my hand feels nice and clean now, again with no residue left behind. It didn't manage to wash off my Marc Jacobs highliner swatch though - I'm not sure if that means the cleanser isn't good or if it means the eyeliner is too good?

The packaging I got doesn't look like this! Mine came in a squeezy bottle, which I actually prefer to the pump.

The last two products are slightly irrelevant to my life - I don't use hair products because I have super-easy no-fuss Asian hair, and I don't really wear perfume ever. The perfume does smell nice and clean though, so it would be something I would wear.

The Bb Hairdresser Invisible Oil primer sample I got is 1 fl. oz. and it comes in multiple sizes but the 2 fl. oz. is priced at $9 so my sample is worth $4.5. The perfume sample, Nirvana White, is in a sample spray bottle and contains 0.07 fl. oz. of product. The rollerball, which contains 0.34 fl. oz. of product, costs $25, so my sample is priced at about $5.

I would say that overall, this box did pretty well! It contains $40 worth of product and I paid $10.66 for it, and I got at least 3 products that I will definitely use up - we will see about the GlamGlow and the perfume, and the hair product will probably end up going to a friend. Even so, just the 3 products that I will use are worth $16.5, more than the amount I paid for the box, so I do think it was pretty worth it.

What's your opinion on beauty subscription boxes or subscription boxes in general? Have you used any of the products I mentioned?

The last semester, one of my best lifelines during the chaos of studio and school and MIT and life was - other than my friends - crocheting. When I got too anxious or too tired or just wanted to cry, I'd put everything down and crochet a little granny square. It was an easy, mindless activity that took less than 10 minutes (per square), so it was a short enough break that I wouldn't feel guilty for taking some time away from my work.

The pattern I used is called something pretty which I found on Pinterest, and is linked here.

Soon, I had a little collection of squares accumulated in a wicker basket by my bed and my roommate called them my stress squares.

Originally they were going to be a blanket, but I didn't have enough yarn to make a full blanket so I had to change course. I had made 28 squares over last semester and hadn't touched them over the summer, but I had also bought some lining fabric over the summer and the perfect solution, obviously, was to make granny square pillows!

Some of you might remember that I made a granny square pillow last summer too while I was still living in the dorm, so it seemed fitting to add to my little granny square pillow collection and make a family.

Say Hello to my little granny square pillow family! The white one is from the previous summer, and the two matching ones are made from my stress squares. The little one is super cute, and might end up going to Hera!

For those of you who did the math, yes, I have 2 granny squares left over. I'm not quite sure what to do with them yet.

I think that it's important for everyone to have some short de-stressing activity they can do when life gets too overwhelming. I've found that sitting in bed with some music or Netflix in the background while I knit a row of seed stitch or crochet a square has been really helpful to my mental wellbeing. Of course, my friends and going to MIT Mental Health are undeniably helpful as well, but unfortunately those are not perfect solutions when panic attacks arise at odd times like 3 am.

If you haven't found a good outlet to destress yet, I really do encourage something like this! And if you do have an outlet, I'd love to know what they are.

Anyone who knows me is aware that I have a slightly obsessive personality, am a bit of a hoarder (but only useful things! like pens and clothes and makeup and art supplies!), and have a bit of a shopping problem.

What can I say? I like buying clothes and makeup and trying out new styles!

Over each summer in my life, I've always traveled away and taken a small carry-on suitcase with me. I'm really good at packing and taking not many things. I scoff in the face of all those How To Pack a Suitcase videos and tutorials on Youtube. This past summer when I went back to China, I did the same - and realized how nice it felt to only have a few staple pieces to choose from and try out different ways of pairing clothes. (On Pinterest, I think this is called a capsule wardrobe.)

So when I came home to my apartment in Boston,  I decided I needed to clean out my life.

No, not people. Friends, I still love all of you. Don't be silly.

I started with my wardrobe. I know everyone says to take everything out of your closet first and then put back the things you reach for first - I didn't do that because I'm such a rebel.

Turns out I'm very familiar with what I wear on a regular basis and what I don't. I grabbed all the clothes that I knew I didn't wear, and then did a second sweep with things I was unsure about. Goodbye, all the uncomfortable career fair t-shirts that I don't know why I kept. You won't be missed.

I ended up getting rid of 2 garbage bags full of clothes. I also got rid of my hair styling appliances (hairdryer and curling iron) because I don't use them. Hooray for having easy to deal with hair!

I later was sad that I got rid of my hairdryer for the sole purpose of breaking in my black flats that were slightly painful. I ended up just sucking it up and wearing them. They don't give me blisters anymore, for anyone who's wondering. So I didn't need the hairdryer anyway.

I also went through my makeup drawers, which was ridiculously fun to go through. I did a makeup clean out a few months ago, and it hasn't completely gotten out of hand yet (again), so I decided I would only go through my lipsticks (which somehow I had accumulated, in a few months, a lot. Let's just leave it at a lot of lipsticks).

I ended up throwing away half of them. It wasn't hard - I had a lot of repeat colors and also a lot of lippies I'm pretty sure were expired or well on their way to expiring. Oops. I did end up having a full arm of lipstick swatches though, which was super fun and also hazardous for the cleanliness of everything in the apartment.

Finally, I got rid of a bunch of my papers that I'd been holding onto - like schoolwork and handouts and stuff. Well, it's senior year.

I get to get rid of that stuff now.

Trust me, throwing away handouts is a lot more exciting and good-feeling than it sounds like.

Now it actually feels a lot nicer. I still have quite a few pieces of clothing, but more manageable and also all clothes that I wear (except for my corset and my flapper dress which, for obvious reasons, I couldn't part with). It makes getting dressed in the morning a lot easier, and I know whatever I reach for will be pieces that look good on me and also don't require me to suck in my tummy and stuff like that. Slob-ing around in presentable clothing for the win!

Its the same with my makeup - picking out lipstick colors is way easier now that I have fewer, and I've rediscovered lipsticks that I may or may not have forgotten about.

That is exactly the problem with having too much stuff. You've only got one sodding body, what are you going to put all the extra clothes and makeup on anyway?

Also, donating a lot of clothes and appliances in fairly good condition felt really awesome. I hope they find good homes.

All in all, I think my decluttering project was a success and I encourage everyone to try it too!

For the last three weeks of my summer, I went home to China to see my family, give copious amounts of hugs to my adorable little sister, and to go sight-seeing.

Prior to that, I had been interning at a small healthcare design firm called Involution Studios (check them out here!) in Arlington, where I co-researched, designed, and wrote a manifesto about the pitfalls of American healthcare (there are a lot) and explored methods of fixing it. It was a super great experience - the people there are awesome and all wildly different and interesting, I learned and expanded on a bunch of super useful skills (D3, HTML/CSS) which I was able to immediately use on the project I worked on, while also taking advantage of my design background.

Also, we got Union Square Donuts once a week, which obviously also added to the awesomeness of Invo. If you haven't had a Union Square Donut yet, you're missing out.

Through the experience, I further solidified my want to work in and experience design fields other than architecture.

I flew back to China on the 11th of August and spent three weeks catching up with my family and getting into shenanigans with my little sister.

Meet Hera, the most adorable little 6 year old on the planet

We were in Shanghai for a few days - and we went to play the claw machine and Hera got a pikachu but then she promptly LOST IT the next day so of course we had to go again, but it was a Saturday so there were tons of people and the claws were all loosened (fun fact: if you want to catch things in the claw machines, go when no one is there. The claws are less likely to have been tampered with) and we had to wait for a half hour to an hour for this one couple (who already had a bunch of stuffies anyway!) to finish trying to get a pikachu but they FAILED and probably wasted more than 100 yuan (each try is 2 yuan) and then Hera got the pikachu on her first try because the couple that we had to wait for probably used up all the duds (woo probability!).

We were also in the countryside for a few days. I cut bangs because Hera wanted us to match (and obviously I couldn't refuse her because she's so damn cute), we baked an apple tart and cookies and banana bread, and we rode on the back of a pick up truck (because Hera wanted to) to go to the mountains (aka even more in the middle of nowhere) to eat dinner.

this is us in the back of a pick up truck in rural China

I don't know if you can tell, but behind Hera in the shop window are little panda statues doing kung fu

this is a panda shaped sweet with whipped cream inside

panda Jack Sparrow shirt that I almost couldn't resist buying

they have a legit chain store called Panda House and their store fronts look like panda heads

my dad and I in our super awesome matching kung fu panda shirts

Hera and mom in their super awesome (but less cool than ours, obviously) matching mommy and baby panda shirts

this panda needed to scratch his butt

After scratching his butt he was very hungry

tiny tiny panda

another tiny tiny panda

A few other things Chengdu is famous for: hot pot, and a performance called "Changing Faces" or 变脸 (bian lian). We did both, but I didn't get pictures of the performance because of my scumbag iPhone that decided its storage was full.

Me and Hera at the West Lake!

I got this really interesting grapefruit tea that was sweet and supposedly had a lot of beauty benefits but more importantly it was very tasty

We went on a little boat ride on the West Lake the next day before we left

Ready for hiking! Also, the color matching was totally unintentional

I SWEAR THE COLOR MATCHING WAS UNINTENTIONAL

Welcome to Paradise where the view is incredible and no one is around except the mosquitoes

If you can see the little boardwalk-like area at the top of the waterfall - yep, we went all the way up there

All in all, it was a super great summer. I spent time with my roommates, did really cool things at work, and had great fun with my family. I'm not completely ready for the semester to start quite yet - let me bask in the fun for a little while longer, please?