Places I've been in 2017

We're just few hours away from starting 2018, so I thought I'd write a quick post on all the places I've travelled to in 2017. I travelled way too much this year - three overseas trips, two trips to the West coast (which almost count as overseas trip) and lots of conference trips within USA.

The year started with celebrating NYE in NYC. I wrote a separate post on that trip, which was quite fun visiting places in Manhattan and Brooklyn. February was spent packing and moving to my new apartment, and preparing for the Code4Lib conference in Los Angeles. LA weather was gorgeous in March. Apparently it was raining a lot for past two months, so it was unusually green, but luckily we had full sunshine and crisp weather during our stay. Right after I got back from LA, I had to go back to Santa Cruz in California for an interview. It was a short intense trip with the interview and my work Macbook being dead from soaking water on the plane. However, Santa Cruz was absolutely dreamy! It's a small beach town where you can see gorgeous blue ocean when driving back from campus. I'm not sure how people concentrate on their studies and work there, but it's definitely worth visiting for vacation! I wrote another post on my Cali trips here.

In May I went back home to get my H1B visa stamped, which was another stressful journey. After I came back I went the UK for a week-long vacation and to present at the Digital Humanities Oxford Summer School. On that first week I visited Dawlish, House of Marbles in Bovey Tracey and Exeter. Then I spent the second week in Oxford. This was my second time after 2015 and I felt very nostalgic re-visiting all the places. I wrote another post on my stay there.

Dawlish beach

After those summer trips I had a break for about three months. A lot happened in between. Then I had four conferences in a row from October through November. The first conference was in Winston-Salem. It's about 2.5 hours drive from Raleigh. We drove back on the same day but I managed to pay a quick visit to Old Salem, which is a preserved historic town. Then I went to Pittsburgh for the DLF Forum. Pittsburgh is a decent city with quite confusing streets. I didn't get to see a lot but made it to the natural history museum and some nice places to eat in downtown. From Pittsburgh I flew directly to Washington D. C. for the ASIS&T Annual Conference. That was very eventful but I won't go into the details now. D.C. has good food and cool museums but I got super exhausted from all the traveling and conference presentations.

Old Salem

Pittsburgh downtown

Washington D. C.

After coming back from conference travels I went to the UK for vacation in November. It was my first time to visit Brighton, Bristol and Portsmouth. I think I'll write a separate post on that. Hoping to travel less for work and see more new countries in 2018! 

Hope you all have a wonderful new year!

Painting is the Secret Cure - 5

Yesterday I wrote how crazy last couple of months have been and that it didn't leave me any time to write blog. Same goes for painting as well, but I found I did two more paintings since then that I didn't post here. Also, after almost three months I managed to paint today (Yay!). So, I'll post all three paintings here.

My today's painting was about a romantic walk in snowfall. I've always loved snow, it turns the surrounding into a wonderland! As long as you manage to not slip and break any parts of your body in that wonderland, I enjoy snow quite a lot! However, since I moved to the southern part from Illinois, I've barely seen any snow. Winter almost doesn't exist here, let alone snow. So, this painting is about a snowy night in a small town. This is also the first time I've painted a snowfall! It never occurred to me that I never painted snowfall all this time! I enjoyed doing it quite a lot and pretty happy with the result.

The next painting was done right before fall season. I really wanted to wear cozy sweaters and enjoy fall but it was still pretty hot outside in September (makes sense I guess since winter is so mild here). Autumn is my most favorite season and I love all the colors in nature. I hope this painting makes you feel the same way!

The last painting is about running while chasing sunset. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love watching sunsets and taking sunset photos. I also happen to go out for run in the evening most of the times and get to see some pretty sunsets if I'm lucky. This painting was also experimental as I had to get the posture of human figure right. I don't draw detailed human figure much, it's not my specialty. So, this was a test case and I think it turned out mostly okay. Need a lot more practice though.

Overall, I think I managed to paint more this year given that it was totally crazy. I need to buy both new colors and a drawing book as I ran out of them. So, this gives a decent ending to this year. Hope next year goes well in terms of productivity and I get to paint more! 

Finally Holidays!

Three months have gone since I wrote my last post! It's mainly because last two months were really intense with a lot of traveling and the time in between I had to spend catching up with regular life and work. Finally it's time for winter holidays and I can spend some time with myself. I found this quote yesterday and that accurately says what I mostly need in my life right now -- a quiet break and time to reflect on myself. 

Happy Holidays!!!

I've been down with cold for last few days, so I spent the weekend resting up, cooking, baking, watching lots of shows and movies, reading books and catching up with friends and family. I also decorated my house with the holiday Lego set and got myself pretty flowers to add more coziness to the home. I really love my apartment and it truly makes me happy to be able to spend time here. I don't think I'll miss the city itself when I leave but I'll miss my apartment for sure. 

#tistheseason! 

Flowers never fail to brighten up my day! :)

My Lego minifigure cake turned out mostly okay! :D

I'm slowly recovering, at least it feels better today than yesterday after sleeping a lot. Last year I was home at this time of the year. It was good to see family but since then the whole year had been full of traveling and I never had enough time to myself. Summer vacation is not a thing anymore as I'm not a student now. So, I've decided to spend the rest of the vacation doing the things I can't usually accomplish during usual workdays. One of which is writing my blog as a part of my self-reflection. I don't do those new year, new me shit, but as we mark a new beginning, I need to revisit my failures and focus on what I need to do to better myself. I'll try to read a lot during this holiday - both academic and pleasure reading. Also, need to get back to healthy lifestyle and fix my immune system.

I feel I'm kind of lucky to be in this situation right now where I can sit down, relax and focus on myself. This whole year has been full of struggle and stress. We often forget or don't have the opportunity to prioritize self-care and personal happiness -- it's very important. It's also necessary to find a block of quiet time just to focus on yourself. Confusion, self-doubt, anxiety, stress - these are all part of adulthood. If we don't know properly where we stand and what we want in life then it's very easy to drown in fear. It's not that you won't be scared but it's about being scared and still facing all the fears. I'm scared to death to face all the things coming up in my life. I know that friends and family will listen and say supportive words when I need them, but only I have to give myself the support to stand straight in the battle of life. My dad taught us a very important lesson since we were young - never depend on anyone, and I'd always be grateful to him for instilling that sense of self-dependence. I hope this never changes in the future and I can be in the position to lend a help to others.