Author: katie
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Marche Jean Talon
Another trip to our beloved Montreal. We’ve been living in Vermont for less than two years and we’ve been eight times. Each time, our heart swells a little more by how much we love Montreal. Casey and I call our last trip our best trip, because we did it all right. We brought guests with…
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Tucson
It’s good to be back in Tucson. Tucson is sort of my second home, after all the other places I have lived before. We came during February and we couldn’t be happier to get away from the negative temperatures in Vermont. I ate my body weight in Mexican food, which I really missed, especially birria.…
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Boston
If you hadn’t caught on to my life yet, I run a literary and art magazine called Canto Cutie that showcases the work of Cantonese diasporic artists and writers. I’ve been creating, printing, and distributing this magazine since 2020, when I was living in an apartment in San Jose. Pretty much day one of the…
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New Bedford
In 2022, I took the magazine on an unofficial tour! First to Boston for the Boston Art Book Fair and then Brooklyn for Zine Fair NYC. In Boston, I stayed in New Bedford for three nights. New Bedford is a small town before the Cape about an hour outside of Boston. I had a lot…
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Manhattan
I had a great day in the city with my in-laws. We played mini-golf, got fancy pastries, went to a photography museum, and ended the night with Korean BBQ.
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Richmond, Vermont
Richmond is a cute town that some friends have told me that I should move to. Too bad, because we love where we live already! I’ve been there a few times, and each time has been really magical. The first time I really got to hang out here was with my friend Nicole, who we…
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South Hero, Vermont
South Hero is the southernmost Champlain island and only a thirty minute drive from my home. Summer weekends are where the Islands really shine, with their farmer’s markets and Vermonters going to their dachas. Except they don’t call them dachas, they call them “camp” and we’ve always been jealous of our friends who go to…
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Shelburne Museum
We’ve had over twelve guests come stay at our guest room this summer. It’s partly due to my urging of everyone come visit us, but also because Vermont is the perfect vacation destination in the summer. There’s no place like it. Californians can’t get enough of the green, New Yorkers can’t get enough of the…
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Watertown, Massachusetts
Watertown is a city west of Boston that I had a great time selling zines at. I met a lot of great people there.
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Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal
This trip was our first time spending the night! And our first time using public transport. By now, we knew our way around and could lead others around the city. This time, we actually went into Notre Dame, instead of just hanging around outside. The expected highlight of the trip was going to the Montreal…
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Rue Sainte-Catherine, Montreal
I really love planning Casey’s birthday. For one birthday while we were living in San Jose, we drove up to San Francisco and enjoyed a day of eating mushroom risotto at a fancy French restaurant. Foraging and identifying mushrooms was our favorite pastime at that point. For this year’s birthday, I wanted to treat him…
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Mile End, Montreal
We discovered a funky new neighborhood in Montreal. Mile End is where many Orthodox Jews live, so there are many bagel shops. There’s also a small little Lululemon store here! My cousin Molly and her husband visit Lululemon in every city they visit. We also stopped into what I thought would be an Asian snack…
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Casino de Montréal
Casey’s parents were in town so we knew we had to hit the casino. Despite all our excitement, the casino did not have craps. We were a little bit disappointed. If you’ve read any of my posts about Las Vegas, you can learn more about how Casey and I are craps diehards. We live for…
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Montreal Botanical Garden & Museum of Fine Arts
Our first foray up to Montreal was with two of our friends from California. Surprise – the border crossing was extremely easy and it took only 1.5 hours to make it to downtown. We walked around the Montreal Museum of Art and then the Botanical Gardens. Because it was our first time there, we chose…
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Northampton
One Saturday, I drove down to Western Massachusetts for a zine fair and had the time of my life. Making zines have brought me to places I have never been and has been the best ice-breaker in new environments. I’ve taken part of zine fests in New Haven, Northampton, and Watertown, and a book festival…
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Boston
Fourth time’s the charm. I came for the first time in 2018 with my friend Samantha. I got my bearings – the Isabella Gartner Stewart Museum, Fanuil Hall, Boston Market, Little Italy. My second trip was with my sisters in 2021, where it was more of an eating trip. We ate a lot of lobster…
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Laconia, New Hampshire
I had never spent much time in New Hampshire, other than an hour stroll through Lebanon. I drove to Dover for a swim meet at the height of summer. I really underestimated how much time it would take. It was a three and a half hour car ride and when I arrived, I was in…
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Newport, Vermont
The race of the summer is the Kingdom Swim. I had heard about this swim my very first week living in Vermont, and while I was too late to register for it in 2021 since I arrived in the summer, I registered in snowy March for the race in July 2022. I spent all year…
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Burlington Coffee
The summer of 2022 brought guests from all over to stay at our cozy ranch home. We finally got the guest bed set up and our tiling finished on the first floor. Our first guest came in June – the first of many. My friend Victoria and her husband came to visit first, kicking off…
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Vermont Womenpreneurs Summit
Strangely enough, during the pandemic I got to speak and give more presentations than ever before. Zoom made it possible for me to get involved in activism, the indie publishing scene, entrepreneurship, and more. Prior to Covid, I had only given a few talks. I had given an art talk at an exhibit opening and…
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Vermont Bookstores
It doesn’t matter where I am, I absolutely love bookstores. It all started when I was little. My mom would let me have my pick of anything at Border’s. As I got older, I loved going to Half Price Books in Austin. I knew that the downtown location had gems in different languages, and the…
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Housewarming Cards
Moving to a new state and getting guests for the first time means gifts, celebrations, and most importantly, cards. I collect every card I receive in this scrapbook. My favorite thing about my family is that they are just as sentimental as I am. We prefer to write and our feelings certainly come out in…
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Letters from Russia
The best thing about making friends abroad is being able to send each other care packages and write letters. It started when I was seven and moved away from Tucson. I kept in touch with my cousins and my best friend through letters. Even though we had email and could text soon after, writing letters…
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March 2020
I typically do not enjoy my birthday because of built-up anxiety and wanting to make the day perfect but a fun fact is that my 28th birthday was the very first day of lockdown. It was the beginning of some of the best years. I finally had time to breathe and sit and create and…
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Phoenix
My sister got married in Phoenix, which made it the third time I have gone in three years. I’ve always had Tucson loyalty but Phoenix is slowly winning me over with the food and bars. Yeah, it’s that easy for me to love a city.
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Smuggler’s Notch
This winter, I learned to ski. And not only that – I grabbed skiing by the horns. Or the poles. I took three lessons at Bolton Valley, a mountain about 40 minutes from my house. I heard about it from just about everyone living here that was the preferred mountain for locals. I got to…
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Jay Peak & Downtown Burlington
For Casey and my one year marriage anniversary, it was also pretty much the one year anniversary of us deciding to move to Vermont. We decided about this time last March to move here. To celebrate this amazing time as an end to the most wonderful year, we decided to do a few things we…
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Cambridge
I did not expect to like this small town very much but I’m glad I was wrong. Harvard’s campus is wonderfully picturesque, but I loved their university museum most of all. I even became a member. I’ve never supported a museum before this so this is my amazing venture into being an adult with cash…
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Salem
Every witchy girl has a bucket list destination, and it’s Salem, Massachusetts. Myself included, I had to visit during a Halloween. For the weeks leading up to the trip, I read posts on Reddit about how much locals hate the tourists and what is a tourist-trap and more. Despite all of that, I still went…
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St. Albans
Before we even decided to look for a house in Vermont, we came to visit. Casey was working from home so I just took the car and drove around the entire northern portion of the state to see what’s up. I drove all the way up to Swanton, which is the northern most city before…
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Waterbury
So if Los Angeles is the Los Angeles of California, I would say that Waterbury is the Los Angeles of Vermont. Waterbury is very fun. On one street alone, there’s Ben and Jerry’s factory, a cidery, cheese factory, distillery, coffee roaster, brewery, state police office, and huge gun outlet. It’s basically the eating capital of…
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Gilroy
My husband and I have had a fascination with Gilroy ever since we moved here. Apparently, it is the largest exporter of garlic in the world, and if you’re eating garlic, chances are it’s from a farm in Gilroy. Gilroy is just south of San Jose and not considered part of the Bay Area. It’s…
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Our honeymoon
Sometimes I think that as a couple, Casey and I are blessed with extraordinarily good luck. We didn’t really have a honeymoon plan because we were worried about Covid after the event. Two days after our wedding, we thought that maybe we should just do it? We thought about Humboldt County and seeing whales –…
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Our Wedding Reception
With no end to the pandemic in sight, Casey and I wanted to make sure our guests could at least have a little fun for driving so far. We rented an Airbnb and with the owner’s permission, we had a lunchtime party in the backyard. We had ten guests. Bloomster’s handled the tables, chairs, and…
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Our Jewish Ceremony
I converted to Judaism after a year-long course put together by four local temples. I found the perfect rabbi after meeting four San Jose area rabbis in the process. She was the one who also helped me convert to Judaism, and officiated our wedding ceremony. For the wedding ceremony, we needed candles, kiddish cups, and…
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Our sweet elopement
Casey and I decided to have a pandemic elopement. We don’t regret it, because we would have chosen a small, intimate ceremony anyway. Despite the ceremony lasting about one hour – it was still nerve-racking! So many moving parts. The flowers, the booking of the park, the rabbi, getting everything together. The ceremony was a…
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Sanborn County Park
We had planned a long engagement but with our out-of-state move looming closer, and no end to the pandemic in sight, we decided to have a tiny ceremony. We figured we’d have a larger party later. The most important guests, my grandfather and Uncle Joe, live in California, so it was a good location and…
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Scrapbooking winter break
I love getting done with a scrapbook! Then it gets to go on my shelf, with all my other travel memories. I create one even for in-town trips. I have been sharing pages from Katie and Casey’s Winter Break Adventure 2020! We were socially distant on all our adventures this winter break. More pages to…
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Ano Nuevo State Beach
After living in California for over three years, Casey and I realized we had only been to Santa Cruz once! We had never really been to the beaches here. We took the beautiful drive along Highway One. One day we started from Santa Cruz. Another day we started from up North, near Palo Alto, then…
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Almaden Quicksilver Park
The best part about living in South San Jose is that you are right up along the mountains. It can’t get any better than that! I’d take Northern California landscapes over Southern California beaches any day. Alamaden Quicksilver Park is less than fifteen minutes from our house. There is a grueling uphill loop. We did…
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Monte Bello Preserve
Monte Bello is a special hiking spot Casey and I go to near Palo Alto. It is our favorite place because it is never crowded and the loop is just at the appropriate level of difficulty. By the end, I am complaining, and we finish right when Casey gets tired. So it’s a win-win for…
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Nisene Marks State Forest
Casey and I visited Nisene Marks at the beginning of our myceulium obsession. We were just learning about mushrooms and getting excited when we could identify basic roussulas. Now, we’ve gotten pretty good and can identify many things! We went to Nisene Marks this past week. With Covid, it was crazy the amount of bikers…
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Capitola Beach
We’ve been living in the Bay Area for four years now but we have yet to spend too much time at any of the beaches. This winter break from distance learning, I set out to change all that. Capitola is an urban beach with a low-key beach town. It is near Santa Cruz. The drive…
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Northwest Austin
I found an old map of Austin while visiting my grandpa one summer afternoon. It was a map from the 90’s, and there are many more roads than there are on the map. I decided to cut it up and reflect on every corner of Northwest Austin – places I’ve been, that were special to…
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Austin and my many homes
I lived in Austin for almost twenty-five years and called several places home, mostly in North Austin. I have fond memories of all the places I’ve lived. My childhood home was on 360 and Spicewood Springs, a house I’ll return to over and over again for holidays. The home represented stability and quiet. While I…
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Oakland/SF
Quarantine makes me nostalgic for places I’ve been, even if they’re not my favorite places. I haven’t left the house really, since March. As I clean out my house, I find little snippets of life before quarantine – maps, ticket stubs, flyers, and more. Last August, Casey and I saw a comedy show in Oakland.…
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Las Vegas
Las Vegas has always had a special place in my family. I think Nevada occupies that space for many families in the American Southwest. Disneyland or a theme park is an expensive ordeal that requires planning. Vegas is kind of a place your exhausted parents can get the whole family packed in to the car…
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Memories of Austin through restaurants
I found an old wallet filled with punchcards from Austin. There were about thirty in there. Didn’t I say I was a paper hoarder? If it’s printed, I want to keep it. I decided to record some of my favorite places in a tiny journal. Some of the punchcards were from places I love, whereas…
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Paris
I’m currently learning French through Duolingo. It is going surprisingly well. I am catching on and it seems like it’s filling gaps in my brain. I think I see French words, just around, in life, and finding out what they actually mean and how to accurately read them, is helping. I’ve only been to one…
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Istanbul
Have you been somewhere that’s so completely magical that you vow to return again and again? That’s how I feel about Istanbul. I didn’t know what to expect but when I got there, I was impressed by everything. I loved it. I stayed at a cozy little hostel tucked away in Kadikoy with one of…
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Vietnam
Vietnam was the cheapest ticket I could get out of Korea. It was also a place I wasn’t familiar with, so I was interested to visit. I should have done more research or possibly learned Vietnamese because it wasn’t very accessible for a budget traveler at all. The second I arrived, there were also masses…
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Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz has a cult following around the Bay Area. Everyone has a bumper sticker of The Mystery Spot. Well, it seems that way. I finally got to visit. It definitely reaffirmed that Santa Cruz has a strange energy to it, not in the sense the attraction advocated about, but in the attitude that people…
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Macau
Macau is an interesting place that I visited with my family. When I say family, I really mean a random assortment of… people… that are distantly related to me. My maternal grandpa is one of nine children. My mom has a close relationship with great uncle #5 because they grew up in the same household.…
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San Luis Obispo
My friend was living in LA and I was a new transplant in San Jose. We wanted to meet but didn’t want to drive over nine hours to see each other. We settled on San Luis Obispo, a cute town right in the middle. San Luis Obispo was having a poppin’ weekend. They were having…
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Austin, through the eyes of a visitor
What is my hometown? I never know how to answer this question. Is it where I was born? Is it where I live now? Is it the “reason” I look the way I do? I usually change the answer depending on who is asking. I’ve lived in Austin for over twenty years. I moved away…
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Tucson
For this year’s climate-poclypse, Casey and I headed to Tucson. We packed up everything of importance into our car and drove twelve hours southeast. The wildfires were only a few miles away from us. We ended up staying two weeks. We didn’t do much while there because it’s wasn’t really a vacation. However, it’s still…
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Hong Kong
I have a love-hate relationship with Hong Kong. First of all, it is like immersing yourself in a bucket of sweat during the summertime. It is unbearably hot and you are extremely close to a million different smells and people at any given second. I don’t think New York City is as lively or as…
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Philadelphia
One of the best things about having a family member an official tour guide is all. the. discounts! She gets comped to go to museums all the time because she brings large groups of students there. So, following her around a new city is a lot of fun. Rusty took us to Philadelphia. We had…
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Samara
What is Russia like? It’s difficult to explain to people who have never been to a “second world country.” The West likes to paint Russia as a depraved place but in reality, it’s not that bad. It’s not like the wild wild west. It has nice parts and poor parts. It has problems but also…
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St. Petersburg
Have you ever been heartbroken and alone in a city? That’s what St. Petersburg is to me. I went there as a shell of a person. In Russia, I found it easy to just exist and float through life. As a foreigner, you don’t owe anyone anything. So you can check into a hostel, cry…
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Ulan-Ude
Ulan-Ude is the capital of a small Asian republic in Russia, Buryatia. Buryat people are buddhist and speak both their native language and Russian. Earlier in the year, when a non-profit organization asked some American teachers if they would like to travel to some remote republics, I jumped at the chance to go to Ulan-Ude.…
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Japan
I love Japan but I have an issue with all the stereotypical people that dream of going there. First of all, Japan is totally warped by upper middle class white people all around the world. It’s like, the place they all want to go. Japanese food and anime are placed at a pedestal. I’ve met…
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Kyzyl
When people ask for advice for where to go in Russia, they ask, “Do you like Moscow or St. Petersburg more?” My honest answer is neither. I appreciate both cities but if you really want to understand Russia and meet Russians, I say go to Siberia. In both Moscow and St. Petersburg, it’s pretty difficult…
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New York City
I’ve lost track of the times I’ve been to New York City. If I had never met my partner (who’s from New York), I probably would not have had the chance to see it in all the different ways that I have. I don’t know if summer or winter in the city is better. For…
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Mexico City
I visited Mexico City the fall of 2015. I had just come back to Austin after traveling nonstop for a year. And within weeks of being back, I knew I had to go again. Travel is an addiction for me. One of my best friends, David, and I planned a trip to Mexico City. We…
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Another year, another year of travels
Everytime I travel somewhere new, I make a new journal documenting well, basically everything. No meal or sight is left undocumented. My partner reads these little journals and is impressed that every little chicken nugget I eat has profound signifigance to me. Well, I interpret it as being a super neurotic traveler. By now, I…
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Marin County
Marin County is the area north of San Francisco, on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge. I had heard a lot about that area from fellow mushroom collectors and identifiers. It is moist, mountainous, and has great trails. My boyfriend and I shared a special weekend there this Valentine’s day. We liked Mount…
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Phoenix
Most of my time spent in Arizona is in Tucson. I went to school there for two years and all my cousins live there. Tucson is low-key and funky. Phoenix feels more corporate, cleaned-up, and built out. I definitely prefer Tucson even if it doesn’t have much of the same conveniences that a large city…
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Yosemite National Park
I went to Yosemite for the first time in October. I’ll be honest – I don’t like the idea of Yosemite. Apple (and capitalism) has ruined the name for me. The kind of affluent, oblivious Colorado-loving kind of American that I despise – really love going there. Two super cool documentaries were even made this…
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Morocco
I had never been to Africa before. When I found out a friend had just finished Peace Corps in Morocco, I jumped at the chance and had to visit her. I spent some time in Spain, then headed to Northern Morocco, specifically, the city of Tangier and Chefchaouen. Tangier Morocco was not what I thought…
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London
I’ve been to London twice. Once in 2014 and again in 2019. When I visited in 2014, it was at the very beginning of my solo travels. It was my first stop in my 15 months abroad alone. I was only there for twelve hours on a layover to Moscow. I was so scared of…
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Berkeley/SF
I moved to San Jose three years ago. San Jose is an hour south of the world famous San Francisco. Every movie and TV show takes place there, everyone abroad dreams of visiting San Francisco. However, in my three years here, I’ve only managed to visit SF a few times and sort of end up…
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Davis
One of my favorite travel partners is my grandpa. He and I have been to countless places… Brazil, Hong Kong, Canada, Northwestern United States, just to name a few. It had been more than a year since we went to Brazil, our last trip. So it was time for another trip… I got the idea…
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Cleveland
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Cute Little Paper Blog (@cutelittlepaperblog) on Sep 29, 2019 at 5:45pm PDT I spent ten days in Cleveland this summer. Before going there, I heard from a lot of people that it would be boring. They were so wrong. I met the most amazing, sweetest Ohio…
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Amsterdam
Traveling isn’t always glamorous. My friends and I somehow all got diarrhea from the same ice cubes at the most upscale bar in all of Tangier, Morocco. Yes, whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably true, and yes, it’s disgusting. It lasted about five days. I left Morocco and made my way to Amsterdam. I was in…
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The Bay Area, from South Bay to the Peninsula
Casey and I just celebrated four years in the Bay. California has been enjoyable, with new experiences, and good memories. We don’t know if it’s the perfect fit for us, though. We are far too kooky for this hyper-capitalist, business-centered state. It’s difficult to afford a house. The weather is perpetually perfect here. Small cities…
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British Columbia
When I was about eighteen, I set off with my grandpa and fifty other retirees in a stinky tour bus all Canadian national parks. I’ve also written about the time I toured the US on a bus. Hadn’t I learned my lesson?! The result was a chaotic and unforgettable time. I signed up thinking it…
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Monterey
For our four year anniversary, my boyfriend and I spent the weekend in Monterey. We saw the infamous aquarium, went to the beach, had fish and chips, went hiking at Aptos State Park, and even kayaked alongside otters. Monterey is a beautiful coastal city only an hour south of San Jose. While driving down, you…
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Denver
I was able to connect with Zhenya, a friend I made while living in Samara, in Denver! It was the perfect place to meet up. It’s mild in the summer and an urban center with a lot to do. Zhenya and I spent many late nights talking and eating (she’s a chef!) in Samara, and…
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Grenada
My boyfriend and I decided to spend ten days in Grenada, also known as the Isle of Spice. He had served in the Peace Corps for three years in that country and had not returned to a visit yet. Coincidentally, it’s also an island paradise famous for their nutmeg, sugarcane, rum, carnival, and jabjab celebration.…
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Boston & New York City
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Cute Little Paper Blog (@cutelittlepaperblog) on Dec 8, 2019 at 6:12pm PST This summer I spent a month on the East Coast. As a kid, I had never been to any part of the East Coast. Most trips my family took were to the West Coast…
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Costa Rica
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Cute Little Paper Blog (@cutelittlepaperblog) on Dec 8, 2019 at 10:31pm PST Costa Rica was a rain forest paradise, everything you’ve ever wanted and more! I’ve always written off this place because growing up, I would hear about countless mission trips here. Like, isn’t everyone there…
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Brazil
In March 2017, I had the opportunity to visit two cities in Brazil: Florianopolis and Rio de Janiero. I have a great uncle that is a retired ship captain and many second cousins there. My cousins had just opened up a pizza shop. It was the perfect time of year to visit! Santa Catarina is…
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Alabama
I’ve been to Alabama twice. It’s funny because people outside of Alabama are like… why? It’s a humid and strangely beautiful place. But I also feel like an outsider the second I step foot there. I don’t feel like I could ever blend in, no matter how hard I try. But I guess another strange…
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Texas Coast
I remember when I met my first college roommate, who is from Houston, and stupidly asked her, “Houston has an airport?” I’m pretty sure she alerted the authorities immediately because I knew an embarrassingly small amount about Texas. Houston is one of the largest cities in the United States. Growing up, I thought Houston was…
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Kazan
I think the hottest guys in Russia are from Kazan. Hear me out. Kazan is the capital of Tatarstan, a semi-autonomous region on the western, European side of Russia. Tatars are a Turkic ethnic group indigenous to that region. There are also about five million ethnically Tatar living in Russia. There also also Crimean Tatar…
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San Antonio
San Antonio was awesome! We’ve been here many times in the past, but it was the first time we flew here as a destination. Casey and I brought our cat there. It was cold and rainy the entire time we were there. That’s becoming my preferred weather. The first thing I did upon arriving was get…
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Big Basin State Park
We had our first visitor to in the Bay Area! My boyfriend and I moved here in 2017 and we never miss “home”. For our first visitor, we wanted to welcome him to our California. It wasn’t the theme parks, or bars, or cool restaurants we wanted to take him to. What we define as…
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Castle Rock State Park
Another beautiful day at a State Park, hunting for mycelium and breathing the fresh air. I think this park is too close to the city because it was quite crowded. Is that just an American thing – a crowded forest?
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Ufa
I spent an entire week in Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia. When I told people in Russia I was headed there, the immediate reaction was why? Bashkortostan is a sleepy Muslim republic off of the White River. I was like, why not? I want to get to know every inch of Russia. I rode a thirty hour…
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Los Angeles
I’ve visited Los Angeles many times as a kid with my family. I knew it for the beaches and Getty Museum, which was a memorable place for me as a kid. I finally got to go back, as an adult. I was in Los Angeles to reconnect with an old friend. She was working at…
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Portland
Some of my best travels happen right when I quit a job. I remember when I quit my crappy retail sales associate job in Austin the day I bought a ticket to Long Beach. And with the latest trip, I quit a job and flew off to Portland that very night. I get so cooped…
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Germany
My family and I traveled to Frankfurt, Berlin, and Munich in 2015. We met friends and visited museums. I kept all notes and paper in a Moleskine notebook. Germany is surprisingly a lot like the US. For some reason I get Philly-vibes there. Maybe the cleanliness, small streets, houses in rows make me think that.…
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Traveling around the US National Parks
When I was in college and already feeling the wanderlust, I joined my grandpa and fifty other retirees from China on to a Chinese tour bus and visited many of the national parks in the US. Yes. One of those tour buses. The ones filled with obnoxious, throwin’ up their peace signs for terribly staged…
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Colorado
For spring break, my boyfriend and I took a road trip to Colorado. We visited Crestone, Valley View, and Colorado Springs. We also stopped at Zapata Falls and Great Sand Dunes National Park. For this trip, I created a journal that we could both write in. This journal alternated between pages written by my boyfriend,…
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Korea
Busan, Korea is where I found myself in 2015 after living one year in Russia. I backpacked through Siberia and the Far East and left the country on the day my visa expired. Going to an Asian country was almost like a well-deserved homecoming. There was Western food. There were the conveniences I had taken…
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Siberia
Samara drops below 40 degrees starting January. I decided that it would be a good idea to go to Siberia… because, why not? Siberia turned out to be awesome! I returned later in the year to visit the Kyzyl, Ulan-Ude, Abakan, and Krasnoyarsk. On my first taste of Siberia, I visited Yekaterinberg and Tyumen. Yekaterinburg…
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Primorsky Krai
I spent a whole year in Western Russia, in Samara working as a university lecturer. Samara is a mid-sized Russian city. I got to know every part of it, as I worked in a major university but also weekly taught at an elementary school, private language academy, and even a US Work and Travel preparation…
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Long Beach
Long Beach is one of my favorite places in LA. I love the colorful horticulture and the perpetual ocean breeze. It embodies every idea of the concept of California. With the perfect temperature year-round and the low-key vibe of the entire city – makes it a perfect place to visit. I had an awesome vegan…
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Moscow
Soviet-era birthday postcards and a matroshka doll from Izmailovsky market in Moscow When I was a freshman in college, I spent a summer studying at International University in Moscow. It was my first time alone abroad and my first time in Russia. I studied Russian in college, a brave and stupid decision that would leave…
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Cancun
Something I’ve always liked about scrapbooking is that you can make one entirely out of found materials. When I think of scrapbooking, I typically associate it with going to a craft store, picking out sheets of 12″ x 12″ patterned paper from the scrapbooking aisle of a craft store, finding matching stickers and putting it…
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Why is stationery so special to me?
Mun Guey means stationery in Cantonese. I believe I sort of have an ancestral memory for all things written on paper. My paternal grandfather traveled all around the world with his friends when he was in his twenties and thirties. He’s been to practically every country in Europe and Asia. He has brothers in Taiwan…
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Taipei
The first thing I do on every trip is buy a notebook. I used to take a journal with me from home, but now I always pick a journal while in the actual destination. I’ve found that there is way too much oh-my-gosh-why-didn’t-I-buy-this-notebook anxiety. I frequent book stores and stationery shops in all the places…
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Brooklyn & Manhattan
One of the best parts of traveling, for me, at least, is all the paper memorabilia that I encounter on the way to the destination. A business card written in French for a French company and a flyer for a French cafe actually in France are things so peculiar and special, especially if it’s a…