What I LOVE About Spring

If you been reading my blog long enough you will realize I posted What I LOVE About Fall and What I LOVE About Winter.  Weather is getting warmer and warmer, and this week is first week of April. It is a good time to write about spring. This post is my way of starting April and Spring term. Enjoy!

1. Flowers: I always start with nature related favorites!! For spring is definitely flowers!! It is the season of full blooming. They are just too beautiful and hard to resist. Whenever I see flowers on the street, I can't help myself staring at the flowers and take picture. Sometimes I even want to pick some flowers.   

2. Hope and Starting Over: Usually second one will be holiday related. The holiday during spring time is Easter. It is about rebirth. It gives a hope. Generally when the weather is getting better, people would start to feel the hope.  Spring is also the start of new school year in Japan and Korea. I lived part of my childhood in Japan. Spring is time to start over. 

3. Dress Up for Warm: I hope you already read about my previous posts, and you will realize I love dressing up. Spring is time to big coat (even I like them), and change to lighter cloth. During the spring time, I like to wear one piece of long sleeve with jeans. They are so comfortable. 

Accounting is NOT math

This is serious lack of blogging. My life is busy and it is so hard to find time to blog. Plus when I have time to blog, I feel very tired. It is not that I have nothing to blog; however, I have SO MUCH things I want to express in here. If you followed me, several of my recent posts were the something I wanted to write for a long time. Well, this is another one. I have been studying for accounting for two years now, and 99% people would say "You Must Be Good at Math!!" to me. I am sick of denying the answer. So here is the post to clarify the real meaning of accounting. 

1. Language of the Math and Number: Accounting is not just math, it is more about the meaning of the math. Not only we have to have the compute the correct number, but also we need to understand and explain the reason behind. The number often tells the liquidity and risk of financial situation in a company. Management uses the number to make decision and forecast. 

2. Right Number in the Right Place and Time: Most of the time, the accounting software can do the math for us.  Jobs for us are make sure we enter the number in the right place and at right time. We usually deals with series of data and some numbers are even accruals and deferrals, so we must difficiate. If one step was mixed up, it will ruin the entire result. It is pretty scary. 

3. A LOT of Rules/Laws of Math: Math in accounting is more complicated and tricky. There are SO MANY formulas, tables, rules, limits, and policies must follow. It is easy to get the wrong answer. Furthermore, we have to use human judgement applying those rules/laws to make sure the number make sense. 

4. Enter the Right Amount of Zeros: Math in accounting is extremely DETAIL oriented. One zero can make a HUGE difference. We really need to be organized and careful about our data entry.  

5. Make Sure to Balance and Match: This is VERY important (above four are important as well). If the number does not balance nor match, that means the financial information is wrong. We could spend hours and hours to find out what went wrong. Sometimes I feel accounting is "finding the penny." (no joke)


All in all, accounting is so hard!! I don't blame anyone who think that way. This is my face when I study accounting.... 

My Five Favorite Things to Conquer Stress and Get Motivated

Once up the time, I heard this phrase from a wise woman "life would not get easier, it only gets different." My understanding is "stress happens to people regardless of their age, gender, nationality, occupation and economic status." Everybody is the same, no one is better than other. Stress seemed never end, so I had to come up with ways to conquer stress.  

1. Music: I love listening to songs. This help me a lot. I forgot how many times I was saved by all the wonderful and powerful lyrics. Every time I feel scared, down, or pressured, I will listen to my favorites, then I would stand up again. 

2. Exercise: I release a lot of stress from exercising. I feel refreshed and cleared my mind after a good work-out. If you do not like exercise, you can just simply take a walk. You will be surprised how much you will feel better after that. 

3. Food: Eating is the easiest way to enjoy life. Great food is always make me love life, and all the stress will be forgotten. I also like to cook. After I finish a wonderful meal, I would feel motivated again. 

4. Movies: Good movies teach people life lessons. Movies shows different side of life and make us see things we don't usually see. Sometimes I watch movies to learn how to get over with all the problems and tough times in life. 

5. Writing: Part of blogging is my stress management. That is why  I kept writing. Writing is a way to "express" your stress. I believe portion of the stress will be released after "expressing it." This blog is not only where I use it to release my stress, this somewhere I can just be "me."

If you love music, you will life will be fill with melody
If you love exercise, your life will be filled with energy
If you love food, your life will be filled with abundance
If you love movie, your life will be filled with entertainment
If you love writing, your life will be filled beauty

SOU vs. PSU

I have been to two universities for my college experience; they are Southern Oregon University (SOU) and Portland State University (PSU). I like both of them very much. Each school has its own uniqueness. I will share the good things I discovered. 

*These are based on my opinion about the schools, so they might not be 100% accurate, and if you been to either of the school, feel free to disagree with me. 

Individual Good Things
SOU
1. Cheaper Tuition: SOU has the cheapest tuition in Oregon. It saved me several hundred dollars going to SOU instead of other schools in Oregon. 
2. Smaller Classrooms: If you prefer bigger classroom, this might not be the good thing for you. However, I liked the classroom size of SOU because I can reach out to professors easily when there are not many students in the classroom. 
3. Free Wifi: I do not have to log in every time I use Wifi on campus. It stresses me up sometime when I have to log in whenever I want to go online. 

Here are some photos of me in SOU: 

PSU
1. More Convenient: PSU is in the middle of downtown area of Portland. Students can easily access to the city and there are more public transportation options such as bus and train. 
2. Larger Diversity: PSU probably has the largest diversity in the US. It is a non traditional campus, so there are people from all over the world, and the age range of graduation class is always huge (my class was 19 to 76, I believe). 
3. A Lot of Opportunities:  Various local communities work with PSU, so students have different kinds of opportunities to explore. It is a great place to network. 

Here are some photos of me in PSU

Shared Good Things

1. Friendly Staff and Great Professors: I did not like taking test and being graded, but I really enjoyed going school and attend all my classes. Thanks to all the kind school staff and genuine professors for making student life easier and fun.  

2. Strong School Spirit: I love both Raider and Viking!! It is so hard to choose. Even I am not a sports fan, I still liked the spirit. It motivates me for studying and achieving my goals. 

3. Beautiful Campuses With Great Sustainability: Not only the building itself is gorgeous looking, but also very clean inside. Buildings are always been remodeled and spaces are expanding. Both schools embrace nice environment and encourage recycling. 

Five things I LOVE about Ashalnd

I have been to Ashland for since September. I ABSOLUTELY love it from the deepest my my heart. Let me share!!

1. People are SO FRIENDLY!! Seriously, every one can feel live at home in Ashland. There are very a few criminal cases here. I feel very safe living in this town. I love walking down the street and seeing people smiling at each other. If I ever want to ask for help, there always people there, so I feel worry free in Ashland.

2. The town is very ARTISTIC: There are a lot of interesting shaped sculptures on the street. Ashland is also the town of Oregon Shakespeare Festival. There are talented musicians performing on the streets as well. Furthermore, I really like how people dress up in Ashland. I even learned some fashion tips observing them. 

3. EVERYTHING is in walking distance: It is extremely convenient!! A poor student like me can not afford a car. I can go everywhere without a car. I also like to walk, and the weather is good almost all year around. the weather and structure of the city match well together. 

4. There are a lot of DELICIOUS food: I am a foodie, so I enjoy living a city with different kinds of food. Even Ashland is a small town, there are a lot of restaurants and cafes. Explore and try new food is what I love to do during my free time. I like the Bakeries and Italian Restaurants in Ashland. 

5. The view are so BEAUTIFUL: Ashland is beautiful town in general. I enjoy sighting every day. We can even access to the outdoor easily. There is big nature park called "Lithia Park" in the downtown area. We can see the mountain of Ashland from almost anywhere in the city. 

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24 Things I Feel Grateful About My Life

Yes, it was my Birthday this Monday. I admit that I am 24!! I am longer in the early 20s. Welcome to middle 20s. Time if flying by. It was like yesterday when I turned 23 and posted about 23 lessons I learned for the past 23 years.

Additional I learned from this past year:
"Life is about learning lessons and being grateful for everything you have!!"
So for the everyday of rest of my life, I will constantly be improving myself and being thankful for what is around me. 

Here are the 24 greatest things in my life.

1. I have a great mother
2. I can speak three languages
3. I am able to go to school 
4. I have friends all over the world
5. I love cooking 
6. I have the body that able to exercise
7. I live in a city with wonderful nature
8. I live in the US with out worry about visa 
9. I met a lot of influential professors and advisers as I grew up
10. I got educated not only academically 
11. I have the appetite for delicious food all over the world
12. I live in the time with peace and no war 
13. I surround all the kind people
14. I get inspired and motivated by quotes 
15. I am not short nor too tall
16. I was born in era with fast growing technology
17. I get saved by music 
18. I like to smile
19. I love to hug 
20. I feel god is besides me
22. I live in the country and spices with great technology. 
23. I do not have mental or physical disadvantage
24. I do not have drinking and smoking problems

“Don't make a wish, only make it come true!!”

Five Things I Learned from Tax Training

Big apologize for not posting this sooner. As the title says I had "training" last week, and it was tough. I felt super tired every day I came back. Since I was tired and stressed, I partied a lot during the weekend, and I was hesitated to update. I will be sharing lessons about filing taxes and dealing with work in general.

1. Be Organized From the Beginning: If I did not do this, I would waste a lot of time doing it all over again. Plus this could lead to headaches and pains by going back. It was important to make as less mistakes as I can. Sometimes one small error can ruin the entire return, so I have to be very careful. 

2. Cross Numbers Off As It Goes: This was important for preparing tax returns. It helps keeping track what is already filled and what is leftover.  

3. Use the Binder and Notepads: Although have been using binders and notepads since high school, NOW I finally realized how they can make my life much EASIER. Binder keeps the documents to together, so I would not get mixed up or lose anything. Notepads makes finding the necessary information quicker. They are lifesaver for preparing tax returns. 

4. Supervisors are Not Professors: It was a hard transition from having my work reviewed by a professor to a supervisor. Professor would be happy to answer my questions and correct mistakes, but supervisor might not. During the orientation, my boss said: "(my supervisor's name) is not (my professor's name)." This scared me. 

5. Ice Cream Brings People Together: There was ice cream Friday every week. It was part of the firm's tradition, and everyone loves it. We had great taking a break from tax returns and social. I learned people like ice cream regardless of their age, gender, and ethnicity. I felt ice cream can make people happy bring people together.

Some picture from the ice cream social 

Here is to THOUSANDS more tax returns to FILE!!