DarmokAndJalad2020

Hello! I recently decided to delete all my social media accounts, which is where I used to do all of my mail swaps, so I'm very excited to find this community to continue doing swaps! Right now I'm a bit of a newbie but I'm excited to get more swaps under my belt.

My name is Nina, and next year I'll be heading to college to study Political Science. I love receiving and sending out mail, it's such a small joy in my life at the moment. I love Star Trek (my username is a reference), books, coffee, languages, politics, and did I mention books?! On one hand, I love writing lengthy letters to others, forming deep relationships where we can discuss in-depth topics with each other. On the other hand, I love getting stickers or stationary from people I have yet to meet. Truthfully, I just find the thoughtfulness of the mail I receive to bring a smile to me, whatever it may be.

I love books and I'm so happy that I can type about books once again. I actually have a rough ranking of my favorite books.

First, War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy.

I've only read this book once, mainly because it's so long, but I just absolutely adore it so much. Pierre is my favorite literary character ever. I also love Natasha's character development throughout the novel.

Second, Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy

Yes, it's another Tolstoy book. I really just love his writing style and find his characters so incredibly vivid.

Third, The Secret History, by Donna Tartt

I love the style of Dark Academia books. The story and writing of Donna Tartt's books here is fantastic. I've read her two other books (The Little Friend and the Goldfinch).

Other books that I adore are A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, Brandon Sanderson books, The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, A Song of Ice and Fire, and JRR Tolkien.

My favorite Game of Thrones/ASoIaF characters are Sansa, Cersei, Daenerys, Jon, and Tyrion. I really adore Sansa - she's definitely my favorite. I adore the politicking of show/books. Right now I'm working on a re-read of the series.

I also read a lot of non-fiction, especially about history, sociology, and politics.

I greatly enjoying discussing books in depth, whether it be discussing the themes in fiction, or discussing the topics in non-fiction.

I love the color black. Black and white, and gothic themed mail is so lovely for me.

I make a lot of friendship bracelets, this is my main crafting hobby.

I also really love using stationary, but it's less about crafting. I don't do much crafting with it. I love washi tape and stickers! Oh my goodness, I adore stickers, I love using stickers to decorate my planner. I love nerdy stickers, or 'cozy' stickers, so stickers about coffee, books, cats, etc.

My favorite colors for stationary and stickers, etc, are blues, reds, pinks, and oranges/yellows.

In general though, I am happy with any 'crafty' material. I'm looking to get into other crafts.

I love learning about politics, past and present, US and international. I love analyzing elections as well as niche political issues. I listen to a lot of political podcasts like FiveThirtyEight as well.

I really, really love learning about languages. In college I'm hoping to start learning Russian. I also studied a little bit of German throughout high school.

I absolutely adore history. American history is fascinating to me, and I'm also very interested in World War 1, and Russian history.

STAR TREK. I love Star Trek! I have a lot of Star Trek stickers as well. I'm hoping to watch all of Star Trek media, so I've seen all of TOS, The Animated Series, TNG, DS9, Voyager, and most of the movies. I'm going to start working through Enterprise then onto Picard and Discovery soon.

I also adore the original Twilight Zone, with Rod Serling.

Alongside this, I've enjoyed The Office, Parks and Rec, and Dark. I don't watch too much TV though.

My favorite movie is American Beauty. I find the screenplay so interesting to watch.

My other two favorite movies are Moonlight and Call Me By Your Name.

Also, going with the general nerdy trend above, I love Star Wars.

I love Wilco and Phish right now. I love the Avett Brothers.

I also listen to lots of rap (Kendrick Lamar is my favorite), classical music, musicals, and rock music.

My favorite classical composers is are Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, and Dvorak.

My favorite musicals are In The Heights, Hamilton, The Great Comet of 1812, and Les Miserables (I really should read that book!)