Duck Sauce

Last week we had the first three days off for winter break! It's been over a week since then so I honestly can't remember anything I did, but here are some pictures from the (short) break.  Looking back, most of my week seems to be food related lol. How sad. Well, it's probably because my friends and I recently discovered this cute little Japanese restaurant somewhat nearby, so we went twice over break!  The first time I went with courtney, and we were so stuffed with food that we didn't have room for dessert (I really wanted mochi ice cream -_- ) but a few days later when we went again with some other people, I managed to be united with my mochi ice cream at last ! It was so beautiful I almost cried (that's a lie) and tasted pretty damn good too. Also, Shalom-D practiced a little, and we have a show coming up next friday! Ahhh! Afterwards we went to Qdoba, and I discovered the most delicious burrito in the history of the world. Chicken, guacamole, rice, cheese, tomatoes, onions, and queso sauce. Yumyum.  If you don't know, Qdoba burritos are like giant bricks, but I managed to force it all down anyway.  Needless to say, major food baby.  But it hurt so good. Also on the last day I remembered I had art homework, and stayed up till 4 painting that crappy [Fred Johnson] knockoff.  We were supposed to paint ourselves with some kind of super power, or freak-show talent, and then advertise it.  I don't really like assignments like this because I'm basically told to copy another artist's style, which cramps my style, pun intended. Ha. In other (food-related) news, I made truffles with my neighbs, which were kind of delicious but kind of disgustingly sweet at the same time.  Regardless, I ate melted butterscotch off the giant spoon, nbd.  Also, I got asked to prom...with duck sauce packets on my car hahahaha.  I ended up saying no to him, which I felt bad about. Some people told me he was pretty upset about it, but there's nothing awkward between us, so that's good.  Random fact: McDonald's gave me free chicken mcnuggits on monday.  

Massive mound of free donuts

Hi courtney :) Hi miso soup. Hi delicious salad. 

Green tea mochi ice cream AKA my lover.

Chocolate and butterscotch balls! They're filled with crushed oreos and cream cheese

Soy sauce bunny! ......and mango mochi ice cream ♥ 

New York, New York !

If the title of this post didn't already give it away, I went to NYC this weekend ! Victor's cousin just moved here from Shanghai on wednesday to go to boarding school in America, so he's living with Victor and his family.  Pretty cool huh? Anyway, he wants to be called Jeff, but I got used to Bing Bing first, so that's what I'm calling him. BB for short.  Right, so we arrived, and made our way to Times Square where we shopped, took pictures on the red steps, and found a place that sold $1 pizza.  The pizza was amazingly addictive, leading us to suspect that cocaine had been an ingredient.  Finally we managed to stop eating and did fun tourist-y things like go to the m&m factory and watch cool street performers.  There was one of those cool silver-spray painted metal dudes who made really good balloon animals, except he got kind of pissed of when the kids just took the animals and didn't tip any money. This one kid gave the animal back and ran away lol.  Also, I think there is some sort of pan-flute craze going on.  We saw like three street performing groups all playing pan-flute woodsy music.  It was so bizzare. We also saw this amazing graffiti artist who specialized in making city landscapes with different space-related backgrounds. He could finish a painting in less than 10 minutes and was just cranking them out for $20 a pop.  I'm not sure how long we watched for, but I probably could've gone on for another hour. Watching him was so captivating since when he started you had no idea what he was doing.  You just watch and try to guess what he's making, and the little buildings and planets just start appearing one by one.  It was absolutely ridiculous.  And of course lets not forget the caricature artists that lined every street.  Whenever I see those people I first get hit with a pang of envy for their amazing skill and speed, and then a burst of sadness, because these people deserve so much more for their art.  Next time I go to the city I've decided to buy myself one of those.  Also I've decided to learn how to draw caricatures so I can try doing that one day.  Another project to add to my list of projects that've never been realized.  Maybe I'll make a new tab on here that contains my long list of things I've always wanted to do but never had the drive or motivation to carry out. Haha but I am digressing again.

Anyway, Dan's cousin was here to audition on sax for NYU, so he joined us and told us about a free jazz concert he was going to that night.  It was held in a church nearby, so we went to check it out.  The church was absolutely amazing and so were the musicians.  The clarinetist was ridiculously talented and got really into the music haha. The only part that sucked was waiting there for over an hour since we thought it was supposed to start at 7 but didn't start till after 7:30. Anyway, we had to leave after only four songs so we could catch our train.  We were gonna eat at some amazing burger place, but had to ditch that idea, and also didn't have time to find a Pinkberry.  :(  So they tried to console me with Jamba Juice, but then we didn't have time for that either. My inner glutton was very sad.  But on the bright side, I was able to grab a quick dinner right before we got on the train from a street vender!  It was my first shish-kabob from a street vender, and it smelled oh so good.  The taste was extremely average, but at that point I was so hungry I didn't even care.  Also I tried to take a picture of the guy making my shish-kabob, but he ducked out of the picture and wouldn't come back until I assured him that I put my phone away.  Party pooper :(  Next time I come to the city I am definitely going to get myself some Jamba Juice.  I remember when I used to play Neopets (many years ago, I assure you), there would be Jamba Juice ads all over the website.  I can't believe I still haven't experienced it.  Anyway, on the train ride back we were all pretty out of it. BB slept, and the rest of us played 20 questions in a half trance-like state.  All in all, a very tiring but fun day!

Our hands are the same size haha

Lol, we also made a quick 3 minute pit stop at the Poke Center (technically it's called Nintendo World now, or something like that) while we were rushing back to the station for our train.  Thomas didn't want us to go, but we begged him so he gave us 3 minutes haha.  I'm not even a gamer-nerd anymore, but that place has sentimental value to me.  I remember when my dad took me there and we bought little pokemon figurines.  I'm pretty sure I played with those on a daily basis hahaha.  Yes I was a cool little kid. I also think I'm starting to type too much as always, so I'll just give a quick run down of today. Slept alot, watched my Asian drama, ran around the track at the highschool with the whole fam lol, ate at this delicious Asian-Fusion place, and played a few hours of piano.  God am I rusty. Speaking of that restaurant, I'm thinking of applying for a part-time job there, but at the same time I'm really worried since I have little to no people skills, and being a waitress would probably require atleast some degree of human interaction capability.  Or maybe not, since our waiter today was pretty awkward toward us.  He seemed fine chatting to the old women next to us, but was mega quiet at our table.  Maybe because he almost took away my plate but realized that I was still eating, which led to awkward eye contact, and him flashing an awkward smile.  He was kind of cute though, and had his ear pierced.  Maybe we'll be co-workers... :) Hehe, good night!

On the red steps!  Lol at the girl sitting down. 

I'm surprised he didn't just put the Gatorade in there too.

Bathroom at Penn Station. Surprisingly convenient.

The little speed demon.

I managed to get a picture before he leapt out of the way

Spicy Crunchy Tuna Roll? Check. Red Curry Beef? Check.  

First Omelette in the History of the World

The roses that my dad sent to my mom :)

Yesterday was Valentine's Day - love was in the air! The sound of sweet lyrics wafted down warm hallways.  Petals drifted past lockers, while adolescent girls blushed and shyly received gifts of chocolate and heart-felt poetry.  Hmm, or something like that.  Actually it was more like a regular crappy tuesday.  Except something exciting did happen. I can't really say it was exciting in a good way, but it was something nevertheless.  One of my friends got semi-asked out by another friend.  Which resulted in copious amounts of awkwardness and eye-aversions, but I think it'll work out in the end.  It was sad because he sent her a carnation with a note that said "Will you be my valentine?" and then had to pass it off as a joke since she freaked out.  Although I think it was a cute idea in theory, he should've known better than to ask her since I think she's made it clear to him that she isn't interested in the past.  Also yesterday, I was productive!  After taking a nap, I tutored, picked up my dad from the train station, and then sat down and studied Japanese smart.fm for 45 minutes straight!  That's 45 minutes more than I usually do.  Not bad huh?  Also I decided to start watching dramas again to improve my Japanese...or maybe that's just my excuse to watch more dramas.  Anyway, the one I'm watching right now is called ファスート♥キス which translates to "First Kiss".  I'm not exactly sure why that's the name of the drama, since so far it's about a girl with heart disease who goes back to Japan to visit her brother before she undergoes heart surgery, but I have a hunch that she's going to fall in love with the doctor. It's so predictable, but I love it.  Some people hate cliche endings and want something like "Inception" that's all mysterious and left unanswered at the end, but I personally love happy endings.  Bittersweet endings work well for me too.  So all you haters can call me boring, but I'll stand by my happy endings :) 

First Omelette in the History of the World.

Today was my mom's 48th birthday! I woke up at 5:30 to cook her breakfast, and decided on an omelette.  Don't ask me how in the world I decided to cook an omelette when I've never made one before in my life, but somehow I made that decision, and I'm glad I did! Success! Isn't it beautiful? The inside is filled with fried/steamed carrots and red peppers. Yumyum. School was average, what's new.  In AP English my teacher made a reference to my blog and suggested that I submit stuff to the school newspaper which is making an internet debut soon apparently. Yay for going green! But if only she knew about the extremely pointless, un-intellectual blog posts that I write haha.  Also recently, prom has been a huge topic that's popping up everywhere!  People are worried about who they'll go with, if they'll get asked, what to wear, where to go for prom weekend, etc etc.  The list goes on forever.  I find it funny how prom is literally four months away, and a lot of people are already prepared.  But at the same time I'm one of those people who are worrying! I kind of have someone in mind, but I half-hate him.  Is that healthy?  But as my English teacher once said (and as Nicole reminded me), "Love and hate are one and the same."  Or something along those lines. 

Mushroom house!

Anyway, today was also the award ceremony and exhibition for the Scholastic Gold Key and Silver Key winners!  It was held at a nearby art museum, and since I won a Gold Key, I had my print hanging up on the wall! Exciting, no?  It was the pink/red/black linoleum block print that I posted about a while ago.  Anyway, the art there completely blew me away. I couldn't stop taking pictures!  I probably took close to 100 pictures (possibly more) tonight, but I'm only posting my absolute favorites....which is still a lot, so bear with me. Something really weird happened while I was browsing and obsessing over these paintings though.  I got a kind of sinking, overwhelmed sensation.  I feel like my art has lost it's feeling.  Or maybe I've lost my love of art.  Either way, I feel like I haven't drawn anything for myself in a long time.  Everyday I put all of my energy into what Mr. V wants me to do, and I accomplish things, but it just isn't as satisfying as it used to be.  Speaking of Mr. V, he went to the exhibition tonight, but left before the ceremony. He grabbed his free acrylic paint and t-shirt, and beat it after checking out all the art.  Smart man.  The ceremony took forever (and kind of sucked), but I digress. Anyway, my sketchbooks haven't made much progress since I started AP Art as a junior, and I view my art homework more as a chore, than as an escape from stress, like I used to.  Now it's what's causing the stress, which is kind of ridiculous.  I know this is cheesy, but I'm going to rediscover my love of art.  I'm not sure how that's going to happen, but it will.  I do have a giant blank canvas just sitting in my room somewhere..... Anyway, it's almost 1, and I don't want to ramble on anymore, so without further ado, here are my favorites from the night!

This wasn't part of the exhibit. It was a sculpture that was outside the museum, but I loved it, so here it is haha.

My obsession.  Pencil and colored pencil. (The guy saw me taking pics of his work...awk.) 

Another obsession. Sadly this picture doesn't do it enough justice. I love the gold thread and marked hair patterns.

Blue ball point pen. Really?

My dad thought it was gross, but jesus christ look at that detail and color. 

I absolutely loved this.

Too great not to include haha. Avatar Mona Lisa!

The detail on this was mind-blowing

Amazing painting. Also I loved how you could tell that all of the people were asian lol.

Birthdays Birthdays Everywhere

Scattergories, naturally. 

It's February, and you know what that means....birthday mania ! I've been way too busy (and a little too lazy) the past week to blog, so here's a giant post to sum up the last 10 days of my life.  First of all, my birthday was on the 3rd! I have officially entered into the magical realm of womanhood.  Which is actually a lot like girlhood, except for the fact that I'm eighteen. Also, my friends joke about how I still look like a 14 year-old, which doesn't really help, but hey.  Anyway, my birthday was a lot of fun! It was way better than the shit birthday I had last year. I decided to host a semi-party at my house, which turned out to be pretty stressful actually, but was fun anyway.  I always forget how much I dislike hosting parties. All the preparation and cleaning and worrying that goes into it just stresses me and my mom out, but we always end up doing it anyway haha.  Anyway, my friends came over, and we made some delicious asian food (dumplings and sushi) and played alot of Scattergories.  Sadly I can't really remember much else, which makes me really wish I had blogged about this sooner, but oh well.  Or maybe Scattergories really was all we did lmao.

The little people are detachable! 

Anyway, I got some really thoughtful presents this year!  Emma got me a dog tag with the character "友" on it which means friend.  She remembered how I really wanted a dog tag from like a billion years ago haha.  I'm not sure when I'll wear it, but I don't care cuz I love it :) CC and my mom both got me adorable fossil wallets to fuel my fossil addiction (pun intended. fuel. fossil. ha.).  CC's was a wristlet though, so I can get lots of use out of both of them! She also got me earrings, hot chocolate, and wafers (tradition).  I also got really cool gloves from Nicole that work with my iPhone - how sick is that?  She also baked me a gigantic bag of delicious chocolate chip cookies, yumyum.  And Mara's taking me to see Death Cab for Cutie in april!  Aka my first concert ever!  Eeep so excited! I got this really big book of I.M. Pei's architecture work from my dad, which has amazing pictures of his buildings.  I haven't gotten around to reading it word for word yet, but it's definitely on my to-do list...along with a billion other things I haven't done.  But let's not get off topic. From my Shalomies I got a real bass strap, some bracelets, and two hilarious cards.  Sarah and Gabe made me a giant tiny tower out of foam board and velcro.  It's the greatest thing ever.  So, amazing birthday? I think yes.

My beautifully delicious fruit tart :)

Day-after-birthday-dim-sum at the Dynasty! Yumyum.

This week has been busy busy busy! Wednesday was my sister's birthday, so tuesday night we made cupcakes for her to bring to school :) Aren't they beautiful? She is getting so old! Four already! They sure grow up fast :') Besides for Kaykay's birthday, this week has been filled with lots of tutoring, indoor drumline, pit orchestra, and general busy-ness.  But among all the work, I managed to find just enough time to go running three times! I'm getting so pudgy sitting on my ass all day stuffing my face with food, so I decided to do something about it.  So. much. pain. After the first day I couldn't even get out of bed properly.  I guess that's what a year of inactiveness will do to you haha, how sad.  I am going to try to make it a part of my routine now! Let's see how long this lasts. Also, can we please direct our attention to the little green/brown hideousness that occupies the corner of this paragraph? That monstrosity is our indoor drumline uniforms for this year. Tragic, right?  It's made out of this velvet material, and if you can't tell from the picture, has the most awkward high-waisted pants ever. Dear lord. The best part?  Each one was $100.  When I first saw the uniforms I literally could not stop laughing at how ridiculous they were hahaha, oh god they are so ugly. 

The gamers and their beloved laptop

On saturday we had a party for Kaykay.  My parents invited all of their asian friends and we spent the whole day rushing around getting everything ready. My mom was super stressed out and kept yelling at me for everything, eventually making me cancel lunch plans I had.  I watched Kaykay, decorated, washed, cleaned, picked up food, cleaned, and cleaned.  Did I mention that I cleaned? Well, I did. By the time the guests started to arrive I was tired as hell haha. There were a lot of familiar faces, but some unfamiliar ones as well.  For example, the two brothers in this picture.  They brought their laptops and just gamed against each other the whole time. But actually, funny story about them.  So at one point during the party they were sitting next to each other, gaming away, and between them sat their mother.  And she was feeding them. Haha no I am not making this up.  She was literally sitting there feeding her grown children pasta.  They didn't even look, just opened their mouths and kept their eyes fixed on their computer screens.  I had to fight the urge to burst out laughing, in case they actually had problems or something and needed their mother to feed them. Honestly they seemed kind of weird, since they were giggling uncontrollably whilst shouting random gamer phrases and comparing lag-time in high pitched voices. But it turns out that they were just normal asian gamer-nerds, so I had a nice long laugh afterwards hahaha.  Around 11pm that night, my mom finally let me escape to go chill at Sarah's for a bit for her eighteenth birthday! Haha, told you it's the month of birthdays. Anyway, I got her a cute tea tumbler from Teavana (I love that place and the unlimited free samples).  I arrived in time to catch the end of "Bridesmaids", which was hilarious, and afterward we all just sat around, listened to music, and relaxed.  It was such a nice ending to a hectic day.

My two favorite little asian boys in the world :) Willy and Charlie ♥

Today! (Technically yesterday now) was really relaxing.  Woke up late and basked in Asian-left-overs heaven with Nicole and Sarah.  Then we went shopping for the rest of the afternoon, bumming around the mall looking for a present for Nicole's mom (HA! Another birthday) and trying random stuff on.  I managed to make two purchases, both of which I'm very pleased with :) Both are from Abercrombie and Fitch, which is sort of a surprise since I almost never shop there. There's a green plaid one that's made of a thick soft flannel material, and a white-ish one that's made of I-have-no-idea-what but it's so billow-y and silky without actually feeling like silk. Hard to describe, but I love it. I was going to post a picture, but I'm all blogged out, and it's past 1. again.  I told myself I'd finish before 12, which sadly did not happen. Also my mom just walked out of her room looking super confused and disheveled and told me to go to sleep.  So I'm going to be a good child and listen to her....after all, her birthday is in three days! Oh February. Good night !

Inked and Pierced

Heart donut yumyum

Ah! I need to go sleep soon, but I haven't blogged all week, so I decided to fix that. This week was very art heavy. I drew 75 balloons for my grandpa's birthday card for his 75th birthday, slaved over art homework, and stayed after school for almost three hours on tuesday and an hour on wednesday to print my etchings.  Lol my hands are still stained from the ink. It makes me look like such a dirty child :( No matter how much scrubbing I do, nothing works. But anyway, those are the final prints! I think the acid speckled background came out pretty well. Mr. V said that a couple of people asked him if I would sell them! They could've been kidding, but hey, you never know.  Also the other part of the title post...piercings! I finally got my second hole re-pierced. It's my 4th time getting my ears pierced haha (I've gotten infections twice). Hopefully this one doesn't get screwed up too.  When I was getting it done, the lady drew a little smiley face on the back of my hand lmao.  She was like sorry, it's a habit, I do it for everyone. Anyway, I should stop talking now. My birthday is in 3 minutes! I'm going to be legal! The big one-eight. :) So good night, and I apologize ahead of time for the picture spam!    

祝您生日快乐爷爷！！

Q-Ts at Qdoba! (See what I did there?)

Zinc etching plate & lots of dirty papers/ ink blotters

Why. D:

Art homework! Giant notebook page of doodles.
(We had to draw the giant piece of looseleaf first)

Final print!

I take too many pictures.

Deliciousness.