Green Glass River Bend

Another long absence since my last blog post. Classic.  In that time I went to Chicago for about four weeks and lived with Eric at his apartment. To be honest, before I left Boston, I was a bit apprehensive about the whole thing.  Taking myself away from my friends and the familiarity of Boston to live with my boyfriend in a different city? But thankfully, it was far from the experience I was worried it might be. I had a lot of fun exploring the city, and working in different locations everyday (but mostly Panera, my most dependable source of wifi and comfortable booths <3). Plus, weilian would often get out of work around 5pm and sit with me while I finished up my work for the day, often accompanied by some bubble tea from Vivi's (the amount of money I spent on bubble tea last month is probably not okay.) At night we'd chill (sometimes with Eunice and Alex (Eric's friend from Traders who eats plain greek yogurt and egg whites for dinner...no carb life is real)), either cook dinner or eat out (Chicago has some mad good food) and sometimes watch movies or go karaoke-ing. Speaking of which, I watched some really good movies over the last couple weeks! Finally saw Fight Club which is such an old classic but somehow I never got around to it. Also watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which I would highly recommend (cinematography was beautiful and quirky), as well as Minority Report (which gave me a slight mind-fuck, but Eric told me I was probably over-analyzing it) and The Truth About Cats and Dogs (an old rom com). The last one we watched was Anchorman.  Incredibly, impressively stupid but pretty entertaining (oh and did I mention stupid?) Oh and since we talking stupid, the absolute dumbest thing I did last month was getting hooked on an iPad game called Cow Evolution. Basically you cultivate cows and can unlock higher level cows but combining lower level cows. By harvesting their poop, you make money (some of the higher lvl cows poops are worth hundreds of thousands of coins @__@) In short, it's a game that requires zero intellect or skill, but we played it religiously to unlock new cows and buy cute hats for our existing cows. Looking back, I really cannot believe the amount of time I spend dragging cows...but if I had the iPad with me now, I would probably continue playing in a big way. Oh man. 

Anyway, I took a lot of pictures (like, a lot) over the last month, so I'm gonna hand it over to the collages and captions now :)

Chicago O'Hare airport after 4 hours of delays in Boston weeee

Lobby installation in the John Hancock building- It's hard to see from this photo, but the installation is actually only half of a sphere, and the top is a mirror to make it look like a full sphere!

Drinks with Eunice at the Signature Room in the Hancock Tower! We felt so fancy sitting there overlooking the city with cocktails in-hand, but realtalk - the cocktails weren't that great. Had a lot of fun catching up with Eunice tho :)

Too many options at Joyyee @__@

Friends and food! Featuring a lot of asian food, asian drinks, and asian friends lol. 

Jesus lord those buns were beautiful and delicious. Had sum dim sum (never gets old) the first weekend in Chicago - was pretty solid! But let's talk about those eggs. Sweet god they were amazing. Soft boiled to perfection and seasoned just right. When I went home I tried to make them myself lol. I actually got them to taste quite good! But they were ugly as fuck so I didn't include any photo evidence. 

DIMSUM. All you can eat sushi @__@. Ramen at Oistar! (Literally the most delicious Chashu I've ever tasted) and some quality Chicago deep dish pizza! It was my first time eating it and I quite enjoyed it...but still loyal to NY style thin crust :P

UNF. Strings Ramen (favorite ramen place I hit up in Chicago hands down), Chicken and waffles from Meli Cafe. Fu ji fei pian (uh definitely spelled that wrong) from this balling Chinese place called Lao Si Chuan. Their food is on point. Bacon Chicken omelette from Meli as well! That was a damn good meal. 

Some of my cute breakfasts, and Frank the kangaroo that Eric got me from his adventures in Australia. The first morning I woke up, I rolled over and saw him laying on the pillow looking at me :3 what a cute little dude...except eric always uses him to hump my arm. -__-

Potsticker flower

Brunch for two

The view from the top of the Hancock Tower!

Seeing the bean for the first time!

Millenium park at night @__@

Cool public art / lights and some lanterns from Strings Ramen hehe

Merry-go-around at Navy Pier

The night Eric and I walked around the city and did absolutely nothing for hours. In the end we went to target, bought blank notebooks and sketched in the large (deserted) amphitheater at Millennium Park. :) It was a really relaxing evening and I even got to take a picture of the Bean with literally zero people around. Success.

Getting cultured at the Art Institute of Chicago! The one in the top right is pretty interesting because everything is painted roughly except for the face of the fallen jockey which is delicately detailed. Apparently it was to pay homage to the artist's deceased brother :\ 

My favorite exhibit at the Art Institute! The Ando gallery. The room is dim with rows of polished rectangular wooden pillars and a curved wooden bench. The only light comes from the display case that sort of cuts into the wall. It was also so quiet! When we were in that space, I was overcome with the feeling that I couldn't (and shouldn't?) make noise. 

Deliciously delicious brunch at Meli Cafe. They use watermelon in a lot of their smoothies which I thought was pretty unique. Definitely gonna try making some watermelon-based smoothies this year >:D A giant bubble gun blowing moose (yes that's a truck in the left corner for scale) Clean Slate Riesling - Eric was obsessed. I just thought it was funny that it came with a "slate coaster" aka there was a piece of rock attached to the bottle lmao. Bottom pic is of the four of us at karaoke in Chinatown! Nothing like kicking back after work and unleashing stress by belting out songs way out of my vocal range.

Went on the famous Chicago Architecture Boat Tour! Chicago has some really diverse architecture. To be honest, I zoned out and didn't really pay that much attention to the tour guide cuz I was too busy taking pictures and ogling at the view from the boat. Oops. But yeah here are a few of my favorite buildings from the tour! I particularly really like the green one in the top right. Apparently the curvature follows the form of the river that passes in front of it. So elegant @_@

Exploring the beautiful city with this cutie <3 But actually jesus lord we walked a lot a lot.

One of my favorite shots I managed to take on the Architecture tour! It was the opposite direction of all the bright buildings, but when I saw it I was sort of struck by its quiet beauty. The glowing lights, the moon above, and just everything @__@ I am so bad at expressing myself haha, but basically I really like this picture. It has such a modest and peaceful feeling to it!  I only wish that it wasn't so grainy. But eh, iPhone camera in dim light, I'll take what I can get. 

A really really good day.  I spent all day not being able to work cuz I was so excited to go to Mr. Son Sung Deuk's workshop! He is the choreographer for BTS and I fan-girled harder than I have ever fan-girled in my life. Especially since BTS was basically the first group I really got hooked on, in terms of dance and music. Being able to learn first hand from their choreographer was a really crazy opportunity for me. Anyway, learned Bulletproof pt. 2 form the man himself (pinch me I still can't get over it) and then met up with Eric and Weilian for some quality gyukaku. Meeting one of my heroes and eating delicious japanese BBQ in one day? I am a very lucky girl. @__@

At Navy Pier. Beautiful view from the Ferris Wheel! Weilian clearly looking like he's enjoying himself.

Okay don't even get me started on this meal @__@ Jk I want to talk about it. On my last night in Chicago, we went to go check out this place called Union Sushi and BBQ.  It was basically fusion Japanese food, and some of our food was really fucking delicious. First the sliders. I mean, just LOOK at them. There was curry crab cake, a beef + quail egg, and bbq. I honestly could've just order several boxes of these and eaten them all night long. But good thing I didn't or else I wouldn't have had room for the delicious sushi. My favorite was the Hokkaido roll which I unfortunately didn't include in this collage, but there was seared scallop in it @__@. For dessert, we ordered a pumpkin mochi cake... Oh man. The inside had a sort of ice-cream like texture, the outside was firm pumpkin mochi, and it was topped with caramel and some sort of toffee brittle. The fact that this caption is so long speaks for how much I enjoyed that meal. But maybe it was also because it was my last night so it tasted extra good. 

This picture looks posed as fuck but I swear it was actually a candid! Again I'm a sucker for small boats floating in the water, moonlight, and I guess having eric in the picture doesn't hurt too much :P

One last picture with the beautiful Chicago night skyline <3 (also check it out, I actually look like I have boobs in this picture. Exciting!)

A clear day for my flight back to Boston! On the colorful river during the Architecture cruise. Standing at the exit of the Red Line, watching the rain and waiting for it to lighten up.

Smooth(ie) Wine

Oh man, another month has passed by again, and now we are more than half way done with July! Summer is moving way too fast for me to keep up with @__@ Ate food and hung out with a few different friends I haven't really seen in a while, did work, and danced ALOT.  A couple weekends ago, Minerva, Khanh, and I decided on a whim to make a kpop cover video for a contest! First place gets tickets to Koreaaaaa aaayyy. We decided on songs, made the music cut, learned all the dances, and filmed in three days. 18 songs in 7 minutes. @__@ It was ridiculously tiring, but also really fun! I definitely want to make more dance vids in the future wheeee

I'm currently in Chicago actually, but I'll save that for the next blog post. My backlog of collages are too intense and I think I'd cry if I actually tried to cover everything that's happened since the last time I blogged.  So I think I'll keep this post purely Boston :) Photos and captions legggooo

My beautiful attempt at making tamagoyaki @__@ Mine just tasted like normal egg, but it still looks so pretty~

Grabbing food with Nolan, Brian, and Matt when they came to visit! Ramen with the boss-man during a work day. Last row was from grabbing sushi and fried ice cream with Cecile at Fuji in Kendall!

The team hard at work. Lol jk we went bowling and then played pool. Beautiful view from the architecture meeting spaces that we highjacked as our temporary office. Cute cards that we passed out. And a green tea frappacino. 

Kayaking with the NP frans - really tiring even though I barely paddled lol.  Random food pictures from random food outings. Went on a girl date with Sophie for some quality ramen and ice cream :) the Just Baguette team!

Our colorful dinners <3 I really miss cooking and eating with them T__T

Cecile's mouthwatering pot stickers @__@ Botton left is homemade banana-based-blackberry ice cream a la Randi. Rest is from eating out with Randi and Khanh at Newberry!

YES BEAUTIFUL MEAT.  Had all-you-can-eat KBBQ with Randi and Khanh at Gyukaku to celebrate July 4th! 

Khanh being arguably more anal about item placement than I am while trying to take a picture of her tea. Beautiful rainbow ribbons woven along the sidewalk. Trying to bait some cute birds that were too smart for us. Last night in Boston before coming to Chicago! Cooked all my favorite things to eat and ate with my attractive friends. <3

Twin Yolks

Week two of work officially over.... it's kind of cool having such flexible hours, but at the same time it's pretty stressful since I always feel like there is work to be done. I kind of wish I had a job with concrete hours so when I'm not at "the office" I can just chill and not worry about whether my boss expects me to get things done before the next meeting or not.  For example, a few nights ago I practically pulled an all-nighter doing work.  Atleast I am enjoying it haha :')

So I actually typed up a huge thing, and then forgot to save the draft. I'm too lazy to type up the whole thing over again (trust me it wasn't exciting nor important. Just long.) so I'm just gonna go ahead and caption the photos hahaha

Last week our third roommate arrived (Khanh!) and we spent some time decorating our room. Randi got these cool mini LEDs from someone in ADT and we hung them on wire and put them inside of our aloe bottles. In between each bottom we put random little figurines and other objects. This picture doesn't do it justice, but the green hazy glow and items make it look like some hipster art museum haha

We strung the other LEDs across our window! They look like they are floating

We got cute matching cat bowls for the apartment! A close up of our beautiful hanging lights. A burger I snagged from a private event and sort of got in trouble for. Matt taking a pic of his first-ever ramen (!!!) Making lunch for my adorable roomies huehue

My beautiful breakfasts

Met the team that I'm working with for the first time! The boss-man (lol he hates it when I call him that) took us out for Shabu-shabu~ It was delicious holy moly. I ate everything (while the rest of my team watched) and regretted it after I stood up. Everyone else was smart and just stopped eating when they got too full. oh well, #yolo.

Of course more pictures of food. We recently inherited a blender and some wine glasses from Nate so we've been making some baller smoothies. Check those outttttt. Also do you see those two yolks at the bottom? They came from the SAME EGG. @__@ Craziness. My dad said that means we are now very lucky.

I call this one "Friends&Food". I really quite enjoy making dinner and eating together with everyone!

A cool display I came across in the Media Lab- I think it's about assigning form to different emotions. Lol my favorite is intentful pursuit. No idea how they decided on these shapes, but it looks pretty sick nevertheless 

Apple-Flowers

I'm now back in Boston, blogging from the comfort of my (surprisingly clean) apartment! I got back a couple of days ago now, and haven't really been doing too much other than working on an app design for the quasi-internship I have this summer.  Why quasi you ask? Well, the guy offered me a job out of the blue when I went to go interview him for one of my final essays.  In the end, I had absolutely nothing to do for the summer (cry why don't companies want me T_T) so I took him up on his offer.  He's definitely an interesting person to work for/with. A visionary! Sometimes seems very smart and sometimes seems very not-smart (lol I hope he never finds this blog.) Or, I suppose, not really "not-smart" but more like "not thinking ideas through before throwing them out there".  Actually, that could be a pretty good trait since it definitely gets ideas rolling.... okay haha regardless, basically it just means we argue a lot, and I get frustrated quite often, but I'm also surprisingly having a blast working on this app! As sad as it sounds, I'm excited that I'm excited about something.  I've been worried for a while that I'd never find a job I'd actually enjoy doing, but now I have a little more faith in myself haha. It's fun to design, but what I really enjoy is the part where I have to be constantly thinking (again, surprising because I hate thinking) about how the user will react to certain decisions, what app flow makes the most sense, how subtle changes in design can have can have a huge impact on user experience, and how to solve all the problems that pop up while designing an app. A tiny part of me sort of wishes my boss knew more of what he wanted so I could be doing my job faster and more efficiently, but at the same time it's pretty exciting to have a say not only in what the app looks like (which is what I thought my job would be) but how it works and what features it contains.  This app is basically going to be my life for the next few weeks (months?) so look forward to me rambling about it. 

Semi-Chipmunk-Sonya. Kaykay being talented. Soft tomato with melted sugar @__@ - something I learned from my aunt. A classic dim sum shot of my mom and eggplant. Friends trying to English but only succeeding in making 3 letter words. Lol jk, sometimes there are more letters :) 

Pictures of delicious suffering. Basically my mouth was still healing from wisdom-removal, but I couldn't stay away from real food for more than 3 days @__@. Every bite hurt, but they were all worth it. Except for the toast. 

Took a trip to the city on  6:30 am train lol. Met up with Ed for breakfast at 7:30am and we walked a billion miles to this place called Clinton Street Baking Company.  It's a really chill place with fucking amazing blueberry pancakes (I had a bite of Ed's and died.) I ordered a tomato-swiss-caramelized-onion-omelette that was ridiculously savory. Afterwards we waddled around the city and I checked out his apartment which had really nice hardwood floors (lol jealous because our kitchen floor sucks) Then I walked a few thousand more miles to grab lunch with my Dad before hopping on a bus back to Boston. Included some pictures of cool things I saw in the city!

Touch down in Boston! Spent the night chilling with Nate who came over to eat dinner. I made some quality eggplant with ground pork and hot pepper, potatoes, and egg and tomato soup. I'm gonna miss our good talks next year. :/ Also a pic of randi looking mad domestic after cutting us some apples ^^

Colorful End

I'm currently vegetating at home on day 4 of wisdom-removal recovery aka the beginning of the cheek-deflation-period that commonly follows the chipmunk stage.  So far I haven't really done much at home, only slept, watched videos, and eaten at a pace slower than a sloth. It's a little frustrating to only drink smoothies and eat (drink?) soup all day, so I started eating solid food with my front teeth. It's painfully slow, but the flavor is so rewarding @__@ 

Of course this also means that Junior year is over. (err mostly at least. I still have an overdue essay lol) The last three weeks were crazy hectic! First there was DT prod week which ended with FIVE shows (honestly why is there five.) Then ADT prod week with three shows. And finally Finals week. Somewhere in between all that, throw in two final projects, final papers, outings with friends, two tons of stress, and an apartment party (where the only casualty was one of our futon.) A colorful and exciting end to a colorful and exciting semester!

Now looking forward to an adventure-filled summer :) (which can begin as soon as I finish this essay...)

Hello Kitty curry that me and eunice made for randi! Breakfast for EDSM girls. Found these weird octopus-like balloons and decided to take them to our apartment. Yummy brunch topped with avocado. PINKBERRY. And selfies in the mirror above the carousal at the Boston Japan Festival! 

DT friends :) Sonya's first contemp experience. Dinner with Vic, Herman, and Randi at Thelonius. Custom shoes that I painted for Vic's dance's choreographer gift (we all signed a triangle!)

LIONKINGZ. Our first choreographed DT hiphop piece! It was awesome watching it on stage with the lights and everything (borderline magical, I mean come on, look at that first pic). There was just so much life to be had. We also got some pretty great feedback on it! Our dance got us Lion King sweaters :) Also check out those boss tanks - guess who designed them? :^) 

A wonderful 5th semester of ADT with old and new friends <3 I choreographed an all-guys piece this semester which was really frustrating, but in the end super rewarding (haha in the end, isn't everything always? #nostalgia) But man, I really can't believe I only have two semesters of ADT left @__@ where has the time gone?

With the boo :) ADT - ZBT semi - and our last day together before he had to fly home. We walked about 10 miles around Boston that day, just talking and casually shopping. It was a really relaxing day that we wrapped up with honey milk tea, Liar's Dice, and Smash. Lol how romantic <3 

Homemade french toast topped with fresh berries from the market (and a dash of aesthetic powdered sugar) by Nathaniel aka Nate made me brunch weeee~ Caught up with him and found out that he's biking from Boston to Los Angeles this summer! Also found out that he often makes fresh toast on saturdays, bikes to the bakery and market early in the morning, and plans to teach math and do some waiter-work in Cali. I am baffled why no one has made an indie film about him yet. Karaoke for Sally's 22nd! Had fun unwinding with ADT friends after a stressful finals week. Also the Collier memorial opened recently around the time of the 2 year anniversary of the Boston bombings. A beautiful memorial and space. Lastly, a "fossilized phone" that I found absolutely genius and humorously quirky. 

Golden Boston

Only two more weeks until my junior year comes to an end....where did all that time go? Another semester has flown by, bringing with it good times and bad, rest and stress, and a lot of dance. I feel like I've been generally happier lately, but also slightly neurotic. It's a pretty weird combination.  Relationship problems and worrying about my future are slowly eating away at me, but I'm simultaneously (and strangely) optimistic and calm about everything (for the most part).  Again, a pretty weird combination. 

This past weekend marked the start of DT prod week! This semester Randi and I choreographed a dance together based on the Lion King. Hoho I'm so excited to see it on stage with costumes and lights! Our bbs have really come a long way over the course of the semester and have made me soso proud @__@. I've also realized this semester how much of an asian mom I am. I'm strict and cold but have so many feelings inside. Oh man. 

The weather lately has been so beautiful, but almost too hot. I'm so used to the cold now! (That sounds metaphoric lol)  It's funny that it's been so nice outside recently, just as we are all locking ourselves into libraries for the next two weeks. Good one environment, good one. 

That's all I'm going to post for now! Will post more in the coming days cuz I'm trying to get back into blogging (just realized that this is literally my first post of 2015. so sad). Enjoy the pictures :)

I thought I was being so funny with this collage because the columns are so similar. Har de har.

I had to. 

December fun times :) Half from end of the semester, other half from going home. My friends and family are so goofy hehe

Crazy holiday window displays in NYC when I went to hang with Weiwei over the break.  I was so in love with these, and I think the theme was "The Arts".  These two were Architecture and Painting.

Here are Theater and Music.

Michael and I built Minerva a bed! I was so proud of us lol. Really sick booth in Bryant Park that sold (overpriced) jewelry made from reclaimed vinyl records. So expensive, but I was obsessed with them. Little rug coasters at the Met store. Old photography exhibit at New York Public Library. Metal gloves on the escalators in Porter Square. Fancy dinner at ZBT cooked by John and Charles. 

Winter break family fun time! Making dumplings, ice skating, touristing in NYC, eating hotpot, and watching movies (Big Hero 6...it changed my life) And yes that's me holding my family in the palm of my hand. 

Delicious home cooking (moooooom <3) and delicious restaurant food. I love Chinese food.

Homemade guac and birthday flowers from parents. Eunice and Yuta being really cute. A picture I took during diffeq that I found to be practically genius: Reflection of the exit sign next to my notes? Real-life symbolism. Me and Randi during Mocha Show 2015: MoMA in our spongebob get-up. Baymax curry @__@. My two birthday cakes that were both very delicious. My first legal alcoholic drink in the states (it's umeshuu) pre-valentines dinner date pic. Lunch with the boys after ADT practice!

More glorious food - from restaurant week, random food adventures, and visiting home!

Went to a Japanese festival in Boston Commons and found the gorilla man from GoGoCurry. Hotpot with family :) After watching 50 Shades of Grey with EDSM lol. Family shenanigans. Won first place with Eunice for a film hackathon! And the giant picture is everyone in Mamma Mia and Boys Medley during an external performance ^^ 

Some art that I found very inspiring on a trip to the Met over spring break!

John frantically taking pictures because the sunset was doing amazing things.  Everything was gloomy and dark except for the banks of the river and the building that were lit up like gold. Most of the asian mocha crew after performing at Footwork. With Eric at Mistral (fancy french place) during Restaurant week. Chilling after an ADT external performance.  With the apartment girls + Yuta after Eunice cut off all of my hair and minerva painted all of our nails (including Yuta's lol)