My Birthday

Not to be vain (says the girl who posts tons of selcas on her blog), but I just wanted to post a quickie since today was my birthday. Big hugs and kisses to everyone for wishing me a happy birthday!!

I have to say Monday birthdays are lame and this year my birthday was quite tame, especially compared to last year (last year was crazy fun, keke, too much fun) or any other birthday where alcohol was involved. I'm leaving tomorrow to Las Vegas for the rest of the week though. It's a family trip so I don't expect to get crazy but I do look forward to shopping, lounging, and hopefully beating the heat. I'll be back next week to post birthday hauls and what not. I was going to post a review today but I've scheduled it for later this week since I won't be able to blog while in Vegas (hehe, blog while in Vegas).

I honestly don't feel much older or more accomplished than I did in these pictures below (although I do wish for that baby soft skin and uber shiny hair).

Myeongdong, Korean Beauty Shopping Mecca

Myeongdong 명동 is a must if you want to shop, especially for Korean skin care and cosmetics! I loved it so much, I went there several times during my trip, kekeke (and I still didn't get to go into every store!).

It is very touristy so there's usually a sea of people. The only time I saw it clearing out was at 10pm, closing time. Its being such a popular tourist destination means you will see and hear a lot of foreigners and in some shops (but not all) the sales assistants speak English, Japanese, and Chinese. (Truthfully I'd only encountered two who spoke fluent English; a sales girl in Nature Republic and in Etude House.) Koreans spoke to me in everything...I found it a bit interesting that they had no clue what ethnicity I am. In my mind, I'd thought Asians could distinguish other Asians, especially if they live in Asia, but apparently that wasn't the case, at least in my experience. They seemed to just randomly guess any Asian ethnicity including Thai, Japanese, Filipino and Chinese. (I was very surprised when one asked me if I was Vietnamese!)

Anyways, on with the pics!

I liked to enter from the Myeongdong exit on the subway near Migliore, a Korean department store.

Kpop idols are much loved in Seoul and you can find their ads and endorsements plastered everywhere and anywhere, but I'll have to do a separate post on that. Here's a huge 4minute endorsement for Shoemarker. (I like 4minute a lot, by the way; that is I like listening to their songs but don't know who's who aside from Hyuna.)

Korea Trip: Settling into Seoul

Yes, finally! My Korea trip post...the first of many, hehe. I'd been wanting to go to Seoul for the past two years and this spring, I decided to just go and make it happen! (Sometimes I am impulsive like that.) Waiting and trying to plan it with people, and match our schedules and budgets...well that obviously didn't get me anywhere over the past two years so I went ahead and traveled on my own for the first time to a foreign country. The cons of traveling alone are rather obvious, I'm sure, even down to minute matters like having someone to take your picture or take a picture with you, but overall I'm very glad I did it because it was a great life experience for me. I definitely learned a lot.

Getting there was a bit of an ordeal. I boarded my plane and was all ready to go, when the captain announced there was a mechanical problem and we had to wait for an engineer to fix it. Waiting, waiting...then the new announcement was that we had to de-plane and quickly head down the terminal to use another plane. Thennn we had the wait at the new gate for another hour...two hours...first because they were prepping the plane, then because they needed to find a new crew due to labor union laws of work hours...they gave us meal vouchers for lunch...and after I had lunch, I saw everyone standing in a longggg line...to rebook! *exasperated sigh* SO I stood in line for another hour or two, and luckily I was able to take the evening flight through Korean Air instead, but I had to wait a few more hours than that. I'm not kidding when I say I spent over 12 hours at LAX, ugh! I got another meal voucher, had cake and coffee for dinner, haha, and because of the delay, I missed my first night in Korea (waste of hotel fare, *sigh*).

Nevertheless I was quite happy to land in Incheon the next morning and headed to my hotel in Yeoksam-dong 역삼동, which is one train stop or a short walk to Gangnam 강남. After showering and resting, I met up with a high school friend who lives in Korea. We walked around Gangnam a bit and then had kbbq in Sinsa-dong 신사동. Of course, Korean barbeque in Korea is a must!

Seoul and SHINee Love~!!

Hiyee~!! First I just want to say thank you to everyone who participated in my Seoul and Tokyo surprise giveways or left me comments and tips even if not entering. I really appreciate it, and am still enjoy reading all of the info shared with me!

I landed in Seoul earlier today after a very long day at LAX yesterday, so I'm still settling in but should be able to pick a winner by the end of this weekend (at least for Seoul, Tokyo winner might be chosen later).

Also thank you to all of my wonderful friends who I have had the blessing to get to know through blogging for being so, so supportive and excited for my trip! I don't know if you realize by now but I can be shy and enigmatic or at least very private...so I think actually more of you know about my traveling than my "real life" friends. XD

Looking Back on 2011

Heylo...I filled up my camera's memory card (8 gb) which made me go through the pictures and reminisce about the past year, especially since I didn't do so already. So please allow me to share some of my happy moments with you. This is a super long and very picture heavy post!

2011 was a bit tough for me and to be honest, I spent a lot of time alone or focusing on my own goals, so I won't do this in chronological order but by topic. Also,don't be surprised to see most of my happy moments were of food, haha. Actually, I have so many pics of food, will have to save that for the next post.

Memories?  Reflections?  Looking back? Errr I obviously didn't know what to title this, so please forgive me if I was misleading. (I changed it from "My Favorite 2011 Memories," it didn't seem quite right of a fit.)

Resolutions

Like most well-meaning people, I started off nicely but ultimately faltered. It's okay though, because these are more of lifelong resolutions for me so I'm going to try again and most importantly, work on keeping up regularly with these.

Work Out More

Started going to the gym regularly again, and used my Wii Fit+ and Just Dance 2 to exercise at home. Bought these pink Asics first which I thought were pure white with pink, but then saw the little-girlish design and so exchanged them for turquoise Asics. Umm I should really start working out regularly again.

Asics Gel-Kayano 16

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!!

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction...The chain reaction of evil — hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars — must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation." Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength To Love speech, 1963

Hello, everybody. =)  This is just a quick post that I wanted to do as I reflect and honor the life and work of a great American.  When we are kids, we learn to celebrate every holiday and its meaning, but as we get older, we (or at least I) tend to think more along the lines of "Yes! Holiday! Long weekend! What should I do on my day off?" and then we get bombarded with "Happy [insert name here] Holiday! Shop our [insert name here] Holiday Sale!" messages, haha.

Hello, 2012!!

Happy belated New Year, everyone!!

It still feels so unreal that it's 2012!  I wonder how long will it take before I get used to saying it and writing it.  To be honest, I did not get to spend a lot of time at the end of 2011 to reflect and re-evaluate, so I'm still mulling things over slowly.  I just wanted to pop in and say hi, and also state that blogging is on my list for 2012.

I know I'm a strange creature, I used to blog and spend a lot of time reading & commenting on blogs, then slowly pulled back so that I could spend more time doing other things.  Perhaps I just like coming full circle.

Without further ado, here are my humble blogging goals for 2012 (almost thought and typed "2011").

Happy Lunar New Year!!

Happy Lunar New Year everyone!! Lucky year of the wabbit...or cat if you're Vietnamese! Did you celebrate? To tell you the truth, I didn't really. haha Fail for one of my New Year's Resolutions, right? Well, I did take Friday off, I saw my family last week and will probably see them again later this week, and I went to eat in Little Saigon because I was craving Vietnamese food.

By the way, I am hooked on the Instagram app! Instant filters...so dope! I only wish for more filters hehe. The pics below are from Friday, shared on my Instagram.

I was craving for bánh bèo...freshly steamed rice cakes with shrimp and mung bean paste, a childhood fav of mine...

2010 Blogger Favorite Times

Happy 2011!!

Yes, I know, I've been completely MIA, I pretty much fell off the blogging wagon. But...in fairness, I did tell you I was taking a break, and now...it's a new year!! And I'm back. =)

I want to start by sharing some of my favorite blogging moments in 2010.

Winter/Spring
Secret Valentine!! Kay and I did a Secret Valentine gift exchange since we had so much fun doing her Secret Santa. The big surprise for me was finding out Kay was my Secret Valentine!

Breathe

Hi everyone...wow, can you believe my last post was in March? Honestly, time flies!

I wasn't really planning on doing this but Kay told me I had to! =)

I don't want to give you some excuse like "I've been busy," but I have. More than that, I'd decided I had a lot of changes and improvements I wanted to make in my life, and that I wasn't anywhere near where I wanted to be...and that time was passing me by, so I had to focus, re-prioritize, and achieve the goals I set for myself but seemed so behind on. And even before that, I had already fallen behind on blogging (I have lots of pictures to be edited and half-written blog post drafts of reviews and new loves and purchases, etc.). It just didn't seem fair that I wasn't able to give my all to any of the many things I wanted to, including blogging.

*Oink Oink* I Love to Eat!!

Oh-so-late but I went to the L.A. County Fair a few weeks ago, at the beginning of October.

The sky was very cloudy and totally overcast, but somehow when we got to the fair, it was very hot! Though it doesn't look it in this pic.

Foundation Trials and Errors, and my humble birthday =)

Hi everyone!! Sorry I've been so MIA but I really hope you're all out and about and too busy enjoying your summer to notice little ol' me anyway!! You'll accept this loooooooong post as a peace offering and forgive me, right? *puppy eyes*

As you know, I've been on the hunt for my perfection foundation...and still no luck! Even though I wear very little makeup during the day, I still want to find the perfect foundation for going out at night, especially since it usually means taking a lot of pictures with bright flash. My idea of the perfect foundation is one that feels lightweight but offers enough coverage for a natural and flawless look, and doesn't make my face look ghost white in pictures with flash. What a MISSION this is, indeed!

I actually liked the MAC Studio Sculpt (from the makeover for the wedding I went to last month) BUT it failed the flash test (completely and utterly). So I went by the MAC store because I wanted to try the Studio Tech foundation (in NC 30 applied by a MAC MUA). What did I think of it? Felt heavy and kind of sticky and cakey. =( I know from reading Julie's review that if I buy it, I could thin it out with Fix+. The funny thing was that the MUA said Studio Tech is lighter than Studio Sculpt (used on me for my friend's wedding), but I actually liked Studio Sculpt better because it felt more lightweight. And...this one also failed the camera flash test (I know by now you're questioning my camera flash, but let me point out that it's only MY face that comes out white and not anyone else's, guys or girls with makeup).

Crunch Time Vs. The Holidays

I've been thinking about it all year and now I'm finally applying for grad schools. Applying for an MFA program is different because the most important thing I'll be submitting, aside from transcripts and letters of recommendation, is my writing portfolio. My 20 or so pages of fiction have to showcase that I have great potential as a writer, and basically knock out hundreds of other writing submissions...but hey, no pressure.

The best thing that eases my mind is knowing my friend Jamie will also be applying, so we're doing it together and able to motivate each other and share information and perspectives. That's the way it's been for 10 years with us (we met in my first creative writing class in high school and both graduated from college as Creative Writing majors together) and I'm so thankful to have her. I love you, J!

Haruki Murakami Drops Knowledge on Me

"It's not a question of better or worse. The point is, not to resist the flow. You go up when you're supposed to go up and down when you're supposed to go down. When you're supposed to go up, find the highest tower and climb to the top. When you're supposed to go down, find the deepest well and go down to the bottom. When there's no flow, stay still. If you resist the flow, everything dries up. If everything dries up, the world is darkness...Abandon the self, and there you are." - page 51 in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

This is not an entirely new concept so as much it is a hard-earned one, what I hate to but will call a life lesson because I believe it comes with experience. Simply put, it means there is a time for everything. But it's just written so well and presented in a slightly different perspective.

Birthday Doll

Today was my birthday, yay me, happy birthday to me! It was chill as I'm not really in the mood to celebrate this year, but it was still nice for so many people to remember and wish me happy birthday (thanks MySpace and especially Facebook!). Some people forgot but it's no biggie since I wasn't trying to make a big deal out of it anyways and didn't bother to remind anyone.

My sister took me out for sushi, but we discovered that our favorite local spot was closed due to a kitchen fire last Friday, BUT they had another nearby location so we went there for the first time. It was pretty yum and it's always nice to find a new local sushi spot. Our sushi chef was cute and the owner heard my sister say "It's your birthday" to me so she sent me some birthday ice cream and they did their birthday cheer (I was an unsuspecting victim, thinking "What a coincidence, it's someone else's birthday here today too!" haha).

Asian American Films

One of my favorite girlfriends, Leah, and I took a weekend trip to SF two weeks ago. We were lucky because not only do we both love the city, but we were also able to check out the 26th Annual Asian American Film Festival in Japantown!

I look pretty happy to be in Japantown...'cause I'm a Japanophile at large! jk