Hawaii Pt. 2

Hello,

So.. this is part two! We went to Waikiki, (because, well, it's a tourist must) and then we went around the duty-free shopping mall. I went to the Nature Republic at Waikiki and it's AMAZING. Then we went to Ala Moana Shopping Center, where I met some EXO members hoohoo or at least their board prints.... T_T I actually prefer the Nature Republic at Waikiki rather than Ala Moana... It's much bigger and they have more products and better customer service. 

Waikiki palm trees~

Not a lot of people that day.. maybe because of the jellyfish warnings o_o

Nagasaki champon!! Soooooooooooooo good.

Chicken karaage was crunchy and amazing..

I wanna say it's chicken gyuudon, but idk.. I don't know Japanese..

Heehee........ It's Kai and Baekhyun~ This was in front of the Nature Republic store at Ala Moana.

We then ate ice cream at Bernie's (I think?) I got their green tea mochi ice cream because apparently it's the best, and I agree; it is. I've never craved green tea ice cream so much before..

Overall, I had a lot of fun this day too. Ala Moana is HUGE and there were so many people, especially tourists like me. Lots of Japanese couples as well. I got a lot of street passes!! I miss the good food so much... and I wanna go back to Nature Republic and be with Kai, Baekhyun, and Luhan..... >_<

Bonus: When I went to the Nature Republic at Ala Moana, I was looking at the masks and cleansers, and an employee came and helped me. Err at least she tried to help, but it seemed like she didn't really know much about the products yet.. I was looking at the lip tints, and they only had the shine tints, but I was wondering if they had the water tints like at Waikiki. I asked the person what the difference between shine and water tints were, and she replied with "Umm.. One is water and one is shiny." 

Derp.

Thank you sales associate. I now know the difference between Shine tints and Water tints at Nature Republic.

'Til next time!

Hawaii Pt. 1

Hello~

So I'm back from my trip! I'm still adjusting to the time zones, but it's all good. It was really fun, and I came back tan, fat, and tired, but it was totally worth it. I haven't had this much fun while vacationing in a LONG time..

Anyways, here's the first few days in my old hometown and then my first day in Hawaii! My friend's family actually resides in Hawaii, so I just kinda tagged along and explored Hawaii. Oahu to be exact. It was really nice~

Kudos to you if you know which mountains these are!! 

I FINALLY got to try the over-hyped Honey toast.. it was yummy, but the price was kinda meh... T_T but still so good~ This was green tea and red bean ice cream!! :D

Pho is so good in my hometown~ (canya guess it yet?) I haven't had this good pho in such a long time! (I know it doesn't look as appetizing in this photo, but it was good~)

heehee more food. Banh mi and honeydew bubble tea!!!! so good!!

The lovely view from my friend's house's apartment~ So nice!!! The thing that shocked me at first was that the clouds were so low that they brushed over the tips of the mountains!! so cool!

My friend's grandfather was so nice and gave me a lei as a welcome gift!! so pretty and smelled really nice too~

Iolani Palace I think.. Really cool as well! I didn't go in though. It was so hot and we had been walking for hours..

The ocean is so pretty and blue and sparkly there~

We probably burned at least 100 calories walking in the heat for hours, so we got hungry and ate crepes at one of the many food places~ It was surprisingly good!

Ahh I wanna go back, cept this time with all of my friends and family and show them all the cool stuff I got to experience!! So much good food man... T_T I met some old church friends, ate good food, experience lots of nostalgia, and then opened my eyes to a whole new world. (even though that sounds super cheesy) It was just so amazing I can't put it into words... maybe it's cause I just went there for vacation.. There's a huge variety of people there too, like anywhere else, so I got to experience something outside of the bubble I'm in. I hope I've toughened up a bit!

BONUS: Funny story hehe.. So the first day my friend and I walked around Chinatown, and explored and stuff and then all of a sudden a homeless person starts following us and cursing at us and saying super scary stuff for no reason. We didn't look back because we were so scared and kept on walking, and eventually just went into the local seven eleven to escape. Once we got inside we were relieved, but we realized we had to buy something, so while we were waiting to buy our drinks, a man suddenly left the store, stealing a bunch of food and drinks. The employee there was yelling stop but he just left, and then my friend and I looked at each other and yeah.. Exciting first day! My bubble that I was protected in pretty much popped by the time we exited the seven eleven. T_T

I'll update with part 2 sometime soon! 

'Til next time!

LA Trip

Hey Guys :D

I was in LA a few weeks back and though I would share some photos with you guys.

Our Hotel Room. This is probably the best hotel room that I've stayed in. There's even a seating area to the right.

OMG I met Johnny Depp and he let me take a picture of him! (JK. This was taken outside Madame Tussauds)

Can you all guess where I was? I was so excited to see a store full of Despicable Me 2 souvenirs!

This, I thought, was the best ride at Universal Studios. I also really enjoyed the Simpsons Ride. 

Other than Hollywood and Universal Studios, I basically stayed in my hotel room the entire time. I was there for only a few days, so I didn't get to do much sightseeing. 

Have a great week! 

New Orleans Trip!

Hello~

I went to New Orleans again a couple weeks back, and it was really fun!! :D We left on a Thursday afternoon, and arrived at around midnight. We stayed until Saturday night, and came back overnight to arrive back at home on Sunday morning. :D It was pretty busy but so fun and so memorable. I keep on smiling even as I'm writing this post right now. :'D

Day 1 - Friday

 Our view from the hotel room. It had been a while since I've traveled, so it felt new and energizing (?) to see a busy city with lots of old buildings. 

Teehee. Is that a CVS and Walgreens I see? (I ended up never getting to check them out T.T)

We actually went for a flute convention (I know, I'm a nerd o_o) but the hotel was so beautiful and big!! This was one of the smaller performances. 

After performing and watching a few other groups, we went out to eat. :D The weather was sooo nice and sunny~ Palm trees made the environment so much more vacation-y. I bet the ppl in the cars were like "ohh tourists.." lol

We went out for lunch kinda late~ My friend got some sort of pork chop combo with gumbo!

I got a popcorn shrimp po-boy! It was huuuuuuuge! 

AHHH I met Jasmine Choi at the exhibition!! :D She is one of the people that I look up to and admire~ I wish I could join her fan club haha. The thing is, we came when her signing event ended, but she was still soo nice and offered to give us signed posters and take pictures!! Now I really regret not buying her new CD there.. I looked up online and it's not coming out until October!! D: I later found out she was going through some tough times.. but she still had a smile on her face and greeted her fans politely and professionally ^^ I remember my hands were shaking and I was worried she would smell my fishy breath from eating the shrimp from before.. ahh I hope I can meet her again someday, and even attend her concert~ I had only seen her on TV and Youtube before, so meeting her in real life was amazing. ^o^

(For those of you who aren't too familiar with Jasmine Choi, she is an aspiring flute player. I think she got a full ride to Curtis Institute of Music, then studied at Julliard. She studied under the late Julius Baker and Jeffrey Khaner for a while, and then played with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and then became the principal flute player for the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.)

After the dreamy event, we went to Cafe du Monde for some beignets!! They were amazing~ So fresh and warm and tastyyyy :D

Afterwards, to digest a little, we went to the river to look around and take pictures. It was so quiet and pretty~

loll the pool at our hotel. :D my friend really wanted to go swimming, but nobody else really wanted to.. it was too late and we had already taken showers.. the lights in the pool were pretty though!

 Day 2 - Saturday

We woke up kinda late, so we went out again to the French Quarter, and stopped by this mini mall for lunch. I got chili cheese fries because I loveee chili cheese-y stuff.. comfort food.. mm...

My friend got this alfredo shrimp pasta thingy. It looked pretty good!

Here is the same river, except at daytime. The sky was really blue and bright and the wind was blowing, so all of us felt great and energized!

As we were walking, we saw these street performers. They were really good and really loud too haha. It's nice to see these kinds of things because where I come from, these are so rare..

At the top floor of our hotel.. 41st floor or something? After a long and hectic day, we found this area and just sat down for a few minutes. It was so quiet and serene.. and bright. :D

For dinner, we stopped by this other cafe for a quick bite before we left. I shared a tuna melt with my friend. It was delicious~~ ^^

My other friends shared some pastaa~ 

After dinner, we stopped by the (apparently) biggest concert of the convention. There was a full orchestra and many flute soloists played~ They played so beautifully and kyaa I can't help but fangirl.. I always dream that one day, I'll be able to wear a beautiful dress and play flute for an audience. ^^ In my dreams...

After the concert, we headed back to our homes.. I really enjoyed New Orleans this time. I met so many people and had so much fun exploring and laughing and taking pictures. I think since I didn't really go anywhere this summer, this trip the weekend before school started really left an impact on me. I felt so inspired after meeting Jasmine Choi and listening to other people play. OH by the way I got to try out so many nice flutes! Some were all gold and some were silver and some were plastic! haha I just got immersed into a whole new world of flutes~ ^_^;; I'm so nerdy haha

School is starting to get stressful, especially because college apps are starting, and I still don't know what I wanna do or what I wanna major in... >.< I think I relieve some of my stress through eating, painting my nails, or playing flute. Hopefully everything will work out! ^^ I'm gonna go study and do some hw and practice now.. -.-

'Til next time~