International Secret--Asians?

Saturday night was the ISA concert. I'd say it was pretty epic, considering Ted from Wong Fu proposed onstage to his girlfriend. How sweet :) The crowd went wildddd during that moment. But it was something nice to share as fans of Wong Fu.
I must admit, it was strange seeing Youtube stars on stage. I'm so used to seeing them on a screen! (Especially Wong Fu.) David Choi, Jennifer Chung, and Lydia Paek were all amazingly talented artists. Other artists--especially some mainstream artists-- probably can't perform live as well as they do.

KevJuma and Ryan Higa hosted the show, which was expected of them, as they are comedians, of course. Wong Fu presented us with a (really funny!) new short featuring David Choi. David Garibaldi also painted some celebrities to the beat of some hip hop music. All very cool stuff. Far East Movement ended the show with an energetic performance, one that got the crowd dancing and moving to the beat. Despite being the sweaty mess I was afterwards, I had fun :D

We were extremely hungry after the show so we went over to some random Japanese place on St. Marks. I ended up ordering gyoza and sharing udon with Pauline. Yes, at 11pm at night. (Which I don't think is a normal time for dinner, but whatever.) Pauline took this really cute picture of us with her Fujifilm Instax Mini. I kind of want one now :)

Saying goodbyes; anticipating futures.

On Tuesday I said my goodbyes to my kids at the daycare center. They're only two years old but even they understood what goodbye meant. When each of them gave me a hug, I felt like I didn't want to leave them. Kids are so sweet. They don't know much about the world so they're willing to give as much love as they can to anybody in particular.

I will especially miss Jonathan and Keira (the two kids at the bottom). Jonathan was so well behaved and he says the cutest things! Keira is the sweetest little thing ever. I love playing Kitchen with her, playing Ladybug with her, and just about anything with her. A warm feeling washes over me everytime I rock her to sleep. She used to cry so much but now she's slowly adjusting to her new settings...

On the following day, I left for a college road trip with Victoria (Tang) and Joanne. Even though I had to wake up at 5AM, I was pretty damn pumped up! I slept in the car most of the time, so the trips didn't feel long at all. We visited Amherst, Williams (second picture), Bowdoin (first picture), and Brown. All four of these colleges were beautiful. (The location of Williams wasn't, though. It was literally on top of a mountain. Frankly, it was quite scary reaching the top.)

So what exactly did I get out of this trip?

1. Victoria's family is very, very nice. I'm so thankful that her dad took off work to drive us to all these random places. And I'm really grateful for her aunt's hospitality. Really.
2. I like liberal arts colleges. I'm starting to lean away from huge universities.
3. I also think I like the outdoors. I mean, the activities appeal to me. At Williams and Bowdoin, outdoor activities are emphasized. Hiking, sailing, kayaking, you name it.
   
4. Being away from New York City is weird. I mean, this was only for two days. What's it going to be like to be away from NYC for a whole year? Four years?
5. I am worried that I won't get into any of the colleges that I truly like. :(
6. I am going to college in a year. Holy. Shit.

Summer is slipping through my fingertips. :( I guess I'm happy and sad at the same time. No matter how enjoyable summer is, I need to snap back to reality. (Oh there goes gravity! Okay, sorry. Eminem song.) There are college applications to complete, essays to write, forms to fill out, yearbook sketches to complete, and the future to think about. Oh boy. It's official. There are less than two weeks left.

Summer satisfcation.

These past few days were what I imagined to be my ideal summer. :) I'm content, if not happy. I know summer is going to end soon and I want to make the best out of it. This week was certainly no adrenaline rush, but it kept me busy, refreshed, and sane.
On Tuesday I went with Sam, Linda & Mindy to Coney Island beach. (No matter how dirty Coney Island is, it somehow ended up being my usual beach destination.) We buried Linda and made her into a jellyfish :)

I had another yearbook meeting to attend on Wednesday. We haven't progressed much since the last meeting, but I think it'll all work out eventually. The theme is just hard to initialize. I went with Victoria to Barnes & Nobles afterward and we looked at a lotttttt of college books. They excite me!
I left after a few hours and headed to K-town for Linda's karaoke event. I had no voice and no energy that night, but it makes sense since I've been so tired lately. Nevertheless, it was fun :D Alan sat on Pocky and it looked like he pooped on himself, haha.

Friday was Kevin's birthday party. I went to his party last summer as well and I had so much fun. His friends are a little quirky, but I like meeting weird people--because well, I'm very weird myself. This year wasn't as fun as last year but it was still entertaining. The guests were completely different from last year's guests--I only recognized two or three faces.
The girls (Ariel, Dan, the twins & I) went through some trouble trying to get Kevin a gigantic birthday card and an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. We hid the card in the bathroom and took turns escorting the other guests in there to sign it. It was pretty silly. It made Kevin happy, so I'm glad.



We spent the rest of the day playing Mafia. (I kept dying, but it's okay because this was the first time I played this game.) Kevin's party ended pretty early, at around 7, because he had to spend his birthday with his family members as well. So I speed walked with Dan to the train station (the Coney Island neighborhood isn't exactly safe) and took the N to Bay Parkway. There, I had dinner with Lisa at Fugu, an inexpensive Japanese place.

Lisa and I went to see the Coney Island fireworks afterwards. At night, Coney Island was beautiful. And I mean it in the most humble way. Brooklyn has such an old-school feel to everything: the hip-hop music, the vintage food stands. As we sat on the boardwalk with our flip flops off, feet dangling above the dark waters, I felt so carefree and relaxed. My favorite type of summer nights :)

I'm looking forward to the rest of my summer. Next week I'm going on a college trip with Victoria and Joanne. I'm so excited! We're going to visit Amherst, Brandeis, Brown, and Bowdoin. =D I can't wait.

Summer? What? When?

It's mid-August already. Wow. Time does fly! The funny thing? It doesn't feel that much like summer to me. I know I have always had high expectations of summer, but I learned that summer never turns out the way I want it to. But somehow, I still have the desire to live for summer, to make my summer memorable...
I haven't done much, to be honest. In my head, I had it all planned out. I was going to go jogging in the mornings, go volunteer until the afternoon, and then hang out with friends. During most of my evenings I would do some college prep or SAT prep. On some evenings I would even write some personal stories. On rare evenings I would go to a friend's birthday dinner, watch movies at a park, or see fireworks at Coney Island. I would also continue with my 365 photography project, except I would not limit it to only self portraits. Yes, this was how my summer was supposed to go.
The only thing that was constant throughout my summer was photography, volunteer, and hanging out. I made no efforts to exercise or prepare for my hectic senior year. Why must I be so lazy? Is laziness even the problem? How about motivation and passion? Where do those virtues come into play?
I can't go back and fix things now but I must make up for this!

• Even if I don't run in the mornings I must do cardio at home.
• Do half an hour of SAT prep every night. That is NOT a difficult task.
• Do half an hour of college stuff every night. That is not difficult either.
• Use weekends (especially Sundays) to work on college essays and personal pieces.

And as for the hanging out at night? I know it's a privilege for me to even hang out at night, so I'll try my hardest to appreciate my opportunities. Even if I get to hang out one night a week, I will be completely satisfied.
Some photos from the past few weeks:


Dinner with the cousins at St. Marks.


Freedom Tunnel for the second time!


So tired after walking the entire tunnel D=


Coney Island with Stephanie!


Family portrait at the Dragonboat Festival. (It's a summer tradition, haha. I'm talking about the annual family photo, not the festival--which was boring.)

• Dinner with the cousins was nice (even though the food wasn't fabulous). I felt hurt that Linda & Connie didn't want to stay longer, like Aimee & I did. They went home; Aimee & I loitered in Starbucks.
• Freedom was surreal. We almost got caught by the cops when we tried to enter the tunnel. We were talking along the highway when a cop stopped us and told us to go the other way. We looked like a bunch of good Asian kids, so I assume he believed our excuse about trying to find our friend along the river. Haha. The rest is history. We walked through the equivalent of over 50 blocks of train tracks. Getting out was actually harder than getting in because the 72nd st entrance had people EVERYWHERE! I mean, it was Riverside Park. Nevertheless, we succeeded. Pat on the back for me!
• Spending time with Steph always makes me happy. I'm a bit sad that we don't hang out as much as we did freshman year (we were always together!) but it's understandable that we branched off our own ways as the high school years went on. I think she'll be one of the only people from high school that I'll keep in touch with through college & beyond.
• Oh, family days. They're never truly successful. The Dragonboat Festival was boring. Honestly. I was going to watch DCH race (the team that Monica, Man Na & the two Alans are on) but boredom made me leave earlier. We went to Joe's Shanghai for lunch and oh my, I can tell you that those soup dumplings are magical. I've heard people talk about this restaurant and never got what the hype was all about until I tried those dumplings. Yum.

I feel like a lot more happened this summer but I guess I don't remember those days that well because I didn't take pictures. See why photography is so important to me? I forget things so easily. I need pictures as proof of not only the life I lived, but my existence.

To home and back.

I should have written about China a long time ago, but since I am a procrastinator--here you have it, three weeks later. What's there to say about this experience? It's not like I haven't been to China before. I was born there and lived there for 6 years until I came to the U.S. But going back this time was different. I'm 17 now and I understand things a little better than I did when I was 14.

Let me just start with the places I briefly visited: Beijing and Hong Kong.

Beijing is simply magnificent. I didn't know I had such a strong liking to this history stuff, but I was blown away when I saw the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. The buildings are still so beautiful and intact--it's amazing how emperors used to live there thousands of years ago. I now understand what my dad means when he brags about China's glory. We could have been number one, you know.

The Roast Peking Duck wasn't as good as I expected. The sauce was all there is to is. I'm not used to the light taste of Northern Chinese foods; I prefer flavorful Cantonese dishes. But it was something worth trying.

Another thing worth noting from my trip to Beijing was the obvious poverty. While walking through the Summer Palace, I had an unfinished bottle of water in my hand. It was probably 1/3 full. This old woman, with a tired expression yet soulful eyes, looked at me desperately. She pointed to her bag of empty water bottles and asked me if I could give her mine. I wasn't too thirsty then but I just chugged down my water. I dropped the water bottle in her bag with a faint smile but couldn't look her in the eye. Sometimes I hate facing reality.

I want to write more about China but this post is long overdue. In short, leaving Zhanjiang was bittersweet. There was that classic waving-from-a-train scene except it was a coach bus, not a train. My eyes get teary every single time I have to say goodbye to my beloved family over there. But I am so glad I got to spend three weeks with my family. They're probably all rooting for me here in America.

View my China photos through this public Facebook link here.