One day I’ll be so on top of blog posts that I won’t have to do the dreaded “haha I’m sharing photos from 5 months ago” apology :( 對不起 :'( Here’s the big life update I promised in a previous post. The start of winter 2013 involved a lot of shopping and eating (WHAT’S NEW), but a big new thing happened towards the end of the year!

– NOV –

+ Way back in November, I caught up with VC over some really delicious jjamppong, jjajangmyun, tangsooyuk from Sam Won Gahk. We went on a makeup shopping blitz where I spent enough money at Nature Republic to get TWO promotional EXO posters. HOW DID IT COME TO BE LIKE THIS. 2013 marked the year I fell into the EXO hole – WILL I EVER ESCAPE?!

+ Our family celebrated my dad’s birthday with dinner at Imperial Palace (東湖), which has become our family’s go-to restaurant of choice for any and all important events. If you’re looking for a great Cantonese restaurant in Flushing, definitely check out Imperial Palace! A really good Cantonese restaurant serves food that has 镬气 (wok hei – wok essence/heat/energy) and Imperial’s got it down 100%. There’s always a line at the shop near Joe’s Shanghai, but it’s well worth the wait. Don’t listen to people who say the second shop, East Lake (It goes by the English version of Imperial’s Chinese name) on Prince is just as good – it’s not! Both the food and service is less impressive.

+ If you’re an art enthusiast and yourself in the Flatiron District, you might be interested in checking out the AIGA National Design Center on 5th Ave. It’s a wonderful little space that AIGA uses to host all kinds of galleries and exhibitions that are free to the public. I passed by one day and managed to catch Divine Details, a popup shop/gallery collaboration between design boutique Little Fury and AIGA. The exhibit featured redesigned common everyday goods, each accompanied by an original written piece inspired by that item. It’s a shame that the website doesn’t offer an archive of the pieces that were on display, but I’m definitely stopping by again to see what new exhibits may be showing.

+ Also in Nov, I met up with Yaling of Pretty Stories for a coffee & dinner date. We started off with drinks from Cafe de Cupping where I also caught sight of Yaling’s hair for the first time and WOW HOW AMAZING IS THAT COLOR

WHAT!!!!!

The drinks were DELICIOUS – a Bloody Velvet Latte for Yaling & a Pistachio Frappe for moi. It was my first time at Cafe de Cupping and I can see why people love it so much. The drinks are great and the atmosphere is warm and inviting. Sadly, there isn’t anything savory on the menu so Yaling and I had to head somewhere else for dinner. At one point, we just gave up and went into the nearest restaurant, Golden Piggy, for a quick meal.

:9999

And then somehow we found ourselves at the second cafe of the day HAHA. We’d driven past M2S earlier on our way to dinner and decided to swing by to check it out. I’m so glad we did – LOOK HOW CUTE IT IS!

AHHHH. I love the aesthetics – love the large open space and the choice of wood / concrete as interior decor motifs. I’m not actually much of a coffee person, but Yaling mentioned that M2S serves Illy coffee which is supposed to be great stuff so I had to try a cup. Yaling had a mango tea (?) which was delicious. If I hadn’t already stuffed myself with food from dinner, I would have had a honey toast :((((( Next time T_____T

– DEC –

+ December rolled along annnnd the big change I mentioned in my last post was regarding a new job! I’m working as an assistant/office manager at a small boutique law firm in the city and although it’s not related to anything I studied, it’s still a learning opportunity and I’m sure it’ll be an interesting experience. ~This week marks my 3 month work anniversary~ To be honest, the first few weeks were pretty terrible (read: I was pretty terrible), but I like to think I’ve improved. It’s a new challenge and I must power through it!

In the mean time, I’ll try to dig up some motivation to work on my portfolio. IT’S HARD – It’s so easy to just roll around on the weekends :( I diiiid recently do some logos for EXO fansites, Caught in a Moment and FADEDPRESENCE (see ’em here!), which was a lot of fun. Although both sites moved onto new logos (I also threw another logo together for FADEDPRESENCE’s launch) it was neat to see something I made on fandom photos! My very lovely friend at FP sent me some prints where the logos were used so I’ll be throwing up some photos in the portfolio soon as well. I also did a freelance ecommerce site for a family friend and once I get some paperwork sorted out, I hope I’ll get to share it as well.

+ I finally got to meet the wonderful Acire in person! It’s always exciting when you get to meet internet friends & since Acire’s going to be in NYC for the spring semester, we’ll hopefully get to see each other lots! I’m going to save some words for later since she’s going to get a special post of her own soon ㅋㅋ

+ Earlier in the month, I attended an alumni event at Macaulay and I had the chance to reconnect with some of my college classmates and friends that I hadn’t seen since the BBQ back in July. It was nice getting updates on how they’ve been doing and seeing what they were up to. It was actually my first time at one of these alumni events – I honestly never wanted to go because I’d been nervous about what I would say/do when asked what I was doing :T This event was just days after I started work so I got to share the news in person with my friends who were all very supportive & understanding. Later on in the month, I met up with E and J for dinner at Mandoo Bar and it brought back some memories of how close knit we were in college. It was just really nice to see them and I hope I do so again soon ;^; Can’t say the same for the food though – wow would not recommend.

+ SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW snOW SNOW sNOw NSOWO

+ Rounded out December by 24. HAAAHAAAA. Dinner with fam at San Soo Kap San with a little cheesecake present from my mom. I also received LOVELY WONDERFUL presents from V & L ♡♡♡ REAL FRIENDS SEND YOU JARS OF BUTTER ♡♡♡ In addition, I also did some shopping damage of my own :'( ow

THIS POST TOOK ME MONTHS but I promise there’s more to come, BYE!!!!