May 2012
1 post
April 2012
2 posts
no, wait, one more thing because i need to share...
my boss is leaving tomorrow for 5 weeks to get married in the US and to have her honeymoon. she was born in 1987. they’ve been engaged for two years. huh? also, when talking about how weird this feels, another girl on my team (also of the 87 cohort) casually dropped that she and her long-distance boyfriend in new york discussed getting married soon too so she’ll probably be tying the...
run-on sentences
so i know it’s been a long time and you deserve a more well-thought-out, substantive post because clearly i am the World’s Most Important Photo Blogger, but i just gotta say: it’s been a few weeks of hell, trying to work full-time and study full-time at the same fucking time while trying to make sure i feed myself and keep my clothes clean and occasionally pretend to be a good...
March 2012
8 posts
last few days of freedom, in photos
Saw Chiddy Bang (they’re from Philly!) in London. I also reaffirmed why I don’t go to concerts more often: being short is hard.
Rainbow-colored muffin cases for some leisurely Friday morning baking.
The man himself, rudely interrupted while devouring Pakistani food on an impromptu (read: “do we seriously not have any food in the house?!”) date night.
Partially...
a few updates
1) i didn’t get the job that i flew home to the east coast for. there’s actually a whole melodramatic story about this that includes me standing outside a bar in the freezing cold at 10PM on a friday night, waiting for a call. but i won’t bore you with the details. the rejection sucked, but i’ve moved on, thankfully.
2) classes end this week, and i’m starting my new...
some things lately that have made me happy:
Pretty lilies from one of my best friends back home, an empty bottle of red that I brought back from Paris, and a vase of red tulips.
Red tulips from the Boyf.
A new gold leaf headband that I’m obsessed with.
2-for-1 cocktails, with ginger beer and honey liqueur.
This view, from the bus, over the Thames, on my way to school. On days when it’s sort of sunny (yes, this counts as...
26:14
i fulfilled one of my new year’s resolutions this sunday when i signed up for and completed a 5K — my first in five years! i’ve come a long way from my varsity cross country years when running three 5Ks in a week (in under 24 minutes each time) was nothing. by saturday night, i was having such bad pre-race jitters, you would’ve thought i was running a fucking marathon the...
from boston, with love
my flatmate got back from 10 days in cambridge (the american one) slash boston last friday, and she brought me back these treats, which have made my week:
(L to R) a new red sox cap to replace the one i lost, a framed painting of the weeks footbridge (which i jumped off of here) and the charles river, and a brand new harvard travel mug (also to replace the one i lost…)
she also brought me back,...
"and this is the new court, because it was only...
Went to visit a college friend of mine, K, at Cambridge University two weekends ago. Since my only understandings of Oxbridge are from its traditions that Harvard adopted and from the Harry Potter books, I was pretty excited about getting the chance to see “the other Cambridge” for once.
It didn’t disappoint.
The school is something like 800 years old, and a lot of the buildings...
"je suis désolé."
Last week three weeks ago, I took the Eurostar to Paris to take my third shot at the Foreign Service exam (no matter how far you get in the process, as long as you fail, you have to start from square one, which is the written exam.) The spots in London were filled up for February, but thankfully, Paris is just a two-hour train ride away.
I thought I’d roll up, take the exam, and then go...
February 2012
11 posts
what does a girl do when her boyfriend and...
…blast the entire original broadway cast soundtrack of RENT and make a shit ton of turkey chili, of course. in pajamas. while singing along.
with enough cheese on top to break my 2012 healthy eating rules because fuck you, my chili doesn’t even have real beef in it.
glorious. i forgot what a great mimi i make. living with these anti-showtunes jerks has seriously been cramping my...
“Bottom line, do what you want for YOU. If you are a happy person, life will...”
– via College Candy.
Adopting this sort of view feels totally sacrilegious to me, but lately, it’s the only thing that’s been working to bring me out of my pathetic, passive, guilty funk. (hence, why I came home from the club 3 hours early and felt like I had just liberated Tibet or...
lately, (also known as the one where i only posted...
My trusty old sneakers that I bought in Taiwan (my first time abroad!) almost six years ago. They’re gray and holey and totally unsightly, but I can’t let go of them. This is the view from my favorite spot on the bus: the front seats on the upper level of the double-decker.
Trafalgar Square in the week leading up to Chinese New Year, with this big glowing orb (lantern?).
My...
“For the activist wife of a dissident, Washington is a city of rehearsed sympathy...”
– —Dan Zak, “A world away from China, Geng He seeks justice for her dissident husband.” in WaPo.
So I’m casually reading about Chinese human rights activists, you know, as I do, so that I can bring it up in class with my Chinese classmates and start controversy, you know, as I...
dear Firm:
PLEASE CALL ME BACK AND PUT ME OUT OF MY GODDAMN MISERY ALREADY, KTHNX.
p.s. thank you for the plane tickets home. my mama says thank you, too.
land of the free, home of the brave
Continuing my job search news coverage, yesterday I:
called the firm that gave me the offer, made up a story about flying home for a family emergency, and asked for an extra week to decide on accepting/rejecting their offer. (Pretty sure they saw right through this one—they promised to get back to me, and still haven’t. Shit.)
ironically, got an email from the other firm saying they...
January 2012
13 posts
today,
i got a job offer from a firm that runs the biggest daily-deals website in the world (think hard; you’ll know who i’m talking about. it’s not a fashion site. don’t tell me you’ve never signed up for emails from this site to get free movie tickets, $30 haircuts, etc.)
after getting this news, i proceeded to squeal “EEEEEEEEEE!!!!” loudly and dance all...
confession: i'm not a club person.*
I’m not, all right?! I’m just not.
I do love getting dressed up. I do love dancing with my friends. I do love the amazing people-watching opportunities that happen in a club. Yes. I love all of the above.
But. But, I hit a wall. Typically, about two hours in. It’s extremely shameful — what do you mean, it’s 12:30AM and you want to go home?! It’s practically...
count your blessings
Three things I’ve prayed about for a long time that have finally come true in the past two weeks:
1) My dad finding a job.
2) My flatmate finding an internship.
3) The Big 3 giving me another shot with a first-round interview.
Trying to break the habit of only blogging when I’m sad. This seemed like a pretty good place to start. Even though I’ve got about 2734892735 other...
nope, i lied: two more things i want to share:
This is the burger place in Brixton Village that I went to last week while one of my best friends from home was here. Just needed to share with you the wonderfulness of it all. The line was out the door for ages, but we emerged, full of delicious, overpriced burger.
And this is a picture of my four best friends back home, having post-Christmas brunch and mimosas. (Plus one of my...
last few weeks
have looked like this:
View of the Thames and Parliament at sunset, from the top of the London Eye.
Freshly baked bread at Borough Market.
Fancy-ass Laduree macaroons from the little shop in Harrod’s (one of my best friends came to visit for a few days, so I got to use her as an excuse to do all of the shamelessly touristy things here.)
Caramelized onion and goat cheese tarts, from...
WHY IS IT SO FUCKING COLD IN THIS FUCKING COUNTRY.
Everywhere. Everywhere is drafty. And damp. So even though it’s supposed to be 45 degree Fahrenheit outside, I’m miserably freezing my ass off because it feel like it’s below 40 degrees inside. It’s so cold that it’s hard to type. And I’m not even in our cheap, poorly insulated flat. I’m fucking at school. At an overpaid institution that you would think,...
Confessions.
I hate Christmas music. (Nine years of listening to Christmas songs at the rink for four hours a day will do that to you. Fuck Christmas ice shows.)
When I’m sad, I go to the sandwich bar on campus and buy a huge box of french fries for less than a pound and scarf them down in less than ten minutes. With ketchup. And a little mayo. Because Europe is getting to me.
I have a two-pound bag...
thanks.
Me: Seriously? You never feel threatened by anyone? Any guys at all?
Boyf: No...not really. *thinks really hard* Well, I was a little worried at first about that DJ guy.
Me: And? And then you met him and realized that he's not a threat at all, right? You like him, right?
Boyf: ...yeah, that, and he's lactose intolerant. I mean, please.
December 2011
3 posts
new year's resolutions: 2012
Join the gym. And stick it out until all the other fools who’ve also just joined after New Year’s have dropped out. I ain’t no statistic.
Call my parents every day again. (I stopped doing this when I moved to London. Disaster ensued.)
Run a race. Any race. Preferably a 10K or longer, but I’ll settle for any 5K that I sign up for and get my ass to.
Stop reading my...
so this is christmas
before i start, lemme just tell you where i’m heading, all right? all right. first of all, i’m typing in lower-case. that’s when you know i’m about to get real. second of all, you know how some people only blog when they’re angry and need to vent? i’m beginning to realize i only blog when i’m sad. so there you go. there is your warning. it’s...
November 2011
4 posts
five things that make me happy
Ah, there we go.
1)
My new Dorothy Perkins oxford heels. No, they’re not comfy, and yes, I’m sure they’re on their way out in terms of being trendy. But do they make me smile a shit ton whenever I look down at my feet? Yes. And that is all that matters.
2)
Big mug of Wawa coffee (thanks, Mom!) and homemade carrot cake. Fo’ breakfast. Because I’m a grown-up, and...
on my radar
I know I’ve been slow to post anything recently, which is complete shit, given how many photos I’ve taken recently and want to share. But this post is not that. This post is more appropriately titled, “List of Shit I Want to Bake/Cook But Can’t Bookmark Because I’m on a Public Computer at the Fucking Library at 8-Fucking-AM.”
But why use the appropriate title...
October 2011
1 post
"You're ABSOLUTELY Sandra Lee...ABSOLUTELY, you... →
Gawker presents the best four minutes of Sandra Lee’s Halloween special, which included half a dozen costume changes and some of the best lines ever uttered on a “cooking” show.
Cannot stop watching this train wreck. Happy Halloween, kids!
September 2011
3 posts
dear girl who makes me gag:
hi there.
why am i up at 1:37AM on a saturday night, facebook-stalking the shit out of you? no, you didn’t sleep with my boyfriend. you don’t have really great hair or a cute baby or a sex scandal that’s hilariously/sadly public.
no. you’re just a girl i met one summer. at a fancy bbq in DC, held in a CNN hotshot’s backyard. we were introduced, and you gave me a big...
August 2011
15 posts
going back to my roots.
List of Chinese Dishes That I Crave with Severity (And Am Now Learning to Make!) :
Taiwanese beef noodle soup.
Mooncake. (Okay, this one I’m not learning to make. But I am stuffing my face full of it each day. And what.)
Dry-fried green beans (干煸四季豆)
Spicy Szechuan-style eggplant.
Pan-fried dumplings.
Hmm…beginning to realize that Chinese food is not exactly the most...
