Starting off the new year with a little bit of failure...

Happy Chinese New Years!! It'salways been a little difficult to celebrate so far away from home, but this year my parents sent me the sweetest care package filled with Chinese goodies and snacks. I was most excited for "Nian Gao" which roughly translates into "Year Cake." It's a glutinous rice cake that I describe as what a brown sugar marshamallow would taste like if it were gooier. Determined to take some time out of my day to celebrate, I invited Janet over to try them. Needless to say, it was a disaster. Hahah is there some bad luck with starting off a new year with total and utter failure? I'm exaggerating a little bit, I only ruined half the batch...my mistake was cutting the nian gao wayyy too thin. They are supposed to be a tiny bit burned (more like browned) on the sides, but since my slices were so thin, the entire thing just ended up looking like bacon:

 

At least we were able to salvage the rest! We cut the second batch much thicker, and they turned out decently!

Can you tell which one is made correctly?

All in all, nian gao doesn't look the most appetizing even when cooked correctly. But I promise you, they're delicious! Happy Chinese New Years!

(Apologies for the terrible iPhone quality photos! I don't carry around my DSLR with me all the time!)

Forever Explorer: Elie Saab

Whether intentional or subconscious, the past year I've started developing a growing interest in fashion. While this hasn't completely translated over to my own personal style (one day...), I've begun to fall in love with haute couture. I'm not quite sure how it all started, but I suspect it has to do with Pinterest. One designer I've come to adore is Elie Saab. His dresses embody the perfect combination of sophistication and glamour. His pieces are created with what looks like the softest materials, yet the embellishments add a certain amount of strength and power. Here are my favorite images from Fashion Week Spring 2013. The pieces are truly captivating! For the full collection and more designers, WMagazine has an excellent image gallery. There's nothing worse than a gallery that takes 30 seconds to browse each outfit!

Look 23 Look 30

Look 31

Look 35

Source: WMagazine

YOSYO - Fall Part Two

A continuation of YOSYO - Fall Semester! You only senior year once… Week of Oct 29th: Penn-Princeton! The longest non-tradition Penn has ever held! Penn kids have long held up the “tradition” of taking busses up to Princeton for our “rivalry.” The awkward part is that Princeton doesn’t consider this a rivalry at all! In fact, they were on break during the game so no students were even there hahah. It was a ton of fun, though, and I’m glad I finally made it up my senior year.

 Week of Nov 5th: Greek Conference! I’m part of an amazing Christian fellowship on campus called Greek InterVarsity. It’s specifically for sorority and fraternity members and has some of the most amazing people I’ve ever met. Through Greek IV, I’ve become closer with my own sisters in Chi Omega and have been able to meet so many more people in the Greek system that I never would have encountered before. It’s something I’ve valued so much during my time at Penn. This fall was another Annual Greek Conference up in the Poconos with other Greek IV chapters in the Northeast! Week of Nov. 12th: I didn’t leave campus, admittedly, but that’s because Thanksgiving was right around the corner…and it was CHISINO! I was so excited to be able to attend (and help work) Chisino’s 2nd Annual Chisino charity event for Make-A-Wish foundation (I was abroad last year when they started it). We were able to help buy a new computer for Make-A-Wish child, Ryan. Much better quality photos of the event here. Week of Nov. 19th: Thanksgiving with my cousins up in Rochester - the Lees! Some more here. Unfortunately, the last few weeks of a semester are always filled with cramming for finals and projects so there is never much time to escape campus. But I have to say, I did a pretty decent job of enjoying Philly and beyond last semester! More on the Spring Semester soon.

YOSYO - Fall Part One

When I first heard YOLO (You Only Live Once), it was pretty stupid. But then it became funny in an ironic way. Then came YOSYO (You Only Senior Year Once), and that was pretty stupid too. But then the undeniable truth of it started weighing down. I’m unbelievably grateful to have a wonderful job opportunity after graduation in my favorite city (New York, New York - although I’d totally welcome a job transfer to London hahah). As many gains as next year will bring me, the truth is that entering the world of professionalism does bring a few losses here and there. For example, I can’t wear my favorite Urban Outfitter’s Smush nailpolish with an Essie No Place Like Chrome fourth nail accent (so punny!). And I probably will shy away from my quirky owl earrings. I definitely can’t wear my ridiculous beanie from Brussels with a giant red snowball on top because a) it will mess up all that professional hair and b) it looks ridiculous in any given circumstance. Worst of all, I can’t die the back strands of my hair dark blue or purple. Never mind the fact that I really only had that urge once I realized I couldn’t do it in a year…but still.

I literally almost printed this picture out of Selena Gomez (aka a Disney princess who was also dating JBiebs #intouchwiththetweens) to give to my hair dresser before my friends kindly informed me, “Uh..I don’t think that would match well with your JCrew outfits..” Truth.

 Most of all, though, is realizing that in a short 4 months, I’ll be leaving Philly behind. And despite only being in Manhattan for two summers and London for one semester, I know the both of those cities far better than I know Philly. That’s why, this year I decided I had to leave campus at least once a week. While I didn’t get a chance to document the first semester, I’m determined to document my last. To catch up for lost time, though, last semester I was able to go to: 

Week of Aug 27th & Sept 3rd: Everywhere with the Brits! All over DC, NY and Philly!
Week of Sept 10th: Double event! First went to Frankford Hall , a modern Biergarten by Steven Starr, with some then-new friends and now-regular friends! While everyone got gigantic pints, I happily enjoyed some Spicy Bratwurst. Also, note how tan I was. I’ll get back to that one day….

(Photo Credit: Chloe S.)
Then somehow got roped into seeing this dude called…Bon Iver? I actually barely knew him when I went to the concert, but was a huge fan by the time I left. The live performance was so spectacular! At one point I realized: “I brought my Venture Capital homework to a hipster concert…does that make me ironic?”

Week of Sept 17th: Went downtown to get a new and dashing haircut! Also went on Baltimore Dollar Stroll which I don’t have pictures of, but was pretty awesome. Essentially all these restaurants along Baltimore sell little items/samples for $1 each. It’s a great idea in bringing the community together

Week of Sept 24th: Mid-Autumn Festival in ChinaTown! I can’t find the pictures we took from this, but surprisingly Matt of all people introduced us to an amazing hand-drawn noodle restaurant: Nan Zhou Hand Drawn Noodle House. Phenomenal! I highly recommend it. 
Week of Oct 1st: Greek IV Apple Picking! One of the best events we’ve done so far. As a California kid, the only thing I had ever picked was persimmons or strawberries. Actually, I can’t tell if maybe that’s just a sheltered kid thing… But this weekend, I got to meet ALLY. One of the coolest girls ever, and I’m seriously so blessed to know her. Girl just randomly signed up for our event and is now helping us plan events behind the scene!

Week of Oct. 8th: Sad, sad week. I got horribly sick, died, and missed a thousand events including Restaurant Week, the free students’ Philly Orchestra concert, a date to the Lil Pop Shop, and a Chi O Seniors’ Happy Hour.
Week of Oct. 15th: Fall Break! Amy and I went to Boston/Cambridge to see Maegan, Tsuki, Becca, and the Head of the Charles Regatta! We awkwardly became temporary members of the Kansas crew team during their lunch at Quincy Market when their entire team sat around us too hahah. and then I visited Kelsey up in the Bronx.

Week of Oct. 22nd: Homecoming weekend! I decided this weekend of all weekends, I didn’t exactly need to leave campus. We had a great game vs Brown. Sad fact is I had to Google that because I  couldn’t remember hahah

To be continued…