Foodie Runs in the Family

This weekend I had the amazing opportunity to have a reunion with of my amazing cousins! A little back story, here, but my dad has 10 sisters and 1 brother!! Because my dad was the baby of the family, a lot of my cousins are much older than my brother & me. ! 1/3 are in America, 1/3 are in Malaysia (where they were all born), and 1/3 are in Australia so I didn’t really grow up with that many relatives around, sadly. When I went to London to study abroad, though, I realized that my cousin Christine had moved from Australia to London and was working there! It was seriously awesome reconnecting after so many years, and I got to meet her then fiancee and now husband! I am proud to say that I was the one who introduced them to Modern Family hahah. This past summer, Christine came to New York to pick up her wedding dress (yep, you read that right! she’s that cool!), and I got to meet ANOTHER cousin, Benita from Rochester, NY! 

In December, Christine reached out to us again to let us know that her new and awesome company CHOBANI (#doesthismeanigetfreechobani) was sending her to NYC for a business trip! So we whipped up some plans where we could meet her. I have to say, this was one of the most fun weekends I had experienced in a long time. It was shopping and eating and shopping and eating - what more could you ask for? I also got a chance to work on my photography assignment and took a lot of small depth of field photos (a post on that later).

The first night we went to Ippudo (secret trick: the wait time is usually 1 hour, but if you wait there instead of leave and come back, they’ll come take your name again and bump you up the list!) We got some of the most amazing Akamura Modern ramen I’ve ever tasted (the broth was heavenly), and my favorite, the Hirata Buns with Pork Belly! 

After some endless SOHO shopping on Saturday (helloo Aritzia!), we met up with Benita who had rushed to the Michael Kors store right after her flight landed hahah. We finally got to check out the epically awesome Chobani SOHO cafe and got some delicious Chobani samples thanks to our corporate friends (wink wink). My Strategic Brand Management Team is actually choosing Chobani as our project brand so I made sure to take down lots of notes and snap a gazillion pictures! 
Below we have Pomegranate + Chia Seeds, Salmon + Olive Oil (surprisingly good! I was very hesitant about this one), Fig + Walnut (my favorite), and Pineapple + Toasted Coconut. Simply brilliant. 
We got a little giddy with all the food available hahah..

The coolest part is that each Chobani dish comes in its own glass bowl which you get to keep! I’m eating my yogurt out of here every time from now on…

Since Christine and I hadn’t taken a peek at Michael Kors yet, we thought we’d take a gander. Little did Christine know that Benita and I would quickly convince her to buy the most gorgeous navy maxidress for her brother’s upcoming wedding! How gorgeous does she look?! I wanted her to get the shoes too, but they were a little bit more sensible…

We finally headed off to our lovely hotel where we randomly got complimentary rice krispy treats hahah and enjoyed some Laduree macarons (I insisted we make the trek!). 

Later that night we had THE most phenomenal dinner at Balthazar where we somehow managed to finish off the largest raw seafood platter on the menu, and then still had room for dessert (again, at my insistence!). I discovered my second favorite dessert (#1 being macarons): pavlova! It’s a meringue that is crisp and fluffy on the outside and chewy on the inside…then doused with fruit. Sigh. It was heavenly. I wish the picture quality was better to show how decadent it truly was!
 
We also somehow managed to get complimentary champagne and put on Balthazar’s A-List! My cousins live like celebrities, I’m telling you…
 

Not to be beaten by the day before, Sunday we woke up at the crack of dawn *cough* 9am *cough* and went to Eataly to beat the rush! As much as I love the marketplace and the gelato, I have to admit that I was a little bit disappointed by the restaurant section, La Pasta. I think we were all a little underwhelmed by the flavors and expected a lot more considering how long the line usually is! Nevertheless, family and ambiance make up most of your enjoyment so we had a great time anyway.

All bundled up and still ready to eat freezing gelato! Commitment.
All in all, it was a glorious weekend. I am so happy and fortunate to have such amazing relatives who love me enough (despite only recently getting to know me) to put in the effort for a reunion. Christine and Benita are such beautiful, hilarious, fun, and generous people. I couldn’t be more lucky to be related to them!

Chi Omega, Yours Forever

Sorority rush is finally over! As long and tiring as the process can be, I have to admit that rush really brings everyone together. For one crazy week, you get the chance to see almost all of your sisters every day, catch up with the girls who went abroad last semester (my little little, Hanna, went to London *sniff*), and talk to some amazing new girls who are potential little “owl babies.”

During the workshop for Pref Round, we get a chance to share with each other why we chose Chi O, and how Chi O has impacted our lives. Every year that we go through this, I get a chance to remember and reflect on how much has changed because of a choice I made freshman year. If it weren’t for Philine giving me enough courage to go to a Habitat meeting together, we would have joined the Fundraising Committee, we would have never been Co-Fundraising Chairs together, and I would have never become Co-President of a club I loved. If I never entered Greek life, I never would have found Greek IV (my Christian fellowship for sorority/fraternity members). While I’m sure God would have led me to a fellowship elsewhere, I just can’t imagine my college experience without the amount of community and support I have found through fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who also understand what it’s like to be Christian and Greek. I would have never met my Big who is my mentor and the big sister I always wanted, and I would have never would have met 2/5 of my current roommates. It’s crazy to think about how that one decision to join Chi Omega changed the trajectory of my life forever. 

And of course, with all these lovely ladies, we always have an amazing time!
Skit Round with Cameron:

Preference Round with Callan and Meggie

Bid night with Maddie
Seniors on Bid Night

The Chi Omega Symphony

To live constantly above snobbery of word or deed;
To place scholarship before obligations and character before appearances;
To be, in the best sense, democratic rather than ‘exclusive,’ and lovable rather than ‘popular’;
To work earnestly, to speak kindly, to act sincerely, to choose thoughtful that course which occasion and conscience demand;
To be womanly always; to be discouraged never:
In a word, to be loyal under any and all circumstances to my Fraternity and her highest teachings and to have her welfare ever at heart that she may be a symphony of high purpose and helpfulness in which there is no discordant note. 

Beginning a Photography Journey...

I purchased my first DSLR (Nikon D3100!) right before Thanksgiving, so I had a mighty fun time playing around with it for the first time when I visited my cousin’s family in upstate New York! Fun fact: my dad is the youngest of 12 siblings all from one mom and dad. Aside from my dad, there was only one other son… and 10 sisters!!! Insanity! My uncle is one of the oldest, so his kids are only slightly younger than my dad. Therefore, THEIR kids are only slightly younger than I am! Even though I’m technically a generation older, Olivia is only 6 months younger. Nevertheless, staying with the Lees is always a good time. I got to practice out my photography skills while they got some cute family portraits! Luckily, my cousin’s family also had Nikon DSLRs and taught me a few things. My cousin recommended first shooting in the “A” (Aperture) mode rather than “M” (Manual) to start with. 

Here are some more cousins that I actually met for the first time! I’m the baby of the family, as you can tell.

Thanks to Christmas shortly after, I got to practice even more with my own family back in San Diego! With my brother away in China for two years and myself in school 3000 miles away, it’s been difficult to get some family pictures of all of us together. I came up with a great idea for my grandparents’ Christmas gift, though: a collage frame and a photoshoot to fill it up! We finally got some great family portraits. I, of course, enlisted my lazy brother to share the cost and agree to hanging the large frame up in their apartment! Meanwhile, I got even more practice and tried out a tripod with a timer for the first time. 

Aren’t my grandparents adorable? I loved their matching Christmas outfits!
I definitely struggled with shooting in artificial lighting. Comparing the pictures between my cousin’s family and my own, I’m realizing how much of a difference natural lighting makes! Over Christmas break, I’ve been searching for some basic DSLR tutorials online. I found a really great one by Aimee at It’s Overflowing. She runs through Aperture, ISO, Shutter Speed, and Metering very thoroughly and simply! I’ve found that a lot of tutorials online make a lot of assumptions about your photography background which can be very frustrating. Aimee, however, does a wonderful job of explaining every step and even assigning little “assignments.” If you want to check it out, click here.

I found out that one of my high school friends has a Nikon D3100, too, so we’ve decided we’re going on an adventure throughout all of San Diego to practice! I’m really excited and loving my camera so far! 

Leaving London never happened..

It’s been a year since my last post. What started out as a little abroad blog just to show my parents transformed into an international sensation, garnering me more awards than I could imagine, and a following of thousands. I wasn’t ready to handle it, though, and quickly withdrew from the limelight for the fear of losing myself….Hahah in reality, I loved blogging to be able to share my thoughts with my friends. That plus my long-awaited purchase of a DSLR, motivated to me start this up again. 

I realized that I never left London fully. Sure, I was back across the pond, shuttling back and forth between California, Philadelphia, and New York, but I feel like I left an old version of myself abroad and came back a completely changed person. I’m sure those of you who have gone abroad understand my sentiments exactly. When I first arrived at college, I was excited to “start again” - to break out of who I was in high school and become this new and fabulous version of myself. The only problem, though, is that at 18 I hardly knew who I was or who I even wanted to be. Fast forward to junior year, and I’m experiencing freshman year all over again (quite literally! I fully participated in KCL’s Fresher’s week and lived with first years!). The only difference this time, was that I was 20 with 2 more years to learn about myself outside of the confines of my household. I found an amazing group of friends of Brits, Americans, Australians, and Italians, and I felt “natural” in all the right ways. I didn’t try to impress every single person, but rather stuck close to the people who made me laugh constantly. I was truly amazed that in such a short period I had solidified such a strong group of friends, but also such a strong sense of my own personality. I came back to America KNOWING who I was, and that made all the difference. My self-confidence has been stronger, and my eyes have been open to how much more I can do in life. Spontaneously using every weekend possible to travel the world made me realize how much time I waste normally. This fall, I did what I could. I made a goal to leave Penn’s campus once a week to experience something new, and I have to say, it was a success! I brought my friends to Chinatown for the Mooncake Festival, finally experienced First Friday, visited the Poconos for a weekend Greek InterVarsity retreat, and more. 

The biggest take-a-way of all, though, was that amazing friend group. For two and a half weeks, I gave the Brits a taste of America. Stephen, Max, and Sarah flew to San Diego for a Southern California extraordinaire where we visited everything from glorious La Jollan beaches to Disneyland to Jake’s frat in USC.

Stephen and Max then flew with me to Philly only to go up to DC the next day to meet Beccy (via London), Matt, Jose, Lauren, Nick, Sebastien, and Arielle.
 

We then went to NYC where we casually bumped into Michelle Obama in front of the Rachel Rae studios (no photographic evidence, unfortunately)
 

And finally we came back to Philly to see the birthplace of America, watch a Phillies game, and show the Brits  a good ol’ American “freshers” week celebration. 

 

Needless to say, going abroad was the best decision of my life! I hope you guys look forward to the rest of my posts documenting life “abroad” back at home!