chocosaur

Birthday Weekend! (picture-heavy)

Sunday, October 20, 2013 • 2:20 AM • 1 comments

Hellooo everyone! This has been a really eventful month, probably the worst of my luck but I can't let everything bring me down right? Life moves on and we have to overcome all the struggles we encounter. So all in all, this week was my birthday week! It's on October 21st and I will be turning 18! I'm finally legal but at the same time I'm not sure if thats a good thing... but I got a group of friends together to get sushi at Asahi & it was a great time. A lot of my closest people didn't get to come due to work (and distance) but they still texted me wishing a good time and blessings for a good birthday which was great enough for me. Anthony even came over (while I was bleaching my hair oops) to drop off my present and wish me a good time as well. I can't ask for better friends or feel any more blessed than I already do.

Left: Fire Roll being cooked / Right: All my rolls together! Fire, Yum Yum & Lobster Popcorn

I had really good sushi, this is literally my favorite restaurant to go to because the sushi is fabulous and has a great rating. The service is really great and they serve tempura ice cream that tastes like heaven in your stomach. I also bought my cake from Whole Foods & had it ordered on Thursday. The Mocha Buttercream cake is great & I specifically asked for the strawberries & kiwis. I love sweet foods, so this was the perfect cake. The lettering on my cake was beautiful too, like if I were to have this person's script I would forever be content with note taking for life.

It says the 21st because my official birthday is that date by the way...

Everyone that night was great company, it was cold outside so everyone went for their blankets in their cars... Vanderly and Tiffany were giant red balls of entertainment. I appreciated everyone for coming out tonight though, towards the last minute I kept getting cancellations and so the original 22 people winded down to 12 people. I'm happy to have these people in my life.

Group photo!

I took individual photos with people and I picked out my favorite ones from the night! The first being with Hoang who took most of the photos for me, she has been around for almost 10 years of my life now and I don't regret a single day of it. The second photo is Vanderly who I've been friends with for 6-7 years, she's unhappy in the photo because she's cold but I also caked her in the face so she's grumpy but she still loves me and I love her.

Left: Me & Hoang / Right: Me & Vanderly

The second set being the ones with Lisa & Tiffany. Lisa has been one of the greatest friends I've had in my life, she's been in my life since the 2nd grade, so that's almost 11 years of history between us now - all of our ups & downs are what makes our friendship stronger. I was going through a really rough week last week around the time of her birthday & I didn't let that bring me down, but before she went back to Lexington she left a present on my car and a card that put me to tears (you will see more of this later on....) and I will love her even from 80 miles away from home. The second is Tiffany who is one of the greatest people you can have in your life, she'll support you and give you great advice and help you through rough times. Plus she gives monster hugs. I can't wait until she performs at Jalsa with our team in November, she'll be fabulous.

Left: Me & Lisa / Right: Me & Tiffany

Time to unveil the presents I received! I'm not materialistic enough to demand presents from everyone - it's not what you bring that counts but the memories we make that matter. I would rather remember a person as "that person who came to my birthday and made it memorable" rather than the person who "gave me an expensive present but doesn't act like a real friend" to me. Since I don't blog as much as I should, I'm going to do what a blog is for - record what goes on in my life & these are the things that I were gifted tonight! The first present I will be presenting is the one from Vanderly. She couldn't decide what to get me, and plus she was low on money because senior year is expensive for seniors so she picked the Lush gift box! Which is fine with me, because who can deny LUSH products right? Plus she sniffed every single one and put her heart into picking one so it's I love it either way, PLUS LOOK AT THE CUTE LITTLE POPCORN PACKAGER THINGS THEY'RE SO COLORFUL AND CUTE AND MAKE THE PHOTO SO MUCH MORE BUBBLY. I will maybe do a review on these products if I have spare time with college and such, but thank you Vanderly for the lovely gift that will have my house smelling good for daaaays!

CUTE LUSH BOX AND THE COLORFUL POPCORNS

The second present, being Kait (and I'm assuming Miguel)'s present, she thoughtfully picked the bag because we're both moderately crude gamer girls that talk like men sometimes. She, knowing I'm a raging hardcore Breaking Bad fan got me another poster which I didn't know where to put in my room so I put it right where I'm hanging my jackets and sweaters... she also got me a GIANT tootsie roll since she knows I love my sweets. THE BEST PART - SHE GOT ME BLUE ROCK CANDY, WHICH IS THE KEY IMAGE FOR BREAKING BAD'S CRYSTAL METH AND SHE THOUGHT IT WOULD BE WITTY TO GIVE THEM TOGETHER. I absolutely love Kait (and Miguel) and I'm blessed to have them both as members of my dance team, because we've gotten to know and bond with each other as a group and every single day we grow closer.

Top left: Birthday Bag / Top right: Poster on my wall / Bottom: Rock candy & Candy

The third gift coming from Khaleel, who has ultimately grown to be one of my closest friends in Louisville because he is someone I can trust and I know he has my back as I have his. In such a short time of our friendship, he's someone I respect a lot since he helps me with a lot of things. Since he's a Pagan and into a lot of mystical things which also intrigues me and keeps things interesting between our friendship, he gifted me a necklace that contains pink opal and amethyst. The meanings of the stones are really interesting.

Pink Opal is a stone associated with hope - it brings money, power & a sense of well-being.

Amethyst is a stone that calms fear and is said to protect one from "poison" in life.

The necklace (which reminds me of a whisk), the bag & his card cover!

Thu & Tina are cousins, so they think alike, they didn't know what to get me so they just shoved money in a witty card with a cute baby on it. Also perfectly fine with me, because at least they tried! Plus the witty card makes up for it since they know I like funny birthday cards...

Dat cute baby though...

Dennis... is a very simple person. He's a great friend after you can sit down and have a mature conversation with him though. We have this ongoing joke about how I'm 'part of a triad' since I'm extremely intimidating when I want to be and I have a mad power punch and all. I know how to fight, let's just leave it at that. So I accidentally invited him last minute because I'm a dumb twat and remembered last minute, he's a really good friend I just forgot since I had to balance out my college friends and high school friends and remembered him the night before T_T But at my birthday he walks up and tells me, "Hey... I have the cocaine" and he slips me this after he sees the confused "wtf" look on my face when he says that and I see the red envelope and laugh. He tried his best & that's all that matters.

"Drug Business/Bday Gift"

The next one is the one from Lisa... she got me a dress from Forever 21, even though it's getting colder here, it's okay because my body temperature is odd and I'm usually warmer than most people so I can still wear shorts and dresses and such. Since I got her a phone holding/cushioning Vera Bradley wallet since we're college students and we don't like to carry anything heavy with us, she got me a Michael Kors wristlet.. which I will be extremely worried about it getting jacked from me in the middle of campus or something. Last week before she drove back to campus during her birthday weekend, she dropped off a book and letter on my car while I was gone. I had just gone through a lot of pain that weekend so I think she understood it was a little hard for me to move forward with everything, so she wrote a letter and left me this book (after I vandalized her car with Vanderly.) She also went against my request to stop getting stuffed animals since my beds overflowing with them...

Click to enlargen & read her letter!

Since I thought it'd be cuter to put Hoang's stuffed animal & Lisa's stuffed animal together, this shot is together. It's funny to me because the three of us have known each other from Elementary school all the way until now and our bond hasn't really ever broken. I love all my elementary school friends, and I will continue to even if they live 80 miles away or even 5000 it doesn't matter.

Hoangie & Lisa

Hoang's Birthday Card... vomiting unicorn

Last one being the one from Anthony who couldn't attend the birthday dinner unfortunately due to my last minute planning & he had to work this weekend. IT'S RIDICULOUS HOW HE GOT ME AN INSTAX 210 OH MY GOODNESS. I thought it'd just be a little box of goods or some sort BUT HE GOT ME AN INSTAX 210 AND THAT'S CRAZY. I think it's pretty obvious to you guys how I'm a fan of film and polaroids and just cameras overall because they're interesting but goodness I thought I would have bought this for myself instead of someone getting it for me! His card was great though, the ending to it said, "Enjoy your gift and take every chance to enjoy every picture perfect moment." I SEE THE PUN THERE, but on a serious note it's so sweet of him to have thought of that for me because he knows I like cameras so much since I love to capture the memories.

THE MONSTER PRESENT.

The cute card he modified by putting an old picture on it!

So all in all, I enjoyed my birthday night a whole lot! I won't actually turn 18 until Monday so hold the happy birthdays until then! Phew, now to end this long post and take a shower and go rest for the night. I'll be back later on with more about anything else I get or more things that are going on... or maybe even a review about my LUSH presents! I might even surprise you guys with a vlog one day, but we'll see ;)

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Labels: birthday, life, personal

Update x Temporary Hiatus

Saturday, October 12, 2013 • 4:32 AM • 0 comments

Today, my grandmother passed away. She has come to that point where her body could fight no more and let go of her spirit. So in the time-being I am in mourning alongside my family. I'm not going to be able to blog for a bit until things wrap up and settle for the pain and loss my family is currently enduring is painful.

My mother has just booked her flight back home, unfortunately for me - I can't go because of University, which is a sack of balls (excuse my language) because this also means I cannot give my formal goodbyes to her. I can only wait until I go home again and say goodbye, just not face to face. I want to apologize to her for not being able to come back and properly say goodbye to her and show her my tears and love in person.

This is just something I want to say to those of you who(m) still have grandparents that are alive and either close-by or living with you, just a few words of wisdom I've learned from this:

- Cherish all the time in the world you have left with these people, you think it's not a big deal now but it will be towards the end when you look back and reflect and make your regrets. For you will not have much time left or you won't be much closer than you want to be as you and they age with time. So make as many memories you possibly can with them while you still have the chance to, until you meet again later in life and you get to where they are.

Ah, how unfortunate this falls 9 days before I turn 18.

At least she's no longer in pain and watching over us from here on out - Rest easy Ba Ngoai, I love you.

Labels: personal

Booey's visit + Memorial ceremony! (picture-heavy)

Tuesday, July 2, 2013 • 6:09 AM • 3 comments

So today, I met up with Booey who was visiting from Saigon because she's in Vietnam too! She's my daughter/friend from Kentucky and we just happened to be in the same country at the same time and so we hung out for a bit before she went to the farms to visit her family. My cousin and his friend Ngoc took us to a really nice cafe with a lot of scenery to take pictures at! Excuse my lobster faces though, I sweat a lot and turn red when it's humid/hot out.

(I'm on the left, Booey's on the right)

We ordered our drinks, I got the Ca Phe Sua Da (Iced Milk Coffee) and Booey got the fresh Coconut juice. The thing about the ca phe sua da is I always have to let the ice melt out a little first. They usually make my coffee too bitter for my tastes. I like my food sweet. Booey's coconut juice was good too though, and they give iced tea to go with our drinks. I promise you thats tea and not beer, even if it doesn't look like it.

awww yeah, our drinks! Mine (left), Booey (right)

So we're a little odd, my uncle suggested we go here for the scenery so we ran around taking pictures like weirdos. It was hard for us to take photos because I don't have a tripod here with me and my lens is a little broken so setting autotimer was difficult for me.

Ok so we're a little odd

Booey's out of focus in this one ;-;

Oh look, shrooms! (they're fake by the way)

Simple scenery shots of the cafe!

Then after Booey and I parted, my family had a memorial ceremony for my great-grandparents which involves a large luncheon like my cousins in Saigon had. This was just as large, but the problem this time is I had to help prepare it this time. It was painstaking to be honest, I had to make the butterfly shrimp, crab rangoon and peel apart eggroll sheets.

The large table of food we had

The elders of the gathering!

The kiddy table, officially in the kitchen

It's a great experience being able to see my extended family like that. All my life as a kid I never thought my family was very big and I was always jealous of friends who always had relatives in other states coming into visit and having family gatherings. Relatives who gave them money on Chinese New Years every year, drove them places, covering for them, letting them sleepover - it was something I always really wished for and I have all of that here in Vietnam. Events like this make me feel blessed and thankful for what I have here now. It's really great being here in my hometown and being able to experience this.

Tomorrow I'm headed out for the beach! I'll make sure to blog about it and I'll even try to make a vlog about it too! I won't have my laptop so I'm crossing my fingers wherever we're staying will have wifi. I'll be there until Saturday and I'll make sure to get lots of pictures of the beach and everything!

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Labels: life, personal, vietnam

Vietnam update! (picture-heavy)

Saturday, June 29, 2013 • 10:30 AM • 2 comments

Okay so my long-awaited trip to Vietnam has finally arrived! I had two stops: Atlanta, GA and Seoul, South Korea. It was the most tiring, butt-numbing trip I ever had to encounter in my life. It was a comfortable plane ride to there though! I always love flying, it's so nice to go different places since I don't travel that often.

((Airplane foods not that bad....))

Anyways landing in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) was awful, it was humid and sticky since it's always so crowded right when you get off the plane, and not to mention we had 8 luggage bags with our 8 carry ons to lug around and I'm the main muscle so I came out looking like the most unflattering woman in the world. The car ride back to Bien Hoa (my hometown) wasn't too bad though, we arrived at 11PM and the roads were clear once we hit the roads. A day after we arrived though, we had to drive back to Saigon for my grand-uncle's memorial ceremony. Meet my abundant amount of relatives. (Should I mention that we have some awesome food when we have memorials in my family....)

I know you want my food.

Oh and the traditional Vietnamese people drinking, of course.

Asides from the course of events that have gone down, I've also bought a few (lot) of things already. Things here are so cheap I can't seem to stay away! Especially the frivolous amount of stuffed animals. No really, I'm awful when it comes to stuffed animals. I got all those pens for less than $3-$4USD, the bun, turtle, dog plush for around $.99, the pencil pouch and notebook for like $1.5 and cellphone holder for like $3.5. I'M SO ADDICTED TO BUYING THINGS HERE AND I KEEP CALCULATING IT IN USD AHHHHH. THE CHEAPER IT SOUNDS IN MY HEAD THE MORE I'M TEMPTED TO BUY. Not to mention I can walk to the department store and get all these, oh my. I plan on getting a lot more before I leave Vietnam though to give away as gifts (if I have the heart to that is) and there will definitely be more posts about my trip here! I'm going to a beach called Nha Trang next week after we have a memorial ceremony at my house for my great-grandparents first (more to come) and I will definitely be splurging there.

Come on who would deny all this stuff...

Ghetto photo booth photos in Vietnam, yay!

Hair accessories here are so cheap too, the popular skeleton hand clips I always saw online was only for sale for a dollar in my local market, I'll wear it probably more when I go back to the USA where I can let down my hair a little more. It's too humid to leave my hair down here or I'll look like a horror film in action.

How it looks in my hair + details!

To sum up what I do on a daily basis... I eat, sleep and snapchat people my thug faces and all of that. That and I like to take selfies and not be satisfied with any of them. Until I go to the beach and stuff I don't really do anything much except read Cyanide and Happiness comics and catch up on my manga (tru thug).

snapchat VS selfies

Anywho, I'll try and start posting more especially now that school and graduation and all of that crazy business is done with and that I'm doing absolutely nothing in Vietnam until I leave for the beach. In the next photo if you'll notice my entire luggage of clothes on the left... but I'll try and find some cute clothes while I'm here and throw together a few outfits or something. I've been dressing like a slob/thug lately so there's not too much to make out of my ootds. If you want to keep up with me more then follow my instagram and other social networks at the bottom! Until next time!

Find me elsewhere!

Labels: life, personal, vietnam

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