The adventure continues....on tumblr!

Unfortunately due to my insane schedule, I've decided it's best to discontinue this blog. I can't devote the time I feel is necessary for both timely and thoughtful posts. But that's not to say the past three years have gone to waste! In fact, I still remember the night I created this very blog. It was near the end of my first semester at NYU, I was "studying" in the library (for the first and last time) and decided to finally make a blog. It was trendy—how could I resist?! I've gone from being a shy, soft spoken freshman, with a strong interest in fashion and beyond jealous of my peers interning at TeenVogue to a more confident (and stylish?) senior, ready to graduate and conquer the fashion pr world—and I'm blonde! Looking back, I didn't have anything close to the typical college experience, but I'm not your typical girl! And that's exactly what I want.

However, please do follow on tumblr, twitter, pinterest and instagram!

I can't believe Week 4 of classes is almost over. I feel like I'm still getting used to my new schedule even though it's been nearly a month. Having to regularly rely on public transportation is kind of a drag, but I am now quite knowledgeable about the bus! In fact, do I dare say I like the bus better than the subway?
I want to keep up this blog until I graduate, but it's becoming harder and harder to find the time to update with my crazy schedule (school four days, intern three days and work two days). I barely have the time to finish my readings, forget about watching tv or social media! I've been trying to stay up later, but then I move sooo slow in the mornings and get drowsy during class. not good.
We've also had the craziest weather!! One day there's a blizzard (like during fashion week!) the next it's 55 degrees and sunny. There's another winter storm "Q" that is supposed to hit the east coast tomorrow and friday.
This season, I was so, so luck to attend three shows, only one of which I had to work. And I even had seats for the other two!! I have been quite diligent about pinning my favorite looks from nyfw and now lfw and mfw to my runway board. I think the biggest trend so far has been the major fur.
As always, follow me on twitter, instagram, tumblr and pinterest for more timely updates!

An ode to winter break

Things that I have done during break in no particular order: spent time at home, seen family, seen high school friends, went to a real college party, went to a party in Brooklyn, watched a lot of tv (hello suits!), slipped on the ice and hurt my knee (there is still a sizable scar on my knee), started using a clarisonic, caught a cold, walked around the city by myself, perused a bookstore, ate really good food, celebrated a birthday both with family and then with friends, saw two movies (seriously a record), did some cooking and baking, earned some money, spent some money (including two lipsticks which I love), made new friends, went to a concert at Carnegie Hall (and from the fourth row!), got a flu shot (it's the worst flu epidemic in a long time), modeled for an amateur photoshoot, went to Flushing to eat hotpot (which turned out to be extremely expensive), probably watched too many youtube videos, got a haircut from a new stylist, ate at my favorite banh mi shop in soho, rediscovered an old game, started playing a new game, lusted over the Neiman Marcus x Target collaboration (only to be disappointed), got two of the Marc Jacobs pouches when the collab went on sale at Target, lusted over the new Prabal Gurung x Target collaboration (I am obsessed with the First Date print and the first look), attempted to buy an ipad mini and failed twice.

Things to do in the remaining seven days of break: see more friends, eat more delicious food (going to Mission Chinese Food on Tuesday!), start a new (and hopefully last) internship, second annual girls weekend, buy an ipad mini.

Also, please check out my "photoshoot" from this past weekend in Central Park photographed by my friend Ben!

#SSSS: Second Semester Senior Status

I may be prematurely calling myself a second semester senior as I will not be completely done with the semester until 4pm Tuesday afternoon, but I already feel like one. This semester went by so incredibly fast. I can't even imagine what it's like to be graduating right now because they're just done. That's it. No ceremony until May. I'm not one of those people who wants to stay in school forever, but I certainly don't want to miss out on the Senior activities that take place in the spring!
This semester I ended up really enjoying two of my classes. I had heard really good things about the social media class (which was new last semester) and it fit into my fields of study, so I figured why not. The professor is amazing. So good that I wish I had taken senior media seminar with her this semester (though it is very likely that I wouldn't have gotten in). And she is the main reason I am taking fashion and power next semester. I would say I'm not a huge social media enthusiast. I love using social media (duh), but I don't really think about the cultural concepts behind the usage. The class definitely taught me some really interesting theories about technology that I literally use every day. The second class I enjoyed was TV Nation. I've always watched a lot of TV, like when I was in high school, whenever we got any tv show's season dvd set, I would watch the whole season as fast as possible, staying up all night and telling myself "just one more episode." I kind of explained the concept of the class in my last post, so I'll just tell you about our final pitch. My group was Bravo, and we picked up a reality competition show about window dressing called On Display. The tagline is "whose dreams will be shattered next?" and the send off line is "I'm sorry, you're no longer on display." The host would be Simon Doonan, and the judges would be Nicola Formichetti, Scott Pask (Tony award winning set designer of Book of Mormon) and Sarah Jessica Parker. I didn't really like SJP as a judge because I didn't understand how she was an expert in the field, but I got my way with Simon Doonan as host, which I think was more important. Our team did really, really well. The class was overwhelmingly positive with the critique--many students even said they would watch the show. But, we ended up losing to AMC and their show Olympia.
Now that both the semester and my internship are over, I'm shocked with all the free time I have. I'll go from working 7 days a week to working anywhere from 2.5 to 5 days. Next week I'll only be working 2.5 days at my weekend job, so I'm still not sure what I'm going to do. Do a little research and see what exhibits are where, hopefully do more cooking, definitely want to go to Flushing with Xiali at some point, maybe a trip to Housing Works? The options seem endless!
Yesterday, I did go to the Open House New York Hello Kitty! Hello Art!, which is showing this weekend only. There was a lot of pop art inspired by Hello Kitty and other Sanrio characters. They also had a silver tinsel Christmas tree with all plush Hello Kitty ornaments. aka my dream. I had to get the coffee table book that accompanies the exhibit from the gift shop. I also took a picture (well, several) with these giant Hello Kitty light up Christmas decorations. Super happy I went, since I by chance found out about it at the last minute.
On a random side note, I am supremely surprised and disappointed by Blogspot's 1GB picture limit. I seriously had no idea there was such a thing, and I hate not having pics in my posts. I've kinda been considering switching to Wordpress, because it would force me to learn more of the technical stuff (yet another thing I want to learn!), but I've had this blog for three years as of 12/13! I have to keep it up at least until I graduate. I literally started this blog one night, at the end of freshmen year exactly three years ago (it was also Santacon Saturday!) really late at night when I was supposed to be studying in the library. Literally the first and last time I willingly studied in the library. My how things have changed in those three years, and I feel like this blog documented all of it. I don't want to give it up quite yet. Decisions, decisions.

post-sandy

After Sandy, everything has been a blur. Even though we only missed one week, it  felt like so much more. This was extremely evident in many of my classes. Most of my classes just adjusted and condensed topics, but my senior media seminar was....painful. We basically had 1.5 weeks to write a 15-20 page research paper. Due to the scheduling (fall break, sandy, he cancelled class, etc.) and the fact that it is a once a week class, we lost almost one month of class. Normally I wouldn't have minded because the class is a bit dry, but then we had no time to write the paper, which was not at all ideal. I had to take off extra days from my internship to complete the paper ( I think at this point I've missed three weeks of my internship....). I finished the paper in a timely manner. And that was my biggest thing of the semester, so I think it'll be a nice coast for the last three weeks. eek.
One class I didn't think I would like as much as I do is my TV class. It's a pretty basic introduction to the industry, but the final presentation/project is structured as a game. Basically, the class is divided into writer, producers and network execs. The writers come up with show ideas, pitch them to the producers, the producers team up with a writing team, pitch the pilot ideas to the networks, and then they pick up a show and present it to the class. We are now at the last stage of the game. The network execs just chose their shows, so now we have two week to further develop the idea, and pitch it to the class, and a panel of judges from the industry. My team is Bravo, and I am actually very excited about the show we picked up. I think it has a lot of refining, but I am genuinely interested in the show, and I feel that my knowledge of fashion will be a huge asset to our team.
As far as next semester (my last semester!!) is concerned, I think it might actually be challenging, which is somewhat unfortunate. I'll be taking 5 classes/18 credits plus 3 days of interning and 2 days of my weekend job. And, because I'm an idiot, I put off some of the liberal arts requirements so I'll be in an introductory class with all freshmen.  I don't really mind the freshmen (yet), but I do mind having recitations. ick. The silver lining of my spring classes is that I'll be taking fashion and power! It's literally the only fashion related class in my major (one that is full of fashion girls), but it is notoriously the most difficult class, a fact my advisor told us during freshmen orientation. After I realized freshmen year that I would always have the worst registration times, I kind of ruled out my fashion and power dreams. That is until I saw my current social media professor will be teaching it next semester. I absolutely had to take it. For me, it's just an elective but I wish I had known it counts for the fields of study.....that would have been useful to know. It also would have been useful to have someone tell me freshmen and sophomore year to finish the liberal arts requirements ASAP. Taking those classes as an upperclassman is absolute torture. So, please learn from my mistakes!
Like I said last post, I'm sadly at my photo limit so there will be no photos until I figure something out. But check out my twitter because I post lots of pics and links there! And I tweet a lot.

#sandy2012 and the nor'easter

I have been meaning to post some new stuff for such a long time now, but I have been insanely busy. I briefly wanted to talk about my Hurricane Sandy experience. I still live in the dorms, so I was quite safe. In fact, I live in the "safest" dorm....meaning we have the largest generator. But it is located in the East Village, which we now know was part of the "SoPo" district (South of Power).
I honestly was not even aware there was going to be a hurricane until a few days before. To put it lightly, I was no where as prepared as I was last year for Irene (when I actually bought food and bread). This year, really all I could do was buy six 1.5 L bottles of water. I did have two flashlights, which proved to be very, very handy. Our power went out around 8:30 pm Monday night, and it was already dark by then. The hallways did have power (thanks to the generators!) but we only knew that the generator would last at least 90 minutes. No one knew if the water was still running, when the lights in the hallway would go out, if we could get into our rooms (our dorm uses key cards instead of actual keys) etc. Thankfully, the generator lasted one week. Hot water only lasted about 12 hours, but some did not even have running water.
I only stayed about 24 hours after the power went out, so until Tuesday night. I had not anticipated leaving, but I ended up staying in midtown with my friend Ben until Friday night. The first 24 hours felt like forever. Because there was no wifi, and the position of my room in relation to the building (I face an inner courtyard) I had absolutely no cell service. So I had no idea what was going on. I later found out something actually did happen with Verizon, but either way I was literally in the dark. The one advantage of my room is that it is directly across from the only window in the entire hallway. So I had first dibs on the bench, and the first night I literally laid there (pillow and everything) for hours just reading because there was nothing else to do. On Tuesday, the weather had pretty much calmed down, so my suitemates and I walked to KTown for a much needed meal. After dinner it was decided that the three of us (my roommate had already gone home for the weekend and just stayed home once school was cancelled) were going to leave. I'll be honest, I was not happy with the circumstances that surrounded this decision (which I felt I had no say in), but it ended up being for the best.
The rest of the week flew by because I channeled most of my energy and efforts into work and not really thinking about anything else. Late Friday night, I got the email that the power had been restored. I gathered up all my belongings (all three bags worth....) and hopped on a downtown bus.
The following Wednesday, we got hit by a Nor'easter (my first) which is like a freak snow storm. I pretty much stayed inside all day and caught up with the tv I missed from the week before.
And apparently I am out of storage space (?) for photos, so photos are currently a work in progress. But I have lots!

Mid-semester check in

Can't believe it's already half way though first semester. I've been super busy (I didn't realize it's almost been a month since I last posted!) with school, internship and weekend job. Same old same old. But the new courses for next semester were posted today, and I don't know if anybody knows this, but this is my favorite day of the semester. Nothing brings me greater joy than perusing thousands of courses and the potential for the next semester. Right now, it's looking like I'll only have classes Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, which is not really ideal. I don't know if I'll be able to intern only two full days (and Monday and Friday...opposite ends of the week), but it is what it is. I did find out that a professor I currently have (and really, really enjoy) will be teaching a fashion class next semester! I had actually never planned on taking Fashion and Power (supposedly the hardest class in my major), but the professor who started the course and has always taught it isn't teaching. And I figure, I'm a senior so why not?! I'm actually hoping to take another fashion class in CAS (the liberal arts school), as well as an anthropology class and two film classes. At 18 credits, it's not exactly the relaxing last semester I imagined, but I've never taken fashion classes before so this will be a welcome challenge.
We had a fall break this past weekend, so I got to go home for five days!! Very relaxing. All I did was eat, read (I shockingly read two books in the past week!) and watch tv. We went to the cider mill, and I got to go to some homecoming events for my sister.

cinnamon role french toast

Before I went home, I went to two new places (to me) on the LES, twice in one week. La Montanara is the only fried pizza place. What they do is fry the dough, and then make the pizza and bake it like normal. Afterwards both times, I went to Il Laboratorio del Gelato, which I've been meaning to go to. The first time I didn't go to crazy, and got coconut and mexican cinnamon. But the second time, I felt much more adventurous, even sampling olive oil gelato (not very good). So I got honey lavender and cheddar cheese. And I finally got my gift from Elgene! Excited to use the nail polishes, especially my very own Chanel polish!!