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!

Leftover fashion week plus last week in food

This season, I've been really good about pinning my favorite looks to my runway pinterest board. Most people I know have pretty much abandoned pinterest at this point. I'll admit to being a fairly infrequent user (compared to twitter or tumblr at least), but I do like having a virtual mood board of runway looks, bags I'm coveting, etc. Here are the looks I liked from London and Milan fashion week (all images via nymag).

Matthew Williamson

Clements Ribeiro

Blugirl

Burberry Prorsum

Blumarine

Issa

Moschino Cheap & Chic

Missoni

Cynthia Rowley

Last week I had dinner with two friends. The first night, I went to Bowery Diner, which I had read about last spring. I ended up getting the seasonal pie milkshake and mac n cheese. Both were really, really good and very rich. And the portions were quite generous. The next day, I went to Joe's Shanghai and feasted on soup dumplings! Afterwards, we got ice cream at Blue Marble in this food market in TriBeCa called All Good Things.

been craving mac n cheese, this more that satisfied it.

Burnt sugar ice cream in a pretzel cone

Enviable hair

First week of senior year

One (almost two!) weeks done, only I don't know how many left until graduation. I can't believe that it's already my last year of college. Ever since I came back from abroad, time has gone by so fast. Seriously, junior year went by so fast. I feel like I say this a lot, but this year I actually want to do all the things I've never had time to do. Not sure how I'll fit that in with school, internship and work, but I always seem to manage. 

This past week was fashion week, so looking at the collections kept me pretty engaged every night. Check out my fashion week post for a round up of all my favorite collections and looks. One of the biggest trends I'm excited about is colored hair extensions! I tried coloring my hair (somewhat unsuccessfully) over the summer, and seeing all the collections might be the push I need to actually commit and bleach my hair......but baby steps for now.

Besides fashion, my week was filled with my usual. Food, new friends, new classes, new notebooks, etc. My suitemates and I went to Social Eatz to celebrate senior year. Everything was amazing. I got the asian market salad and ribs appetizer. But the fried chicken (which my suitemate got) was outstanding. Next time I go, I am definitely getting the fried chicken. The drinks were fruity....but super strong. ick.

the lychee mix in is amazing. Kelvin needs to have it more often 

new kitty ring!

new (but painful) shoes

obsessed with my nails.

My week in food, friends, emails and piggies.

This week seriously flew by. I was surprisingly social, busy while covering for my boss and hungry all at once!
I had two special dinners this week, one with my friend Ben at Ngam (where he's the only VIP diner) and another with my next year's roommates in Ktown at Shilla. Both were delicious! And wonderful nights filled with good company and even better food.

I hit up the Union Sq Green Market on Friday in search of fruit, and was not disappointed when I discovered this table of fresh strawberries! This is only the second time since living in New York that I've gotten strawberries (which are my all time favorite fruit) because they tend to be more expensive compared to say, bananas or apples. Even though the strawberries from the farmers market are smaller than the ones I'm used to at home, each one is so flavorful and there are no sour ones. I also discovered maple candy at a maple syrup vendor. I'm addicted! The candy is so light and melts in your mouth, with just the right amount of sweetness.

Finally, I had my big food adventure today in Williamsburg. I went to Smorgasburg for the second time, and I was not disappointed. Since I didn't really have anything else to do today, I ended up staying the whole afternoon, alternating between eating and people watching in the waterfront park. First, I tried a spicy tuna taco and white peach jasmine tea from Takumi Taco. This was the first time I've seen Japanese inspired Mexican food, usually it's Korean inspired. I had to try it. It was more or less like a spicy tuna roll, with a crispy gyoza shell instead of rice.

During my first people watching break, the man sitting next to me was raving about his giant ice cream sandwich from The Good Batch. I had never seen these before, so I had to have one too! Sadly, they sold out of nearly all their flavors right before I got there, but I managed to get a stroopwafel. Definitely want to go back and try the more popular flavors though.

Lastly, I got a pan fried cheung fun from Noodle Lane. Cheung fun is my all time favorite dim sum dish, so I have very high expectations. Really, really fresh noodles, and they tasted great with the peanut sauce.

On Bedford Ave, right where the L train stop is, there was some event on the street called Williamsburg Walks. Still not sure what it was for, but the entire street was filled with games and random patches of sod that you could sit on. I watched this life size scrabble game for a good half hour.

To end the day, I got a key lime cupcake from Georgetown Cupcake. Today, they opened a new location in Boston, and to celebrate they gave away one free cupcake/customer all day at all locations.

Snapshots from the week:

a teacup pig named dolce! saw him twice this week!

really happy little girl

Marimekko windows

wedding pics at the waterfront park

my most social week yet

Going back to school after vacation is always dreadful, so I was not looking forward to this week. But I had an unusual amount of social events to cheer me up!
I started by meeting Kami, a friend from high school, for her birthday dinner at Carmines. The food was delicious!! And I liked the family style Italian food because we could try several different dishes. I would highly recommend, and I'd also be interested in going back to try more dishes!

Thursday was the midnight premiere of The Hunger Games!! I have not read the books, I hadn't even heard of them until I read about Jennifer Lawrence winning the role of Katniss Everdeen. The movie was so good! I want to see it again and read the books!
Friday night, I went to support my good friends Gian and Johnny and their fraternity's charity drag show. After the show, my face was so sore from smiling and laughing so much!
I finished the week with my friends, Gian and David's birthday party. A crazy party for the craziest boys I know!
Snapshots from the week:

occupy wall street has unfortunately moved to union sq

foggy view of lower Manhattan from the train 

lots of cherry blossoms lining the streets! 

setting up Macy's flower show

banh mi and bubble tea at work!

really like the color block dress and embroidered skirt, from Forever 21!

my outfit for Gian and David's party

My week in macarons and shabu shabu

This week was another food filled one. I started off with my beloved Laduree macarons. This time I got two grapefruit, one black currant, one caramel, one coconut and one rose petal. I had really high hopes for the grapefruit since it was a special Valentine's flavor (and I'm still in my grapefruit phase, although it seems to be slowing down), but it was very disappointing. There was supposed to be a vanilla creme center, instead there was a nutty tasting jelly. Overall very disappointing. My favorites are the caramel and coconut.

After my internship on Friday, I walked to the new, downtown Brooklyn Shake Shack to get the Jeremy Lin mint shake. No lines! And the shake tasted like a girl scout cookie. Perfect afternoon treat.

Since we had Monday off for President's Day, I used the long weekend as an opportunity to see lots of friends! Saturday, I had Indian food with Lucas, who I had not seen in a year. Since it was warm that day, I decided to wear my Anna Sui Resort '12 blouse for the first time! I've noticed that I wear a lot more black and grey these days. I still like to wear bright accessories (especially purses) and jewel tone jackets, but I think it's finally happening. I'm becoming a New Yorker. This outfit was also featured on Pose!

On Sunday, a few Shanghai friends and I decided to go to Flushing and eat yummy (and cheap) Chinese food! But before I met up with them, I planned on hitting up a few flea markets on the way to Penn Station, where we were going to catch the LIRR to Flushing. But I never made it! I ended up going in to Joe Fresh near my apartment, and I saw my friends Jessie and Allen! I also picked up a Celine esque denim shirt, which I'm very excited about. I also really like their silk button down shirts, and they come in so many yummy spring colors!! I think I'm going to wait a bit, until they are on sale, so I can get multiple colors!

really liked this blouse, but it was a bit short for my taste. 

super cute! and has a pocket.

Once we actually made it to Flushing, the first stop was Coco! I can't help getting milk tea whenever I'm near Coco. After, we went to the New World Mall, and I stocked up on super cute phone cases!!!

ridiculously cute hk cases, but I didn't get them. next time!

Finally, we went to the restaurant to have shabu shabu (individual hot pot). It was soooo delicious and super filling! I wish I could have it all the time!

no trip is complete without a picture of Gian sleeping