Spring madness

The past three weeks have been one giant blur! Two weeks ago was a very kitty week. I was so excited to get my hands on the Hello Kitty Laduree boxes I could hardly contain my excitement!! I'm not sure what I'm going to use the boxes for, besides decoration. I already have one of the Valentine's boxes for my sticky notes...maybe for my phone charger/chords? I'll have to think about it.

Last week I had a giant school project/presentation that was very..... stressful. But it's done and on to the next test/paper.
My sister and her friend Fiona visited me over the weekend. It was Fiona's first time in New York, so we tried to do a lot of stuff in a short time period. I woke up sick on Friday, so I think it might take me all week to recover. We spent a lot of time shopping and probably eating too much food.
Friday, we went shopping and had Shake Shack as a late lunch, followed by more shopping and Artichoke pizza.

 Saturday, we tried to go to Clinton St Baking Co. but there was a 2.5 hour wait!! Instead, we went to Doughnut Plant and then Smorgasburg and some thrifting. At night, the girls went to see Newsies and I went to Eunice's birthday dinner at Inoteca. Really yummy! We did the party menu, so we got to try lots of appetizers and entrees! 

Sunday, we went to Chelsea Market and ate at Sarabeths. Then, we went to the Easter Parade, followed by Laduree, Teuscher and a break in Central Park. For dinner, we went to Eataly. Four out of the five times I've been there, I've been to the pizza pasta restaurant, and it never disappoints!

Randoms

Dinner with Melisa (my future roommate!) at St.'s Alp 

the very best champagne truffles

the soap is so cute!

the Cambridge Satchel girl is totally me

Thanksgiving break

oh dear, I've gotten quite behind in my posts. Instead of going home for Thanksgiving, my family came to New York! We spent our time shopping, looking at all the store windows on 5th ave, going to shows (three!) and eating lots and lots of yummy foods. 

Bergdorf windows

Butter Lane

Peter Luger

City Bakery

Barneys Warehouse Sale

I (unexpectedly) went to the warehouse sale this past Tuesday with my Production bosses. This was my first time going to the sale with other people, so it was really fun trying on designer clothes and shoes that we couldn't afford, but saw on the runway. I didn't have any success with the clothing. There were a few Phillip Lim sweaters that were nice, but still out of my price range.
However, I did find some shoes! I ended up getting a pair of jelly See by Chloe sandals and Maloles Paris wedges. I've already worn both pairs twice! and I think I'm going to get a lot of usage out from the wedges.

the Nicholas Kirkwood x Rodarte shoes!!!

a sea of Wangs

the weekend I always dreamed about

This weekend was jam packed with so much stuff, I couldn't be happier! I started off Saturday by going to the 4knots Music Festival down at South Street Seaport, which replaced the decade long, Siren Music Festival at Coney Island (I've been twice). I've never been to South Street Seaport, so I was pretty excited to go! It wasn't very crowded, and because the main stage was on a pier, it was nice and breezy. I only stayed for an hour-ish, but I did see Oberhofer's set, which is a band I had actually heard of!

Afterward, I took the water taxi from Pier 11 to Ikea Brooklyn. The water taxi is free on weekends and $5 on the weekdays, and it has the greatest views of Manhattan I've seen! for free! Unfortunately Ikea was sold out of these giant bags I use to store my out of season clothes in, so I grabbed an ice cream (can you believe they don't have Lingonberry, only vanilla??), and returned to Manhattan.

view from water taxi

Today, I went back to Brooklyn, but this time to go to the Brooklyn Flea Market! On Sundays, the Brooklyn Flea is in Williamsburg, right on the East River waterfront. It's mostly clothing vendors, but there were also food vendors! I only had a hibiscus tea, but I think I'm definitely going to go back and try some of the yummy food.

view of Manhattan from Williamsburg

hibiscus tea!

shaving ice!

Finally, I went to soho to make some returns, and visit old friends. Soho has changed so much! New stores! New food trucks! but the street style is still awesome.

Then, I went home and made myself a tall glass of milk tea accompanied by a fresh piece of banana bread!

last weekend in Shanghai.

ok, so this isn't actually my last weekend in Shanghai, but it was my last weekend with my friends. There are only three days left in the semester (including today) and I couldn't be happier! I have so much work to do between now and Thursday, but I've made really, really good friends this semester. I think it's a pretty good trade off. Anyway, my friends Eunice, Nick, Nick, Ray, Gian, Lauren and Jeff wanted to hit up the fabric market and one of the fake markets one last time before they all went back to the states.
We decided to go to the Science & Technology Museum market, which is conveniently located in the subway station! It was my first time going, and Eunice and I really wanted to get Toms that we saw a few other girls at school wearing. They had really cool patterns and colors that we had never seen before. And all the boys wanted to get watches.
Afterwards, we went to the fabric market so all the Sternies (aka everyone except me) could pick up their suits. Last time Eunice went, she got also got an Hermes wallet that I really wanted, but they sadly did not have the style in cerulean, only boring colors like black and tan. So I got a Celine-esque clutch instead!

my purchases!

cute baby I saw on the subway.....but I was hiding from the parents so the pic is blurry.

Hong Kong: Day 4

Today was super hot in Hong Kong, about 80 degrees. We decided to do some sight seeing today, so Lauren and I tried to go to the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery in Sha Tin. But, once we got off the MTR, we had to take a taxi there because it's not that easy to get to. We didn't know the name in Cantonese or how to write it in traditional characters, so we tried our best to get there. Our taxi ended up taking us to a different monastery, who's name I don't remember. It only had one courtyard though, compared to the ones in Shanghai and Putuoshan which have several courtyards.

After we walked around for a bit, we decided to go back to the Mong Kok market because I needed to pick up a few gifts for people at home. Since I was there, I asked how much the Tory Burch reva flats were. This guy said only $380 hkd! I bargained two pairs down to $600hkd for both. They look so real. All the stitching, and the logos on the sole, everything looks so real. Lauren thinks they might be rejects from the actual factory. They even came in a Tory Burch box, which I wish I could keep. It's so pretty! I'm totally kicking myself for not using a larger suitcase when I knew I would be shopping in Hong Kong. I really like the two pairs I got. I literally have one pair of flats, and they hurt the back of my ankles because they're pretty high cut (if that makes sense). I can't wait to wear them in Shanghai, compared to my disgusting Converse that are falling apart.

Hong Kong: Day 3

My day was pretty low key, since my other friends have been staying out until dawn every night, but David and I had only gone out once since being in HK. So while everyone else slept, we were ready to shop! We got a quick lunch at a local cafe and then headed to one of the many malls in TST. We both love Uniqlo, so we headed there first.
The Uniqlo we went to wasn't particularly big (they didn't have the +J collection), but we didn't care. From there, we split up, so I'm not sure what David purchased. I got two pairs of pants, one of which I got altered in 10 minutes!! Asian sizes are so different, because Asian people tend to be of a smaller built, especially compared to Americans. In the NY Uniqlo, we have jeans from size 24-32 (size 0-12), but in Asia, the largest size is a 29 (In between an 8 and a 10). I wasn't sure if this size would fit me, but it did surprisingly! So I decided to get a different color of a pair of pants that I already own in two colors and a pair of black cropped pants, that are actually ankle length on me.
That night, we wanted sushi, so we went to a sushi bar that has the conveyor belt and you simply choose what you want off the conveyor belt, and then they tally up your plates at the end. After dinner, we went to KTV. Karaoke is HUGE in Asia. Instead of going out to bars or clubs, high school and college kids go to KTV. The people I was with are very, very good at KTV-ing. I am not. le sigh.

so dangerous for hungry college students

Hong Kong: Day 1

Today was our first full day in Hong Kong and we got off to a bit of a late started. Lauren and I had woken up earlier than the others, so we decided to walk around a bit and we eagerly went into Sasa, Hong Kong's premier beauty store—think Ricky's, but less edgy. We sampled their perfume (Lauren and I both like Burberry Summer) and ended up in the makeup section—both desperate for concealer. There were only two options (beige and natural) and we were both, somewhat surprisingly, the beige color, even though we're both fairly pale. So, we asked the sales girl (who was wearing so much makeup she looked like a geisha) if that was the right color for us, and she agreed. Then it was time to meet the group for dim sum.
 After our dim sum, we decided to go to the Mong Kok ladies market, which three of Lauren and my collective friends had told us to go. The ladies market isn't just for women, it's a giant outdoor market on this one street in Mong Kok with mostly knock offs, but also cheap clothing, luggage, jade, some shoes, lots of purses, etc. I ended up getting two little Domo pouches and a Goyard purse and coin purse. The domo pouches were 38hkd ($4.89) and the Goyard stuff was 350hkd ($45) altogether. They also sold Tory Burch shoes that looked so real! But, they were nearly the price of the real thing. Perhaps another day.