NYC VLOG: Reunited With My Laptop

Okay, so I basically already had a whole blog post dedicated to this topic but I also did a vlog that day! I know I'm a total vlogging newbie - still trying to feel comfortable walking around in public talking to my phone - but I figure the more I do it, the more comfortable I'll get so I'm trying to vlog once a week. My life's not the most exciting, but it's still New York xD

NYU ACE 30 NOVA Fashion & Benefit Gala

Last weekend, my roommate invited me to attend NYU's ACE 30 NOVA Fashion & Benefit Gala. She's a designer who was participating in the show so of course I came out to show my support. I didn't really know what to expect but ended up having a great time.

ACE stands for Asian Cultural Expression which I had no idea until I arrived at the venue and noticed the ethnic majority. It reminded me of being back at FSU where I participated in a lot of the on campus Asian cultural activities (I was in an Asian sorority after all). Unlike many of our events though, you did have to pay to attend this one but the money went to a worthy cause called Musicians On Call, a non-profit organization bringing live and recorded music to the bedsides of hospital patients. There were also great raffles and prizes although I, unfortunately, did not win anything. Boo.

The fashion show featured designs from fashion houses, boutiques and up and coming designers such as Brooks Brothers, Purdy Gurl, Shoptiques, AUH20 and of course my roomie, Janice Hijin Lee (I'm going to put her portion of the show in another post because she's that amazing). In between the different runway sets, there were also performances from musician Phil Good and dancer Neil "Dradle" Schwartz. Both were incredible to watch.

Here are a couple photos I took along with Part One of a recording of the entire show I found on YouTube. Enjoy!

Happy Saturday!

My Day at the MoMA

In the roughly two and half months I've spent living in New York, I have yet to do anything really "touristy" or see any of the sights that the city has to offer. Two Fridays ago I got to change that. I went to the Museum of Modern Art aka the MoMA for the first time, and what's even better is that I got to go for free! The MoMA has "Free Fridays" sponsored by Target that gives anyone free entry from 4-8pm. There's usually a long line you have to go through but, don't worry, it moves SUPER fast. WARNING: TONS of pictures ahead! :D

 

There are 6 floors filled with enough sights to definitely keep you preoccupied for several hours. Initially, I wasn't sure how I would like the museum since I'm not the biggest fan of some modern art that I find to be a little pretentious (although I feel saying that makes me somewhat pretentious haha), but I had an incredible time. I especially loved the paintings. It was amazing to see in person what were merely pictures in my old college humanities books.

Just some of the weird "art" at the MoMA

Haha <3

A collage of a bunch of different paintings.

I really liked the Pollack on the upper right.

I'm sure you guys are familiar with this!

This Monet painting of water lilies was HUGE!

A big and pleasant surprise at the museum was seeing that they had two of the most iconic paintings I can think of just short of the Mona Lisa: Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night and Edvard Munch's The Scream. There were huge crowds of people wanting to take pictures in front of each painting, and I remember thinking these must be some pretty important paintings to garner such a crowd, and boy was I right! It was almost surreal seeing them both in front of me, especially since Starry Night is probably one of my favorite paintings.

Isn't the rest of Munch's work (above) just as somber and dark as The Scream? I feel like he must've been a very sad and haunted person to create such works.. Now just a few more pictures of random paintings before I overload your computer..I just couldn't help myself XD

Have you guys ever been to the MoMA? What are some of your favorite paintings?

This Weekend I...

Hey guys, so today I discovered a new link up hosted by Sar over at Life of Love. Be sure to check out her wonderful blog and join in on the fun!

This Weekend I...

Friday, I went out to my first New York City nightclub. I'm not a huge clubber as I prefer bars where you can sit and talk, but I do like to dance and New York clubs always look so glamorous in movies and tv that I was actually excited for this venture. My roommate, Janice, and I met up with my other roommate's girlfriend, Silvia and her friend Elisa at the club. It was called Pink Elephant and Janice chose it because she was friends with the owner and knew a couple promoters there. As shown on tv, there was a line outside the venue complete with bouncers. Luckily, because we knew the promoters, we got to walk right in without a wait. Once in, we skipped the coat check because we had a table with the owner and could just set our stuff with him. The owner, Bobby, was very sweet and courteous. It was definitely nice getting the "VIP treatment" on my first club outing. We got free drinks and didn't have to worry about creepy guys trying to dance on us and could really enjoy our "girls' night." Eventually, two more of my roommate's friends joined us before we left to watch one of their friends perform at a hotel in Soho. It was a bit later in the night so it had cleared out some, but, nevertheless, she had a lovely voice and you could tell she was touched her friends came to support her. Afterwards, we popped into a couple bars but nowhere seemed all that interesting so we all headed home.

Saturday, I experienced my first New York brunch which I had heard so much about. Janice and I once again met up with a bunch of her friends (who were all extreeemely nice and welcoming) at a very nice restaurant called Peels that had the most beautiful Southern decor. After looking over the menu, I decided to be safe and ordered the "Farmer's Market"- which was basically eggs, hash brown, toast, and bacon - and a biscuit. Everyone's orders but mine came quite quickly and I thought maybe it just took a little longer to prepare (which I still though strange as I arguably had the simplest meal). However, when someone else who had arrived late received their food before me, I knew something was wrong and inquired about my food. The server was incredibly apologetic and they got my food out to me right away and didn't even end up charging me for it because of the wait! I was originally a little disappointed, but that certainly turned my experience around!

After brunch, our group separated and four of us ended up going to this AMAZING Asian dessert bar called Spot. I had actually heard of it from a friend in Florida and was super excited to go! We ordered the Chocolate Green Tea Lava Cake, The Thai Tea Creme Brulee, and the Sweet Potato Cake (andd I got a Passion Fruit Bubble Tea - so refreshing!). They were absolutely delicious and beautifully presented, I can't wait to go back! I think this is one place I'm definitely going to be taking my friends and family when they come up to visit. Plus, a bonus is that it's literally across the street from my friend Chandra's apartment. Even though I literally just had brunch AND dessert, we went out to one of her favorite guilty pleasures, Dumpling Man, that I had heard oh so much about. I got about three dumplings in before I realized that, yes, I was stuffed and packed the rest for home then proceeded to watch Netflix and edit videos all night.

Sunday was pretty much my lazy day complete with SVU marathon. Janice made me a delicious breakfast of an omelette made with tomato sauce, onions, and spinach and toast with blackberry jam before she headed out for the day and I dove into working on my blog and Youtube channel. I did venture out from my apartment for a little while to do some shopping at Buffalo Exchange, a really cool consignment/thrift store. 3 tops and a dress all or $35 - not bad, right? Afterwards, I grabbed a pizza slice and calzone to go then proceeded to tweet about the Oscars laaaate into the night. I couldn't watch them live because I don't have cable at my apartment, but my sister does anddd there's always Twitter with it's constant updates that makes you feel like you're watching it live. Before the show started, my sister asked me what my Oscar predictions were in all 24 categories since she hadn't seen any of the movies but was doing a contest of some type with the kids from her film school in LA. I ended up getting 19/24 correct and she won a $60 gift card. I could probably do a whole post about the Oscars but because this post is already so long, I'm just going to sum it up as Christoph - superb. Adele - brought down the house. Tarantino - genius. Bradley Cooper - beautiful man. Ben Affleck - d'aww, so happy for him. And JLAW JLAW JLAW - you are simply flawless.

That's my weekend for you! Definitely a lot more exciting than when I first arrived to NYC! What did you guys do this weekend??

VLOG: My First Week in NYC!

Just another quick vlog from New York to let you know I'm alive! Even after a week in the Big Apple, my life was pretty uneventful. Luckily, three weeks later, that's changed although my life still pretty much revolves around work. With Fashion Week going on this week, things should be pretty exciting and I'll do my best to capture some it ^.^

VLOG: My First Day in NYC!

Sorry for my disappearance, everyone! On top of moving to NYC, working 50 hours a week, and sleeping on an unforgiving couch for the past 3 weeks, I also lost someone very close to me as well as my beloved barely 5 month old kitten (both back home) :'( Needless to say, it's been a very difficult month, but I'm doing my best to get things back to normal. Thank you all so much for your patience.

After a month long video absence, I'm back with a pretty unimpressive vlog video lol. This is my first try at blogging and I have to say it's harder than it looks! Also please excuse how horribly boring and low quality it is (I left my camera charger at home so I had to use my iPhone)! I'm still too shy to try vlogging around people so my surroundings are pretty dull and it's literally just me droning about my day lol. Oh well, I tried. Hopefully, better videos will be coming soon!