Chicago Chillin Pt. 2

This was my outfit on our second day in Chicago. Holy shit, it's been about two months and a half since we were in Chicago and I am STILL not done with blog posts as well as our vlog.. I've just been so busy and when I have free time I don't want to write more or edit. I'm super close to finishing the vlog. All that's left is the fonts and graphics, which is the hard part I dread (which is why I haven't finished yet.) BUT hopefully it will be up within this week since I am on spring break.

Anyways.. this day was SUPER cold and I had 3 jackets, a tank, turtleneck, and chiffon shirt on. I think I was a little crazy to wear shorts with tights but I survived since my tights were heat tech ones. Heat tech is a life saver!

This day was a relaxing, easy day of tourist-y activities like millennium park, which is where the bean is, and trying popular foodie spots where we got to eat the delicious king crab benedict and unique tacos. We started our day with brunch at Mortar & Pestle, a mini review in my last Chicago post. It was a 30 minute wait and it was so worth the wait! We then ubered our way to millennium park for the famous bean. I really wonder why it's called there's a bean in Chicago, because bean town is Boston.. does anyone know?! That took us maybe a few minutes, but it's a typical tourist spot to snap some photos. We actually recorded my ootd a few steps away from the actual sculpture. We then just walked around the park to see what else was there. We found this pretty bridge with a pretty backdrop and no people so we took this advantage to have another mini photoshoot. Extremely tired, even though we didn't walk that much, we sat in the lobby of a museum, which we later found out we should have visited but we didn't want to pay for admission. Called another uber and we were off to velvet taco, where we ordered a must when you get tacos: baja fish tacos, along with a cuban taco and spicy chicken tikka masala taco. The cuban was a bit dry so that was my least favorite. You can't go wrong with a fried fish taco. But the tikka masala one was super interesting and yummy. It was actually quite spicy though, so if you can't take spice I wouldn't advise getting that. We decided to walk back to our hotel since it wasn't too far of a walk and we stopped by Barney's on the way. Barney's is a dangerous place and I love just looking and admiring bags (true bag lady.)

If I remember correctly we took a nap once we got back because we were so exhausted for some reason. For dinner we planned to go to an italian restaurant but called and found out it was booked for the night. So we yelped and came across RPM and omg so good! I also wrote a mini review in my other post so go check that out. After dinner we went back to our room, showered and drank some cheap barefoot wine, played 'speak out', watched whatever free movies were available, and talked until we passed out.

Chicago Chillin'

It is officially 2017! This is my first post of the year, yes I know it's already 19 days into the new year but better late than never right? The most popular saying since the new year: new year, new me. I hope this happens to me, for the better of course. I'm about to start my second semester at NYU as a graduate student as well as interning 3 days a week so I'm hoping I can juggle both to really build up my resume as I pursue my master's. I can't wait to see what's in store for me this year and I hope it's a great year for me and you!

This year has already been pretty good for me. Rang in the new year with my close loved ones with no concrete plans but ended up having a great time, got a 3.94 GPA (so close yet so far to a 4.0), scored an internship at a well-known designer's corporate office as a press intern, and went on a trip with my best friend -- which is where these photos come in. 

I really wanted to have a mini getaway with just wendy, just wendy and me. We were initially planning to go to Boston, but having been there together already and due to pretty inexpensive flights we decided on: CHICAGO. Wendy had never been and I've been but when I was 12, which was a decade ago (o m g a decade) so I have almost no memory of it except that I don't like deep-dish pizza. We had such a great time in Chicago that we keep wanting to go back. Minus the cold everything was awesome. When we felt the crisp, cold air of Chicago, we realized NYC cold ain't shit.. we would stand outside for maybe 15 seconds and already feel our exposed body parts starting to get numb. It's no joke in Chicago. On our first night, during a trip to Walgreens it was 4 degrees but felt like -7.. insane. Which is why I wore AT LEAST 4 layers every day. 

I love being able to explore a new city. One that is quite similar to NYC in terms of a lot of skyscrapers and a lot of shopping; Chicago's Magnificent Mile is comparable to our 5th Ave. BUT it's a lot nicer walking through Chicago streets because there are about 19387598x more people walking the streets of NYC. We were contemplating on whether or not to rent a car but we found out that Uber is pretty inexpensive there, so we opted to just uber/lyft-ing around. Getting to try restaurants in a different city is so exciting to me. A few places I would recommend:

• Honey Butter Fried Chicken: BOMB fried chicken. I got the Original Fried Chicken Sandwich "The O.G" and O m G it was so good. The chicken was flavorful, tender, and juicy, the sauce was delicious.. just TRY IT. Wendy ordered the 2-piece honey butter fried chicken, which had 1 piece of white meat and 1 piece of dark meat and came with a side of butter that you're supposed to spread on the chicken. First we tried the white meat one, so obviously it was a bit dry so I thought it was eh. But then the second one was dark meat and MM yes, dark meat is the way to go. Also super juicy and tender and with the butter.. well MO BUTTA MO BETTA (hi5 if you know who says this.) We also got a side of the pimento mac n' cheese, it was interesting but it wasn't really up my alley. I don't remember if we ordered cornbread or if it was given but it was whatever, just tasted like any ol' cornbread.
• Mortar & Pestle: Alaskan King Crab Benedict. Delicious. I don't believe we have anything like this in NYC; I know we have lump crab at Sarabeth's but it doesn't compare to the alaskan king crab. I love king crab and I love benedict so it was so good. Chicago also does their eggs really well. All four of our poached eggs were perfectly poached, which is a must in this dish. The price was also very affordable considering the ingredient used - $17! I can imagine it being about $25 if it were elsewhere. We also ordered the fruity pebble funnel cake to share and it was good as well! Not much of a fruity pebble taste though if you ask me, but you can never go wrong with funnel cake.
• RPM: This was a random spot we yelped since the place we initially wanted to go was booked for the night. We learned that in Chicago it's important to call before going to a restaurant, so we did and they told us the next table available would be 11PM but we could sit at the bar. We just agreed since we were hungry and wanted Italian. When we arrived, expecting to sit at the bar, we actually got a bar table which was pretty much our own little hightop table. We didn't mind at all! We ordered the Maine lobster ravioli, the spicy crab squid ink spaghetti, with a side of broccolini because us Chinese girls need our veggies. EVERYTHING WAS SO GOOD! It was so good that we ordered 2 spicy crab squid ink pastas to go, hehe. I recommend this place if you're in Chicago! It's right off of Magnificent Mile so quite convenient if you're in the area. 

There are a few places that we went to that were recommended to us or had a lot of reviews but we didn't find that spectacular. 

• Wildberry: A brunch spot that supposedly gets really busy on the weekends. We got super lucky only having to wait about 5 minutes on a Friday at around 1:30. They're one of those restaurants that close at 2:30 then open later again. The one perk was that it was pretty inexpensive for the amount of food that they give you. It's a lot. But the food itself was okay. Wendy got some kind of mexican skillet and I got the benedict with chorizo. Both were okay. Maybe we didn't order the right items.
• The Purple Pig: If you ain't a meat, or PORK lover, this is not the place for you. This is supposed to be a tapas/small plates restaurant but holy pig the portions were HUGE. Each 'tapa' resembled a regular entree dish size. Our waitress told us to order 2 each and we could barely finish 2.. I LOVE salty food, but the food was pretty salty. I'm also not a food critic, but in my opinion things were a little over-seasoned. The dishes seemed to have too many flavors going on in one dish, to the point where it was quite overwhelming. 

I could go into more detail but don't want to make this a crazy long review but if you have any questions you can drop a comment or email me! 

I seriously had such a great time with just my bestie ^_^ I can't wait until our next vacation together! We need to make this an annual thing before we get married and have kids!! 

hong kong vlog pt. 2

Here's part two, y'all! Enjoy :)

hong kong vlog pt. 1

This is the first part of my Asia travels! This was clips from only 2 days and it's 21 minutes long.. jeez. But I'd love if you guys could give it a watch, comment, and like and I hope you enjoy it ^_^. Stay tuned for the next part!

Spring Break '15 | Punta Cana

Unfortunately I am back from Punta Cana, few pounds heaviers, and not much tanner. Back to reality, boo. I didn't get to snap as much pictures as I would have liked, but I had a great time. Much needed vacation away from the cold. Going from down jackets to tank tops was amazing, but coming back to down jackets.. not so amazing.

We got to experience Punta Cana nightlife -- Cocobongo and Imagine. Cocobongo is like a huge venue with performances and endless drinks all night long.  The performances were actually pretty good, but the set up of the venue was different from what I'm used to since it was more of a stadium.  Imagine was a cave bar, which was pretty damn cool. Partying in a cave? Don't tell me that doesn't sound cool!  Our second day, we went on a super adventurous excursion at Fun Fun Cave, and damn I'm extremely proud of myself for getting through the whole thing. It was my first time horseback riding, rappelling down a cave (or anything at all), and exploring a cave.  It was tiring, but in the end, it was a once in a lifetime experience and I'm glad we decided to do it.

We got to cruise and relax on a catamaran on the third day, where we finally got in some tanning time, and the only day we got to tan. There was also unlimited drinks, and the service was superb.  The workers are so cheerful and full of energy that it just brings such happy vibes to the boat.  We got to snorkel, and stop by a beach.  The third day was definitely a lot more relaxing, full of sun, drinks, and chilling.

Day four was spent riding buggies/boogies through a set path in the middle of Punta Cana. I personally would not recommend this, because I just felt like I was riding in a car with dirt and dust flying at me.  I was falling asleep, and I would have preferred staying at the hotel to chill poolside with the pool bar.

Overall, DR was fun and I wish we could have stayed longer! Can't wait until our next getaway (hopefully Aruba?)

AND I am currently in the process of editing a vlog! Hoping it comes out good and I'll try posting it as soon as possible.