Thursday, December 31, 2009

To a new year...



Happy New Year, everyone!

I'll be starting the year off with plenty of photos from Taiwan and more from the Outback Bowl. Off to Florida for the New Year's Day bowl game...

But before that, cheers to a wonderful 2009. Here's to:
  1. Fabulous friends (old and new)
  2. Guatemala
  3. Sunset
  4. Good talks
  5. Getting myself out of sorority recruitment before I went insane
  6. Camping in Capitola
  7. Exploring the Bay Area
  8. Potlucks
  9. John Legend concerts
  10. More concerts
  11. Xoco hot chocolate
  12. Football games
  13. NBN photo assignments
  14. A wonderful Thanksgiving at Steph's
  15. Black Friday shopping
  16. Freezing my butt off in downtown Chicago
  17. Art
  18. Coca Cola parties
  19. Chicago Marathon
  20. Shedd Aquarium
  21. Forts
  22. San Francisco
  23. Rotaract
  24. And so much more...

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Happy Holidays!

So I had a post with a cute holiday photo that I thought posted before I left for the holidays, but unfortunately technology failed me and it did not go up as I expected.

Now, I don't have my computer with me as I sit in the "Promised Land" in Taiwan so all I can say to my fellow friends who read this right now is...

Happy Holidays!
See you in a week.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

It looks like a blizzard outside...



So curl up inside with a cup of peppermint mocha or gingerbread latte at Borders and hunker down for finals! Or at least, that's what we did after our trip to Xoco. Forget about studying on campus where there are friends to distract you and a packed library with very few open outlets. We hid from the wind and snow in downtown Chicago's Borders overlooking a busy Michigan Avenue, flipped through some magazines and pulled out the books and notes.We also learned that Borders' Seattle's Best served grande coffees for $2 between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. I don't know when the offer ends, but it's a great deal!






Monday, December 14, 2009

A brief respite from campus life

I'm finally back home, but here are a few posts from the end of fall quarter.



Sometimes, it's so easy to get caught up in things to do that I forget to get off campus sometimes. There are always student productions, campus soirees, NBN work to do, Rotaract, catching up with friends, and of course academia. There aren't enough hours in the day and by the time there is even one minute to take a step back from what is my hectic life, I barely have the energy to move one muscle.

So when Janise read the New York Times' review and wanted to take me award-winning chef-restaurateur Rick Bayless' small Mexican cafe, how could I turn up the offer? After all, it was a little birthday get-together and churros, hot chocolate and tortas are hard to pass up.

Xoco is absolutely adorable. With deep blue walls and toe-tapping Latin music, it's a great place to get together with a small group of four. Big groups would be hard to seat and it's a lot of counter seating, so I would make note of that. The service was fast and the food was delicious. It's tragic that I can't remember the name of the tortas I ordered, but it's the only one on the menu made with beef. My mouth watered just from the smell of it. I also ordered the "Barcelona," which was rich chocolate simply melted and poured into a mug. Thick and rich, the hot chocolate went down like sweet sludge. Janise took the waitress' suggestion and ordered the "Ahodaga," pork carnitas, spicy arbol chile sauce and black bean sandwich dipped in a rich, creamy tomato broth. The tomato was a bit more overpowering that both of us would have liked, but it was still delicious nonetheless. She also ordered a hot chocolate with whole milk (from what I remember), and it was a sweet treat for a cold, windy day.







Unfortunately, we didn't order the churros, which means...well, I guess we just have to go back next quarter!

It was a refreshing breath of fresh air -- getting off campus and eating great food. Next stop? Borders to actually do some studying for exams.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

On my birthday...



This is me, and this is what I look like as a 20-year-old.



And on this day, the town looked like this. My friends were absolutely wonderful and celebrated mine and Zheng's birthday for a full 24 hours from singing a hilarious and absolutely adorable rendition of Taylor Swift's "You Belong with Me" to lunch to presents to simple, sweet notes to FlatTop dinner.

Here's to being 20. I'm not one to make a lot of goals, frankly because I'm not sure what life has in store for me, but here's to another fantastic year ahead of me

Monday, December 7, 2009

Zoolights in Lincoln Park Zoo




All taken on our weekend trip to Zoolights at Lincoln Park Zoo (a brief break from our studies).




Thinking about moving to a different blog site for larger photos, thoughts?

And here's to the last few hours of my teenage years.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Light Painting

And the last of this quarter's art projects: a light painting of a rainy city scene.


Friday, December 4, 2009

Construction

Our project was to use unrecognizable objects such as trash and crumpled up paper to create a composition...here's what I came up with:


Thursday, December 3, 2009

Landscape painting

This was my least favorite painting of the entire quarter, but I thought I'd post it regardless...


Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Random acts of kindness




A couple weeks ago, I started noticing these little people hanging around the hallways of Kresge as I trudged up the stairs to art class. Curious little things. In my mind, they are someone's final art project. In reality, they could simply be random acts of kindness. Tiny little notes someone put up to brighten up people's days.


Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Chipping away the years



For those of you who don't come to this school, we have this thing called "The Rock" here at Northwestern. It's this obnoxiously large, obstrusive object that sits in a small plaza. We worship it, paint it for events and organizations, and proudly brag about it when it comes up in conversation. Yesterday, there was a group of students chipping away at the layers of paint. I asked one girl who they were and she said it was an independent study and they called themselves "The Rock Excavation Organization." I mean, sure. Regardless, I had mixed feelings about what they were doing. On one hand, I'm really curious to see what the actual color of the rock is. Plus, chippingaway with a chisel and hammer is rather liberating and incredibly fun. It was a beautiful sight to see the various layers of the rock like one can count rings on tree trunks. On the flip side, it's The Rock. There are years and years of Northwestern students on that rock. Chipping away at it and putting the paint chips away in a large bag is like stripping away all the character that makes The Rock The Rock. But they make for great pictures, don't they?