My last column in the Sun

Today, my last column in the Sun published. The whole experience of being a columnist again is both exciting and yet, perpetually unsatisfying. I never feel as if I'm writing something substantial - maybe a humorous/whimsical comment on a current topic... then on to the next fleeting idea! Everything I write is very light and airy. I feel as if I'm not getting my feet wet enough of my opinions and observations on these subjects.

I took my last exam today (before finals begin). And I swear I bombed it despite having studied until 5 in the morning (not joking either). Tomorrow is the last day of classes... Yeah. Here we go again: the beginning of the end. Why is it for some reason I feel like I learned nothing this semester? Or did anything of meaning? My BIGGEST pet peeve: time wasted on mindless, meaningless, boring gibberish.

LAST WEEK OF CLASSES

I can't believe it! I still have a final presentation (in French!), a lab final, an Econ midterm to get through until the epic Slope day on Friday. Crazy! Aaaand-drum roll please-the performers for slope day will be the Pussycat Dolls. I don't know why everyone is complaining. I personally am excited for the Pussycat Dolls... hot stuff!

Internship for this Summer!!

One of the suits featured on their website

I just found out that I will be interning with Malia Mills this summer!! I'm so excited - Malia Mills is a swimwear company based in New York City. Looking forward to another busy season of work and play :)

Do you take risks?

Spring Formal 2009


I bought this parrot green dress from Zara Paris, more than a year ago! I haven't worn it since. At the time, I thought it looked so Italian and so high-fashion. It's made of floaty chiffon, and there are flowers coming down from the neckline. I loved the dress, but I just never had the guts to wear it. It seemed a bit overwhelming, and a bit outrageous.

So I finally mustered up the nerve to wear it to Spring Formal. Picture above - what do you think? Win or fail? Whatever the case, I loved wearing something different.

Do you like taking risks, whether in fashion or life in general? Or are you more of a classic, tried and true kind of person?

soaking up the sun

Jacob is soaking up the sun


Beautiful weather on the arts quad.... we decided to do lunch here today.

Awesome weather today!! Two thumbs up!

What are your internet procrastinators...

1. www.childhoodflames.blogspot.com

Childhood Flames Blog - Yes, I'm obsessed with the fashion musings of a pre-teen. SHHH. My guilty pleasure....

2. www.nytimes.com

The New York Times is my homepage!

3. www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/single-ish/

Another guilty pleasure - Ryan Dodge who blogs for Glamour's "Single-ish Blog". I think it's my 1-year anniversary since I got hooked.

4. www.facebook.com

Of course, Facebook. But who isn't on this 24/7?

4. www.chrysan-tung.blogspot.com

Chrysalis of course... what a devoted writer...

Any other internet procrastinators? I'm getting bored with mine...

How do you prep for an interview?

Isla Fisher wearing Malia Mills!

I was biting my nails (at a nail salon, too), stressing about an upcoming interview. Lo and behold, I opened a magazine just to see Isla Fisher of Wedding Crashers and Confessions of a Shopaholic, wearing Malia Mills on the cover of Allure. She looked hot! Recall, this is the chick married to Borat.

I'm getting pretty nervous for my interview, which is perhaps the one chance I have at an internship this summer. Looking up questions doesn't really help either. Where do I see myself in 5, 10, 30 years? What are my strengths? Weaknesses? Definitely keeping my calm.

How do you prep for an interview???

Routine... good or bad?

Taking time to enjoy a cup of coffee on a checked picnic blanket in fiiine weather? Priceless.

Though excruciating at first, waking up for my 9am is getting easier and easier. The trick is to get into routine. Earlier today, I started thinking about it. Routine can be comforting and perhaps even soothing. It's nice to know exactly what to expect. My first challenge at college was to establish a routine. Needless to say, I'm still having difficulties with this. When I first arrived at school, I was amazed by how much freedom I suddenly had. I could probably go out every night if I wanted to. If I just felt like ordering food or going for a run, I could. But then you realize it's not like that at all. You need a routine, and the routine becomes suffocating.

It's funny. One time when I was still in grade school, my sister and I decided to go to the neighborhood park. We've probably taken this walk a thousand times before. As we were walking, she suddenly made a comical, overly-exaggerated veer off to the other side of the street. I was both confused... and amused... Later, she told me she felt like something was "controlling her" to keep walking straight down the street. So, she made a ridiculous detour. She wanted the walk to be her own choice, and she wanted to prove she could go any direction that she felt like... even if her destination would be the same.

We get schedules, meetings, chores, tasks, assignments, and soon it's routine that's ruling your life, and life that's constraining your liberty. When did spontaneity become unfashionable? Is life just doomed to be chained to meaningless, mindless, aimless routine? If I am my own person, then why does it feel like I am only what my routine makes me... Maybe life in itself is just a large-scale balancing act between routine... and spontaneity. Are we supposed to only live around these routines? If so, when does real living begin? What gives: is routine good or bad?

Off to stop procrastinating on homework...

News alert | Feature on TeenVogue!

Cornell was featured on TeenVogue for the 25th Annual CDL Fashion show. So dope!

Internship update: I have an interview this week via SKYPE. Let you know how that goes. Applied to Anthropologie and Women's Health, Interview Magazine, and hopefully TimeOut New York and Smithsonian soon. Pheuf!

Hope everyone is having a good week so far...

who doesn't like daisies and daffodils...

My sorority "Little" got me this vase!

One thing I love: fresh flowers!! I picked the daffodil from a patch outside. They're shooting up everywhere. It's amazing how such a small thing will brighten up your day.

interesting demonstrations on the quad

Red plastic mesh bags filled with straw.


Someone rearranging the perfect lines of bags.


From one side...


To the other.

Wonder what these mean? Keep you updated...

Would you prefer an apartment or a dorm room?

Unmade bed... disgrace...

Room is getting a spring cleaning. And makeover? I remember when I tried redoing my room at home... which turned out to be a semi-success. But I love it and all the personal trinkets that make it homey. Having a sense of home and my own personal space is so important to me. I'm wondering what the deal will be like next semester, in Paris! I can either live in a household with a French family (language benefits), in dorm (peer benefits), or with another person in an apartment (homey benefits). I can't decide. What would you do??

spring awakening | what are you excited about for spring?

The buds are finally coming out...

After a freak snowstorm earlier this week, the buds are finally coming out!!!! I'm excited about...
1. Riding my schwinn again... when can I get cruising?
2. sunglasses
3. end of classes (i.e. Slope day)
4. laying out on the arts quad
5. outdoor hookah and dinner parties
6. fresh fruit from the farmer's market
7. flowers!!
8. Swimming at the gorges
9. Holi
10. spring dresses

What are you excited about for spring?

I survived!!!

Once upon a runway
Cornell Model UN Conference
Fibers Exam
Lame-o MGMT exam
Writing articles
Alumni Networking
Internship grazing
and Misc

It may have looked bleak... but it's all coming together!!

No idea no idea how I will survive this week... sob.

rainy rainy day

Enjoying a cup of coffee before I run to work. I've been going to all my classes this week!! Gold star for me. Maybe there's hope after all.

Been perusing new perfumes online. I think I'm going to go for something citrusy and bright. Something to counteract the rainy rainy-ness of spring time in ithaca.

To try:
I love love by Moschino
Light blue by D&G
Capri by Aqua di Parma (super expensive... worth it?)

Wonder what it takes to be a perfume connoisseur. A good nose?

on a scale of one to ten...

My stress level is a six. But this time, I'm keeping it under control! Yep, back at school for another six, seven weeks. A lot will be happening in the next few.

For now, I'm learning a little-but important-life lesson in stress management. First off, does stress actually accomplish anything? Is stress one of those things that's OK in moderation? Or, is it just a waste of time... When it comes to stressing about stress, why stress when you can do something productive with your energy?

This subject gets a bit mind boggling for me. And there is no doubt that the topic of stress becomes a catch-22 in itself. Yoga, deep breathing, visualizing the ocean... I don't think these things ever worked for me. For now, you just have to learn to compartmentalize what you can. And for everything else, there's mastercard? No, silly. There's... hmm... Get back to you on that one.

Just another story that proves vintage dreams do come true...

Spent a lovely day in Rhinebeck with an old friend. The drive up there is so calming--a comforting thicket of forests, old shops, and the hudson river playfully peeking in and out. Collective sigh here. The best time to go is Sunday afternoon, when the farmer's market sets up, and brunch menu is slowly melting into the dinner. You can grab coffee on the go and make it to Vanderbilt Mansion for the sunset. What can get more perfect than that?

As for yesterday, we drove into town for lunch. We chose this brasserie-type restaurant, which looked more like a congress house on the outside. Salad, soup, and mussels. So new england... unbearably quaint!! We left and something out of a dream happened. A vintage collector's dream.

You're strolling down some impossibly cute town sidewalk and suddenly find a hole-in-the-wall thrift store, literally tucked away and out of view. Walking in, nothing looks particularly interesting. Old dress shirts, brand name knock-offs, the usual. THEN, you stop to look over a really cute bag hanging on the wall. Wow, it's classic. It's only $32. It's... FERRAGAMO. As in SALVATORE FERRAGAMO, designer god of shoes and handbags, of which usually cost in the thousands to own.

Needless to say, I floated away on a cloud, hardly realizing if I had actually taken out my credit card or not. The only thing on my mind was the vintage ferragamo... that I now owned.

Yep. Just another urban myth proved to be real. Dreams like this can come true!! Verified by a real, live ordinary person.

getting into routine

Knock knock groggy groggy
Splash of cold water. Freezing!
Eggs and toast for breakfast
Big stretchhhh, cup of tea
Wear are my shoes?
Clunk, can of paint, paint, paint, scrape, scrape
Drips in my hair, splatter, splish splash
On the newspaper, smudge smudge
Big stretchhhh
Paint, paint, kneel kneel
Ouch my knees!
Reach, reach, swipe of paint across the face
Splash of cold water. Freezing!
Lunch, munch, munch
Cup of coffee, some hamentashen
Apricot is my favorite
Check my email, "Oh, the economy!"
Barack and basketball?
Blah, blah
Big stretchhhh, back to work
Paint, paint, cough, cough
Sweat, sweat, kneel kneel
Ouch my back!
Last... few... bits... paint... paint...
Did I just blackout?
Last bits, clean, clean
Garage door, must be time for dinner
Check my email, munch, munch
School work? No, ice-cream sounds better
Chat, chat, online TV
Sis is home
Chat, chat, chat... chat... chat...
Sleepy, very, sleepy
Snuggle with MacBook, chat, chat, chat
Battery, 24%, ...18%, ...11%, 6%...
"You are now on reserve battery."
Time for bed, shut down
Splash of cold water. Freezing!
Brush teeth, brush, brush, mm minty
Snuggle snuggle, think, think...
Think, think, think, think, think....
Think, think...
Snuggle, snuggle, think... think...
Groggy, groggy... snooooooooze....
Snooooooze....
Knock, knock.

Changing my room into a bed and breakfast

So, I am at home in Poughkeepsie for spring break. Woooo... As much as I wish I were far away on a beach, sipping from a coconut, the fact is... I'm not. Nonetheless, I'm keeping busy with my next favorite thing to do: home modeling (second wooo...) Although not quite Extreme Makeover Home Edition, I do plan on making my home-away-from-home more comfortable, design-wise that is. My parents and I are going to eventually re-do the whole house. I think they plan on selling it... we'll see how that goes.

As for my room, it's been cleaned, scrubbed, and emptied of all paper recycling, plastic recycling, and trash. I wish I had a chance to take a "before" picture. But at least I remembered now! Courtesy of my mac laptop, here are some cleaned before pictures:
































































And now how I hope (i.e. dream fantasmically) my room will turn out in the end... I am going for a sort of comfy-Alice in Wonderland, bed and breakfast, cosy feel. A little Midsummer's Night Dream. Perhaps some Paris/Capri/Greece thrown in there, why not...






























































































































Keep you updated on the transformation!

No more black!!

I am determined to come out of my all-black winter wardrobe. I'm excited! And scared. This is a big step for me. I'm a black-clothing addict. Must. quit. (Big breaths in... count to ten slowly.... repeat mantra) Here goes! Yay spring freshness

The week before spring break

Doesn't look too good. I was sitting, clutching a cup of coffee, the other day. Thinking about how I used to love coffee. Coffee meant sitting, lounging around a cafe with a friend or two. Leisurely reading a book or magazine, while I listened to coffee shop music. Now, a cup of coffee means a long night ahead of work. I dread coffee. I have at least two or three cups a day. It made me so sad to realize this.

No more cherry blossoms
I overslept this morning and felt awful. I need to do homework, write an article for the Sun, cram for French midterm (tomorrow), and cram for Econ midterm (Thursday). It's the week before Spring Break and usually that would keep me motivated, but things just look pretty dismal. Spring Break used to mean seeing cherry blossoms in D.C., Long wood garden in Pennsylvania, warm weather, daffodils, swings at the park, doing nothing guilt-free. Now it means a ten-day period of boring nothingness, internship applications, studying for the second round of midterms, and feeling like a waste of life.

I dread the "where-are-you-going" question for Spring Break. Almost as much as I dread coffee. Aren't things looking a bit topsy-turvy lately?

Updates of la vie:

• Just got accepted into both of the study abroad programs I applied to. PARIS je t'aime!
• Crush party was a Speakeasy å la Gatsby theme.
• Model UN is starting to prepare for the high school conference we hold in early April.
• The Fashion show for the design league is at the same exact time. Fml?
• Where should I live next year? Still don't know.
• I'm running out of steam.

Thinking in Bullet-Points |

• Still cold here!
• Back-and-forth rivalry continues between both Palestinian and Israeli Student Groups on displayed protests on the Arts Quad.
• Reality check: I do not know how to time manage. My organizational skills are but an illusion.
• Ludacris performed on campus, yesterday.
• Forty-five new sisters were initiated into the sorority today.
• My article about Hipsters published in the Sun.
• I need to figure out a way to boost my G.P.A. PRONTO.
• Mind turned into mush.
• Spring Break looks pretty dismal.
• SPRING 09 LOOKS FABULOUS.