#i also didnt plan the tram ride

[averagenderedmanta]

Okay so today I had a spontaneous trip to the museum two towns over, got finally my ride on the ex DLR Rollingstock in Essen, Germany, had a spontaneous meetup with my friends AND rode a new tram and line.

My goblin brain is very very happy.

[peaceplaypassion-blog]

Melbourne: eating & drinking & cry-loling

first thoughts on australia:

1. everyone is annoyingly nice. like the bus driver was like WELCOME TO MELBIN EVERYONE ENJOY OUR AWARD-WINNING TRAM SYSTEM AND HAVE A GROIEAT DOIAY.

2. i loved dan’s office, The Age. everyone is hustling around and it’s a big glass cube with a cafe at the front and a nice lawn. and everyone is dressed in business chic. reminded me how much i love city life.

3. lots of restaurants and grab-and-go spots on my tram ride - i want to eat everything. how do people not get fat here.

4. it’s CRAZY expensive. my benny was $19. no tip or tax at least.

5. i am happy to be able to drink tap water again

other overall thoughts:

everything is perfect and stunning here. it would be SO easy (read: too easy) to transition to living here from Vancouver. quality of life is prime, there are soooo many events, everyone is always out eating and drinking and mingling. like i dig that. the city does a lot to keep its people entertained. there is free wifi everywhere downtown and the tram system is free downtown.

Van could learn a thing or two.

however if i HAD to generalize (lol) - sometimes they’re a bit much. like they love to BE AN AUSSIE and TALK ABOUT IT and be OVERLY FRIENDLY. but then on the flip side they love to make a fuss. like i saw a raaaging argument on the tram where this kid was like “theres not much room” when a man got on and next thing you know his gf is calling this other older lady an f-ing b. also i saw soooo much road rage, aussies don’t let ANY jaywalking slide without leaning on the horn and probably swearing. and like an old lady got mad at me at the train station where i was like oh sorry i’m in line and shes like WELL IT DOESNT LOOK LIKE IT lol. like i’m sorry these things would just never happen in Canada.

weather was great - very unpredictable in Melbs and i got to experience the sweltering 38 degrees and the “i didnt pack for this” 17 degrees. i was in Melbs for 3.5 weeks and experienced EVERYTHING on my list. defs made the most of my time. also lots of sipping chai lattes, catching up on wifi stuff and planning the rest of my trip!

activity log:

- Great Ocean Road road trip with Christie, Borch, Sarah, Mike, Willy, Andrew, Dad. drove to 12 Apostles (but actually 7 because erosion), stayed overnight in Lorne which is a super gorg beach town. saw some roos on the field at dusk and then almost hit like 5 as they bounced in front of the car. they survived but a bunny wasn’t so lucky, oops. also saw 2 koalas in the wild which i’m told is rare, Dan says he’s only seen them as roadkill!! they were cute and sleepy.

- dancing at Apartment 29 on a Wednesday. hippies with dreadlock man buns

- biker gang trip along the Yarra and down to St Kilda. v cute, so many patio bars along the river.

- solo to an art gallery party with cute exhibits (one red flower room which everyone loves to insta); DJs; pop up bars; outdoor dance floor where people were givin’er. was soo cool. STEP IT UP, VAN.

- drinks with Willy at Madame Brussels, which is a Victorian style rooftop patio with a side of inapprop sass. BEST pimms cup. also went to play blackjack at Crown and slightly ashamed to say that wasn’t the only time. just trying to make a living out here.

- k get the cheese and bacon burger at Grill’d THIS IS THE BEST BURGER I HAVE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE

- Phillip Island at Dan’s beachhouse for Aussie Day and his bday weekend

- kangaroos boxing!!!

SYDNEY

- tagged along on Dan’s work trip to Sydney and had the BEST time living my best life in Hotel Ovolo. listen to this. free happy hour 5:30-6:30, free mini bar, free breakfast, Alexa in the room (the front desk wanted to surprise us by playing macklemore when she found out i was going to the concert), free loot bag with snacks, free slippers and bag which i took home with me. cutest hip decor and washed out brick walls. like i am obsessed with this hotel.

- wandered along Darling Harbour and hit-on bridge, walked to Opera House, dinner at Mehico, Bondi Beach including the pool with huge waves which was actually SO cool. went to an AMAZING UNDERGROUND BAR called Palmer & Co (thanks Alana for the reco!) with 1920s prohibition-style servers wearing flapper outfits, live band and then piano player playing my parents' fave songs. dan left and i danced with 40 year olds till 3 am. had a blast.

- also met up with Jeff from Abby for rooftop gin and tonics and pizza/wedges at The Australian Hotel. explored The Rocks which was real cute and cobblestone-y. Manly Beach where MACKLEMORE POSTED THE SAME INSTA AT THE SAME TIME AS ME. i will never live down the regret of not constantly refreshing his insta feed that day.

- Macklemore concerts in both Sydney (spontaneous purch) and Melbs (bought 4 months ago) BECAUSE MACKLEMORE IF YOU ARE READING THIS I AM YOUR BIGGEST FAN. that’s 3 stops for me on the gemini tour and he’s in Paris in April so STAY TUNED!!

^^ the most sweaty

okay back to Melbs:

- runs along the Yarra, strolls down Swan Street, superbowl with Andrew at Precinct Hotel and 200 loud obnoxious aussie mates, partied in Richmond at Richmond Club Hotel, Swan Hotel (“hotel” is what they call bars), Public House

- explored the CBD (central business district / their downtown), Hosier Lane and AC/DC for graffiti, Hardware Lane or Degraves St for cute alley patio coffees. coffee is huge here, everyone’s just out for coffee all the time like it’s their job.

- got a tattoo in Fitzroy which makes me a hipster badass, then rooftop bevs at Naked by Satan. tried chicken parma which is like the thing here. giant slab of meat on fries. met Bran at Corner Hotel and then St Kilda festival which the entire population of Melbourne attended i think, but was cool! lots of live music and pop-up concerts/ dancing. met Sairah for lunch in Windsor, so good to catch up 7 years after Contiki!!

- went to Eau de Vie speakeasy cocktail bar, made friends with Tanya and Liz, got an espresso martini the bartender lit on fire. was sooo delish.

- Brighton Beach Huts, Asian tourist overload but understandable because the huts are VERY cute. people rent them for like $300k/yr and store surfboards, beach chairs etc in them.

- Little Italy at D.O.C. for the best pizza oh my god THAT CRUST. servers were fob italian. also gelato. grazi grazi

- Valentine’s Day drive to watch the sunset and get ice cream, then St Kilda to watch the penguins. playing all my fave songs. happy :)

best dan moments:

- night 1 at dumplings, guy walks in and goes “good vibes in here!” dan goes NOPE i’m out and leaves immediately lol

- beating everyone in ping pong “OK COOL NEXT”

- story about Nonna’s new bf in the car ride to family din

- his dad blaring Ed Sheeran after dinner.. dan: “YOU ALRIGHT?!?!!?”

- so intense watching Olympics, Aussies don’t make it - “NAH LOST ALL. MEDALS. LOST ALL MEDALS.. waste of my LOIFE. waste’a my WHOLE NOIGHT”

- struggling to close the window for 10 minutes, getting soooo angry amd swearing loudly lol

- then goes in the shower and literally STOMPS and CLAPS to his 2 favourite songs. this is his routine and he does it every single day

- (i literally just burst into a lol remembering this one): thinks he lost his key card for work. just goes into a RAGE looking for it. finally gasps as he realizes it’s at the back of his phone case. and i quote: “OH F THIS I’M GONNA KILL MYSELF. F THIS LOIIIFE. GONNA BE A SHIT DAY.” storms out of the room. i was BAWLING.

- just general road rage

- sticks his head out the window while driving and his hat flies out onto the highway

- comes across a choir rehearsing his fave song This is Me in Little Italy. is DELIGHTED to find they are still rehearsing as we walk back to the car. dances and sings along like a kid in a candy shop

- i just also want to say that while dan is the most outrageous obnoxious aussie in all the land, he is one of the most thoughtful, low maintenance, supportive friends i have. at the macklemore concert he was like “if you get a chance to go to the front, go” (so i did). he ALWAYS lets me do my thang. he took me to all the melbs hot spots and always provided recos. he was an amazing host. i say WHATEVER comes across my mind and he will engage in that conversation. i value his opinion (which he has in spades) so much. so so grateful that tom brought him along to New York 3 years ago - even though he thought we would hate each other - which led to Toronto, Rio, Vancouver, now Melbs. cannot wait to see where we reuny next!!

k i need to get out of Australia soon or i am going to get very broke and fat, but just a couple more stops first!!

[n-ph]

2k16

wow it’s been awhile since i’ve written one of these. i just realized that i totally didn’t write one last year. anyway i dont even know where to begin. 2016 has been an interesting year to say the least. i was rereading some of my old posts and i said omg a lot. the days just seem to go by in a blur nowadays, so i will try to recap 2016 as best as i can. i dont have a word to encompass this year though.

went to seattle in january. tried some really expensive sushi..twice..holy crap. the quality was a1 but man the bill was something else. seattle was nice though. definitely had a san francisco vibe to it, except for when you go to the waterside and look back at all the construction. i guess we kinda ran out of things to do bc on the last day we went to chinatown and the area seemed really dinky. also gained a ton of weight in seattle though u_u

in february we tried 5a5 steakhouse. and let me tell u. it is the best beef i have ever had. it is also the most money i have ever spent on a single meal. oh my god. i dont know if i'll ever be back, but i would like to, some day.

thus far, the semester was pretty okay. let's see..i had government accounting with a moody professor who would throw tantrums whenever no one participated. i also had business law with this old guy who was really lively and fun. i had strategic management with a bryan cranston look alike. the class was really interesting though and i learned a lot and it got me started on reading the economist lmao im so old. i miss having so much free time that came with school. 40 hour work weeks are not the life (even if i barely do anything at work).

went to LA during spring break. and at a good time too bc it was still the soft opening of harry potter world so the lines were v manageable. butterbeer was dope. the entire hogsmeade village just felt so real. had sooo much good food in LA omg. got to see some friends as well. had some of the best steak frites ever.

i cant believe i particpated in asu's talent show this year. much has changed in asu since i joined. it makes me wonder if i was behaving that way when i first joined. it seems a lot more clique-y and high school and drama filled but hey maybe it was that way when i was active but i just never noticed. had many fun lunches with my grand little but man there is a lot of drama in asu and im just glad i wasnt in any of it. i kinda miss the old asu days of staying out late to eat or do nothing at all but also i dont miss it bc i get enough sleep and im a lot more productive without asu lmao. finally ended things with tram for good. maybe things turned out the way they did for the better. the entire friendship was such a roller coaster. im glad its over.

the end of the semester rolled around!!! and i graduated!!!! :') attended my sisters graduation which was pretty boring bc high school students have such a narrow view of life (not to say that college students are any better). attended my own graduation. felt really fortunate to have jessa and anthony there. this one kid in my graudating class gave a speech about accomplishments...and he revealed the wrestling belt he was wearing underneath his graduation gown...and then he made the grads stand up and chant thank yous to the friends and family sitting behind us. it was so embarrassing and extra omg.

shortly after graduation i was on a plane headed back to the motherland. and let me tell u. i hated most of it. it was super hot and humid and my sister and i shared about 100 mosquito bites between the both of us. also. i know i shouldnt but..vietnam is so dirty. i know its not their fault that theyre a developing country but man there are exactly zero sanitation standards and i dont even know why we were there bc the water had recently been polluted so none of the fish were edible and my mom didnt trust the food stands to have clean food either. i guess i made some new friends and visited some cool places but at what cost??? also i think my entire fam got sick bc we slept with the ac on but either way, the meds i took made me lose my sense of smell i think and i couldnt taste or smell anything for two weeks. the ac air also dried out my nose and gave me a skin infection (which i will discuss later). during our trip to danang a small ferry got flipped on the big river and a bunch of ppl died and the government tried to cover it up bc bad publicity etc. they played it off as if only a few ppl died rather than most of the ppl on the boat. our tour guide in danang was in the know tho so he told us everything and w o w that really could've been us on that river bc it was a boat the left the dock about half an hour after our boat left. crazy.

after the long and arduous journey abroad i finally made it back home...and then headed to hawaii. hawaii was dope af. 10/10 would recommend, would go back. battled the tides when we went kayaking and sadly the tides won and i lost my hat but also almost lost my flip flops if it weren't for some kind random strangers who swam out to get my flip flops. we stayed on oahu and maui. hiked up a v steep mountain in oahu. lost my hat from kayaking. got caught in the rain when we went looking for a beach on the first day. had some of the best shaved ice ever. attended my first luau. fell asleep during the first part of a fire dancing show (bc the fire hadnt started yet). essentially pulled an all nighter to try oahu's famous bakery that opened at 3am. flew to maui but due to poor planning we arrived 4 hours earlier than check in lmao. the house we had in maui was so beautiful though omg. it was ocean side so we could hear the waves every night and it just felt so peaceful and tranquil to sit on the balcony in the mornings, just staring out at sea. in maui we went snorkeling. the last time i went snorkeling was like...10+ years ago...in cancun...and the water was freezing...and i also thought i was lost in the middle of the ocean on our way to the snorkeling location... but anyway! the snorkeling this time was so cool omg they had prescription swimming goggles so i could see EVERYTHING. they also provided lunch which was dope. it started raining on our way back to shore though lmao. the next day we drove all the way up the volcano in maui...to find that the top was foggy af and we couldnt see anything. the road up was pretty nasty bc super windy and 10000 ft elevation. it got really foggy after like 6000ft so we basically drove in all fog until the top which was still foggy but also like 20 degrees colder than the rest of maui. maui is super rural omg. we tried to find a place to eat after our trek but there were barely any food places in sight. we picked a random spot in the middle of nowhere and then decided to take the road to hana (which is on the opposite side of where we were staying, and was about 3 hrs away. and boy did we mess up. we took the alternate road there and it was scarier than going up the volcano bc 1) windy 2) small ass roads which were unpaved at certain points and 3) cliff hugging roads..i cant believe i made the drive there and back it was so terrifying omg. not sure if i would go back. at one point there was a big ass cow in the middle of the road. once we got to hana though, the hike was really nice despite the humidity. almost died crossing the river at the end to see the waterfall. all the rocks had big ants on them!!! how was i supposed to cross the river!!! we missed out on the wading pools though but we were so starving by that time. made the 3 hr drive back and everyone was dead. spent the last day on maui not doing much bc rainy and we were all so dead.

about two weeks after i got back from hawaii was training week in sac for my first big girl job. ngl but i felt super homesick that first night. idk why since i would be home by the end of the week anyway. probably just overwhelmed by how fast everything was happening. graduation and now transitioning into a full time job. scary stuff. but i did make a really good friend in sac so it didnt turn out so bad!!! training was pretty fun bc our presenter was pretty engaging. except when we went over the boring stuff and i was v close to falling asleep. did get to catch up with some of my sac friends though which was nice. went to the state fair for the first time as well. it was..exactly as expected but hotter lmao. my family went to san diego at this time bc my sister was going to comic con but i couldnt make it :(

got back from training and started my first big girl job. im not sure what i expected but it was easy but also hard? my first engagement i was only with one other senior and she was super nice and pretty and really good at lettering. i dont feel like i learned much? i only really did the tasks given to me but i feel like half the time i wasnt even sure what i was doing. i also hated the commute all the way back from walnut creek. the going there wasnt so bad bc i got a ride out to oakland but man it would take forever to get home. :'( my second engagement was just me and a partner and i feel like she expected me to know everything...but i didnt know anything...so i mostly sat around a lot??? esp bc she wasnt on site every day so i had zero supervision. :/ towards the end of the second engagement i got an email from the city saying that they were accepting me into their accounting position and i was like oh shit. i ended up taking the job, which gave me a week in between quitting the first job and starting the second, which i used to go back to LA lmao bc i had a season ticket to universal. actually ate at the three broomsticks this time. it was defs filling and i thought it was a good bang for buck. attempted to go to the walking dead tour..chickened out..twice. i probs would've died in there tbh. also went to disneyland!!!! that was lit. their macone-roni and cheese was da bomb. saw world of color for the first time except it was the 50th anniversary edition so it wasnt so great. bumped into the couple that was in jbieb's love yourself video. tried some new food places in LA and saw some old friends, again.

started my second big girl job. all my coworkers are super nice except the big boss is kind of crazy and anal. but we deal with it. my supervisor is so nice :'( work isnt so bad bc i dont do much lmao. the hardest part sometimes is just staying awake if im being honest. getting paid to do nothing is the life tho.

spent my birthday weekend in monterey. we were supposed to go atv-ing but ended up going wine tasting but also not really bc we liked the first wine so much we got a bottle of that to share. it was really cold that weekend surprisingly so we stayed in and then went to this spa place on a whim and it was definitely an interesting experience.

went as a rice bag for halloween and i think that was probably my greatest costume to date. except we ended up going to a party full of white ppl...and i was like the only asian there gdi

tagged along w my sister when she went to sd. got to see many friends!!! went clubbing as well and that was lit. took michelle clubbing for her 21st birthday, also lit. squadsgiving and christmas were super fun. got some supplies for bullet journaling so guess thatll be my new years resolution. but also to take more photos bc i didnt buy that camera for nothing.

okay so in conclusion. i did a lot of stuff this year. it feels like it was mostly all highs. or maybe i just block out the lows but im pretty sure there were way more highs than lows. 2016 was a great year tbh. oh yeah i also passed two of four parts of my cpa exam!!! woot. in 2016, i learned a lot...of accounting lmao. plus i ran my first 5k!!!!! oh yeah and i joined a gym and now im getting swole af. im not sure what my reflections are. i guess, if i were to compare 2k16 kim to 2k14 kim i've for sure come a long ways. i wasnt afraid to try new challenges and conquer them. i stepped out of my comfort zone multiple times, sometimes with the help of alcohol. i got my shit together and really focused in school (which got me a 4.0 during my last year of college). i also got my shit together and studied my ass off for the cpa (which is still ongoing i crey). i really wanna say this was probably one of my best years with everything i was able to do and everything i achieved. so here's to you, 2016, and may 2017 be even better!!!