Gotta stick in another Audrey Hepburn pun while I can, amiright? 😉

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“Face down,” she says.

What a nice change. For once someone asks me to face down instead of stand on my tippy-toes and look up. I sidle up to the scanner, presumably to get a mugshot or my eyeball scanned.

“Face down,” she says again, impatiently, gesturing over to the phone in my hand with my e-ticket.

Oh… good thing I didn’t dip my head over the scanner. I casually slide my phone over the scanner like that’s what I was planning to do all along, because I totally was.

~

The plane is taking awhile to take off from Philly to New York, where I have a six hour layover. I sink my head into the headrest, drop my eyelids, and have a little rest as the wheels start rolling.

But when I open them again, I see that the plane is getting dangerously close to land. The flight attendant is saying something over the intercom, but it’s so muffled that I can’t make out what she’s saying. Are we making an emergency landing? What? is? happening?? Oh dear.

Ah so apparently I’ve slept through the whole flight. This is New York.

~

After finally watching Deadpool, finally watching Zootopia, watching an episode of CSI: Cyber, taking a nap, and skipping the airplane food for the chow mein and orange chicken I packed from Panda Express at JFK, I’ve made it to Rome.

My mom and little brother Danny came all the way from Beijing to visit me here in Philly and I was excited to show them around the city my first weekend with them, but Mom was so keen on visiting NYC, and when I thought about it, I realised that after having made the trek over here, it only made sense for them to also visit the Big Apple, which is just under a two hour train ride away from Philly. Plus that means I’d get to stay in a hotel, and even though I’ve finally gotten my summer apartment cleaned up, it’s a far cry from luxury. Most importantly, I could finally shower without sandals.

Fall break last year meant a lot to me; it was the first break of my college experience. Fall break is at an interesting time. The year feels like it has just begun and you’re still feeling your way through. As a first-year, you might be feeling homesick at this time. Maybe you live close enough to go back. And maybe you don’t and campus feels empty and you’re not sure what to do or where to go or who to hang out with. So it meant a lot to me when I found myself in Princeton visiting old (high school) friends and then found myself in New York City with new (college) friends.

You’d think that I wouldn’t have to worry about that now as a sophomore. I’ve had a year’s worth of experience, I’ve settled in, and I’ve found my people. Except that my people all went home for fall break and I was here on campus. Which I don’t really mind, but it just brought to light how much time I spend with them, and without them, sometimes I’m not sure what to do with my time myself.

When I was little, my parents would take me and my brothers to national parks all the time. We collected National Park Passport Stamps and everything. But I never really got what was so great about it. Okay Dad I get it, another cool tree. Okay Mom I get it, another cool mountain. Yup, they’re really big. Can I go home now? I’m so hungry. I’m so tired. I’m so bored. Wow this path goes on forever.

But then I moved from Los Angeles (which isn’t even particularly lush) to Beijing, and I realized that I had taken all that fresh air and greenery for granted. Each time I came back to the States for the summer, I’d get out of the airport and immediately smell green (after I got past the smokers). I didn’t know I could smell colour, but I did.

After a productive morning hiking up to Kerry Park and cooling down at Cederberg Tea House, my dad and I spent the rest of the day at the Chihuly Garden and Glass museum.

Art is something I appreciate, but I never know what to say about it. Last year I visited the Philadelphia Museum of Art with my dad, and I also saw the Art of the Brick (Lego) exhibit at the Franklin Institute Science Museum with Victoria and Georgina. Neither trips made it to the blog. For this one, I considered just editing a few pictures from the museum and sharing it on Instagram but leaving it off the blog because I didn’t have too much to say, but this is quite a collection of pictures.

So here it is, a quick “read” for your viewing pleasure. I’ve copied down (word for word) as many artist statements for each exhibit (eleven) as I managed to capture. It’ll be like walking through the museum yourself, but from the comfort of wherever you are reading this blog post. Though I’ve got to say, art is meant to be felt and experienced. Getting up close to Chihuly’s work in real life and truly grasping the immense scale and incredible detail of his work is something I cannot capture in a tiny little blog post.