In elementary school, I had a friend whose mom had her own tea company, and we’d often go over to her house for tea parties. I remember piles of scones and soaking my black tea with milk and three cubes of sugar. Over winter break, my mom took me to have a little tea party of our own at The English Tearoom.
March
If I don’t wuss out, tonight I’ll be attending Lokal’s launch party! (Check out my blog post on Lokal Hotel if you missed it earlier this week.) Life has been nonstop ever since I joined PHLbloggers. I attended a work session and met two PHLblogger veterans and three other new PHLbloggers. I shot with Priyanka, Sarah, Kelsey, and Khoi. I ventured around the city for shoot locations. I got a glimpse of Lokal Hotel before opening and got to shoot in their space, which is what’s bringing me to their launch party. I’ve never been to a launch party before so I’m not sure what to expect. I suppose I’ll get to see the finished space, walk around, look at things, talk to some people if I’m brave. Nervous! Excited!
Lokal Hotel
Lokal Hotel is launching on April 1, but I got a chance to peek inside before then! Ethan (from Lokal) set up a morning shoot for me and Khoi. In between getting style shots for Khoi, I also snuck in a few photos for myself. I couldn’t help it; the interior by Jersey Ice Cream Co was too beautiful!
Asian representation, Kat Lee
– today’s guest post coming from my awesome roomie Kat, featuring her photos –
“What do you mean you’re studying computer science? I thought, for sure, you would be studying musical theatre or drama.” This is the response I most often get when I tell people from my hometown that I’m studying computer science. And with good reason. During the majority of my teen years, the place you would most likely find me in would be a music room or a dance studio or an auditorium. I trained as a “triple threat” in singing, dancing, and acting, participated in Broadway workshops, spent my free time, non-rehearsal time writing correspondence for boutique theatre websites, and living and breathing theatre on Broadway.
And then, I left it all, gradually and then all at once.
When people ask me what happened, I usually tell them that I find the same rush of theatre from solving an algorithm, that computer science allows me to pursue creativity in the same way and still gives me a stake in creating the world that I want to live in. And this is true, but also false. The truth is that I would’ve pursued theatre and I could’ve pursued theatre, but I was afraid. Not simply because the majority of actors ending up in food services, or because I had doubts in my sensibilities and abilities as an actor (though I did). I doubted that with my skin color and with my eyes, I had the bravery to pursue something which I really, truly enjoyed and loved.
I’m Asian American. There aren’t many Asian American actors on screen, certainly not ones who look like me. And yet, this decision of mine still haunts me: did I believe that I wasn’t good enough because there was no one who looked like me on the big screen or small screen? Did I lack role models who could show me that being Asian or being Asian American is okay and something that should be celebrated? Is it because there has only been one woman of Asian descent ever nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress? Or did I genuinely believe that I wasn’t good enough? I still could not tell you. But through my guilt I have found ways to be supportive of Asian Americans and Asians in entertainment, ways that I will share with you:
Before the War by Fay Weldon
– I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review. –
Published by St. Martin’s Press on 14 Mar 2017
Goodreads | Amazon
London, 1922. It’s a cold November morning, the station is windswept and rural, the sky is threatening snow, and the train is late. Vivien Ripple, 20 years old and an ungainly five foot eleven, waits on the platform at Dilberne Halt. She is wealthy and well-bred—only daughter to the founder of Ripple & Co, the nation’s top publisher—but plain, painfully awkward, and, perhaps worst of all, intelligent. Nicknamed “the giantess,” Vivvie is, in the estimation of most, already a spinster. But she has a plan. That very morning, Vivvie will ride to the city with the express purpose of changing her life forever.
Enter Sherwyn Sexton: charismatic, handsome—if, to his dismay, rather short. He’s an aspiring novelist and editor at Ripple & Co whose greatest love is the (similarly handsome, but taller) protagonist of his thriller series. He also has a penchant for pretty young women—single and otherwise. Sherwyn is shocked when his boss’s hulking daughter, dressed in a tweed jacket and moth-eaten scarf, strides into his office and asks for his hand in marriage. But his finances are running thin to support his regular dinners on the town, and Vivien’s promise to house him in comfort while he writes is simply too good to refuse. What neither of them know is that she is pregnant by another man, and will die in childbirth in just a few months…
Berlin
After sweating it out in Italy, I couldn’t wait to spend the last week of my summer vacation in Berlin. If you’re looking for a place to go that has a comfortable summer temperature, Berlin is the place.