Sweet, sweet summertime

Hi. -hides in shame-

I know it's been quite a while, but HELLO! Freshman year of college was stressful beyond belief, but now I'm home and loving the sweet summertime. Finals were death, but I'm slowly fixing my sleep schedule, too.

I hope you've all had a good past few months. SO sorry that I couldn't post anything. Everything's been so hectic lately. Since the last post quite a few things have happened:

• I had spring break! I got to see my friends back home and celebrate Tae's birthday
• I went to Washington DC to see their famous cherry blossoms (see above)
• My school had their spring fair, which was super SUPER fun (least sober weekend on campus, but I just chilled and watched everyone else haha)
• My 1-year anniversary with Tae! <3
• Reading week and getting very very sick during that
• Finishing finals and everything else
• FINISHING FRESHMAN YEAR

I 100% promise that I'll be posting more this summer (to the point where you guys will be like, why are you posting so much).

I'm actually going to Italy in a few days so I'm off to planning that trip! If any of you have places you recommend in Florence, Rome, or Venice, please let me know! :) I will definitely be uploading pictures from there when I come back (and maybe throwing in more of my London/Paris pictures). I've been a bad blogger, but I'm trying to get better so work with me here.

Have a beaaaautiful May and day. :)

Roses and Candy Hearts

"Kisses are a better fate than wisdom." - E. E. Cummings

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hi, everyone. Hope you're all having a great February so far! Happy happy Valentine's Day! For the first time ever, I have a lovely Valentine this year. We actually ended up celebrating last week because next week I have two huge midterms for school so I need to focus and study this weekend.

Aww. :)

First we went to this dessert place in Little Italy called Vaccaro's. We had absolutely no idea what to get so we went with the sampler, and it was amazing. We were so full by the end of it that we couldn't even finish it.

It came with two cannolis, two huge cream puffs, and some other Italian cookies that we didn't pay much attention to haha. Next time we're skipping everything else and just going straight for the cannolis. Neither of us had ever had a cannoli before, but I can't imagine anything being much better than those.

Afterwards, we walked around a bit and then headed for the aquarium (the building with the pointy triangle roof in the picture above). I ended up somehow losing the tickets in those two hours before we went in and I honestly still have no idea where they went. The people at the aquarium were really nice about it and we showed them our receipt so they let us in. :)

Tae had never been there before while I had been there who knows how many times. Right before we saw the giant sea turtle, I told him how in fifth grade there was a turtle with only 3 legs. I honestly couldn't believe it was still there haha it's adorable! When it came to us, it lifted its head out of the water and then kept swimming. (Turtles are one of our favorite animals, which explains our excitement.)

It's NEMO.

The aquarium was so much fun because it reminded us of when we were kids. We kept staring at the fish swimming and laughing at the most random things. When we left, neither of us were that hungry (oops for eating dessert first!) so we went to Corner Bakery and got their delicious mac and cheese for dinner.

Overall, it was an amazing (early) Valentine's Day, and I can't wait for many more to come. But tonight it'll just be my textbooks and me. Sigh. College life is hard. (Although I can't complain too much because we got hit with about 17 inches of snow and got 2 snow days out of it!!)

Hope you all had/are having a wonderful Valentine's Day! What I've learned over the years is that it's not about being in a relationship or being single, it's about celebrating love in general. Love your friends, love your family, love your significant other, but most importantly, love yourself.

I'm still learning how to do that, but I think we all are.

Two

"It's beautiful here and we're still unhappy." - Ian McEwan, Enduring Love

In the spirit of Chinese New Year that happened this past Friday, I've decided to post some other pictures from my trip to China back in June/July. I've been meaning to blog about my summer trips to China and Europe for a while now, but I could never bring myself to. So here's a collection of unedited (can't be bothered to edit them, ha) photos from China. These were taken on my trip to Qiandaohu and Hangzhou, both beautiful, beautiful places to be. Unfortunately, I went during rainy season, but fortunately, the fog is also beautiful.

The scariest monkeys ever.

At one point, it was raining so hard that the path to get back on the boat was drenched in water. We had to take off our shoes and go barefoot to prevent our already soaking wet sneakers from getting even more destroyed. Thankfully all of the rain meant that it wasn't as humid as it usually was in China! There wasn't a single sunny day though during this part of our trip, and towards the end, I wished that we didn't have to take our umbrellas literally everywhere.

I definitely loved this part of my China trip the most though. If any of you have the chance, you should definitely consider going to Qiandaohu or Hangzhou! But anyway, 新年快乐 to all of you! Hope February's been treating you well so far.

And on that note, I should go back to studying physics and organic chemistry. Sigh. Happy Groundhog Day and Happy Super Bowl Sunday!! I can't wait to watch soon. (Anyone have any ideas for who will win?)

Until next time!

Hello

"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art--write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself." - Neil Gaiman

After over 4 months of not blogging, I've redesigned my blog and decided that I want to come back. It's been a crazy 4 months of my life, but now that I'm back, I'm ready to start documenting again. College has definitely been an experience to say the least, and I definitely have a love/hate relationship with it. I'm not ready to go back to second semester in under two weeks, but all that I keep in mind is that summer is a few months away.

That being said, I met a lot of people, went on adventures, and just lived for a while. College isn't all fun and games as some people say--it's a ton of hard work and late nights, but in the end, I'm telling myself that it'll all be worth it.

I have a ton (no exaggeration this time, a few thousand pictures from the summer and hundreds more from the past few months) of pictures to post so I can't wait to get back in the routine of posting on here. My goal is to post at least once every two weeks (hoping to post even more than that). I miss talking to people on here.

And if you want to keep up with my photos as they come, follow me on Instagram. My username is ambzhang!

Anyhow, I hope all of you are doing well. Good luck with school and the new year! (A little bit late, but better late than never, right?)

Small Update.

So much has happened since I last blogged.

I went to Europe, turned 18, and went to college.

Many, many posts to come in the very near future. Hope you guys have an amazing school year. :)

China ( i )

It's been a while. I left for China right before I last posted and came back on July 9th, three weeks ago. I'm so bad at this blogging thing now, but I promise to get better. So here's part 1 of my trip to China!! I'm sorry if everything's a little jumbled (it was so long ago), but I wanted to show you all that I'm still alive before I disappear for a little bit. Because well...I'm heading off to EUROPE! I'm so unbelievably excited, and I can't wait to blog for you guys when I come back!

Going to China was more like a family visit than a vacation. I first went to visit my dad's side of the family and took a day trip to Suzhou. I always visit Suzhou just because I love the atmosphere and all of the small stores where I can buy random things for my friends haha. I stumbled upon this bubble tea place (chain restaurant) called Coco while in Suzhou, and let's just say...I didn't stop drinking it for the rest of the 2.5 weeks I was in China. Definitely recommend going there for any avid bubble tea drinkers like me. It was only 7 yuan, too, which is roughly a little over $1 here in America. Can you say love. It was insanely humid when I went, and it also happened to rain a TON. I've never been so drenched in my life before. But I loved the food (and the prices for the food).

But I have to go now! My flight to Europe is calling my name. Hope you've all been doing well! See you in August when I come back. :)

Growing Up

"Summer was here again. Summer, summer, summer. I loved and hated summers. Summers had a logic all their own and they always brought something out in me. Summer was supposed to be about freedom and youth and no school and possibilities and adventure and exploration. Summer was a book of hope. That's why I loved and hated summers. Because they made me want to believe." - Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Here we are on prom night, something that happened over a month ago. They say that everything passes you by so quickly and you never believe them till it happens right before your very eyes. I've spent the last month trying to live. And all it did was make me realize how much I can't wait to move into that apartment and explore.

A lot has happened since May 11th. Tae and I did so much because yesterday, June 19th, was his last day in America until August. It's going to be so killer to be away for that long, but I know we'll make it through it. Even though we didn't come close to doing all the things we planned on doing, it's okay. That only leaves more adventures and more memories for the future.

Not to mention that I also graduated high school a week ago. I'm officially an alumni with a high school diploma, and let me tell you: it is so weird. I've spent my whole life here, and now that it's all over, I can't believe how fast everything is passing me by. I've had so many near sleepless nights this year, but I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't miss it. I'm going to miss everything so much. High school might have unnecessary drama and what we think to be "a lot of work," but it's been easily the best four years of my life.

To the Class of 2013, we made it. And here's to the rest of our lives.

-----

P.S. - Please follow me on bloglovin' now that Google Reader is leaving so we can still keep up with each other's blogs. :)

Fifty Facts

1. If I ever won the lottery, I would use it to nonstop travel.
2. I have an obsession with alt/indie rock. I don't know why, but it makes me feel so good inside.
3. A part of my heart will always be in San Francisco.
4. I hate when people read what I write which is ironic because I blog. A lot.
5. I am unbelievably indecisive.
6. I love looking at desserts and bakeries. There's just something about cupcakes and cute French desserts.
7. I am graduating high school on June 10th!
8. I really like time zones.
9. I love lights--city lights, Christmas lights, all of it.
10. I am in love with nature and taking hikes.
11. I've recently realized how scared I am of endings. (Not like finishing a project or something but like finishing a new part of my life.)
12. Calculus is love.
13. I can't bring myself to read often even though I think it'd be nice if I did.
14. I would love a city lifestyle with places easy to access and tons of stores everywhere.
15. I find stargazing to be amazing.
16. I thrive for the summer heat. I most likely won't complain about the heat, but I will always complain about the cold. It's just painful.
17. I love having four seasons, but I sometimes wish I could have palm trees outside my window and a crystal blue sky.
18. I don't like the idea of growing up.
19. I still get nervous before public speaking even though I don't mind it as much anymore.
20. I collect keychains.
21. I hope to visit all 50 states one day.
22. I don't like old books. And especially their musty smell.
23. I don't like the library, but I could live at Barnes and Noble. (Unused, new books are amazing.)
24. I'm not a fan of watching movies even though I've watched 3 in the past 2 weeks.
25. I never get enough sleep, and one day I'm afraid something bad is going to happen because of it.
26. I don't like the night. The sun is beautiful.
27. I wish I could be better at athletics. I play tennis and run track for school, but I still wish I could've done better.
28. I hate hate hate letting people down.
29. I'm pretty sure I'm an insomniac. I can fall asleep easily now though because I'm horribly sleep deprived.
30. I love soft pretzels with mustard.
31. I wish I were a good singer.
32. I remember a lot of random facts and moments.
33. I am a huge fan of roller coasters and amusement parks.
34. I'll eat chocolate, but I could live without it.
35. Swedish Fish, gummy bears, and peach rings are love.
36. I don't get the craze for froyo, but I'm not that picky of an eater.
37. I've never been to a concert, and I really want to.
38. One day at camp a bunch of us wore fake nerd glasses, but everyone thought mine were real. I don't have working glasses though because I've been wearing night contacts since the 4th grade.
39. I wish I had an accent.
40. I've never fallen asleep in class no matter how little sleep I got the night before.
41. I've never pulled an allnighter and that fact surprises literally everyone.
42. I love snail mail. I wish I had pen pals.
43. I'm afraid of the first few days of college because I'm bad at being socially unawkward with people I don't know.
44. I love minimalist design and the color white (even though pink is my favorite color).
45. I can already picture how I want my office to be.
46. I love giraffes, and no one understands why.
47. I really like buying new shoes.
48. I want a typewriter and a polaroid camera one day along with a record player.
49. I got a Wreck This Journal a few years ago for my birthday, but I'm too afraid to actually use it because I'm afraid I'll ruin it. Which pretty much defeats the whole purpose of the book.
50. I'm terrible at physics.

Goodbye, Senior Year

"Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia. . . . You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you'll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present." - John Green, Looking for Alaska

May 10th was my last day of high school. Ever. It should've been more sad, and I kind of feel guilty for not feeling as sad as other people were, but to be honest, it felt liberating. I also had an AP test that day (I love statistics...) so I wasn't really focused on the whole end-of-the-year sadness. I woke up at 5:40 that day to go to the traditional tailgate in the old parking lot. It was honestly such a nice feeling to stand around in the rising sun. Everything was perfect.

After the tailgate, we all went inside for to live through the most bittersweet day ever. We did nothing in our classes, but Tae, being the sweetheart that he is, baked me brownies, and it was the cutest. I wanted to do something, too, but again, AP Statistics called...

I'm going to miss the whole experience so so much, but at the same time, I'm ready to move on. It's been an amazing four years--high school has truly been the time of my life. And as fast as it's gone (unbelievably, of course), I can't help but want to get that diploma in my hand and be on my way to college. I get to spend this summer with my closest friends and Tae, and I couldn't ask for much more to end this chapter of my life.

Soon to come: a post about PROM! Sorry for the huge delay--I've been too tired to update, and I've been busy going out and relaxing. :) But expect that post in the next few days. Hope you've all been doing well.