March favorites: Healthy snacks

Before getting started on this post, I'd like to wish everyone a 

HAPPY EASTER!

Like I mentioned in the previous post, college life can get pretty hectic. With all the exams, projects, and activities going on, it's not only hard to make time with friends (here's some fun suggestions!) but also very challenging to stay healthy. As a HUGE foodie (proud carb-lover and desserts-fanatic~~), it's definitely difficult to stay away from those late night carbs and sweets. So for this month's favorites are all the things I enjoy doing for fun that are both healthy and not too time consuming! (February's favorites: inspiration quotes on dreams.)

1. Matcha latte. Matcha is such a great source of antioxidants and is super healthy. Take a small spoonful of matcha powder, 1 cup of milk (or soymilk/almond milk in my case), and a teaspoon+ of honey and blend it till it's nice and frothy! Now you have a delicious morning drink! Check out my sister's recipe!
2. Peach milk tea. If you've never had peach tea before, you're definitely missing out. And if you've never had peach milk tea, you're missing out X2! It is such a delicious and refreshing drink. Although it's can be hard to make authentic milk teas at home, all you really need is a (few) bag of peach oolong tea and some milk and honey! The end result is quite refreshing!
3. Oatmeal, pumpkin pancakes. I know some people really dislike the texture of oatmeal. Me? I really like oatmeal personally, but for those who don't, trying blending up the oatmeal into flour and using it to make pancakes! Add in some pumpkin puree for added nutrients!
4. Frozen bananas. As the weather gets warmer and warmer (especially LA!!), a chilling and sweet snack is a must. Cut the bananas into smaller chunks and freeze them in a bag. They'll take wonderful! You can also do this with grapes!

Thanks for sticking with me! Hope you find something fun to make for this week!

What are some of your favorite snacks?

How did you spend Easter?
I went to church and blessed by the testimonies that were shared!

Balancing college life with studies!

The start of this week was quite hectic. I had a Biochemistry midterm on Tuesday, but I had also plans to hang out with friends during the weekend. It's hard to balance hanging out with friends and studying for exams, so how can you do that without pulling all-nighters?

During exam times, my favorite thing to with friends is to study together at a small cafe! Let your friends know that you have an upcoming exam, and most likely they'll agree to the suggestion. When we arrive at the cafe, we purchase a drink and a small snack, talk for 20-30 minutes, and set off to do work. In this way, you have hang out, talk, and study for that upcoming exam~ After a few hours--if you're up for it--go out to eat lunch/dinner together!

Studying at a cafe and then going out to eat afterwards can be quite pricey, but there are many other ways to have fun studying with friends:

• Study and have a short baking session!
• Study and make lunch/dinner for each other!
• Study and watch a short episode of a drama/anime every few hours!

Studying shouldn't be boring, and it shouldn't be all-consuming! It's so important to hang out with your friends and make long-lasting and meaningful relationships in college. These relationships will last a lifetime! Even if you're an introvert like me, be sure to push yourself to spend time with your friends. Studying by yourself may be good during crunch time, but studying with friends can also prevent you from getting distracted. If you see others studying, you're more apt to study as well.

Here's what I did this weekend!

Saturday: Studying at Paris Baguette in K-town with my sister and mutual friend!

 

My Look! They're matching~ This cup stole my twin :( hahaha~

Sunday: Studying at school and eating pasta afterwards!

   

Overall, my studying was actually quite productive! While We did get off track a little bit, I still did more studying than if I were by myself. Moreover, I'd rather get distracted with friends than get distracted just surfing the web. :)

What do you guys do to study and hang out with friends?

Natural products expo west, Anaheim, CA

This last weekend was the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim! My sister and I decided to attend with my dad, who was already planning to check it out. The tickets was a bit expensive, but luckily they have educational passes for less.

Of course, I went to the expo more so to get business experience and to complete one of my business class assignments than to conduct business deals. Overall, it was a great opportunity for me to see how people market their products/brands to others. I had a lot of fun learning about different foods, supplements, and beauty products! I think the only downside was that people are there to conduct business and not to talk to students, so sometimes, it was quite obvious when they didn't want to talk to me...

Expo West is definitely one of the largest expo's around! There were 71,000+ attendees and 2,700+ exhibitors! That's a lot of people! While I was there, I also noticed many countries represented--there were many people speaking different languages!

 

Of course, there were lots of good foods to try out. One company was celebrating its 20th year, so it was giving out free alcohol and cupcakes! I decided to try some alcoholic drinks this time--I never drink--and my face became so red! I was so embarrassed~~ (Disclaimer: I'm over 21, so no worries!) :)

 

Some of the exhibits were simple, while others were more extravagant. Has anyone had ThinkThin bars? They're actually pretty good--thick and chewy! Unfortunately the bars contain fake sugar, which doesn't always make me feel good. Nonetheless, they're a good on-the-go snack! The exhibit on the right was for a body & skincare products. Their display was so pretty--and smelled great! They had dried flowers on the ground! There's actually a lot more flowers on the ground than you can see in the photos; I guess the photo didn't capture it too well! 

 

 

The photo on the top right was marketing essential oils. Their marketing technique was brilliant, because they got people to interact with them by offering people the chance to DIY their own foot scrubs! Isn't the display so cute?  The top right photo was some of the samples I got to try at the expo! I love the chia pods--great for breakfast and snacks! The bottom two was offered by Chobani. Did you know they have their own cafe in New York City? Well, they came over to LA and made pancakes, granola + yogurt, muffins, cookies, and much more for their audience! The snacks were so delicious! 

I had a great time at the expo, trying different foods and meeting different people. It was also a great opportunity to see how my dad interacts with other business people! I'm so grateful that my professor had us to go see a trade show/expo, and this is a fun and exciting experience for anyone in studying business! Expo tickets can be pretty pricey, but often times, they have discounts for educational purposes! Take advantage of being a student~ :)

Has any of you ever attended an expo before? What was it about? I'm excited to know~

Life & Costume Construction

Time passes so quickly--it's already the third week of school! Luckily I've finalized my schedule. I'm taking 21 units this semester (5 units more than usual). I'm actually quite nervous about taking this many classes and worried that it may affect my grades negatively. However, since this is my last semester, I really wanted to take some interesting classes. I really want to choose classes that I can learn from and use in the future!

One fun class I'm taking this semester is called Costume Construction. In this class, I learn how to sew, read patterns, alter patterns, and ultimately create my own "vintage" outfit! Doesn't that sound exciting?? The first assignment is making pajamas! Although it sounds a bit cheesy, pajama shorts are relatively simple to make--perfect for the beginners~

 

This was my first time visiting the Fashion District in Los Angeles. I was a little nervous, because I've never ben there. However, it was overall a very fun experience. There were many little stores, each with lots and lots of different types of fabrics. The ones pictured above were from Michael Levine. Michael Levine is one of the bigger fabric and more organized fabric stores. They have such variety and such cute designs! I definitely want to check it out again. 

The photo on the right was my first assignment for the Costume Construction course. I learned a lot of different stitches! They weren't as different as I thought they'd be, but still, I need lots more practice because I am comfortable with sewing! Overall, the experience was fun, exciting, and new!

This is my first time working with patterns! Like I mentioned earlier, these are patterns for pajama shorts! I'm using a soft, pink knit fabric. I'm sure it end up very comfy...however, I am a little worried about how well I'll be able to make it! This is my first time, but at least it's a step in the learning the process! 

I've always wanted to learn to sew, and this is my chance! I'm super excited!

What is something that you've always wanted to learn? How do you plan on accomplishing it? <3

End of finals = start of BREAK!

Finals are finally OVER! Hooray~ After a week of torture and sleeplessness, I am finally done! I'm super excited for the winter break and for family/friend time!

Anyways, once again--praise God!--lots of good things happened despite it being finals week. My bestie (who graduated last year) came over Monday afternoon to spend time with us. She took my sister and I (who have no car :P) out to eat some yummy Korean food in Koreatown. I was definitely surprised by how much food we received for $30 total. I felt like I was eating at an all-you-can eat buffet! The food was very delicious and unique. Yum yum.

Seafood jja jang myun (huge!!)

4 King dumplings and 8 spicy shrimp dumplings~ 

After dinner, we went to grab some coffee/drinks at Document Coffee Bar! It's such a cute place, so if anyone is ever in Los Angeles, definitely check it out! They have the BEST homemade hot chocolate! They make their own Belgium chocolate (which is on a wooden spool) that you swirl around in hot, frothy milk! What a amazing (and not super-duper sweet) drink!

Unfortunately, we went there to study, and to our disappointment, they close at 9PM--we came at like 8:30...So we got kicked out shortly after ordering >__< sigghhh. Had to go back to the apartment to study. I guess everything worked out in the end anyways, hahaha.

Do you have any favorite coffee house or cafe?

End of the semester

I can't believe time has passed so quickly! It seemed like only yesterday that I was freshman in college. Now I'll be graduating in May! Although this last week was extremely busy and time-consuming (every class was trying to squeeze in last-minute projects and assignments), I was able to have lots of fun with friends!

During Thanksgiving break, I went to visit some family friends in San Diego. It was such a fun and exciting experience. I was definitely existed to see them again, as they moved to SD during the summer. My sister and I stayed from Friday to Sunday, spending time with my friends (playing Monopoly!! XD hahaha) and drinking tea with the 阿姨 (ayi - auntie). It was such a fun experience.

Tea set. These tea cups are so tiny and so cute. I can probably take 3 sips XD hahaha

We also went to Potato Chip Rock, a 8-mile, almost completely uphill hike. It was so exhausting, but so rewarding, too. I think everyone became quiet later on during the trip because it was so tiring. XD

Route to Mount Woodson, San Diego

Mount Woodson Trail in San Diego 

Not me, lol. The lines were too long, so I just took a picture and left :P

After coming back from Thanksgiving break, my sister and I worked on this group project--creating a 90 second video pitch for our make-believe fashion/apparel brand. We used this program called VideoScribe. If anyone's looking for a good quality video-making program, VideoScribe is pretty awesome. Sadly it costs money, but there's a 7-day free trial (which we used) that allows you to publish the video with the VideoScribe logo. I personally wouldn't pay, just because I don't think I would have the chance to use it again. However, through this video-making project, I realized just how much I enjoy making, editing videos. I love anything involving creativity, and video-making just made that list of favorites!

On Wednesday, I went out with my girlfriends from our Senior Bible Study to have an end-of-the-semester dinner. We ate at Shinsengumi, an amazing ramen place. If anyone is in the LA area, Shinsengumi (and Daikokuya) are a definite must to check out~~

Hakata ramen--so delicious!!

Lastly, yesterday, my church had an Women's Christmas Breakfast. My church is "famous" for its love of food and for providing delicious food. We have delicious breakfast burritos and many homemade snacks and pastries. I also came home with a cute goodie bag of Diddy Reese cookies~~ <3 hehehe. Unfortunately I forgot to take many photos T__T Here's some yummy punch though XD

So cute, right? It has some sparking water, pineapple juice, other juices, cranberries, and lemon slices! <3

This week may been filled with assignments and projects, but it was definitely a fun and exciting one. Thanks for "hanging out" with me and listening to my life!!

How have you guys been? Did you have a good Thanksgiving? Are you excited for the Christmas season?

Portland, OR, and a pharm school interview

Hi everyone! Sorry for the long time no-show! It's been crazy busy recently, but I hope to be updating regularly soon~

Last weekend, I went back home to have a late birthday celebration with my parents and to attend my UW pharmacy school interview! It was such a hectic weekend. Right after landing in PDX, my sister and I went to interview people for our Entreprenuership class. Luckily those interviews went very well: the owners were very welcoming and eager to answer our questions! I felt blessed to have the opportunity to learn from them.

If you have the chance to visit Portland, you really must check out Bridge & Burn and Sweet Jayne. Bridge & Burn is a apparel brand and its clothing are very simple and utilitarian; the clothing are on the more expensive side. Sweet Jayne, on the other hand, is a local boutique that carries affordable and cute street wear; it works with some local, Portland designers!

Bridge & Burn; photo from their blog

Sweet Jayne; photo from their Facebook page

So after the fun was prepping for my pharmacy school interview! It was such a stressful process, and I was completely nerve-wrecked. Actually the interview went worse than I expected, and I actually started tearing up towards the end because of a combination of stress, nerves, and sensitive topics on ethics. I was ready to start applying to other schools and prepping for more interviews, but praise God for His goodness! I got in! I will soon be a pharmacy student!

I know pharmacy school will be very hectic and busy, but I still hope to pursue my more artsy passions. I still want to start my own brand or apparel/streetwear boutique sometime within the next couple years, but before that, I really need to get some industry knowledge--that's why I'm taking these entrepreneurship classes!

Anyways, a lot of stress has been lifted. It's back to school work and studying for exams! hahaha. I'm definitely going to start posting more, too!

Fashion, fashion, fashion industry

You know how a couple days ago I posted about going into the skin care industry? Well, I changed to the fashion industry instead. However, there's no doubt that I would love to be involved in both industries, and I will continue to try to interview and understand the skin care industry. Just for my class concentration, finding an entrepreneur to interview in the fashion industry is much easier than for the skin care industry, since most brands are big brands, making it difficult to contact the founder for an interview.

Anywho, I went to Melrose to find some cute boutiques to ask salesclerks and owners about the fashion industry. They were all very nice and were even willing to take pictures (yay, extra points for my assignment)! How exciting~~ Some of the boutiques had super cute clothing, however, sadly, my wallet is currently pretty sad. I feel bad that I couldn't buy anything when the interviewees were sweet and nice.

I did go to Wasteland though! Wasteland is super cool, but it is on the more expensive side. However, the interior decoration and styles available are totally superb~ Check out the Yelp page here <3

Dress: Cheap Monday ($18) 

Skirt: unknown ($15)

What's your price range for consignment/vintage items?

Crazy weekend of 164 cookies

This weekend was extremely busy, extremely stressful. However, it was most definitely an interesting and unique experience. For my entrepreneurship class, students were given three days to plan and four hours to execute a fundraiser for an organization called Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), which provides inner-city kids with the opportunity to learn entrepreneurial skills.

First my group of five identified two opportunities: game day and midterms week. Since USC games are extremely popular and many alumni return to campus to enjoy home games, we recognized that if we were to sell a service or product during that time, we would be able to have a large audience to target. The second opportunity was midterms week. Everyone is stressed, and stress induces food cravings. A simple way to fundraise would be to target those stress cravings.

Our first approach was to sell raffle tickets during tailgates. However, after 30minutes of selling the tickets, we realized that there was too much competition from other teams. Moreover, our prizes had a very specific target audience, and this target was too difficult to find. People wanted to focus on the football game and not have their attention taking away by students offering tickets for autographs.

In order to avoid the competition and overcome our narrow target consumers, we decided to switch to selling cookies at night when students were stressed out preparing for their midterms. Because we would go around knocking from door-to-door, we provided the benefit of convenience and craving-satisfaction.

Basically made 10 plates of cookies. How crazy!

By realizing that the first idea was unlikely to succeed, we were able to change a venture, find a new target consumer, and raise a profit of $146 in 3.5 hours. However, because we had to bake over 160 cookies, we were limited in selling time. By the time we finish baking the cookies, we had only 1.5-2 hours to sell before 11pm. Any later than 11pm, people start going to sleep. As a result, we split the remaining 3.5 hours into two nights, Saturday and Sunday.

Sadly, our group teamwork wasn’t too great. While there was no fighting or arguments, the work fell heavily on me and another girl. It ended up that we made all the cookies and sold approximately 110 cookies while the other three people in the group sold a total of around 50 cookies. In fact, two teammates were gone for the weekend, and Sunday night—Monday was the deadline--one had to work till 11pm, another was stuck outside California and didn’t contact the group at all, and the last sold cookies for an hour before commuting back home.

In the end, I learned the importance of communication among group members and the need for a group committed to the same goals.  Additionally, I learned that it’s important not to get stuck trying to think of a “great idea,” especially when an easy source of revenue was already available—selling cookies to stressed out students.  During the process, I saw that pitching played an important aspect in successful sales: long pitches are less likely to succeed. People want to know what you have to offer without listening to a 30 second pitch. Tell the customer what you have to offer and how they benefit. 

This was definitely one crazy weekend of 164 cookies. So much baking, so much stress, but ultimately many lessons learned.

Discovering the skin care industry + mini haul

School has gotten extremely busy recently...particularly for my entrepreneurship class. There's a constant barrage of assignments and projects. The big ones are:

1. interviewing 3 "strangers" in a chosen industry (mine is skin care)
2. fundraise over $200 in 4 hrs for a particular nonprofit group (given 2 days to prep)

I just completed the first assignment (the interviews) today. I went with my sister to a nearby high-end mall, using Lyft and Uber, since we don't have cars. We just went around the mall, looking for different skin care brands and talking to managers. Some of the brands we interviewed were LUSH, Benefit, Origins, Estee lauder, and Skin Food.

At first, I was super intimidated and afraid that each interview would go badly. However, they all went pretty smoothly, and all the managers were super sweet and easy to talk to. I learned so much from the skin care industry and skin care trends--particularly from the retail end. It was definitely a great learning experience! I know for sure I would never have done something like this if not for the class--the class is really pushing me out of my comfort zone, but it's definitely helping me become a better speaker and communicator. 

Anyways, because I had the opportunity to check out lots of different skin care brands at the mall, I ended up purchasing lots of products from Skin Food and LUSH...good and fun experience, but bad for my wallet >___< 

Skin Food
Wildberry Milk Cleansing Cream ($9.40)
Black Sugar Mask samples (x5)
Avocado Rich Toner sample
Green Tea Mask ($2.00)
Potiron Au Lait Essence Mask ($3.50)

LUSH
BB Seaweed Mask ($6.95)
Full of Grace Serum ($14.95)

LUSH packaging - isn't this cute? So artsy!

The other project will happen tomorrow. Some people in my group have contacts with some semi-famous individuals. We're hoping to raffle off autographs and a small, $20 Chick-fil-a gift card at our school's home football game. Once again, I'm pretty worried about how this will turn out. But hopefully lots of people will be interested not just in buying and winning raffles but also in donating towards a good cause. 

I will update you all to let you know how this fundraiser went~

What types non-profit groups or charities would you guys love to work with?

The busy but enjoyable student life

Hello everyone~ Sorry for being so inactive. Recently I've been quite busy with school, but it's also been a blast. This is the first semester I'm not taking any science courses. Nevertheless, I love all my classes so far--I might go as far to claim that these are my favorite classes! I'm taking classes on entrepreneurship, microeconomics, public speaking, upper division business writing, and psychology statistics. It's a wide variety, but somehow many of these classes also relate to each other. That just makes everything more interesting though!

One thing I've noticed from taking these courses are that science professors (at least in my experience) aren't very involved in their student's growth and learning process. For the majority of the science courses I've taken, it's always been three professors teaching--that makes it very hard to get to know any one professor. Furthermore, science classes aren't very interactive, but that might just be the nature of this major. The professors in my current courses are super into interacting with the students, and it makes me want to be more involved as well! This year is probably the first year I've been raising my hand to answer questions or to participate in discussions and to actually sort of enjoy it.

Prepping for Finals Week

The never-ending of tests and projects has finally come to an end...almost. I finished classes Friday and am now "preparing" for exams. In reality, I'm actually preparing for my Christian Group's senior send-off. It's the responsibility of the juniors to prepare the banquet--that includes the table decorations, the room decorations, the seating arrangement, the food, the entertainment, etc. It's been a very stressful but rewarding experience. I'll give you guys an update on the table decorations soon (that's what I'm in charge of).

Anyways, today at Church, my discipler gave me a care package for finals week. It was just super sweet of her. She also made me a super cute card~ My discipler is a young adult who's older and more mature than me in my faith. She helps me with my spiritual growth; she's someone I consider a friend and role-model!



For lunch, I made this Kabocha rice! It's really easy. Just microwave for 5 minutes, cut off the top, microwave for another 5 minutes, add in some frozen rice, frozen veggies (my left-overs XD), some salt, pepper, and soy sauce, and microwave for another 6 minutes~

I ate a third of the entire kabocha...while this doesn't look like a lot, it's actually a huge portion. It's really filling and savory~~

Let's talk: Comparisons

I love being a twin, and my sister is superb and amazing, but there's one problem that comes with growing up and living the same life style...comparison. It's not that others compare me to her, but that I compare myself to her. She tends to do better educationally -- grades, MCATs, SATs, etc. -- and I get stressed out emotionally that I can't "keep up" with her. I know that we're different people, but the fact that we study together and do almost everything together makes it difficult for me to accept that I can't do as well as her.

However, I'm trying to learn how to handle the situation. As a Christian, I believe that God is trying to tell me that life isn't about grades and that grades don't determine what type of person you are. I've been living life considering my grades as my worth, and that's horrible! I know in my head that grades and how well you do in school doesn't make you a better or worse person. Although grades may be important in finding a job or getting into graduate school, I shouldn't be crying and stressing out over getting an average score -- or just below average score -- on a college exam.

Sometimes, I have too high of an expectation of myself, and I can't get over it when I don't meet that expectation. It's very really easy for me to see a number and assign worth to myself from that value, but I know that God is trying to change that in my life. My family, my friends, and my God loves me as I am. All I need to do is try my best. :)

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