Hi everyone! I got back from Vietnam last week, which was earlier than expected because the trip was extremely bad and unfortunately this time around, my sister and I couldn’t rough it out another ten days. I could go into detail about why it was bad, but I think I’ve done enough bitching about it already, so moving on (: !

Before I went to Vietnam, I went to Virginia Beach with my friends. It was really awesome because Kaye managed to get us a discounted price for a hotel with an ocean front view. Weee! Imagine staying at a hotel and seeing the beach from your balcony, it was mad nice! Although, the parking at the hotel sucked so we ran into a corner while attempting to park and scratched Sunny’s dad’s van D: ! Aside from that bad luck, the beach was really sunny and it only rained in the evening when we were going to eat dinner, so no t`was no problem.

On the way there, we saw this pretty bad ass biker. So all of us pulled out our DSLRs (except for Sunny because he was driving and except for Cali because he sucks and does not own one) to take pictures of him. I was afraid he was the scary kind that might kill us for taking his picture, but he saw us and waved/smiled so I snapped away :{D

I also have to point out that this guy has a beast license plate. For everyone who can’t read it, it says, “2 SEK Z” XD~

My friends have, for some reason, grown to calling each other a bitch, or just throwing around the word so excessively that it’s very casual amongst us (and we forget that other people aren’t in our joke so we call them it too D: ) so this I found this t-shirt amusing.

On the boardwalk~

View from our balcony~

Another angle.

Kiddies digging a hole.

Kiddies buried me in the hole D:

Afterward, we had to drive out to Kyushu for dinner because all of the restaurants on the boardwalk seemed really low quality for the obnoxious price they were asking for. For a tiny restaurant in the middle of nowhere, it was freaking amazing!

Miso Soup

Spicy mussels

Cucumber & octopus salad(?) & other pickled veggies.

Onigiri

Tempura

I believe this is Cali’s sushi platter?

My sushi platter

Phana’s sushi platter (?)

& Sunny’s sushi platter (I think..)

Okay, I’m going to be honest and say that I don’t remember who this belongs to… Cali’s?

Kaye’s rice & egg bowl.

MY vanilla creme brulee~ There was a little hand drawn sign behind us that did some good advertising because it made me crave some, but I was dyslexic/ignorant-with-french-pronunciations & accidentally read “cream bruce lee” D:

We are all highly attractive people, I know.

After dinner, we went for a walk around the boardwalk at night.

Sand texture after the rain.

We caught the end of a band playing. I have no idea what they called but they had an amazing bass (the giant orchestra bass) player.

Hermit crabs with painted shells climbing on teh cage.

A colorful little amusement park.

Along the boardwalk at night, Kaye & Phana got their ears pierced for a really reasonable price compared to what they charge here in Northern Virginia. Kaye got her cartilage pierced and Phana got a really smexy industrial. I wanted to get extra piercings on my ears too, but since it was right before Vietnam, I didn’t think I could hide my piercings for a month over there with my parents D:~ Shamee! Maybe next time we go down.

We were exhausted that night, but wanted to wake up in time to see the sunrise on the beach. Unfortunately we slept through ALL of our alarms (except for Phana who did wake up and then went to go turn them off =_=;;) so these were the closest to sunrise pictures that I could get D:

This has been my towel since the elementary years <3

Mexican Institute of Sound/ Yo Digo Baila (Bufi Remix) by MexicanInstituteofSound
I think this track is banging & you should too.

This is turning out to the most exhausting summer vacation of my life. Most of the time, I’ve spent my summer vacations literally just laying around every single day on the computer & work. That’s it. That’s what my summer vacations have been like, extremely dull. However, with all of these new friends I’ve made this past school year, I’ve been continuously dragged out a lot & I’m exhausted! Work work work, play play play, work, play, work, play, work. I have yet to have a day where I just sit around and do nothing. Maybe today will be that day since I have a day off & I’m technically grounding myself because I have to finish cleaning out my old room today o; Either way, I’m not complaining, just observing. I’m going back to the homeland for a month so at least I’ll have a forced month break from work & these friendly activities.

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Let me start by saying that I password protected my previous two posts due to the fact that the information included in them is pretty controversial. I don’t regret anything I said, but I feel that if I keep it public then it would continue to create more controversy than I would like. (I don’t like being the center topic of anyone’s gossip & I don’t plan to be just because I state my opinions). As much as I enjoy speaking my mind, I hate creating conflict more than anything. If you want to read it, please feel free to email me at mai@carrotlove.com for the passwords. ( Haha, I also don’t want to be the source of “gossip” information nor do I want to be one of those people who gets fired from work for blogging |: )

Yesterday I went to go hang out with Arrow and his friend from Japan, R. Now, I’m going to comment on their wealth, because it overwhelms me a bit, but don’t mistaken that as me being a gold digger. No, I do not gold dig people. I pay for my own stuff, thanks |: I also don’t treat them differently at all. I don’t expect anything different out of them because they have money, but it’s just interesting listening to and hearing about their lifestyle.

Hanging out with these two was like joining this group of people whom I’ve never interacted with before. They’re both extremely wealthy. For example, I saw Arrow’s house for the first time yesterday, and it was freaking HUUUUUGEEEEEE to the point where I actually got extremely intimidated just by being there and I wanted to turn around and go home ~_~;;

I’m not going to dwell on their personal life details, but man! It’s so strange to me about how nonchalant they are about their money and how they spend it D:

Either way, R was visiting from Japan so Arrow wanted me to accompany them to show R around Baltimore. Before that, we stopped by Good Fortune for some okay dim sum. I think Fortune is better, but we were in MD so that’s where we ate (:

A shrimp/crab cake thing covered in fried taro, yum!

The rest of the goodies (:

Afterward, we went to Baltimore, which was surprisingly only a 20 minute drive from where we were? Arrow originally brought us there to try these amazing crab cakes, but since we were all still full from dim sum, we had a lot of time to kill. We walked around the Inner Harbor shopping centers for a bit and visited a few gift shops so that R could buy a few souvenirs. We went up the Top of the World – Baltimore World Trade Center to the observatory deck and saw an amazing view (:~

Pratt Street, I think?

I THINK YOU DO |:

I don’t understand why they have souvenirs for this guy D: ~ Do they want people to be proud that the Maryland beer with this logo on it sucks?

On “Top of the World”

Going down

The elevator moves so fast, it doesn’t even show numbers, it shows an “X” O:

We didn’t really know what else to do because there is literally nothing to do in Baltimore. Well there was the aquarium, but I was really poor and didn’t want to pay $40 to look at sad animals D}: So within the Top of the World observatory floor, there was a video showing us that there was “America’s oldest market” & it LOOKED cool so we went. On the way, we were approached by “someone who got mugged” and kept pestering us for money, so Arrow decided to be a good guy by giving him the money. However, now the more I think about it, the more I’m pretty sure we got scammed. But bleh, even though Arrow is as naive as I am, at least he’s a good person at heart with good intentions, right?

Unfortunately, what the video didn’t tell us that it was in an amazingly dangerous/sketchy area of Baltimore ~_~;; Honestly, I really really thought that I was going to get robbed so I didn’t pull my camera out so there are no pictures of sketchsville. Man, it was soo scary! Definitely more of an adventure than I bargained for.

After that really somber adventure, we decided that with nothing else to do, we should just go eat. So Arrow brought us to Mo’s for some crab cakes :3 The service was OKAY. It took us five minutes before we got seated because no one wanted to attend to us even though the place was basically deserted. It took another ten minutes before we got menus. We only ordered two dishes for the three of us, and they normal have a $6.95 plate sharing fee, but our waiter waived it for us. The total came out to be $70 including the already included gratuity charge, so it wasn’t bad. The bread was really good o;~ I mean, it was normal bread, but it was sooooooo fresh. I may be a bit of a bread whore, because I love it when we are given awesome fresh & free bread at restaurants. I tore it in half, and the middle was steaming and it was so soft +___+~ The crab cake was also really, really good! I’ve only had the crappy crab cakes at buffets which are 90% flour so to have a crab cake that is 90% crab meat was amazing~ ( SO THIS IS HOW RICH PEOPLE EAT, COUGH COUGH XD;; ) I couldn’t eat too much of it though, because I have this thing where if I eat anything fattening/oily/mad unhealthy, I feel REALLY icky inside. Its like this feeling where you have this huge burden on your body, and it gets uncomfortable to eat/breathe, so I could only eat a few bites D:~ (This is also the same reason why I can’t eat Outback Steakhouse’s Blooming Onion or at any diners.)

DEAR BREAD, I LOVE YOU :{D

Crab cakes!

Look at that size!

Look at all the crab meat +_+~

The red building is a lighthouse museum but it closed just as we got there ):

Apparently there’s supposed to be a difference between the two plates, but I couldn’t taste it. It was funny because R was getting annoyed that our waiters kept checking up on us and was like, “Why do they keep coming over here to ask if everything is okay?” So I used what I knew from Asian/American culture as well as what I read in this Tofugu article that in America, they check up on us because that’s good service & that’s how they earn their tip. It’s pretty rude in American restaurants to just call out to them, but it’s pretty common in Vietnamese restaurants. Either way, if you visit Baltimore, please remember these words of advice that the closer you are to the Inner Harbor, the safer it is.

Afterward, we just chilled at Arrow’s house for some iced coffee/tea that his mom made, which was really yummy :{D, and played Smash Bros. Brawl. I HATE THAT GAME. ITS SO CHEAP, /rage! Anyway, I thought it was strange because his mom kept on taking pictures of us just sitting on the couch playing a game. . . Like an excessive amount of pictures. She started hiding behind the wall and took creeper-style pictures too. . . Apparently Arrow and R didn’t think it was strange? D:

So on Saturday we had a little pool party/bbq at my good friend, Chris’s, house. I came there a bit early, then left for a good four hours to deal with personal issues, and then came back. THANK YOU SO MUCH CHRIS FOR HOSTING THIS PARTY!! Unfortunately, due to some difficulties, it was a bit more troublesome than expected. I also apologize for my behavior while being intoxicated, there is no excuse for me to have been acting irresponsibly like I was. Either way, the night was a blast (:

None of us ate anything because someone burned all of the fewd, so the awesome-yummy-drinks hit us quicker ):

Karaoking with my awesome partner, Chris.

Son trying to get Siweon to sing.

Us, still karaoking. Dude, we know like the same awesome songs :{D (That stain is from my wet underneaths from the pool, or maybe I’m just karaoking that hard.)

Giving my BFF, Calvin, a piggy back ride even though he’s like half a foot taller than me D}:

Yeah. . .

My awesome cake!

Got caked D:

I love these girls (:

Unfortunately, it sucks not being a teenager anymore (but on the inside, I will be 17 forever). I barely have any recollection of that night, but from all the pictures and videos that camera-happy-Calvin took on my camera, I was really gone. Fortunately for the first time in a long time, I didn’t end up vomiting :{D

To summarize, there was a lot of me running around without clothes on (but my underneaths were still on, thank goodness). A bunch of us jumped in Chris’s pool with our undies ( I’m soooooo sorry Chris D: ). We played truth or dare. There was a lot of hickey-giving, lap dances received/given, making out, and other weird things =_=;; /face palm.

The next day, my actual birthday, my sister dragged me out to go shopping. We bought a few unnecessary things and went home to meet up with the family to go out to eat. I didn’t really get to choose where to eat because my parents wanted to eat at a Chinese buffet ): ~ Unfortunately, we went during dinner on a weekend so it was super busy. My siblings & I got mad annoyed at our parents because they basically wanted to split up since it would be quicker to get a table for a group of two or three instead of five. Then when they got their table of two, they made the people add another table to it so it could sit five, and we ended up cutting in front of a lot of people. Geezus, they’re so impatient. There was a point where my brother was talking to the hostess to see what we were going to do about our table since our parents left us (after my mom pestered the hostess for the 15 minutes that we were waiting), and while my brother was talking to the hostess, my dad kept on yelling for us. “HANH, TRANG. WE GOT A TABLE. HANH, TRANG!! WE GOT A TABLE.” We OBVIOUSLY heard him the first five times, but he kept going even though I was OBVIOUSLY talking to my brother about what to do about the situation. So I actually had to yell across people to tell him to let him know we heard him. Needless to say, everyone around us fell silent and stared at me that I would talk to my father that way because I guess I sounded that upset =_=;;

EITHER WAY. After that, my brother ate what he thought was General Tso “CHICKEN” but it turned out to be fish, so halfway through dinner he had to excuse himself outside to vomit because he has a really bad allergy to all seafood. So yeah, dinner sucked. I returned home, completely defeated when I was surprised in my own kitchen (:

Hello Kitty themed <3 ( I don't know if you can tell, but the boys decorated the kitchen and failed at knowing how to use streamers. At first they just laid it across my couch, but then used it to line my table |: )

I love my Hello Kitty themed items (:

My family & I.

My k3wl friends.

A HUGE thanks to Trang, Nam, Kaye, Phana, Son, & Richard for this awesome gift (:

I wonder what’s insideee~

This is a legit Hello Kitty cake. Thanks to Son & his friend for making it (:

For the rest of the night, we just rented a movie & sipped champagne.

Thank you to my baby sister Trang for planning and making my 20th birthday memorable <3.

I haven’t been taking any pictures lately due to lack of interest of pulling my camera out. Isn’t it weird though? Even though it seems like I enjoy taking pictures due to the presence of a lot of pictures on here, the majority of the time, I feel like taking pictures are more of an obligation than anything else. Sometimes its fun, but I really do feel like taking pictures is mainly an obligation so that I can have memories to share and because I have a camera. I have a horrible memory, so the only way I can remember what I do is take pictures. I can never just do something and “reminisce” about it like everyone else unless I have something tangible-ish to help my memory. Iunno, I feel like I’m ranting and not making sense. But either way, more of a reason for me to not get a DSLR, because I barely ever wanna carry my baby Lumix around, I would probably never want to drag a DSLR around.

But just because I haven’t been taking pictures doesn’t mean I haven’t been taking advantage of my summer vacation. Actually, most of my summer vacation so far has been me working. Then every free chance I get, I get dragged out to do something instead of bumming at home, which is really needed (my body is still super exhausted from finals week D; ). So even though there are basically two horribly taken pictures from my cell phone, this post will have an abnormally larger amount of text.

MONDAY~
On Monday, I want to the gym in the morning for two hours C: Well an hour of it was me actually doing something, but when I went on the treadmill I realized that Law & Order: Criminal Intent was on TV. I then decided that it was waaaaaaaaaaayyy too difficult to run while paying attention to the plot at the same time, so I basically walked for an hour .__.;; ~ WHATEVER MAN, it had the old duo of Goren & Eames and Law & Order is like fcking amazing.

Afterward, I went home to shower and then headed over to my good friend Richard’s house because he offered to cook me spaghetti. I have no idea why, but more guys have cooked for me than I have ever cooked for any guy in my life. & if people care about kitchens not catching on fire, I hope it stays that way because I can’t cook anything except two Vietnamese desserts, which is the only think my mom successfully taught me how to make. I also have a deathly fear of fire and getting oil spilled on me, so that’s why I’ll probably never be able to cook. Back on topic, his spaghetti was really good :{D~ He also made cheesy garlic bread to go with it which I also gobbled up. He basically put melted butter & garlic on the bread, then three different types of cheese on it and popped it in the oven /nom nom nom. We then went in his basement where I schooled him in a few rounds of Smash Bros. Melee & I left.

Later, Sunny decided to drag me out in order to influence me badly (jay kay). It was a pretty interesting evening though because he kept on making me close my eyes in order to surprise me. And it worked because I was extremely surprised when he took me to Allsports Grand Prix. I was totally not dressed for it, but luckily they gave us super k3wl looking track suits to wear over our clothes.

That is not my lip, that is my tongue.

Omigawd, I was so scared ~_~;; You don’t really “brake” when go karting, you kinda just swerve really sharply, skid/drift and hope that you don’t hit the wall or anyone else. Sunny & I got in time for the last race and we shared it with these REALLY pro drivers. They accidentally bumped into me once, and I got so scared that I slowed down every time they overlapped me, which was a lot D:

After that, he dragged me over to Dave & Buster’s so thatI could pwn him at arcade games C; They weren’t checking IDs, so I got in fine and we played a bunch of shooting games, racing games, etc. etc. But the time we finished, it was 10:50PM but even though I asked to go home, he took me to go watch Letters to Juliet anyway. It was a good movie! It was basically more of a romance, chick flick than anything else (and I really enjoy those kinds of movies :{D)

Stars Amanda Seyfried who was the ditzy girl in Mean Girls (:

WEDNESDAY~
On Wednesday, I began the day by doing a billion errands with my mom. When I finally got free, I met up with Arrow. He told me that he played In The Groove (ITG) so I suggested that he take me to the arcade where he played. Man, I have never been blown away by a friend at ITG/DDR that badly before. He’s soooo pro it puts me to shame. The machine is pretty cool too, they hacked it so that it also has DDR songs ;3. I was still really sore from the gym on Monday so I couldn’t play really well and I honestly just wanted to collapse the whole time. There was actually a point where my throat started to close up because I was so tired ~_~. I am really out of shape for DDR/ITG, but I can’t wait to get back into it! Watching him was fun, and he introduced me to a bunch of the arcade groupies who played there too. Everyone’s really nice, but they’re also super pro. They’ve all been playing for a shorter period than me. Like, I started in elementary school while they’ve been playing for a few months/years. I guess the difference is that they took it much more seriously than I ever did. That’s probably because I never had anyone else who took it that seriously, so I never had any motivation to get better. I mean, how fun is a game if you always play by yourself like I did? Not very |:

This is Arrow C:

He wasn’t kidding when he said ITG was his form of exercise. He actually brought a whole change of clothes to change into for working out. Either way, our “date” was us spending 4+ hours at that arcade. LOL, we were supposed to go eat dinner & watch a movie, but we just got way too distracted. I also felt bad for making him drive all the way to Waldorf, MD and not play that much because I couldn’t keep up x;

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Man, I don’t know how I feel about not having many pictures for a blog post. It seems I just ramble on forever and get off topic and get redundant. I wish I had a better cellphone so I could just use my phone’s camera instead of lugging my giant camera around x;