The End Pt. 2

August seems to be jam-packed with an awful lot of "the ends". It's the end of summer, my time at Marie Claire & CollegeFashionista, living in Tampa and being 21. It's a very surreal & bittersweet time in my life but I cannot wait for what's to come.

I finally feel like things are starting to fall into place, though. I'm going back home for a few days, I found an apartment in Brooklyn, I'm getting called back for interviews & everyone is shockingly supportive of my decision to completely uproot my existence in Tampa to create a new life for myself in NYC. It feels good to be backed by all the people that I care most about but it feels even better to just trust myself for a second & realize that as long as I work hard, everything is going to be just fine.

But seriously, let's forget about New York for a second & talk about how excited I am to be going back to TAMPA BAY. There are so many things that I've been missing for the past 3 months. Namely: Pei Wei, Target, MOM, PDQ, the Thai Temple, driving, Bentley, International Mall, Gabbie Amontree, oh and ya know, the rest of my brilliant family. I'm going to be home from the 9th-14th & my 22nd birthday happens to fall perfectly in the middle on the 12th. So, GET AT ME. Let's hang out, grab a drink & be all nostalgic.

 Here's to the start of something new.

Love,

A

 

Details: t-shirt: Brandy Melville // pants: AEO

sunnies: H&M // clogs: Aldo // bag: Anthropologie

bracelet: Madewell & Brandy Melville 

***PS: shout out to that extremely photogenic pigeon who so badly wanted in on the photo shoot. good looks, homie.

Dim Sum Adventures

So, as you know by now, I live in Chinatown. As you also know by now, I'm in love with it. I feel right at home here because I grew up in Asia. Walking by fruit stands full of mangoes, lychees & rambutans makes my heart flutter. One of the best parts about living in this part of town are all the yummy little places to eat. Some of my favorite spots are a Thai place called Pongsri, The Chinatown Ice Cream Factory & Nom Wah Tea Parlor. 

My first trip to Nom Wah was a very drunk one but I've been daydreaming about their huge steamed pork buns. I started thinking about them so much on Friday night that actually found myself looking up their menu at 2 am (gross, I know), so something obviously needed to be done. I texted Kali & Emily, asked them if they wanted to go for dim sum & quickly found out that neither of them had ever had it before. One of my secret pleasures in life is introducing people to things they've never had or done before.

They met me on Canal St. on Saturday afternoon & we walked to Nom Wah, which was the perfect opportunity to take photos of everything. There's always so much going on around here. I'm so used to taking street style photos so it's always fun for me to play with other subjects.

None of us had eaten anything all day, so we were literal savages by the time we got there. I was honestly tempted to order one of everything off the menu. We ate dumplings, buns, rice & spring rolls. We also doused everything in 10 lbs of soy sauce. It was truly magical. 

After our late lunch, we walked our little food babies to South Street Seaport to catch Mac Demarco at the 4 Knots Music Festival. He was lovely. The stage was right by the water with a perfect view of the Brooklyn Bridge. Sometimes I just look around & I'm like holy shit, I can't believe that I get to do all of this right now. It's honestly been such an amazing summer in more ways than I can even write about.

After the show, we sat on some steps & people watched. We made the mistake of sitting directly across from a candy store called IT'SUGAR. It was three girls against a candy store & the candy store obviously won. I don't even like candy that much, but I walked out looking like I robbed a neighborhood on Halloween. You win again, peer pressure.

Love,

A

*ps: Isn't Vanella's such a silly name for a funeral home....no...just us...?

Day Drunk in Williamsburg

This past weekend, I finally ventured to Williamsburg with Auntie Anne, Uncle Afsheen, Tinne & Skye. On the way, we stopped by a record fair which made me totally regretful that I didn't bring my record player with me. There were so many gems that I would have loved to add to my collection. We hopped on the L at Union Sq. & got off at Bedford Ave. We were all starved so we headed straight for the trendy food vendors at the waterfront market. I kept calling it the Brooklyn Flea Market even though it wasn't the Brooklyn Flea Market. I had some pasta topped with the most amazing sauce I've ever had, Vietnamese iced coffee & an apricot raspberry popsicle from People's Pops. 

Walking around the market was amazing. There were so many cool vintage booths set up. I ended up walking away with a little floral jewelry tray for $1 & a framed alphabet card that reads "n is for nest" to make my new nest a little nestier. 

Then the real fun began. When we were heading back we popped into a couple cool bars & all of us, sans Skye, proceeded to get a little bit day drunk. I obviously can't remember any of the names of the bars but one of them had such a cool interior & an amazing playlist. When they started playing Fleetwood Mac & my tipsy self audibly declared that I do not like them. It wasn't until the very next song came on & I started singing all the words that I realized that I actually do indeed enjoy some classic Fleetwood Mac songs but only because I didn't know that they were Fleetwood Mac songs.

As we were all knocking back a couple bottles of wine, we ate the most amazing french fries & country pâté. When we were walking back home Uncle Afsheen mentioned meatballs & showed us this amazing little place but we weren't hungry enough to go in. Taking the subway back while drunk was interesting. Auntie Anne & I wore our sunnies the entire time & I was laughing at everything. When I'm intoxicated, I tend to think I'm a really good photographer so I added some of my masterpieces above. They truly show off my steady hand. 

We had dinner in Chinatown at an amazing little place called Nom Wah Tea Parlor where I proceeded to eat everything in sight. It was delicious. The only reason that I remember the name is because of the photographic evidence. If you stop in, make sure to try their fried rice & pork buns. Too good.

 I can't wait to adventure more this weekend.

Love,

A