GRAND CANYON!

Day 3: April 19, 2012

On the 19th, I went to the Grand Canyon. This is the second time I've been to the Grand Canyon, but the first time was when I was really young, probably like 10 years ago, so the excitement is as if it's my first time! Here's a teaser ;)

All the pictures can be enlarged if you click on it & you should because they're pretty, especially the panorama ones.

On the way there, it was like a forest! There was so many trees surrounding the road.

We spotted tiny lizards on the mountains!

Most of the trail to get to one point to another are filled with trees and such. It's a very green place haha.

You can hike on the Grand Canyon and I guess pretty much camp there too!

They have mules to bring people back! Probably for those who actually hiked down the trail.

We encountered a squirrel that stayed pretty close to us. I guess it's probably used to people.

One of the many shuttle buses we took. It helps you get around to every "point" and there are different buses (by color) for different trails.

Soooo many trails that we've spotted from above!

Then around 6:45PM, it was about time we started heading to our last destination...

We were told that Hopi Point provides the best view for the sunset at the Grand Canyon!! :) So we had to go there. Since it was like about 45 minutes before sunset and we were just about done, we decided to stay for it :D It was supposed to set at 7:05PM, if I remember correctly.

At Hopi Point you can see this river.. I want to say it's the Colorado River, but I think it's just my imagination because I don't remember the Colorado River being mentioned at all that day :D

Waiting seemed like forever...

6 minutes later...

And then it sets!! It didn't seem to budge at all while we were waiting, but once the sun started setting, everything happened so quickly, within 1-2 minutes! I couldn't quite capture the beauty of it on my camera.. The colors was much more vibrant in person.. I have a better photo on my Instagram (user: xlila) which captured the color better but at a lower quality.. I can't upload it onto my blog now because my phone broke :\ So you'll have to go find it yourself ;D

Anyways, this post is like..over a month late, but that's okay. Better late than never right?! Hope you enjoyed the picture spam :D

Raspberry Panna Cotta!

Wednesday I went to go order my corsage and boutonniere for next week! :) I went to the same place as two years ago.. I absolutely hated the boutinniere I received last time because it was so plain and fugly. And was super disappointed that my corsage was a bunch of random flowers.. I WANTED ROSES :( But in the end I decided to give the place another chance and this time I specified what I wanted. I explained to the lady exactly how I wanted it, but on her receipt all it said was like "BN pink rose" or something, so I have a bad feeling about this :( It was $25 for the corsage and $20 for the boutonniere. I think that's cheap/standard for a corsage? I've seen a lot prettier ones before, but I have no idea where they're from. But I'll be picking it up next Tuesday, the morning of prom..so I'll show you then!

Wednesday lunch :) Extra large bowl of pho. Taken from my Instagram..should follow me on xlila if you haven't :D

Anyways..I've added something new to my list of favorite desserts! Panna cotta!

I dunno about you, but it sounds very fattening because it's made with a bunch of buttermilk and heavy cream. I looked at the carton for buttermilk and it didn't seem bad at all..but heavy cream sounds like something to be cautious about. I threw away the carton before I got to look at the nutrition facts.

Either way.. I'll definitely be making more in the future :) Next time with reusable mugs/cups because it's only going to be me eating it..so I have no reason to dump it out when I can just eat right from the cup. I used styrafoam cups this time (I know, bad) and it seemed like such a waste.

I found the recipe online and it's fairly easy to make. Most of it is just mixing and such. The only time consuming part about it is waiting for it to cool and harden which the instructions say 6+ hours. I made them at night and just left them in the fridge overnight.

I also had my check up. Sadly.. I never lost that extra weight I gained after coming back from Canada :( -cries- I wish I did just in time for my physical lmao. My doctor keeps telling me that I'm like the perfect weight, but it changes every year and she tells met eh same thing LOL. I also had two tubes of blood drawn :( I haven't had any drawn since 2007... and I didn't even remember that time. 

The Avengers

I went to watch The Avengers two weeks ago.. so this is another belated post. I bet many of you have already watched it already.. because practically everyone went on the opening night or the following few days.

Everyone raves about this movie, but was it really so good? I personally thought it was okay. I liked the movie and found it interesting, but that's about it. It was a bit cheesy at times and quite predictable.

I watched it in 3-D, but right at the beginning of the movie, one of my contacts came off because my eyes were dry (I was trying to take a nap...) so I guess that affected how I watched the movie because none of it looked 3-D to me. It was like completely flat. I tried covering that eye with my hand but it didn't work lolol. So yeah, wasted my money for the 3-D part that I couldn't even see ):

Has anyone else watched The Avengers? Thoughts?

Last Day of High School! :)

Finally on Friday was my last day of school. I was on the verge of getting held too, which means I still have to go back to school while everyone's out. I had tardy detentions that I had to make up up until the very last week of school..and then on Tuesday, I was given a letter which said I had too many absences :x Luckily I was able to fix that by changing one of my absences into a present day for a college visit.

Ramen in school :)

So our class decided to do a senior prank. On Thursday night, there was a mass text sent out where they wanted us to set our phone's alarm to 8:30AM and leave them in our lockers. I thought it was kind of silly, since it was in the middle of 1st period, so not like anyone will hear it if the classroom doors were closed.. and senior lockers are only in parts of the school, so not like the entire school will ring.

When it was 8:30, I totally forgot about it and suddenly the hallway just went a bit noisy. The lockers were actually opened up and the phones got confiscated. LOL. So sucks for them :(

Fifth period we had an assembly..I fell asleep halfway through though x__x And afterwards we all took a class photo outside of the school, which took about 10 minutes since it was hard getting everyone's face to show. When the photo was done, we had a class picnic out in the courtyard :)

I got an Italian cold cut along with chips, soda, fruits, and cookies.

We basically just took a bunch of pictures outside and just chilled. Halfway through, someone (or maybe me) changed the settings of my camera to widescreen, so all the picture sizes were pretty small ): Grrr...

I had to go to work afterwards...and then when I got off of work, I went to eat with the family and my brother's girlfriend's family.

Wonton soup

Then I went to watch The Dictator. I fell asleep for the first 10 minutes or so...so I missed some of the beginning. But overall it was a very funny movie. The plot was kinda eh, but it can definitely get some laughs out of you if you go watch it :)

Other randoms during the week:

A parent at my work gave us these fried green peas :o They're like the wasabi peas minus the wasabi.

Free humus...they were passing it outside the train station. I didn't know that you had to refrigerate it (even though it says it clearly at the front) so I left it out for a day and it went bad. :(

Well that's all for now :) 

Summer Internship

I just got notified that I got the job that I applied for :D!! It's the same job that I did last year, except I might be in a different location and different department. Nevertheless, I'm happy that I was able to get it. This is like the only good thing that has happened lately..so I really hope that everything else will get better.

18th Birthday

Another birthday post :D Focusing on the actual day itself. 

The boyfriend came over right before it turned 12AM with my presents yay :D I got 2 Starbucks gift cards, because I decided to start collecting them for the designs :)

 ...and inside it's a Fujifilm Instax mini 25 & Hello Kitty film!! I've been wanting one for over a year and decided half a year ago that if I can save up enough then I'll get myself one, but in the end I started spending even more, so.. -__-

Unboxing it.. :) Inside it includes a camera, two CR2 batteries, a strap, and a close up lens.

Then later I went to school and had a math test. I studied for it, but totally bombed it. After school, I have work from 3PM-9PM :( So I couldn't go anywhere..but on my way to work, I spoiled myself with:

I spent $9, $2 for the lottery tickets and $7 for the scratch tickets. I won $5 from the scratch tickets, so not too bad. I swear I won't get addicted, maybe for like a year (in moderation) but only so I can abuse my privilege :) The numbers came out last night: 3 11 22 34 49 Megaball: 1 So I didn't win anything :(

Then at about 4:30PM, a few of my friends from school came to surprise me at work & sung happy birthday to me yayy! And they brought me food<3

 Eel sushi, spicy seafood sushi, & some sort of fish one that I didn't eat. 

Mouse cake LOL. Its face is demented xD

After work, I went to hotpot at Shabu Zen with my mom and boyfriend. My brother and his girlfriend came after we finished eating.. but we ordered a bit more for them, since they already ate they weren't that hungry anyways.

Then the next day I had my AP Economics test...which I totally slept through UGHH. Coffee did not help. :( Afterwards, I went to Michaels to buy some art supplies and went to celebrate with the boyfriend. We went to a small restaurant called Pikaichi for ramen.

Miso ramen

Had froyo afterwards... Cookies n Cream (covered in the bottom) and Thai tea :D The Thai tea didn't taste like Thai tea though.

A day late, but Strawberry cheesecake <3

And to show off...here's the rest of the things I received :D

The Body Shop bath set from my brother's girlfriend...which was awfully kind of her, especially considering I just met her & my own brother didn't even get me anything lol.

Hello Kitty shirt :D I'll probably wear it to work out or something. The back has like square holes :o

Cupcakes...which got ruined by the time I got home :\

Variety of novelties. Shot glasses, mustache bandaids, card, & Urban Outfitters nail polish in Afterhours. The polish is a very fine, multi-colored glitter polish. I'll do a better close up and such when I wear it :)

Anyways, that's all for now! I appreciate everyone who remembered and said happy birthday and such. I guess I should get some sleep...it's like 5:30AM and I need to wake up in a few hours :(