Welcome to New York

We arrived in the city in the morning, and stepped out of the station into the hustle and bustle of New York City.

After grabbing a very mediocre breakfast at Applebee's (too hungry to walk far; we may also have freshened up in the loo), we headed out. One of the first things I noticed as we walked out was "Empire State of Mind" playing in the street - now is only the Taylor Swift song had come out then!

One of my goals were to see the Stephen A. Schwarzman building, probably one of the most iconic libraries. Sadly, the room I wanted so very much to see was under construction.

Grand Central was also on the list; Shake Shack was an added bonus.

Went to find our house in Staten Island, and then after figuring some details out, we headed back out!

The lights of Times Square make it feel as if night never truly comes; we wandered around and I started to feel a bit sleepy, checked the time to realize it was past 12am. Magic of the city that never sleeps!

Taking the ferry is actually very calming. It was a nice precursor to all the walking and getting lost we would do. Also it brings you decently close to the Statue of Liberty... all for free!

And this ended our first day in "the Big Apple" (P.S. is that a name that no one uses anymore...?).

Copious amounts of tea

To break away from the trip posts, I just wanted to take some time to fast-forward to the present.

I'm sitting in a library 'carrel' as I type this, with my tumbler (it takes all of me to remember it has an 'e'; ruined by Tumblr) of brown rice green tea, and I just want to remind myself...

Take a deep breath.

Relax.

Drink tea.

Get enough sleep.

Get off social media.

Focus.

Also my graduation photos are in two days; trying to eliminate the panda-eye thing as much as possible before then. The rest will be taken care of by concealer.

All posts are incomplete without photos.

Matching my nails to my tumbler - everyone does that.

I just want to say I was not a big tea drinker until university. I always preferred juice and pop to water or tea, and coffee always tasted terrible to me. When I moved away to university, I lived in a residence for my first year, and had access to a LOT of drink choices. Also, that was when I first really started wanting to play Roll Up The Rim (Tim Horton's thing) and not being a huge fan of their hot chocolate or apple cider, I began trying the steeped tea. I tried drinking water near the end to offset that freshman fifteen, but I can't say I always enjoyed it.

Living by myself in second year, I didn't have juice unless I bought it, and lugging it home on a bus then walking is a HUGE pain. I tried to drink water, but the water was so hard, that even after being filtered and boiled, I couldn't take the taste. So I started dunking a tea bag in it to cover the taste.

Then during work terms, drinking tea was both soothing and allowed me to get up every so often to boil more water and steep more tea.

From then on, I've only been getting more and more addicted.

Studying + mug of tea = this photo

P.S. The first time I drank Tim Hortons steeped tea, I actually had go to the washroom ten times within 6 hours. It was crazy. My bladder is much better at handling tea now.

Buffalo, briefly

Earlier in the year, one of my friends, who is a (somewhat) major Bruno Mars fan, wanted to get tickets for his show, but getting 4 seats together proved harder than we thought. Still in the mood for a concert, another friend suggested we head to see City and Colour in Buffalo (only we would go to the States to see a Canadian). As we were already in Buffalo, we thought: why not go down to New York City?

Leaving T dot

Commence last minute planning and lots of compromising. At the end of the day, we got there.

This trip was entirely dependent on buses, local transit, and our own two feet. This meant we had to pack light as we would be lugging our bags with us for the majority of the trip.

Sadly we encountered some people who made unnecessary comments while in Buffalo. I sometimes take for granted how diverse and multicultural Toronto is, and I'm both proud of my hometown and disappointed that we had to experience that attitude at all in 2014.

City and Colour was amazing. During the concert, someone from the nearby harbour released thousands of doves and had a fireworks display that supplemented the show nicely.

Impromptu fireworks, with doves

This trip also taught me the importance of comfortable shoes. My shoes fit well but was too stiff, which resulted in blisters and sore arches. Those shoes have fallen from my good graces now, and have not been worn since.

Summer of travelling

I've always been lucky enough to have gone on frequent vacations with my family ever since I was a child. We would go camping at least once a year, and take a trip somewhere, oftentimes close by, and once in awhile on the other side of the world. When I was younger, I thought that going on a summer vacation was the norm; I don't take that for granted anymore.

That being said, I also went through the typical teenager stages where I increasingly valued my friends over my family, and we often talked of going on a trip together. This summer, it finally happened.

Here are a few snaps from the summer, more detailed posts to come...

Buffalo

City and Colour

New York

Brooklyn Bridge

Montréal

Bleu Lavande

Omemee

Lakeside

San Francisco

Along the pier

Dabbling in new territory

I've been blogging on and off on various websites since I've became more tech-savvy (around Grade 7, which is many years ago). I used Xanga, then Wordpress, and now dipping my toes in the Blogspot/Blogger zone.

A little about myself; I'm currently completing my undergrad, I have resided in Canada my whole life, and I have a dog named Tofu. Which reminds me, I should probably explain my blog name.

Tofu = my dog. Here is a photo.

Yeah, likely not what you expected? I get that a lot. Maybe I'll explain the story behind it one day, but for now, Tofu being his name is all you need to know.

Tofu Walls = blank walls. Apparently it was a term one of my friend's architecture professor used.
As something you would want to avoid.

For me... I have always had a love/hate relationship with blank canvases. So much potential, but also so much pressure. Ideas and thoughts never turn out as you expect, leading to disappointment. I had always loved art as a child but only took art class one summer when I was around seven. So in high school, I took at least 1-3 art classes each year. Visual arts, photography, graphic design, I loved them all, but it didn't mean I was good at it. Blank walls intimidate me for the very reason they excite me; so much potential but for failure as well as for success.

So this blog will be my blank canvas, and I will slowly fill it with bits and pieces of my life and what interests me. Don't be a stranger!