Food Porn and Boba's Birthday!

Hey homies! I hope you had a lovely weekend. I was super busy myself. I had dinner with one of my homies on Saturday and brunch with a bestie on Sunday. I tried mimosas for the first time and they are deeeelish! I also just recently completed my first week at my new job and so far I love it. I'll be giving my first tour of the campus tomorrow. I'm a little nervous about getting lost, but I'll play it off if I do lol 

I have been being extra social and eating lots of good food ^^ About two weeks ago one of Boba's best friends, Matt, and his girlfriend came to NYC to visit. We usually go on lots of double dates and epic food runs when they're here. She is a Youtuber that has makeup channel, and she came for IMATS. 

During one of our food runs we went to Momofuku Milk Bar to try their famous soft serve. Boba and I got the cereal milk soft serve with crunch. It was kinda gross : ( It tasted salty. None of us liked it. I think it pretty much killed our food run because we decided to call it quits for that night and meet up the next day. Usually the four of us have two lunches, two or three dinners, and three or four desserts; we go hard! Luckily, we got some delicious french macaroons before hand at our regular hang out snack place Spot Dessert Bar.

I also tried their hot Thai Milk Tea and a new dessert on Saturday night and had my mine blown by them. Here's a shot of the dessert I tried:

That red bean ice cream went SO well with the green tea flavor.

The next night, Boba and I took them to Eight Turn Crepe a place that serves sweet and savory Harajuku style crepes. My favorite sweet crepe is the matcha stripe chocolate. Yumm yummmms! Matt and Christina loved it : )

A few days later, Boba and I celebrated his birthday and it was lots of fun! I was a little worried about planning because I got super sick the Sunday before. Luckily, by the time his birthday came around I was a lot better. We went a to nice seafood; he had lobster and I got scallops. Everything was amazing! After that we quickly went to Spot before we watched Captain America. That movie was sooooo good! If you decided to go be sure to stay after the tradition white on black credits as well as there is another secret scene. How awesome is that that you get two secret scenes! Afterwards we got bubble tea at Saint Alp's Teahouse.

Next, I will be reviewing all the prologues of the Voltage Inc. otome games! Stay tuned and thanks for reading! 

So, I'm a Sellout

Let me set the scene for you: I'm walking on a nice day in Brooklyn, not too hot, not too cold. Holding hands with Boba who I hadn't seen in in three months due to me teaching in China. We're heading to see my bestie and her awesome girlfriend to spend a chill day at their apartment. Then it happened, a guy walked past me, leaned way in my personal space all by neck and called me a sellout. 

....

.....

Hold up...

We kept walking, but I stopped at the end of the block as I processed what had happened.

The strange thing about the situation is that I wasn't upset. I'm from the deep South, so I've experienced a lot of ignorance and flat out racism. I was more annoyed by the fact that he felt his thoughts mattered to me, a person that he didn't even know. He knew nothing of my relationship, saw something he didn't like, and projected some mess onto us. I also was heated that he got in my personal space. Luckily, Boba and I are pretty chill and felt it was best to just keep it moving and not dwell on it. I hadn't experienced anything like that before, but I am aware of what interracial couples may face. I had heard stories from my friends and read about different couples' experiences on blogs. I also feel that calling someone a sellout is ridiculous because you have no idea why they are with their partner. Like somehow I magically am not black anymore because I am dating someone non black. The term implies that I hate myself and black people and that I view other races as better than my own. I read a post that breaks down why these notions are false. 

Now, I'm not gonna sit here and act simple like there aren't people that date interracially for the wrong reasons (self-hate, fetishism, etc.). But that ain't me. I'm not dating my boyfriend because I have feel some type of way about black men like some would assume. I was taught to judge people by their character, so I have always selected the people in my life by that principle. I love Boba for Boba, not because he’s a different race than me. 

We make the best silly faces together ^^

It's fine if people have their own opinions on the issue, but you shouldn't use them to judge or shame other people. I'm very lucky that my parents raised me to listen to the people that matter and disregard folks that are irrelevant.

Naturally Me

I am seven months newly natural and I have sure learned a lot. I also had some setbacks a long the way, but I am more happy with my hair than I have ever been. I recently made the decision to go natural back in September. I have always hated my hair right after it's been relaxed. I didn't really liked the bone thin look to it. My favorite time would be when my hair was "old" when new growth was poppin. My usual routine would be to relax one every three or four months and flat iron as needed. Some girls in my area got a relaxer once a year, but I couldn't go that long due to laziness. My upkeep skills weren't as on point as those ladies. I rarely flat ironed or wrapped my hair which is essential if you're gonna stretch your relaxer that far.

I believe I was first given a relaxer around the age of four or five. So, I really had no idea what my natural hair would be like. In a way it was scary because it would be something I had to learn how to take care, and it was the shortest my hair would have ever been. Luckily, due to my mother relaxing my own hair since my school days.  I learned from her and did my own relaxers when I was in college, so I wasn't too worried about maintenance. I was more freaked out about looking a hot mess until I figured it out lol

Relaxed days. High school to college.

I began transitioning in China which in retrospect probably wasn't the best idea. I didn't have access to products to make my relaxed hair play nice with my natural strands. I did have one box of creamy crack on deck in case I needed to do what I had to do. My hair was very short when I went to China and I decided to get micro braids during Spring Festival to help with hair care. I took my braids out in May and pretty much lived in a hat for the rest of my time in China. Seriously, I only took it off when I was with friends inside their apartment. I could not let anyone see me looking a mess even though I'm pretty sure most locals didn't know the intricacies of black hair care, but nobody has time to look a hot mess in public. Even just thinking about unleashing that hair in public and I can hear my auntie yelling at me for America and smacking my head with a relaxer. 

My short hair in China

During this time I shampooed and conditioned my hair each week and I would cut my hair after each wash. Detangling my hair was VERY difficult due to my two different textures. As I mentioned before, I didn't have any products to help. Flat-ironing was also out of the question because my flat iron would not work in China. Shout outs to my friend ,Brit, and my wifey! Brit's natural and taught with me at the same school in China; she gave me some wonderful tips and ideas like two strand twists to help with maintenance. I also had a long Skype conversation with my wifey where she taught me how to do my twists and did her hair with me.

Micro braids at the Summer Palace in Beijing

After I took my braids down

I immediately got box braids a day after I returned to NYC. My main concern was finding a job and I really didn't want to add hair care as another thing to worry about. I took my box braids out in September after attending my bestie's wedding. 

Box Braid life

My aunt cut out the relaxed ends and I stood in the mirror with a TWA looking back at me. I wasn't feeling it in the beginning because my front was longer than my back. I wished she had just evened everything up. Overall, I didn't hate how I looked, but I didn't love it either. I can definitely say it felt right even despite my initial reaction. Everyone loved the new look on me. My boyfriend almost jumped for joy once he saw my new look. My friends would gasp and have the biggest smiles on their faces. That at least made me feel a little better. 

My Living Situation in China

When you teach in China the majority of schools offer you a free apartment (you may pay the utilities) pretty close to school either by walking or public transit. Some schools will offer you free on-campus housing which can be nice. My boss (a fellow foreigner) blatantly lied about our living arrangements. I wanted to share my experience and offer advice to those that were going to be living abroad.

My ideal living situation would be the first option: my own apartment. Seriously, I have had SO many bad living experiences these past two years before I left (most New Yorkers do) that I really wanted my own space. Like if I had my own apartment I seriously would have just ran around that ish in a circle for two minutes before I unpacked. So, when I had my interview and found out that the school had free on-campus housing I had a few reservations. Well, turns out I should have.

So the way the housing was explained to me was we had our own apartment. So, I’m thinking we are in an apartment building on campus. I decided to accept the job because the housing was free. Naturally, I still asked for pictures. I was told by my now boss that he lost the cord to his camera. In retrospect I know this to be a lie upon talking to my friend Britni shortly after my arrival. So, he finally sent me one picture, but it was of the flat screen tv on the wall. Ummmm my dude, this really doesn't show me anything. He also promised the room would be cleaned when I get there. When I arrived I learned that things were very different from the picture my boss painted. My room was super duper nasty; it hadn’t been cleaned since the last teacher left. I also didn’t have a desk and my toilet didn’t work upon arrival. My boss later claimed to me and my co-workers that our rooms were clean by "Chinese standards".