Chinatown Adventure!

I want to tell you a little bit about my fun adventure to Chinatown...

I had never ever been to Chinatown before, so I had some idea of what to expect but overall had no idea what it was like.  Turns out, it was a BLAST.

There were some really cool little shops with all sorts of goodies...and,of course, there were cheap goodies.  How can you go wrong with cheap goodies?  I think the coolest thing we found was probably...

BABY TURTLES.  Baby flipping turtles!!! And guess how much they were? $5.00!!! Are you kidding me?  Who cares if they live for hundreds of years?  I want one.  They're so precious!!!

Anyways, my friend is doing a project on Chinese medicine, so we would go into grocery stores and ask around for different herbs and things to help with sickness.  Apparently, the most popular herb is called Gin Sun (sorry if I spelled it incorrectly).  It is supposed to help you regain energy and is very good for you.  The catch?  It's hundreds of dollars for just a small amount, so this stuff is a hot commodity to the Chinese people.  It smells like a pet store though...speaking of pet stores, in these grocery-type stores, we found all sorts of treats like dried seahorses, sea cucumbers, and starfish that you could cook and eat.  I'm not sure how I feel about that, but who knows!  Maybe it's good?  We tried Gin Sun tea...that wasn't good.

We walked around some more, and I was so in love with all the little tiny fun toys to buy.  I could have bought so many pocket-sized things today, good thing most stores only accepted cash.

However, we did stumble upon this one store that had a plethora of clothes for amazing prices.  (The place was a pit, but when a girl sees $1.00 and $2.00 shirts, it doesn't matter)  We booked it over to this store, and it was nothing but a warehouse, filled with boxes and racks of clothes. 
The guy who owned the place was talking to us about his dog, and how it had puppies, he showed us the newborns...SO CUTE!!  But the longer we were in there, the weirder it got...
He would yell "Today is our last day!  We are shutting down, come get what you can!" and "Everything is $1-$2.00!"  But when we went to check out, he told us the hours the store was open during the week...and that the clothes we picked up were actually $5.00 a piece...

Turns out he just lies to people walking on the street so he can get more traffic in the store.  Nice.

The good news?  I got a lacy dress and lacy skirt for $10.00 total.  So it was pretty much worth it.

Will I go back to Chinatown?  Yes, but when I do, I will bring cash, and some ibuprofen, because the Gin Sun smell gives you a headache.  TAKE HEED.

My Life Since the Last Post

Wow, hey everybody, I am so so so terrible at keeping up to date on this blog.  It's been almost a year since I was here last.

I was looking back on the date, and I couldn't believe how much has changed in a little less than a year.  I will now indulge you and tell you how my life has changed in so many ways.

May, 2013

My parents decided it was time for them to move from our house of 13 years in California to a house in Oregon.  It was a big change for me and I'm still not used to it.  Hopefully they decide to move back in a few years, because I really miss my hometown, but at the same time the decision wasn't about me, it was about my parents and their happiness.

June-August, 2013

I was a camp counselor for the second year in a row at an all girls camp in Monterey.  It was a really fun summer, and it helped me keep my mind off of the move my parents were making back home.  Meanwhile, looming ahead I had the huge change of going off to college.  That was the next big change in my life.

August, 2013

 

 I made the huge move to go to my third year of college out of the house, and now, way far away from home.  I'm about a day and a half drive from my immediate family now, so I haven't seen them since they dropped me off.  It's a really big change, but I'm really enjoying my time here at school and loving the people I'm surrounding myself with.  I'm beyond excited because I get to see my family this weekend, so I've been looking forward to that all week!

Now.

I haven't seen my boyfriend of two and a half years for about two and a half months.  This is a big change for the both of us, but we are still together and happier than ever.  We love each other and cannot wait until we get to see each other in a few weeks.  We took this challenge and turned it into an opportunity to challenge and grow our relationship, and it's been a great success.

Those are the major things that have gone on in my life since my last post.  I wish I had remembered to post more often, but I think this post is a really great and important one.  It's kind of nice to reflect on the past year to see how much I've even grown.  One year does a lot to a person.