Happy turkey week!

Hope everyone is having a great turkey week (Happy Thanksgiving!) :D  This was my first Thanksgiving with family in four years, so it was a nice change of pace.  Definitely a much needed break! :)

Daddy's fried rice *heart*!

This guy warmed me up inside and outside.  Thank you, Balto ^^

Can you see Bacardi trying to sneak a bite in from dinner?  Hehe~

For Thanksgiving, my sister came home and the family made lunch.  Connie made mac 'n cheese and green bean casserole, my parents made a shrimp dish, stuffed chicken, and veggies, and I made a pumpkin pie.  It was a square one, since I couldn't find our circular pie pan! 
  
My sister made Mac and Cheese for Thanksgiving!  Om nom nom, so good~

My lovely parents :D

Feast!

~*~

Since I have told a few people, I guess I'll just go ahead and let everyone in on what's going on, haha~  ^^  I signed to an agency in Dallas in September for modeling :)  It's nothing fancy and nothing big-- In fact, they're more talent-based (meaning mostly actors and actresses!), but it's interesting and neat to see what actors do when they are rep-ed by an agency ^^b  There are things I'm not going to post, but I do think my experience is definitely not representative of how an agency runs... or at least how we interact with agents anyways!  More on that in the far, far future~

That said, I've decided I'm not going to pursue this too seriously any further-- definitely need to focus on life goals too!  It's tough, letting logic tell me what I know is right, especially when so many people laugh at me and expect me to fail.  Dreams are sometimes just dreams, I guess :(  I can still skip on them lightly, enjoy the experience, and have fun though!  Now, I am going to try just being regular me! :D  Let's try getting a fashion sense (that's probably the hardest thing for me to do, haha!), play with the hair a bit, and being a girl on a quest ^^  ... I also want to finally go to one of those Yelp Elite events hehe :P  Maybe I can meet food lovers like me too!!

Another sobering thought?  I'm super fortunate that my life is how it is now, but something from the past definitely hit me (again) and made me regret one of my choices.  Definitely a big life changer, quite possibly a future-changer too.  *But*, I'm going to type out a little phrase that has helped me get through past dips, and it also helped out a friend in need recently.  The silly thing is, Dr. Phil made this one haha!:  You may not always make the right choice, but you can always make the choice right.  That's what I'll do, and I'm going to make this one even better. :)

~*~

My sister and I watched Disney's Frozen today!  Kellogg's cereal was having this promotion, and I ate enough cereal to get 2 free movie tickets (woohoo! no extra effort whatsoever, being the cereal lover I am, hehe :3).  I thought the movie was great!  I laughed so many times, and I'm pretty sure the people around us may have been slightly annoyed ^^'' and I also cried :'(  Ahh, cartoons make me cry!

Mmm.. Who best to enjoy waffle fries at a movie theater?...

... than my silly sister? :)  Flash attack!

I'm really glad we got to hang out this break :)  We weren't very close growing up, so I feel like I'm getting to know her better.  Pestering her with random texts is starting to work, mwahahahaaaa!  ;)  I hope her schedule becomes more regular, so we can meet up even more often!  She's going to be my travel buddy *happy* :D
These are our attractive faces.  haha! XD

Have a great holiday season! ^^

Pears and Hairs

First off, I want to give you guys a pear!


Yes, thanks for not hounding me, because I didn't realize I skipped last week's Friday post @_@  Did time really pass that quickly?!

With the months that passed, my hair has gotten pretty long.. probably need to trim those bangs a bit-- I'm starting to use hairclips to keep them out of my face!  They're in that awkward too-short-to-put-behind-the-ears, but too-long-and-I-look-like-the-girl-from-the-Grudge phase.  ^^'' 

Peek-a-boo~  My left eye can finally SEE, haha!  It's usually covered with hair~

So my anatomy tank buddies decided that Asian girls look mean when they're not smiling.  Is that true?


Speaking of anatomy, today was our last day of lecture!  (That also means our exams are coming soon D:)  But I received this photo from two lovely ladies during the lecture :)


Happy Holidays everyone! :D

Some sweets and some fun

And it's Thursday, not Saturday OR Friday, beat that!  (Well, I'm scheduling this post to be published on Friday around 6pm, so you'll think I typed it up Friday night :D)  Mwahahaha~  Haha, just kidding-- I know for sure I won't be able to get to a computer tomorrow night, so I'm going to go ahead and post some randomness a day before ^^b  *so on top of things, right??*  Hehe~

So first off, I'd like to ask all of y'all to add replace the bookmark for my blog (And you ALL have my blog bookmarked, yes?? ;D  Hehe) to dashipanda.blogspot.com instead of dashipanda.com.  Or if you don't have it bookmarked, just remember that the URL is currently dashipanda.blogspot.com.  I'm definitely switching the domain/.com address, and I might also change the blogspot.com address too, but more of that later!

Okay, so since I'm not allowed to post ten thousand food posts in a row and nothing crazy eventful happened this past week...  Well, someone accidentally shoved a table into me and I bruised a shin :(   and now some portions of my leg are green-- NOOOOOOOO!! :P

~*~

How's school, you ask?  Oh, why thanks for asking, so considerate of you!  The cafeteria food serves great stuff (love, love veggies!).

Omgah!

No.  Just kidding.

That's not from school!  Our school has a food court with a Burrito Jimmy's (burritos, tacos, and your typical Americanized Mexican food fare), Burger House, Big (?) Sal's (hand-tossed salads made with the items you point at and baked spuds, oh my!!  Thank goodness this is too expensive for me, otherwise I'd be eating potatoes every day :P), Subway (will never go there by choice, because I had it way often at WashU!), and some Chinese food place that looks soooo greasy and delicious but, sadly/fortunately, too expensive for this medical student.  It's peanut butter sandwiches for me :)  But I love them!  So delish :')  Om nom nom~

Anyways, the picture is from a Taiwanese restaurant called... Taiwan Cafe.  So original!  But Derek introduced the place and it's $6 for rice, 3 sides (meat or veggies, you call it), and unlimited complimentary soup.  Add bubble tea, and it's $6.50.  It's a good deal, and it was pretty good, but I was feeling sick that day, so I didn't eat much and couldn't enjoy the taste.  Plus, they didn't have any tofu dishes to choose from D:  I'll have to come back to give an actual opinion of Taiwan Cafe ^^  It's very popular too!  Lots of people were eating there, and it seems like they were expanding and building another room.

Okay, since I tricked you about a picture from school, here's an actual picture from school!

 

We have a parking garage that's 5 stories tall (above ground, unlike college!), and I usually get there early enough to nab a spot on the 3rd floor.  But the other day, I came in the middle of the day and drove up, up, and further up until I reached the top!  Omgahh, so scary up there!  Actually, it was really nice; the weather was getting slightly chilly, so the brisk wind swept away my hair when I got out of the car.  (More like... it made my hair go all crazy and I was left spitting my hair out of my mouth by myself in the empty parking lot, haha!)  But the view was nice :D  And when I got back out to go home, the sun was setting.  Definitely something I don't even appreciate when I'm on the 3rd floor.  ^^

~*~


Boo.

 AHH Scary!!  D:  Okay, try to be a little cuter..

See?  Wendy with makeup isn't *that scary*

AM I?!?!?!  

Haha, I actually think I look super cheesy and weird with makeup and curled hair.  I think it's the eyebrows.  Or the fact that I have no idea what I'm doing :P  I'll put on less stuff there next time, but my eyebrows are a brownish color (like my hair), so if I use black eyeliner, it looks like I'm eyebrow-less!  Noooo, haha exaggeration, but slightly true ;)

But look at this!  *jump jump excited*

I have no idea how my hair turned into that bun, because I've been trying to learn how to do it for the *longest* time!  I was kind of sad when I took my hair out, because it'll be a while until that magically happens again, haha!

~*~

Anyhow, I went and checked out the famed Sprinkles cupcakery, and it was a happy evening for me!  Cupcakes for dinner-- om nom nom!~  ^o^

You can check out my review on Yelp, but basically I tried a limited edition cupcake promoting the 2 Broke Girls TV show, and it was more of a muffin than a cupcake (uber delish that way too!).  Graham cracker crust, vanilla chocolate chip cake, milk chocolate frosting with a sprinkle of sea salt.  Mm.  Mmm. Mmmmmmm........

After you order the cupcake, they don't just pack one up and give it to you.  Instead, you wait at the corner like you would at Starbucks while they prepare and box the cupcake(s) and call your name and all that fancy jazz.  Derek thinks it's to make it "higher-class."  Haha~!  Definitely not fitting in when I squealed and crammed myself into the cute chairs by the kiddy table.  They had a super small table with chairs for kids, and I was adamant about enjoying my cupcake there until Derek sat down in another kiddy chair and looked extremely uncomfortable XD

I got forks and a knife, because I thought I would be all dainty and use them like a lady

And then I opened the box

Look at my cupcake!  It would've looked better without the text, in my opinion =.=

But the frosting is smooth (classic Sprinkles frosting style)

Oh, and here's Derek's dark chocolate cupcake, but mine's cooler, ya know~

SO COOL THAT IT'S SNOWING.  Hahaha!  Okay, I added that in-- it wasn't actually snowing inside the shop, in case you thought so, haha!

One bite of the cupcake, and I was like..

This is so yummy.

(That's Crush!  My sister's doggie!)

Omgahh!  Thank goodness Sprinkle's is also semi-far away, because I would be eating these for dinner every day, hehe!  I love how there's not too much frosting, and it's not too sweet.  But you can't take that from me; I ate a Jilly's cupcake back in STL and loved it, while my friends were dying from sugar overdose :P

Anyhow, Sprinkle's has so many flavors to choose from, and they rotate daily!  Seasonal offers too~  I need to take a picture of the inside, because that really helps make the nice experience.  Even the music was the music from those high class bars (imagine the ones in skyscrapers and fancy fancy)!  Again, didn't fit in, because instead of enjoying it neatly and being all posh-posh, I was smooshing the cupcake into my face.  YUM!

I told Aurelia that I'd go here with her, so definitely will be visiting again ^^  Can't wait!  There's also a cupcake ATM (yesss, that thing I saw on Yahoo way back when!), and Sprinkles' sister shop that serves ice cream~  :D


Sprinkles Cupcakes
4020 Villanova Dr
DallasTX 75334

And in case you think that I'm not eating well (cupcakes and froyo for dinner?), here's a glimpse of my *ultra fancy* cooking:


So those three piles of goop (haha!) are actually probably 3 of my favorite comfort foods on one plate!  I absolutely love scrambled eggs, sauteed onions, and mashed sweet potato.  But I was too lazy to make mashed sweet potatoes, so I pulled out a convenient can of pumpkin puree from the pantry and made it taste like pumpkin pie.  Mmm.. lovely.  My dad looked at this photo and texted me that my cooking skills were improving.  Haha!  Really?  I think they're going downhill:  from rice and chewable foods to mush that I can just swallow without chewing ^^'  Okay, I actually had to chew the onions (Darn.) because I didn't cook them until they were super soggy :P


 ~*~

Okay, now for some fun!

So you were probably wondering why on earth I was putting on makeup and curling my hair.  Or maybe not, since most girls do that anyways?  But I pretty much comb my hair and put on lotion for my morning routine, haha ^^'' 

Anyways, I've been having some fun with some fellow photographers!  Jason was learning how to photograph in natural lighting, so here's one of the photos from that shoot:


I recently stumbled upon a photo of well-known models with and without makeup, and I would just like to say that it's kind of shocking.  So in case you think that's what I look like with the curly hair (that I totally messed up on and need to learn how to do, durrr..), let me show you otherwise.  I also think my face looks really big in that photo, but I'm sure that's just the self-centered part of me going nyah nyah blah blah, haha~

After doing my daily exercises (if I can even call them that, haha!) and before I go take a shower, this is what I look like:

Uh.. I forgot to comb my hair =o=


Kitty says, "Can you do this and try to look cute?"

Oh, like this?

Cat says, "Now be all angsty and look like you wanna punch someone in the face."

Easy.  Mwahaha

Makeup really makes a difference, no?  (okay, granted, I was actually sweaty and my hair was a mess!)

I feel like a lot of girls are insecure without makeup.

Just remember that models have a lot of tricks and tips that help them.  Photoshop and makeup-- so don't feel insecure!  That's actually one of my biggest problems (not just on physical appearances), and I'm trying to overcome it by building up my confidence too.  It's working, slowly ^^

Watch, instant prettier-ness (well, hopefully anyways):



See?  I just turned off the lights

and if I tilt my head a bit, my face looks different.

Same thing with photoshop and lighting equipment-- all helps!

My mom will probably be like, "Wendy-ah!  Why are you posting all these not attractive pictures of yourself?!!  Boys will see!!"  Haha ;)  Just kidding (sort of)~  But I hope that if there's one girl (or guy) out there that feels a little better about their natural selves by reading this, that would make me happy.  Because back in college when people commented on my lack of fashion (which I have to admit, I don't really have a sense of still, hehe!), or saw pictures of my sister's Facebook page and said "Dannng!  She's a hottie!  You guys look totally different!," that didn't really help with my confidence problem.  I once commented on how pretty a Kpop star looked and that I wished I was as pretty as her, and someone told me I would never be because I don't use makeup.  Well, now.  Haha =o=  I may not ever be as pretty as that star, but I hope makeup isn't the solution to everything!  I'm curious what most people think though.  Makeup does work wonders, but I also think it can make people feel even more insecure.

One of my classmates saw me go to Anatomy from something, and I had some makeup (faint eyeliner and mascara) on.  He later texted me that he thinks I look better in my usual day-to-day makeup.  When I told him that I don't wear makeup when I go to class usually, he totally didn't believe me.  Not every girl wear makeup, man!  And they don't have to!  *grumble grumble*  I know he didn't mean anything like that, but it still kind of annoys me how society kind of expects girls to use that stuff.  Anyhow, I'm done ranting.  Have a good weekend!

Real me exposed!  Harsh bathroom lights, greasy sweat, and messy hair.

Keep smiling ^^

Dashi Panda?

Taking a quick break here! :D


Should I change my blog's site name?  It's Dashi Panda right now :)  But I've been playing with a new blog name too.  That would mean you would have to type something into the address bar instead of "dashipanda.com!"  Hmm~  Let me know what you think ^^

Burgers and BBQ

This seems like it will become an on-going theme: posting my Friday posts on Saturday :P

But to recap on the week (it's going to be a food post, sorry!), we went to In-N-Out for Jean and Chris' first time experience with the California-based fast food chain.  We ordered everything "animal-style," which is basically added grilled onions and thousand island sauce and deliciousness at no cost :)  I also tried one of their super thick milk shakes!  Aurelia kept telling Chris how awesome In-N-Out was, and Chris would give a comeback about how awesome Whataburger (a Texas chain) was, haha~

During the last spring break, my venture to Los Angeles brought me to In-and-Out, and I didn't think the burger was *amazing*, but their milkshake looked mad yummy.  At this Dallas location (not just a drive through like the one I visited in Cali), the burgers tasted really good, and the milkshake didn't perform up to my expectations... maybe because it was yellow-ish/cream colored instead of white... kind of like the reason why I like vanilla bean flavor more than french vanilla ice cream, haha!

Chris even said it was better than Whataburger!

Animal style cheeseburger (2x2) and animal style fries

Okay, I also thought In-N-Out's burgers were itty bitty... and here was a hefty-sized mouth-watering-inducing tower of calories perched innocently in front of me, next to the vanilla milkshake that I ordered.  Goodness gracious, I have to apologize to my thighs and my butt XD


And in case you think I'm exaggerating, here's a more in-your-face picture:

The bun is actually THICK o_o

Oh yeah!  I was reading the paper wrapping around the burger, and apparently they use their original "sponge dough" recipe.  I have no idea what that implies, but I'm guessing that's a factor in their poofy buns.  The LA location I went to didn't have this fancy packaging either.. I'm starting to think I walked up to a impostor franchise!

Aurelia spreading her Californian love for In-N-Out with Michelle!

Jean also approved, and Dana always approves ;)


In-N-Out
7940 N Central Expy
DallasTX 75206

~*~

Friday was Michelle's birthday!  We wandered to Carrollton and found ourselves at Gui-Rock Korean BBQ.  This time, it was Aurelia and Dana's first time having Korean BBQ from the grill!  Our table had so much food, that I hope Michelle got her Korean food-fix :D

Hmm, first time I was served a (complimentary) salad at a Korean BBQ place..  interesting ^^

We had a tough time fitting all the dishes at the table @_@

This was the most not blurry phone pic of the bunch-- Happy Birthday, young Michelle! :D

Gui-Rock Korean BBQ
2625 Old Denton Rd
Ste 700

CarrolltonTX 75007


Ah!  Okay, something about my life and not just food, food, food:  (Well, okay, I lied, it's related to food, haha ^^")  I think I have a bad reaction to mussels, because I've eaten mussels twice in the past several years.  And both times, I have gotten sick afterwards!  I'm recovering from yesterday's seafood tofu soup (which had a crazy amount of mussels inside), and I feel gross =o=  I actually passed out before 10pm last night and slept until my alarm at 7:30am @.@  

That might also be jumping to conclusions, so my alternative guess is that I just ate way too much the past week and my gluttony has made me ill, blahhhh.  When lunch time came, I wasn't that hungry, so I decided to eat something super simple: a peanut butter sandwich.  

Spread the peanut butter, close the sandwich, move plate to table, sit down.  And then I notice... what's that slightly gray-green spot on the bread?  Hmmmm... could it be mold??  *further inspection*  Ahh, yeah, it's mold.  *sigh*  What to do?  I don't want to eat anything else (all my food is heavy food, haha)!

*rip rip rip*  *toss moldy bits into the trash*

Okie dokie!  Lunch is ready!  Nom nom nom ^^

Haha, omgahh... so the scientific/clean side of me was like, "When mold grows on food, you can't just cut out a piece, because the mold has hyphae that makes this network of mycelium that you can't see.  So you're just doing what Mom does when she cuts some moldy bit off of a peach or strawberry and gives you the rest (haha!)."  But the who-gives-a-care/lazy side of me took over, "This would be such a waste if I threw it away.  Plus, cheese is basically mold so I won't get sick... or too sick anyways."  This reminded me of that tilapia sandwich story I had from sophomore year at college... but you can look that one up in the archives ;)  Haha, the germaphobe I once was in middle school is slowly disappearing~  Not sure if that's a good or bad thing!

All right, have a good weekend everyone ^^