Tamarind of London

Playing: Fluorescent Adolescent-Arctic Monkeys
Reading: Marie Claire Runway Second Edition

For my brother's birthday, which happened to be the same day the world was supposed to end, we went to Tamarind of London. My brother, Ted, and I keep a list of restaurants that we want to try and we use every possible cause to celebrate as a reason to try a new place. Tamarind of London was hailed by Orange Coast as being not as good as its predecessor in London, but still offering the best Indian food in Orange County. To start us off, we ordered the Garlic Naan and the Date Naan. The Date Naan was by far the best thing we ordered there. That naan was stuffed with a date and coconut spread that was almost desert like.

The dishes are all served family style in small pots and you help yourself. We ordered the Mushrooms and Spinach, Smoked Eggplant, Lamb Curry, Butter Chicken, and the Prawn Kebabs. Even though the Lamb Curry was too spicy, it did have a great flavor once I got over how tough and dry the lamb was. Unfortunately, both the Butter Chicken and Smoked Eggplant had bitter aftertastes that I wasn't too fond of. The Prawn Kebabs were pretty standard and considering the price, I really think we deserved more than five prawns. If you ever go to Tamarind of London, order the Mushrooms and Spinach. I don't typically eat vegetables, but this was definitely worth a try.

My brother and I each ordered a Mango Lassi, which was incredibly small for $6 and around the size of a kids meal cup at McDonald's. After the Date Naan, this was the next best thing I ordered. The creaminess of the yogurt really served to balance the heat from the Lamb Curry. They also serve a Passion Fruit Lassi, which my brother and I wanted to try, but they ran out of it that day. What a bummer...

Since all of the portions were a lot smaller than we expected them to be, we ended up ordering some Cheese Naan, which was actually pretty good. Was it the best naan ever? No, but it was good. It was stuffed with a mild, creamy cheese that oozed out of the naan, when you bit into it and it was nice to have a blander dish to offset all the strong flavors of the main dishes.

The most interesting dish, which wasn't really a dish, that we got was the complimentary after dinner mints. They were mint leaves freshly dipped in white chocolate. It was definitely very odd and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. The only recommendation I have for the chefs is less white chocolate please, since the white chocolate was overpoweringly sweet. Overall, Tamarind of London was good, but not amazing. If you want the best Indian food in California, I still suggest heading into Los Angeles. The biggest problem I had with Tamarind of London was the itsy bitsy portions. Considering each main dish averaged around $20, I was expecting a lot more meat or at least to be left mind blown at how good the dish was. The most reasonable dishes there were the naan bread, which came with around four slices each and averaged $4. Also, the service was lacking, considering we had to ask them twice for utensils and had to remind them that we ordered the lassis. So the verdict is, skip Tamarind of London and head on over to either the Ritz or Charlie Palmer, if you're in the mood for high dining.

Christmas Day

Playing: Let Your Heart Hold Fast-Fort Atlantic
Reading: An American in Paris, Again by Eric Wilson

Merry late Christmas! This Christmas day post is a tad late, I suppose, but I still wanted to share it with all of you. Since my grandparents come over every year for Christmas and they always go to bed at a ridiculously early time, my family has Christmas lunch instead of Christmas dinner. Every year my dad and I make prime rib with au jus, mashed potatoes with gravy, and some kind of a vegetable along with some biscuits. We've been discussing stereotypical French Christmas meals in French class and that got me thinking, what is a stereotypical American Christmas meal? I don't think there really is one...

This year there wasn't really anything I was dying to get my hands on other than a few CDs, so I mostly got cash, which I'm saving for some future splurge.  The Patrick Wolf CD is my favorite from him after "Lupercalia," while the Something Corporate CDs are to replace the ones my brother's idiotic friends borrowed and never gave back. Sophie gave my everything that I like-cute stationary, sparkly nail polish, sweets, and a yetti button. The Burberry scarf is actually my mum's gift to my dad, but I plan on borrowing it, since I've been wanting one for myself for quite a few years.

My dad and mum didn't communicate with each other, when they were getting gifts for me, so I ended up with two purses. In the end, I won. Actually, I'm probably going to return both of the purses, so I didn't win. The Alexander Wang tote is too heavy for me, while the Marc by Marc Jacobs purse is too safe for my liking. Since I already have a plain black purse, I don't see why I need another one and I'd rather save my "purse money" for something I'm dying to own. I want to keep the Alexander Wang purse for school, but some jerk is going to stick gum on it or something, so I know it's not safe to bring it to school and I don't want to keep it if some idiot is going to ruin it.

The day after Christmas, my family went to Bruxie, since my dad has never been and I tried the Green Eggs and Ham there, which was very good. The pesto oozed out of the sides and I liked how gooey the cheese was. The only improvement I can suggest is cooking the egg less so that the yolk oozes out too. Surprisingly, the mayonnaise added a nice creaminess to it even though I normally dislike large amounts of it.

Since Bruxie portions are rather small, my brother and I shared the Seasonal Creme Brulee, which was very good. The burnt sugar really made it taste like a real creme brulee and the custard was extraordinarily creamy. My brother and I both agree that we ordered more wisely on this trip to Bruxie than last time. Another nice thing about Bruxie is their seasonal menu, where you can get Egg Nog shakes around Christmas and Turkey Dinner waffles around Thanksgiving. It's a very cute place to try, if you're ever in the area. Hope your holidays went well! Let me know what you did and how you celebrated!

A Very Merry You-Survived-the-Mayan-Apocalypse Christmas

Playing: Christmas Lights-Coldplay
Reading: Holiday Traditions: At Home with Jane Aldridge of Sea of Shoes by Jane Aldridge

Sophie and I hosted a Christmas/Sophie's Birthday/Surviving the Mayan Apocalypse Party just last night and being the best hostesses on the planet that we are, we spent about three hours decorating for the party. Admittedly, a good half hour or so was spent getting ourselves tangled up in Christmas lights and another hour spent laughing over stupid inside jokes, but still, we put a lot of hard work into this party.

She baked a brownie birthday cake and had me help her ice the cake. It was my first time icing a cake and I had no idea what design she wanted, so I just did the white icing and helped smooth out the cat's fur a tad, while she did the whole laser cat design. I have to admit that I think we did a pretty good job with it and everyone else seemed to like it quite a bit.

John Paul, Sophie's dad, and I did all the cooking for the party. Even though this is going to sound pretty egotistical, I think John Paul and I deserve our own Food Network show. It'll be like Down Home with the Neelys only with us yelling at each other and telling each other to get lost. Oh and a whole lot less deep frying...I made some penne arrabiata plus some vegetable dip, John Paul made a citrus marinade chicken along with some sort of a beignet, and Sophie's dad made mac and cheese for all of us.

Sophie did the most amazing thing ever and surprised me with Aadil! Oh, how I've missed Aadil and his wisdom! We totally claimed him for our game of ghetto Scrabble and put him on our awesome team, +3@/\/\ K|(K@$$ (TEAM KICKASS). Unfortunately, we didn't really kick ass, but it was fun being able to not use proper spelling. By the end of the game, we went from ghetto Scrabble to redneck Scrabble and I'm really not sure how that happened. Since Aadil doesn't want me to post any photos of his incredible dancing, I will have to end here by just letting you know that we ended the party with tons of dancing that vacillated between being really ghetto, borderline mosh pitting, and being reminiscent of 80s new wave moves. Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and get to spend time with everyone you love!

Fashion+The Killers

Playing: Be My Escape-Relient K
Reading: Style.com/print SS 2013

Hello everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates and posts; like I said before, nothing of real interest is going on in my life. My friend, PJ, started a fashion club at my school, so I joined. We pretty much just sit around and discuss runway shows, models, and clothes, but we also do some artsy stuff like drawing and painting. It's pretty fun and the teacher's room that the club is held in has all these old fashion magazines, so we get to rip out our favorite pictures. I loved the W spread with Lindsey Wixson and the haute couture spread with Karlie Kloss, so I had to rip out those photos.

Jessy was also at the meeting and I hadn't seen her in while, so it was nice to catch up with her too. She brought a little gift for me from the Marc by Marc Jacobs store. The ring is just my style-simple and slightly edgy-and the pen is also really cute. I brought in a Marc Jacobs bag to carry my yarn in to school one day and the next day I was carrying this bag around plus some Marc Jacobs ads, so the boys in English class asked me who Marc was. When I told them he was a designer, they exclaimed, "OH, that explains why he has bags and the ads revolve around clothes!" Oh mon dieu, boys!

You guys have all met my puffer fish, Jacques, already. Well, I like to spoil him and play with him, so lately I've been holding my new iPhone up to the tank, so that Jacques can watch music videos. He'll actually watch some of them, but so far I think he likes "Mr. Brightside" the best. It's the only music video, where he'll watch the whole thing.

By the way, the music video for "Miss Atomic Bomb" came out today and it's almost like a sequel to "Mr. Brightside." All of the cast from "Mr. Brightside" is present and the video just makes me so happy. The cartoon part was a bit cheesy, but I still liked the video and thought the concept was interesting. The best part is Miss Atomic Bomb and Mr. Brightside are reunited and it makes me go aww and get all mushy and love sick every time I hit the replay button on YouTube. Sorry for the complete and utter lack of technical terms in this post and the overuse of stereotypical teenage girl phrases, but seriously, the music video makes me get all love sick.

Who's your favorite music video couple or music video romance? I really love Mr. Brightside and Miss Atomic Bomb in case you couldn't tell.

A Very Sophie Christmas

Playing: FALL-Cider Sky
Reading: The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee (Not that one...)

My parents ditched me last weekend to go to to a Christmas party, so I had no where to go and Sophie, being the amazing friend that she is, took me out for a day of fun and creativity. She took me to this yoga studio to make Christmas ornaments, which I kind of slaughtered, but no worries, I'm going to try again! I've always wanted to do a themed Christmas tree, so if I were doing one, my theme for this year would be stars and the sky.

Afterwards, we walked around this little ditch area in my town and explored, while dancing to the Cure and the Police. We like to dance a lot and this is one of my favorite photos of Sophie; she looks so happy and like she actually enjoys spending time with me. After we explored for awhile, we decided to catch a showing of Looper, which was so intense, at the dollar theatre. The only complaint I have with Looper is that the makeup artists changed Joseph Gordon Levitt's face too much. Did I tell you about how I went to go see Lincoln for APUSH extra credit and my teacher, Mr. Harrington, sat right next to me? He chucked popcorn at me and now in all his classes, he does Audrey fangirling over Joseph Gordon Levitt impersonations that are painfully accurate. (I LOVE HIS CLASS THOUGH.) After watching Looper, Sophie took me to dinner because she's a nice person like that and then let me bum around her place until my parents came back home. Thanks, Sopher Gopher, I owe you one.

Later on (not with Sophie), I went to Target to buy some Christmas lights and I'm super excited to say that the Target and Neiman Marcus collaboration hasn't sold out, since it's too expensive for Target shoppers and too cheap for Neiman Marcus' audience. I grabbed a Marc Jacobs scarf, which is so perfect and it's conservative enough that I think men can wear it too. During the post-Christmas sales, I'm going back for the Tom Browne blazer! The Christmas cards were just so cute and for Christmas this year, I'm giving heart felt cards. My group of friends is doing a secret Santa and I just wanted to show you how cute the items I bought for Jackie are. (Just don't show her! She doesn't know yet!) The cupcake bath bomb is so cute and realistic looking, while the hand scrub and lip gloss just smell insanely good.

I actually got some requests, which I'm shocked about, to do a separate blog of extra photos from my life such as cute things, my food, and just more photos of well, me. WELL, today's your lucky day, I created a tumblr for all of you (but mostly me) that stores all my extra fun photos that didn't make it on my main blog. So if you like photos of Vivian and me dancing sporadically in Disneyland, attracting a crowd of bystanders, then The World is just for you. Really, knowing you guys want to see more of me makes me feel so loved.

PS I apologize for being a cruddy blogger. Not much of interest has been going on in my life.

What I've Been Eating

Playing: Sugar, We're Goin Down-Fall Out Boy
Reading: Civil Disobedience (Part 1 of 3) by Henry David Thoreau

For Thanksgiving break, my brother came home, so as usual we went off to try a bunch of new places to eat. Bruxie is known for their waffle sandwiches and we've been meaning to try it, so I ordered what was recommended the most on Yelp. The Buttermilk Fried Chicken and Waffle is a chicken fillet deep fried and topped with cider slaw and spicy honey stuffed into a crispy waffle. Out of the sandwiches we ordered, this was one of the better ones, since it had more stuffing than the others.

My brother and I shared the Lemon Cream and Berries, which was only ok. The lemon cream had next to no flavor and all the berries were quite sour. Overall for my verdict on Bruxie, the food is only alright, but the concept is cute. It's not nearly enough food, since the waffles aren't stuffed with that much food.

Flavio's happens to be one of my favorite restaurants for pasta. The food is good, the service is friendly, and the price is inexpensive. The Pasta Rustica is one of my favorites there. It's bow tie pasta served with sauteed garlic and artichokes, sun dried tomatoes, and chicken in a light cream sauce. The best part about this dish is that it's actually pretty light for a cream based sauce.

My brother and I also went to the Old Towne Grinder and Ice Cream Parlor, since they have the largest selection of sodas anywhere. We actually didn't try the Nuclear Orange Bomb, but I wanted a photo of it because, let's get real, why wouldn't I take a photo of a soda with Kim Jong Il? It's just "WTF" enough to make me smile. The blueberry soda was amazing by the way, while the Cherries and  Mint was quite unusual. I highly recommend visiting this place for their amazing soda selection. Where else can you get gourmet Ginger Ale and then get Sweet Corn?

Harry's Grill is one of those places that I go to for old time's sake. After my family went to the beach, we would come here for inexpensive American food served in huge portions. Their fried chicken is pretty good actually and has a sweet unexpected after taste. This actually comes with a large bowl of soup, so you can get away with sharing this with someone too. What I've been eating is pretty safe and not too fancy lately, so hope this post didn't bore you too much.

PS Blogger  is no longer letting my upload photos directly, since I've used up my 1 GB of memory. I deleted something around 100 photos to clear up some memory and it's still saying that I have no memory. Do any of you know what's wrong? For now, I'll just use Photobucket to upload my photos.

"Pourquoi tu gâches ta vie?"

Playing: You Don't Have to Say You Love Me-Dusty Springfield

Reading: "Vogue Stories, Part Four: Iman, Alexander Wang, and Others Recall Their Experiences with Vogue" as told to Rebecca Bengal

Just a little update about everything going on in my mind right now. I'm trying to convince myself that I could be happy in Los Angeles. I've always loved Los Angeles, but for so long now, I've had it stuck in my head that I need to move to New York or London in order for me to be happy, but now I feel so lost and I don't know what I really want anymore. I've never felt cool enough for Los Angeles, but then again I feel like I would be so lost in New York if I didn't have any friends there to help me adjust. I just need to stop thinking so much and go outside of my comfort level, so that I can go to New York. Hear that Alexander Wang? I'm coming.

On to happier topics now. I went to go see Antigone and my friend, John Paul, was working one of the food stands, so I took a photo with him, but my camera struggles with taking clear photos in the dark, so now you get to see John Paul and me looking blurry as if we're "regenerating" according to Sabrina, who played Antigone. So many of my friends starred in Antigone, so I knew I had to go watch them perform. Plus I read the play last year in English class.

Over the weekend, I went to Mitsuwa to pick up some of my favorite snacks/drinks in the world. Tina got me hooked on these chips and now the Trader Joe's version isn't good enough for me anymore. These are so fluffy and cute with their little heart shaped waffle design. The peach water is seriously my favorite drink and I can drink it just about anytime ever. While I was in Japan, I drank two of these everyday, when I wasn't drinking melon soda or various other cutesy drinks.

Oh and here's an outfit I wore sometime to do some errands. I'm wearing a Zara collared blouse, a now winter staple Hawkings McGill sweater, Mango jeans, Madewell boots, and a Burberry Prorsum purse. By now, you've probably figured out I love wearing colored jeans and wearing Burberry. I'm seriously tempted to do a Burberry challenge like I have to incorporate something Burberry into every outfit of mine. Also, I should take some outfit photos in some other places for once.

The title is from "Elle Me Dit" by Mika. I chose that because it translates to "Why are you wasting your life?" and all these hardcore fobs ask me that all the time, since I like having fun and I'm a rebel by Asian standards. They always criticize me for drawing during class, dancing with my friends sporadically, not learning Chinese/Japanese/Korean, listening to "trashy music" (by their standards, anything that isn't classical music or K-pop),  admiring people like Tim Burton/Holden Caulfield/Ferris Bueller/Anna Wintour, screaming a lot, etc. and I'm getting tired of it, so dear fobs, do keep in mind I'm not one of you. The standards for my life are that of your typical American teenager, not one that lives in whatever country you're accustomed to. End rant.

Edit-I'm not mad at all fobs nor do I think fobs are bad people. I'm just mad at them for always trying to interfere in my life and for making me feel like I'm wasting my life.

The Finale

Playing: Keep Rising-Jack's Mannequin
Reading: World Design: The Best in Classic and Contemporary Furniture, Fashion, Graphics, and More by Uta Abendroth, Karin Beate Phillips, Christian Pixis, Volkard Steinbach, and Bernd Polster

November 12, 2012 marked the very last concert for my favorite band, Jack's Mannequin, at the El Rey Theatre. It's hard to explain how I feel about Andrew McMahon, the lead singer, and his music without sounding fanatical or insane. To get these tickets, I actually woke up really early one morning and sat at the computer, refreshing the page every two seconds. For the first ten attempts at buying tickets, ticketmaster told me there were no tickets left, so I began to panic, but I finally got them. This was my fifth time seeing Andrew McMahon and while I was standing in line, I got a chance to talk to some other super fans like the guy that flew in from Texas and the two friends that drove for eight hours from Arizona.

The show opened with Matt Thiessen of Reliant K, singing old favorites and some new material. Bobby "Raw" Anderson, the lead guitarist of Jack's Mannequin, joined him for a song. I had no idea he'd be there, so when he walked on stage, I kind of screamed a lot at him and now I can't get "Sadie Hawkins" out of my head. During the encore, he got on stage and I got a chance to briefly talk to him, which was pretty exciting and he seems pretty nice from our miniscule conversation and from when he talked to the audience.

Since the concert was general admission and I'm a tiny person, I was able to squeeze right on through the crowd, so that I was only five feet away from the stage. With the help of a new camera, I was able to get some really clear close up shots. Andrew was his usual charming, funny self and he did his fun, spastic dance moves, so needless to say I enjoyed it tremendously so.

Since I was so close to Bobby "Raw" Anderson, I got the chance to take some amazing photos of him. At all of the past concerts, I focused mostly on Andrew and I got to see how great Bobby is at performing. He's amazing and I kind of regret not paying more attention to him earlier on. Andrew wrote "No Man is an Island" for Bobby's wedding song, so I guess the two of us will have the same wedding song.

Dr. J also returned after leaving the band for awhile. It was nice to see him again. I apologize for my recap being so poor this time, but I feel like I've written about Andrew so much that to write out how much I love him and his music again would just be repetitive. At the end of the concert, Andrew was joined by all of his friends and it was a beautiful moment, as the confetti fell. It was definitely a weird feeling for me. After seeing him so many times and listening to his music for around eight years now, I find it hard to believe it's all over. I've actually found myself getting really depressed during class, if I think about it too much. However, this isn't the end. I would like to believe that Andrew isn't ending his music career completely and that he's just moving on. After all, I still haven't met him and that's definitely one of my life goals. Here's the set list:

• Holiday From Real
• Crashing
• Release Me
• Annie, Use Your Telescope
• Spinning
• My Racing Thoughts (It's about getting in a fight with someone who knows you too well.)
• Casting Lines
• The Resolution
• Bloodshot
• Amy I
• Swim
• Restless Dream
• The Mixed Tape
• Last Straw
• I'm Ready
• Bruised
• Hammers and Strings
• Dark Blue
• Caves ("This song is hard to play. I mean it's emotionally hard, but it's actually hard to play.")
• MFEO Part 1: Made for Each Other
• MFEO Part 2: You Can Breathe
• La La Lie

I just want Andrew to know that his music has really inspired me and has helped me through many a tough time. He's just amazing and I want him to know that he makes me happy and that this isn't a good bye; it's a see you soon. I would also like to thank him for all the amazing memories and for putting so much into my life. See you soon, Andrew, and I wish you luck with your next adventure!

Also, happy Thanksgiving to all of my America readers!

Disney Magic

Playing: Locked Doors-Jack's Mannequin
Reading: Turning 30 and Making a Difference in a Music Business, Post Apocalypse by Andrew McMahon

Left to Right: Katrina, Tina, me, and Vivian

Ok, so for my birthday, I always celebrate multiple times with different groups of people and the latest round of celebrations was an over the top day at Disneyland with my amazing friends, Katrina, Tina, and Vivian. We took a lot of group photos, but this one is my favorite because we all look so sassy with Cruella De Vil. This happened to be Vivian's first time at Disneyland too, so Katrina and I had a fun time showing her around, since Disneyland is like a second home to us.

The main reason why I wanted to go to Disneyland other than to see the amazing Christmas decorations was to go to Club 33, which is an ultra exclusive club hidden in Disneyland. My dad's friend is a member, so I've been lucky enough to go a handful of times in my life. The buffet part is so amazing because they have lobster tails, crab claws, shrimp, lox, etc. However, my friends and I agree that the scallop chowder was the best. Collectively we drank twenty cups of it and emptied half of the container.

For my main entree, I ordered the King Crab Stuffed Lobster Tail with Lemon Verbana Fettucine, Crisp Coppa Ham, Shaved Saffron Fennel, and Fortified Oxtail Broth. The broth gave the lobster a wonderful meaty quality, while the fettucine was perfectly cooked. It had the slightest taste of lemon, which was really refreshing after the heavy lobster. The smokiness of the coppa ham was a nice way to start off the dish too. If you want to talk about being impressive, each one of us had seven or eight rounds of food at Club 33.

My favorite part of going to Disneyland for the holidays is The Nightmare Before Christmas themed Haunted Mansion. I'm super obsessed with everything and anything Tim Burton, so I always get excited to check out what's changed every year. I'm pretty sure the scarecrow is new? I could've sworn it used to be Jack Skellington himself.

I even got a picture with Sparky from Frankenweenie that day. I'm surprised at how incredibly pale I am. It's like I never get to see the sun, even though I live in Southern California. Did I tell you about how I tried to dress my dog up as Sparky and how my dog just refused to keep the costume on? I should just learn my lesson that my dog hates getting dressed up and will never enjoy it.

Another ride that's always beautiful for Christmas time is It's a Small World. The lights are always so simple yet well done. It makes me want to decorate my house in super bright colors this year and go way over the top (like I do every year). If you come to Disneyland during the holidays, you must go inside to look at all the decorations. The attention to detail is phenomenal. It makes me want to become an Imagineer! Also, it rained that day, so the damp streets reflected all the lights, making everything even more beautiful.

We actually spent a lot of time in Fantasyland, riding all the little kid rides. I love how beautiful and antiquated the carousel looks. When I was little, I would choose which horse I wanted and my dad would run with me to guarantee that I got the exact horse I wanted. Then I would make him go on the carousel with me time and time again until he got motion sick. This time, my friends and I only went on once. We ended the night, watching fireworks and waiting to watch Fantasmic, which had technical errors, so then we went on one more ride. If you're ever in the area and have some spare cash, you must go to Disneyland for Christmas time, since it's definitely a place for people on quest for beauty like me!

In the Middle of the Desert

Playing: Out of It-Jack's Mannequin
Reading: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

For my birthday, as I mentioned previously, I went out to the desert to explore and be free with my friend, Sophie. From where we live, it took us over three hours to get to Noah Purifoy's Outdoor Desert Museum, which we found out about from a book called Weird California or something like that. I'm quite surprised that the GPS was able to find it, since we had to go along dirt roads to get to it and my GPS has a hard time finding places even in urban areas.

My parents took one look at it and asked why I had taken them to a junk yard, so they hid out in the car. Not to mention, it was below fifty degrees, so they weren't up for freezing to death with Sophie and me. One of  my favorite pieces from the museum was this TV clump that you see as soon as you drive up to it. It would've been great, if all the TVs had different clips going on, but then again, there's no source for electricity there.

There were some shacks there that reminded me of Lost and/or camping conditions that were just a tad more luxurious than that of Chris McCandless' camp out (Into the Wild allusion? Got it? Just checking). The run down shack was a bit creepy and Sophie agreed with me that this place would be rather scary at night. Translation? We get scared way too easily.

Personally, I don't think this museum was meant to be an art museum. I feel that it's a place for exploration and was meant to be a surrealist playground, where you can be free and run around without having anyone judge you. This was one of my favorite scenes there. It looked like a post-apocalyptic town with nods to alien architecture. This is going to sound beyond ridiculous, but we kept on waiting for something creepy to happen. Something about the vibe and loneliness of the area really made Sophie and I wonder.

Luckily, I had my dad there to protect us, since he's probably the manliest guy in my life. Plus, he doesn't mind photographing Sophie and me, while we danced around the area. Oh, here's something freaky: Sophie and I could've sworn we heard a chainsaw going off, so we freaked out and ran off to the other side of the museum. Then we brought my dad to the area where we heard it and no one was there. It was also odd how we saw two other cars there, but we never ran into the other tourists.

And one last photo for today. Sophie and I were sitting in an igloo in the desert in the middle of nowhere. Fascinating. Overall, Sophie and I agree that this is one of the best things we've done together and that we definitely have to visit more surreal places. Other than the occasional chill we got from being creeped out, I highly recommend visiting this place. It's unlike anything I've seen and the landscape is perfect for photos. And if you're on a quest for beauty like I am, this is a good place to start.