cosplay awesomeness

christine and i always message each other with the cosplays that impress us the most lol thought i'd share :D

Noctic Lucis Caelum -- FFXIII Versus by Cosplayers Ranier Tachibana and Shichikou

Lightning -- FFXIII by Cosplayer SachikoYumi

Hinoto -- X/1999 from Photographer Marina-look

Alexiel -- Angel Sanctuary by Cosplayer Etaru

Zero -- Vampire Knight

Yazoo -- FFVII Advent Children

Gorgeous huh? Hopefully soon, we'll complete our next set of costumes and find a good photographer to produce beautiful pictures like those above :] but we all start somewhere :) 

Halloween 2009: The White Queen and Mad Hatter

Final Fantasy Distant Worlds

I've totally been spamming on the posts lately, but! if you love video game music and particularly, final fantasy, I recommend going to see the FF distant worlds concert series.  I went last night in San Diego and it was awesome :) I think everyone can appreciate nobuo uematsu's musical genius.


The next couple of cities are Houston, Washington D.C., Tokyo and Toronto :)

the madness is almost here :D

the sequel to american mcgee's alice :) so exciting!

See more Alice: Madness Returns Videos at Alice: Madness Returns Official Site.

I really wanted to play the original Alice, but since I am a chicken I couldn't even get through the demo XD  But it's really cool, I'm excited for #2 (I really ought to play the original first, though...)

Costume Construction: BlazBlue

This post is long overdue :P but christine and i have been meaning to detail how each of our costumes (current and future) are constructed so that everyone can see that insane amount of time and money that goes into cosplaying...and yes, it's probably not the best hobby to pick up on but yeahhhhhhhh lol

Showcased: June 4, 2010 at A-Kon 21

Tiffany: Noel Vermillion    Christine: Rachel Alucard

well here goes nothing....

Noel Vermillion

Noel's costume looks really simple. As a first time costume and first time sewing project? it's so hard to make.  the enormous height difference also meant i had to proportion her outfit to my size == skirt is super short >.< and stockings over the knee so i have the "ideal" thigh showing space....there's a japanese word for that that i don't remember lol  and yes i wore hot shorts so sorry to those hoping i followed the artist's suggestions and make my panty color a surprise -_- boyssssss *smh*


no pictures on construction for the moment but i'll try to find some?

I probably spent upwards of $200 on this costume, including sewing supplies, unnecessary yards of fabric, wig and contacts.  I researched her costume from other cosplayers, the dustloop artist's cosplay recommendations and different screenshots.  The details on her costume are inconsistent, so i kept the ones i liked :P the only thing i didn't make were the white gloves (lucy in disguise ~$6) and the black stockings (christine's)

Similar to rosa-bella (see link above), i made the fitted dress mid-thigh with a princess cut at the bust because of the stretchy black material (i want to say yoga pant like material but i have no idea what that's called). The white shirt part is an old dress shirt i cut up and the hat follows a simple pattern.  the marine blue and white sections are a heavyweight kona cotton. The pleats are added in rather than cut that way.  The trim is black bias tape and yellow kona cotton cut on a bias.  An invisible zipper runs along the back.

The sleeves were also made from the heavyweight cotton and fully lined.  The shoulder and cuff parts are interfaced for stiffness.  An elastic band was sewn in at the upper arm to keep the sleeve up and the gold buttons (#500,501) i bought from joann's.

i used the heavyweight cotton in three pieces with super stiff interfacing to make the boots.  an invisible zipper runs up the back so i can put them on and an elastic band holds the boot covers to the boots (which i borrowed from christine).  the cuff sections i added on later and the cross is double layered yellow kona cotton. although it was hellish to actually flip the pieces inside out after i sewed them together, the result looked great.  if i had used paint (like the jin we saw at the con), there would have been cracking as i walked.

the red tie and arm ribbons are made from a dark satin material with a little sheen.  The tie was made in two pieces; i first made the knot and then added the tie end and it fits around my neck via elastic band.  The arm bands are about 3 foot long tubes that i ironed flat.  decided against adding real tubes because that would've been really heavy on my arms but no matter what, things dangling off your body will inevitably get stepped on *sigh*

the metal pieces on my boot covers, arms, dress, ribbons and hat are made from craft foam that i cut approximately into the right shapes. the chains on my arms were made from baked clay that i strengthened with bead wire.  used a matte silver metal spray paint to make it more realistic. note to self: use primer and a sealant layer next time lol

wig was from cosworx. color 24. awesome awesome wig :) 


green contacts from acuvue color.  they weren't green enough :( but my eyes are bad so i was cheapo and used spherical lenses with the right power.  was recommended two sites, Dollyeye and Korea Big Eyes, for their doll-like and vibrant color contacts.  will buy for my lightning costume for sure.  for really special contacts, i found a special effects contact site: 9mmSFX. absolutely amazing lenses but also really expensive.


last thoughts on my costume: sloppy :( it looks great but it was definitely not fitted well and the dress on the inside is a mess.  it needs to be lined and the hem fixed.  will do better next time. need to finish my guns and i'll  do a separate post on that later :)

next: Tifa Lockhart (advent children version) no wig! yay :) 

Rachel Alucard

Ahaha... well, let's see if I remember any of this.  I may have blocked the pain from my memory XP

Although this is not technically my first costume (my first cosplay was Hibari from Reborn, with all items purchased; my first fully-made costume was a variation on the White Queen from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland), this was the first time a made something based on someone else's design.  So I'm going to go ahead and say it's also my first cosplay costume.

Rachel's costume... does not look simple.  It consists of three layers on top and bottom.  I have no idea how much I spent, but I probably spent a lot more than Tiffy did, simply because of the amount of cloth I had to use, and the fact that Rachel is a spoiled princess who uses high quality stuff.

I didn't really look at any other cosplayer's sites for how to make Rachel's costume, but I definitely took the artist's tips into mind and consulted the artbook pictures (which have since been taken down, so I can't link you, but feel free to leave a message if you'd like me to send them to you) for her costume a lot.  My main problem was that the pictures have discrepancies (that is, I guess the artist couldn't quite decide what Rachel's outfit looks like), so I had a hard time piecing out how long or wide things should be relative to other parts of the costume.

Because of time (or lack thereof), I only made the main part of her costume and ignored the shoes and accessories (Nago and Gii, her shape-shifting cat often seen as an umbrella and her fluffy demon slave thing).  I will hopefully be making the accessories for the next con; we'll see.  For her shoes, I wore a pair of platforms I bought a long time ago.  If I had made them, I would have used a hollow wooden base painted silver, with stiffened suede on top, since they are actually rocking horse shoes (platforms with the heel cut out).

According to the artist tips, Rachel's costume is a mix of silk and leather.  I used neither in my costume.  Silk is very expensive ($15+ a yard) and impossible to wash; leather is the worst thing to be wearing from head to toe in the middle of summer here.  Instead, I used Casa Collection satin in white, black, and red.

Top - Layer 1 (Undershirt)
Although you can barely see it in any picture, Rachel wears a white, collared, sleeveless shirt with ruffles down the front and along the shoulders.  I used white satin for all of this.  As a pattern, I used a slightly modified dress shirt pattern (I modified it by removing the sleeves; I used a pattern with sleeves so I could use the same pattern for the jacket).  For easy removal, I put an invisible white zipper up the front, and two hook-and-eye clasps at the throat (because the zipper wasn't long enough).  I added the ruffles at the end -- just sewed a strip of white satin about twice the length I needed, then folded them over and under to make the ruffle shape.

Top - Layer 2 (Jacket)
I would say that the jacket was one of the hardest bases to make in my costume, because it's two-toned and has an odd shape.  The top part and the sleeves are a darker black, and the bottom part is lighter black.  To create the two tones, I just used the fact that the inside of the satin, unlike other materials like cotton, is different from the outside.  For the darker parts, I used the outside (correct side) of the satin, and for the lighter part, I used the inside (wrong side).  Again, I used a more heavily modified version of a dress shirt pattern, removing the collar and estimating the places where the tones started/ended.  I also extended the bottom of the jacket to make the V-shapes in the front and back..  The back came out a little too short, though (because my skirt is extra poofy).  Note that the line down the back of the jacket is deliberate.

The sleeves gave me a lot of trouble; at first, I tried to do it as one whole piece, but the top half of the sleeve is slim (above the elbow), while the bottom half flares out and is very wide.  I ended up having to sew two separate pieces together -- one straight sleeve for the top half, and then a semi-circle for the bottom half -- which makes a noticeable line, but oh well.

The ruffles on the bottom of the jacket were just shapely lace, while the ruffles on the sleeves are actually white satin (same cloth as the shirt).  For the decorations on the sleeves, I used red satin and white satin ribbon.  I had to use some cheap cloth to draw out a shape first.  The pattern of the decoration turned out to be a circle-shaped strip of cloth centered at the red arrow shape.  All of it was one cloth.  The white edges of the decoration were a thick, shiny white satin I got cheaply at Michael's (it was on sale), folded over twice and tucked between the red and black satin on the sleeve.  At each corner, I cut the ribbon diagonally and matched up the sides with the next strip of ribbon.  Uh, this doesn't make much sense...  Beware that satin likes to do its own thing, so most of my decorations came out sort of wavy-looking instead of nice and flat.

I purchased some fancy buttons for the white spots on her sleeves, and used the same buttons for the spots on the cape (description below).  I put a black zipper up the front of the jacket, and then used red oval-shaped buttons from a special button store as the red decorations in front.  I was trying to be as true to the original as possible; I've seen others use just a strip of red cloth, but I don't think that looks as good.

Top - Layer 3 (Cape)
My very bad pattern for the cape consisted of me wrapping newspaper around my shoulders and guessing the shape.  Capes are basically a semi-circle, or a very big piece of pie, with the tip cut out for your neck.  For the collar, I measured a trapezoid shape, where the short side is the same length as the neck part of the cape, and the long side allows the collar to extend out on my face.  In retrospect, I should have used more of a rounded shape for at least the short side (to fit into the circular shape of the cape base better).  I cut the trapezoid with the long side against the cloth fold so that it would be correct side out on both the inside and outside of the collar, then lined it with interfacing so it would be stiff and stay up.

The cape was the same black satin (correct side) with red satin and white satin ribbon as decorations, same as the jacket.  I actually used gift tissue paper to trace the pattern on top of the cape base, since the tissue paper is see-through.  The decoration consisted of several parts: the main cross in the back, the circle underneath, the two crosses on each side, and the red strip around the neck.  For each part, I cut the red out, then edged the red with the white, and then arranged it on top of the cape.  I sewed the whole thing on at once.  The red strip around the neck extends further than the cape so I can clasp it together at the front without the cape covering my front.  The red bow was messily done, but I sewed clasps onto the back of the bow so I could remove it from the cape or attach it on.  Again, fancy white buttons on the back of the cape.

Bottom - Layer 1
The bottom layer 1 should be black bloomers, which I didn't make.  I bought black cotton for them, though. and I'll hopefully make them sometime soon.  I would have used a bloomer pattern from my Gothic & Lolita Bible magazine, but it's not difficult to find a bloomer pattern.  Think of them as really wide shorts that you just add elastic to.

Bottom - Layer 2
Underneath the really poofy skirt is actually a hoop skirt, not a petticoat.  (A hoop skirt is one layer of cloth that maintains its shape by using rings of something stiff, like wire; a petticoat maintains its shape with multiple layers of cloth, typically something stiff like tulle, that add up to be poofy.)  I used this tutorial to make the hoop skirt.  I just used a cheap, slick material (forgot what it's called), since you can't see it, and I used 1/4" white PVC pipes instead of soaker hose.  (It's actually lighter.)  I made the hoop skirt shorter than the actual skirt and then added a very wide layer of white satin ruffle to the bottom (this ruffle shows up, as it extends longer than the skirt).

Bottom - Layer 3
Second most difficult base, because it has a really weird shape.  I used my extra material, pinned it to the hoop skirt (which I propped up on a bunch of moving boxes, by the way), and cut out an approximate shape.  Black satin again, correct side out for the sides and back (all one piece).  The front three triangles were wrong side out (lighter black), and lined on the bottom edges with the correct side out as trim.  I used the white satin for the ruffles on the bottom two triangles.

The decorations were also difficult.  By the way, the red parts of her skirt are, according to the artist's tips, a kumori (bat) wing variant, which means that they change shape at will.  Good luck getting that to work.  No, I used satin and just used the most commonly seen shape.  Again, red satin, but on black satin ribbon this time.  I sort of made it up very quickly at the end, so the inside sewing is bad, and the long parts in the front tend to flip out because I didn't sew the very front edges of the red "wings" on (in order to make it more flowy-looking).  The red crosses are actually sewed on top of white crosses (because I ran out of ribbon), and then sewn onto the skirt.  (That's easier than sewing ribbon, so I probably won't be using ribbon anymore... although it wastes a lot of cloth.)

Accessories - Hair ribbons (bunny ears)
Probably what seems like a very difficult part, because it is important that the ribbons stand up and come to a point, says the artist.  Well, it wasn't actually that hard, just a bit difficult to make it keep its shape.  I'll have to think of something a bit sturdier.

Two pieces of black satin for each ear (a total of 4 -- 2 long ones in the front, 2 short ones in the back).  I just sort of cut out an ear and then stuck it on my head and looked in the mirror for proportions.  I cut it in a sort of long oval shape, with one pointed end and one flat end that is wider than it looks (so I could fold it to make that crease in the middle).  The inside was lined with stiff interfacing, which is sufficient to make it stand up and come to points.  I attached each ear to a piece of black felt (because I was lazy and rushing), which I then sewed to a piece of black elastic.  To attach the ears to my head, I wrapped the elastic around the pigtail and clasped it at the bottom.  Sufficient, but the ears tended to fall over or not be correctly aligned, so I constantly had to fix them during the convention =\

Accessories - Hair, eyes, and makeup
Rachel's hair is long.  Really, really long.  Most wigs don't come that long.  Mine was 150 cm, but I had to trade length for quality, and I will not be making that mistake again.  I purchased my wig from Milanoo, a wholesale dealer from China.  Check out their site; they have some nice designs and interesting things.  But I will never purchase from Milanoo again.  First of all, their prices swing around wildly with no warning and no apparent reason.  So you might end up like me and end up paying $20 more than you should have for the wig.  Second, their customer service representatives, while polite, are completely clueless and mostly unhelpful.  Also, they take forever to ship (I didn't get mine for like a month and a half), although that may be because they're overseas... but I doubt it.  

Oh, and most important reason -- their wig quality is total crap.  Mine tangled almost instantly, which is not unexpected given the length.  But the strands were very thin and dry, and I could NOT get it to untangle almost at all.  Also, the wig cap is very small and, it looks like, cheaply made.  I will definitely, definitely be getting my wig from Cosworx or ImageAnime next time.  They are both within the U.S., and their wig quality is amazing.  ImageAnime's wigs feel like real hair.  Actually, they feel better than my hair XD

Okay, sorry, enough carping.  Back to the costume.  To style the hair, I used this tutorial on zigzag parts to hide most of the netting on the wig, and we used knee-high pantyhose as wig caps.  Because my wig was evil, I styled it on Tiffy's head with a combination of a comb, clips (to hold up the pigtails), and scissors (to cut the tangled parts).

For eyes, I went to my eye doctor and asked to get red contacts.  The only red contacts you can get from your eye doctor are WildEyes Red Hot contacts... but don't bother.  They are very expensive (about $80 per contact), and if you have bad eyes like me, you'll have to wear double contacts, because the prescription only goes up to 6.00 spherical.  I guess that's fine, but also, they came out more orange than red and the opening for the pupil is very small (so I could see a red ring around my vision the whole time).  At the moment, I would recommend getting these red contacts, although I have not purchased them myself.  They're cheaper, though.  Not sure if they're better.

Lastly, Rachel is dead (she's a vampire), so she's, of course, deathly pale.  If your complexion is very fair, you don't really need to worry about makeup.  For me, I'm naturally a lighter shade of Asian color, so I employed the use of a white powder made by L'Oreal.  Geisha makeup, if you can get it, would work.  Otherwise, if you're not keen on or don't really care that much about being as pale as Rachel is, you can just use a light ivory powder, or ivory liquid foundation with ivory powder on top.  (I think the combination makes you paler.)

Next is Aerith Gainsborough... hopefully much easier than Rachel's XD

I think that about wraps it up... uh, this is really long XD  Sorry guys, hope it was informative, though.

Japan and China: The Compilation

after being in Asia for so long, we decided to compile a list of the things we've noticed (whether we've posted about them or not) :D

So, you wanna be Japanese? then you have to master some things :P

1. Sleep standing up - Extra points if you can do it on a moving subway.

2. Walk in heels all day

3. Fluffy hair

4. Multitasking while on a bike  This includes, but is not limited to, riding on your bike in heels, carrying an umbrella, and/or texting.

5. Walk in a kimono/yukata faster than normal people can run.

6. Fashion

7. Politeness

8. Raise your voice by an octave to sound cuter.


Peculiar Oddities from China (disclaimer: this doesn't not apply to everyone, just the people we saw lol)

1. Traffic signals are just a suggestion

2. Rush Hour traffic is 24/7

3. Women don't shave

4. Bellhops run around on empty streets to find taxis for you

5. Women are kind of rude

6. Men like to spit and make disgusting noises as they walk

7. Everything is big

8. Nobody uses hand soap or toilet paper.

9. pushy pushy pushy people

10. Get your own silverware/ useless waiters

11. Customer service means "Let me finish what i'm doing first"

12. Nobody seems to work

13. Everyone goes to the zoo (see #12)

14. dirty streets, fancy trash cans

15. Asking how to use the heat means "Bring me a heater"

16. Overachieving table clean-up

17. belly baring :( eew 

18. Bromance is a must for male-to-male interaction.  That means guys do with each other what usually only girls do with each other (sitting close, linking arms... going to the bathroom in groups...)

19. Utensils are only there as decorations, not actually to be used to get your food.

20. Taxis don't need seat belts.

21. Collars must be popped up for men.

Final(?) Touches on Japan/China Posts

Hi everyone... so we/I've been straggling to get up the last bits of posts from our Japan/China adventure ^ ^;;  I finally put up all the food posts, but of course they're back-posted, so here are the links:

Food in Japan, Part 6

Food in Japan, Part 7

Food in Japan, Part 8 & Food in China, Part 1

Food in China, Part 2

And I also uploaded some videos that may be amusing for you XP  They're sort of scattered around the posts, so I'll link all of them here also:

Sony Building in Ginza from the first day of the tour: playing around on the musical steps and did you know that they make a scale (almost)?

Feeding deer in Nara Park.

Wanfujing Street in Beijing...

- Lookit those scorpions wiggle.

- And yes, we ate them.

- And the next day, we ate silk worm cocoons.

Please ignore my stupidity in these videos XD ignore me too lol if this is what my voice sounds recorded, i'm very very glad i'm not on television or radio :P

LOL

christine, we totally should have visited this place while we were in china :P

teee heeee heeee

Oh man, that would have disastrous XD


let's go here too!!!! 

Love should be like this XD

for your enjoyment....the video christine and i searched forever for while in china

You mean while we were pigging out and watching MTV instead of doing anything productive?  Yeah... XD  You wouldn't believe how excited we were when they played it a 2nd time.  Really, really excited.


Cyndi Wang--Beautiful Day

Home

back on american soil :D me in cali for a couple more weeks and christine in texas.

Is it weird that it's not that weird to be home? It seems like forever since we first stepped foot in Tokyo.

it's nice to be home and understand what people are saying instead of guessing lol and to see the sun every once in a while and it's good to be able to contact the friends and family that we've sort of been disconnected with over the last few weeks. It's definitely nice to be able to use the internet freely XD And the phone! Oh, I missed it.

thanks for being a wonderful travel companion christine :) thanks for going on this crazy trip and trying all the food that you don't particularly for, the random talks, boy scouting ( complete fail btw), watching out as i trip over my own feet and speaking mandarin in china where i stood doe-eyed while people talked to me lol

What! I think that for me, the trip was made so much better because Tiffy was the one traveling with me. We tried so much crazy stuff (especially food) that I might not have tried if it weren't for Tiffy being the first to be brave :3 (Like those scorpions... you have no idea, I saw my life flash before my eyes XP) Talks, random comments, and all of your funny quirks and our silly moments... and of course boy scouting, despite its failure, were so much fun~

so.....korea next? :P  
Oh, yeah :3 Uh, but we don't know Korean XD

China: Last Day!!!

oh wow, it's the last day in china and the last day of our trip officially :( kind of sad.  that means we have to return back to reality and get ready for school and work lol  

luckily, it ended well and christine and i are ready to go home and fully appreciate what we have in america lol
Yes, I'm pretty sad that the happy dream of our trip is over QQ  But so ready to go home.  China was a good ending for our trip.

woke up early for breakfast in the marriott and enjoyed the lovely view of china from the window.  Lovely being, of course, a subjective term.

 Breakfast view, featuring an exquisite eatery, a picturesque alleyway decorated with trash, and sparkling grey smog.

LOL :D your descriptive imagery and masterful english makes it sound much less awful than it really was 

per suggestion of our tour guide, we visited lama temple, which has a huge collection of buddhas.  as with everything in china (and formerly a palace too) it's also really really big lol we kept walking along a central axis and passed through like 10 temples, each with at least 3 buddha statues.  the largest one was HUGE! carved from one piece of wood, it was like....34 meters tall = 102 feet-ish? and i can't even guess the diameter of the tree they must've used. 

while christine and i were just walking around and taking pictures, lots of people were actually worshipping there. each person carried in a bundle of incense sticks in order to pray to pretty much every buddha statue in the whole lamastery.  it was nice to just sit out in the semi-nice weather and just talk :)

That was a nice visit to a temple, because it was actually the only temple we visited at our own pace (we never visited any in Japan).  There was a lot of incense burning and worshipping, which was really interesting to me, because I rarely see that.  Everyone has their own way of praying and worshipping; some people seem very serious, some bow and kneel multiple times, and some just put their hands together briefly.  I wonder a lot about theology and why people do what they do, believe what they believe, and worhip how they worship.  Maybe someone who knows theology can explain to me XD

But, um, that's completely off-topic.  The Buddhas were huge and plentiful.  We got reprimanded for taking pictures multiple times, but I still got quite a few XD  Check out that huge Buddha.

Okay, it's sort of hard to express how massive this Buddha was from the pictures... just keep in mind that the legs (first picture) were all we could see when we walked into the temple building.  We probably came up to his ankle, if even.  For the second picture, I was kneeling and shooting upwards, and I still didn't get quite all of him, I think.

left after to see the olympic buildings, particularly the bird's nest and water cube.  started raining when we left the crowded subways but we still managed to get some decent pictures.  it's sooooo nice in the olympic area lol and also massive. it took us forever to get back up and down the olympic green. by that time, we just were so tired that we went back to the hotel to get lunch and relax :P

There were also these interesting watermarked(?) Chinese characters written on the ground on the way to the Olympic stadiums.

 

The stadiums themselves were, like everything else in China that we've seen, HUGE.  We walked from end to end twice on accident, because we thought that there was a subway station on the other end (but there wasn't, so we had to walk back XD)  Aside from the rain, it was pretty nice, because we got to see the big buildings from the Olympics, and they were impressive :3  But our feet/pants got soaked despite having umbrellas, so our socks were going squish all the way back ;;

Ling Long Pagoda

Bird's Nest

Water Cube

National Indoor Stadium

we actually explored the 5th floor food court that we had lunch in today and found out that it was connected to a huge mall with an awesome supermarket on the basement floor :D we got some stuff lol  Some stuff... haha, more like we were wide-eyed over how big the mall was as we came down the escalator from this tiny food court (it's like a regular mall that we have, except imagine that the whole place is one big department store of 5 floors).  And then we go to the supermarket and find all this unusual food (chips, drinks, etc) and get ridiculously excited about it.  We were seriously more excited about it than we've been about most other things, haha.  Apparently one lady was watching us and was amused by how amused we were XD  If you saw us, you'd probably think we're crazy girls.  By the way, we had to get our green tea sprite again, because we forgot the previous one in the hotel fridge XD;;   (Wth I'm  such a pig with all that food.... KIDDING, IT'S NOT FOR ME OKAY...)  lol i don't think anyone judges you :P who can resist trying blueberry and kiwi lays or ketchup chips or seaweed pringles? wow we're really unhealthy..... 

went back to wangfujing later in the afternoon.  we found this interesting book: 101 Stories for Foreigners to Understand Chinese People in the foreign bookstore and it turns out that it's out of print and particularly expensive on amazon so we went back for it :P and also we wanted to try more exotic food lol we first chickened out of trying one of the other bugs because we didn't know which was which lol we went further down the street and found a vendor selling giant! scary black scorpions, salamanders and millipedes :P christine thought it'd be a cop-out if i just went for a salamander so we ended up picking the silk worm cocoon instead of the cicadas lol we were just particularly worried that the cocoons would ooze juice or something strange lol 

they were definitely interesting.  if you've ever eaten the shell off of crispy shrimp, then you can imagine what cocoon tastes like haha except add several layers of shell instead of one.  And inside, it had sort of a layer of something... not oozing or juicy, but squishy and kind of gritty.  christine also bought candied grapes so we offsetted the taste with that at the end lol  Those were pretty good :3  We went from being heroes to warriors, and today we are... I dunno, what's the promotion from warriors?  We've been very brave these days, I think >w<

left back to the hotel since we have to wake up at 4am to make it to the airport to catch our flight.

dinner was leftover steamed pork buns we bought in wangfujing with wheat/strawberry milk tea and green tea sprite that we bought from the supermarket earlier in the day. we pigged out while watching mtv and being super silly :)  We are such pigs!  I feel like a total glutton XD  All we've done is eat today.  And actually, the past couple of days.  

AND THE SONG WE'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR FINALLY CAME BACK ON MTVYAYHAPPYWIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i'm definitely going to miss being on vacation! lol

Man, wth is with all these really awful embarrassing pictures of us...lol ehhhhhh *shrugs* at least this blog is search engine blocked :D

China Day 4: Christine and Tiffany, Warriors of China

This post was written  on Wednesday, July 14, around approximately... I dunno, 9:00 PM?

yesterday we became heroes (after climbing the Great Wall) and today, we are warriors of china :P or at least that's what i'm going to call us after we conquered the chinese subways, explored the beijing zoo and braved the exotic local food on wangfujing street.

Uh, note that the following pictures are not of any of the above XD lol yes pictures refer to paragraphs below

on our own today.  we woke up to have breakfast and then headed to our new hotel.  had lunch at a curry shop lol  if i had to describe chinese local life in one moment of our time here, lunch today was it.  it was loud and busy, the tables were unclean and there were lots and lots of shops that were serving food that were not remotely chinese at all lol  from everything that i've seen about china, i'd have to say that they have definitely embraced what they like about other cultures, but it's not a smooth transition...enough to confuse me as to what is authentically chinese anymore but not smooth enough for me not to notice it? ramen shops here and there and pre-made sushi on the supermarket shelves....kfc and mcdonalds and starbucks in every major shopping mall...attempts at japanese and western fashion, obvious through the brand obsession and purchases of knockoffs.  not sure what it is, but even while we were at the major chinese cultural sights, it was still really strange to believe that we were in china.  the importance and elegance of everything was dampened by hordes of people hoping to get a quick snap of where they were, what they saw instead of thinking of where they were at. don't mean to complain because today was actually the best day (so far) that i've had in china.

I'd definitely agree with that.  It hasn't felt like China since we got here, except perhaps in the brief moments when we experienced the grandiose quality of the sprawling sights like the Forbidden City or Summer Palace; I keep telling myself, "I'm in CHINA," but it hasn't felt... well, fun.  I mean, don't get us wrong, it was nice to see the sights and do the tourist thing and man, China's sights are gorgeous and amazing, but there's been something missing that we had in Japan.  I think we figured out that we were missing human interaction.  Despite being on a tour with a nice guide and driver and being constantly surrounded by a lot of Beijing's 13 million (or more?) people, we've been lacking in human interaction these days.  The service people are obscenely mean and the other people around us pushy and impatient.  Although we still had some of that today, I think that we saw the other side today... surprisingly, in what I'd refer to as the "underbelly" of China.  But, er, I'm getting ahead of ourselves.  I would categorize this morning as that first side.

beijing zoo was a little like that. after we managed to squeezed on the (ALWAYS) crowded subway cars to get to the zoo, we pushed our way through the ticket line (because people were cutting anyways) and had our tickets thrown at us.  One guy cut into the line from the side to get tickets, and when we finally got ours, the lady threw the tickets down at us, and before they even fell to the counter, she said sharply for the next person to hurry up and move forward in line =\  It was pretty chaotic.  went to see the pandas, of course, but so did everyone else. to get one picture was nearly impossible. best representation of numbness? (not sure what is the right word) was the lion and tiger house. all of them locked up in cages while tons of people camera flashed their faces. so depressing.  That was very depressing.  They were locked in these small cages behind the exhibits, and many of them were pacing around.  There were also other animals... a raccoon and a badger both paced around their tiny cages, back and forth, as though they were going crazy staying there.  Another depressing part was by one of the bird areas, where there was a small pond and pretty landscape... or what would have been pretty landscape, if there weren't trash and people's litter everywhere.  Talk about lack of wildlife conservation.  It's like those images you see of birds on the seashore with human waste everywhere.  One guy even flicked his lit cigarette at a bird =__=;  

On the up side, the pandas seemed really happy.  They are really lazy; they were just sitting in their cages eating bamboo, sleeping, and making waste.  So lazy~

made to wangfujing street, or golden street, around 5pm. it was interesting for sure lol lots of people, lots of lights and lots of shopping/food stores.  christine and i definitely were there for the food...and man, did we eat lol

 

terrible job.

jasmine tea ice cream first lol it smelled and tasted exactly like we expected and it was good.  they do short you in china and don't fill up the whole cone though boooooo lol  It was only 5 yuan though, so can't complain too much.  Jasmine tea ice cream as one of my next ice creams, maybe :3

second we bought these candied ball things on a stick.  initially thought it was meat, but it turned out to be very very sweet :) not bad though  Haha, "candied ball things" is not quite descriptive.  If you've ever had the hawthorne flakes that they sell in Asian stores, then you can kind of imagine what it tasted like.  The balls were basically the same as the flakes, but were these big round balls of hawthorne, and they were dipped in caramel and sprinkled with sesame seeds.  They were good, but very rich; I don't know how those little kids do it, because Tiffy and I shared a stick (of 6 balls) and could barely finish it.

 

walked on the exotic food street after and spent the rest of our time out there lol first thing we saw? sticks and sticks of scorpions still wiggling while skewered :P lol even made me a bit squeamish.  It was pretty funny, because we were standing next to the stand getting pictures/videos of the scorpions (and I was totally squeaking in horrified amusement), and next to us was this couple.  One of the guys working at the stand saw the lady also being squeamish, and he picked up a scorpion stick and put it right next to her.  I saw him doing it, but we all jumped up -- I think the scorpions touched her arm -- and screamed like little girls XD  in addition to traditional meat kabobs, there were skewers of starfish, seahorses and beetles/silk worm pupae. other stands had squid and octopus on a stick, omelets with veggies and crazy different candied items like grapes, pineapples, chinese apples etc.  christine and i got roped into this one guy's candy stand and each blew sugar (caramel?) to make dragons. it made for entertaining movies lol i think we'll go again tomorrow :D

Scorpions

Starfish and seahorse

Silk worm cocoons and cicadas

unadventurous meat

corn :D

squid and octopus

chestnuts

coconuts

<

veggie omelettes?

grapes, chinese apples and pineapples

blown sugar candy

To the street, not for the caramel XD  Tiffy is thinking of getting the silk worm this time.  Ughhh... Tiffy, you are testing the limits of my courage QQ  It was absolutely terrifying to eat that scorpion.  By the way, we ate some chicken on a stick, an egg burrito with bean sprouts in it, some fries from McDonald's... and oh yeah, did we mention that we ate scorpion, too?  On a stick and deep-fried.  Yum.  (I'll leave it up to you to decide if I'm being sarcastic or not there.)

another brave thing we did today? stay out past sunset in china. oOOoooo lol didn't get mugged! that's always good :P

more tomorrow!

P.S. More MTV China/Channel V right now... we're seeing this band with this guy, who was previously probably the guy with a pink sleeve.  The reason why I mention this is because I LOVE HIS HAIR.  It's got a nice side-bang cut, sort of Ciel-style, and it's BLUE.  I love his hair.  Adding that to requirements XD  No, but also, I've also spent a long time looking for this one music video.  If anyone can help me find it, I'd be so very happy.  It's a Chinese song with a cute girl and a cute music video of her and this guy and their cute moments together.  Yeah, this is why I can't find it -__-;