Happy birthday to the bestie!!! Can I say that you’re Juan in a million because I know you won’t read this =)
Thanks for dealing with my annoying self. And thank you for kicking our butts at bowling. Actually just mine because apparently Justin is really good at this bowling nonsense. 
Day 1 and we were already back in GRD like we had never left. Today we were back in lab taking impressions of our dentaforms. It’s surprisingly a lot of work trying to get the right features and details without getting any rips or tears in the alginate. It also gets kinda stressful when we run out of stone and can no longer pour up our models! Some of us are looking at a long night ahead of us… 
I should have taken an after picture of what my desk looked like when I removed my models. I already thought this was messy enough for me but apparently I’m wrong!
Everyone looks so brilliant and smart! Or it just looks like we work on an assembly line at a factory. Haven’t quite decided yet… 
Second year is the hardest right? Bring it on…I think?
While we were in New York, Cecilia took us to this really cool food market called Smorgasburg and it was so much fun! They had a huge variety of food options and it was cool trying so many of them! It was also ridiculously hot outside that day so I’m impressed by how long we stayed out in the sun!
We had these amazing sandwiches (pork belly and tofu) that were encased in a super flaky pastry. It reminded us of green onion cakes but without the green onion! It was absolutely delicious!
We also tried the sticky rice (I’ve been obsessed with mango sticky rice since I went to Vientiane awhile back). This was the mango sticky rice. (not quite the same as I have dreamed of)
We also tried the lemon grass chicken one too!
We also stole a few bites of other random things that the rest of the family had bought but nothing was as fantastic as what we had ordered =)
Every time I go to paint nite, my mom always gets a little jealous so I promised to take her next time she was in Philly! My mom also LOVES peacocks and it just so happened that there was a cool peacock painting…. it was like fate! 
This was definitely the hardest paint nite that I’ve ever been to. There was so much detail and free hand shape drawing! My peacock ended up looking super fat. But mom’s looks adorable!
My peacock is sad and needs to go on a diet =(
But we ended up having a blast and getting a chance to bond together so it was awesome! I’m definitely glad that we got a chance to go painting together!
yvonne and I are beyond excited for one small thing: Ivan got a new water bottle. The back story is that Ivan’s old water bottle used to make these really loud noises when he used it and Yvonne and I would WHIP our heads to stare at him when he used it in the middle of lecture. It’s such a silly thing but it means all the world to us! This year is going to be quiet and absolutely wonderful! 
In the short time that we were in New York, I feel like we powered through so many things! Some of our highlights included taking a food tour, seeing some cool things and more food!
But first, this is how we feel without food =(
This is me excited to start the food tour
This was our first item on our food tour, a knish. It was definitely very different from other knishes that I’ve had but apparently this is one of the original knish places in New York ( it was at Yonah Schimmel’s along Houston). 
We also stopped by this amazing Chinese fast food restaurant. Food was so cheap it was ridiculous! It was also super tasty too! We also tried some other things like banana pudding but I forgot to take photos after a bit =(
We also passed by this artist and he was amazing. He was just free handing this ad. Definitely not a skill set that I possess!
Passing by Columbus circle on our way to find more food!
Just eating pizza supposedly the best in Manhattan? I would question that but it was still pretty good!
On one of our last nights in DC, we took a night tour of the city and I think it absolutely beautiful! Here are some of the things that we got to see!
The US capitol (again!)
The White House… from a distance!
The Washington Memorial
A giant MLK Jr Statue. The story behind this is that it represents his quote “Out of a mountain of despair, a stone of hope”
And you can see where he emerges from a mountain behind him.
And lastly, we had a chance to the see the Lincoln Memorial. But it was absolutely packed so we didn’t get a chance to get any closer. 
I think that DC has been absolutely wonderful and I would love to go back during a non tourist season. It turned out to be pretty crowded and hot so we unfortunately didn’t get to cover as much as we would have liked. But until next time!
Unfortunately when we tried to go see the White House they kept closing down pedestrian traffic all the time so we didn’t get a chance to get a photo with it. But we did stop by the White House Visitor Center! I think that they had one of my favorite exhibits featuring different food that either presidents or their wives were fond of. (sorry for not rotating the photo!)
We also went to the Natural History Museum which was very cool. We saw a narwhal skull:
Some giant squids and skulls.
Look at the size of that jaw!
We also caught up with some Canadian friends:
And some dinosaurs =)
And were amazed by the size of the Hope Diamond!
DC has definitely been quite an adventure!
In West Philadelphia 