Qing Hua Dumpling, Chinatown, Forever 21

Yesterday, my sister invited me to eat dumplings (she stayed at my place during the weekend because she had a job-related conference in Montreal). We went to Qing Hua Dumpling, near metro Concordia.

I remember going there with her in 2015 for my birthday, but I don't remember clearly how I thought the dumplings were nor do I even remember what I ordered... I, however, do recall waiting an unusually long time for our dumplings...

There weren't a lot of people when we arrived, so we were seated right away. I felt the place was less packed than when we went in 2015, which was nice.

Our table

My sister ordered beef and coriander dumplings and I ordered pork and coriander. I was a bit disappointed because the server asked my sister whether she wanted her dumplings fried or steamed, but didn't ask me (and assumed I wanted mine steamed), while in reality, I would have liked them fried. I know I should have just told the server I actually wanted my dumplings fried, but I was too shy/embarrassed. I don't mean to say the service stinks, just want to mention it because it made me sad a little right at the beginning. Speaking of the service, I thought it was great. The dumplings arrived faster than last time (took approx. 8-10 minutes). Our glasses of water were also often refilled. Staff was courteous.

I don't remember my sister's, but my dumplings arrived all stuck together. It was really annoying. Attempting to use my chopsticks to unstick the dumplings from one another was far from being a success. The skin would most of the time peel out, but maybe I didn't have the right "technique"?

Sorry for this repulsive picture, but eating each of my dumplings looked somewhat like the above—a total mess. I would get sauce everywhere on my face and turned two napkins completely orange. Part of it is because I am simply incompetent at eating with chopsticks, but also because I couldn't shove a full dumpling into my mouth. Some dumplings can be eaten in a couple of bites, but this one is the kind of juicy dumpling that has broth in it. (T▽T)

Although the taste wasn't exceptional (after all, it was pork and coriander), the dumplings tasted really good. I ate them all and also ate two of my sister's. But in one of my sister's dumpling, there was way too much coriander, it looked like the mixture beef-coriander had been unevenly distributed (I don't know if the one I bit into was an exception or not).

The sauce was okay but it tasted a little bland. I think it's because there weren't enough pepper flakes, most of it was just oil.

PC: my sister

We then headed to Chinatown and wanted to buy some Chinese pastries, but when we got there, there weren't any of the ones I like left.
However, I finally managed to buy 3:15pm Milk tea. It is my former Taiwanese language partner who introduced it to me back in 2013. I strongly recommend this flavor even though it doesn't taste like tea (it's really soft & sweet and not bitter as tea is IMO). For about one year, I had been going multiple times at this supermarket that usually sells it, but they never had the milk tea flavor. One day I bought the oolong one, but I really didn't like the taste.

Hello Kitty soy sauce. Very cute, isn't it?

I've seen it on Pinterest and didn't think I'd actually see it in Montreal.

Earlier during the day, I also had bought this dress at Forever 21. I had a credit since I had previously bought an item and wanted to return it—only to learn that the store didn't accept returns (I was surprised since it's the first store I had come across that didn't issue refunds).

The dress is available here on the website. Gingham seems to be really popular this season and I love this pattern, so I was happy to find it. I also bought a white shirt but didn't take a picture with it.

You can see that I'm wearing my Bobon21 low heels, in size 36. I know I wrote a post a couple of months ago about my disappointment with Bobon21 high heels being too big (size 36). Well, I ordered a size 35 earlier this year (low heels this time) and they were too small. -_- Thing is, the high heels seem bigger than the low heels (in the same size), not much in terms of the shoe sole, but more the shoe vamp that is tighter. Because of this, I can't even wear socks with the low heels. x_x Nevertheless, they still look really cute...

Sporadic Life Update & Liz Lisa Sailor Dress in Blue

I don't often use this place to share more personal details in my life, but since these three changes are rather big, I do wish to mention them here. And when I'll go back to this article in a few months or in a few years, it'll be great to remember how the beginning of the year 2018 was a peculiar one that had brought significant changes.

In two weeks, I will finally be graduating (for the second time) from university. I have this final paper to give which I've almost finished writing (needs some last editing and revising) and I'll be done with school (for good, or at least for a good while). This is one of the reasons why I haven't written something here for more than one month, although I did have some content to write about. Thing is, I still had time to blog even when I was in the middle of the process of writing this paper, but I don't enjoy writing here while being conscious of the schoolwork I need to do.
Anyway, it's a strange feeling talking about graduating when I'm reminiscing about the time I started this blog, which was in the summer of 2013. That time, I was entering university in August for the first time. My bachelor was in East Asian Studies, by the way.

Additionally, I started working almost two months ago, and it's harder than I imagined... The nature of the work requires much more analyzing and reading than I expected. It's also hard to show how I can contribute to the organization when I have zero (relevant) work experience. Basically, it's been really stressful and depressing since I started (not really a good sign nor encouraging I know). I would like to be more autonomous, but I feel I'm not experienced enough and that would just make me even more anxious and most likely result in some really poor quality work.
While I've been doing my best to learn and gain experience, I've also told myself that it's not the end of the world (although still regretful) if it doesn't work out in the end.

Finally, I officially moved into my first apartment to be closer to my workplace. It's okay, but I miss the proximity of downtown Montreal where I used to live (I didn't live in the downtown area but if I took the subway, getting there was fast thus convenient).

I could go on about my fears and distress, but I'll end this personal segment here.

---

So a couple of weeks ago, I bought the Liz Lisa sailor dress in blue. I already owned the pink one and it was my favorite out of the three colors (the dress also exists in brown/beige).
I initially didn't really like the dress in blue, and pink was my favorite, but gradually, my mind changed and I started liking the blue one also... The purchase was, however, totally unexpected as I was casually browsing Liz Lisa items on eBay when I saw it for sale.
There weren't a lot of details given on the dress condition other than "really good", which seemed suspicious, but I still impulse bought it (and shortly after sent a message to the seller to ask if the dress had any dirt or damage -- should have been asked before buying I know, but I was too worried someone would buy it while I'd still be waiting for the seller's response.)

I received the dress last week, and I was really impressed with its condition. I don't know whether it's because the dress has truly not been worn a lot, or it's just Liz Lisa quality that makes it look flawless even though it's secondhand.

It's my second dress in the same model, but I'm still in awe of the details and the soft plaid.

The fit is also lovely. It fits even better than the pink I already have (which is a little sad because I also love the pink.) I'm incredibly satisfied with this purchase.

---

This weekend, I also dyed my hair for the third time with this natural hair dye (well, my mom did):

You can see from the price sticker in the upper right corner that it's not the cheapest hair dye (yet still cheaper than at the salon), but I've been loving it since I used it for the first time—approximately one year ago.

Unlike the regular hair dyes I originally used to dye my hair with, this one doesn't make my hair feel thinner nor make the ends of my hair brittle.

I buy this dye at a naturist shop, but I'm certain you can find it elsewhere also.

Before (excuse my greasy hair)

Uh, I don't have an After picture right now because I forgot to ask my mom to take one... I'll post one once I have one... sorry.

Update - here's a picture, albeit taken quite late, on May 26th. You can see some brown reflections peeking out already, but the lighting is also very light.

As you can see from the picture, I recently cut the ends of my hair. Back in January, my hair was past my butt, but the ends were what they call "fairytale ends" and it was atrocious.

Taken back in December

You can see korilakkuma's face through my hair—unbelievable.

I despised how my ends looked in the above picture but I absolutely didn't want to shorten my hair by cutting them. I eventually got sick of it and therefore, chopped the ends.

My hair is shorter now, but the ends are thicker, which all in all looks much healthier. Now I'm eager for my hair to grow out so there isn't any hint of past brown dyes and bleaches left anymore. Weird to say this considering that until October 2016, I was desperately striving to have blond hair...

Thanks for reading.