So last Thursday, I took the Greyhound down to Champaign for Loria's graduation. Originally, I was supposed to head down with Jin and Sandy, but I ended up buying my ticket for $1. I think it was the last one being sold at that price so they just came down that Friday afternoon instead. The bus ride was okay, but the weather was total crap once I arrived! Thankfully, I packed my umbrella. Artie, being the wonderful friend that he is, picked me up from the station with Loria and we went to a restaurant called Seven Saints. I ordered the 7 Saints Salad and oh my goodness... it was delicious. The salad had tri-tip sirloin, spring greens tossed with lime, sesame oil, fire roasted jalapeños and toasted cashews. It might have been the best salad I have ever tried. Unfortunately, I totally forgot to take a picture of it. Ugh. The place looked really nice too. It seemed like a good place for a date. :)
After finishing our lunch, we headed to Cream and Flutter for some ice cream. It was so cute inside, but too bad the ice cream was meh... The girl who rang up my order handed me my ice cream and what do I see?.... a puddle of ice cream sitting at the bottom of my cup.... I literally just stared at it and so the girl then proceeded to explain to me it's a little melted, but that it should taste okay... I can obviously SEE that it's a little melted... I wish she would have told me I was going to get semi-melted ice cream when I was ordering it... -_- Anyway, the salted caramel was yummy, but the vanilla bean was wayyyy too sweet for my taste.
After our dessert, we went shopping to buy drinks, snacks, and supplies for Loria's Graduation Party. I don't know about you guys, but I love grocery shopping and preparing for parties. Once we finished going around town to buy all the goods, Artie dropped me and Loria off at her apartment and I unpacked my bags. Stacy (Loria's roommate) was studying for her last final that she had the next day while Loria cooked our dinner. She made ddukbokki (spicy rice cake)! :)
I should probably learn how to cook Korean food too... haha
Looking at this is making my mouth water right now... I loveeeee spicy food~
Drinks for the night. I liked Twisted Tea the most.
Loria picked up her graduation gear earlier that day and she had to iron it before the ceremony, but the only iron that they had was a puny one.. hahaha It was seriously the smallest iron I have ever seen!
Cute, but definitely not effective. She honestly tried ironing that blue tie-looking thing for an hour or so.... Yeah it was an ulta fail. We ended up walking to the County Market next to her place to buy a new, regular-sized one ha :P
The next day, Loria, Stacy, and I went to pick up Jin and Sandy from the station. Thankfully, Loria was able to borrow a friend's car for an hour so we didn't have to take the bus. We had car trouble that entire day, but it was kind of our fault... I won't get into that haha Anyway after we picked up the girls, we went to a restaurant called Destihl. I really liked our waiter. I think his name was either Bob or Bill? Anyway, he was really tall and kinda cute hahaha.
I was trying to get a lonely shot of Stacy, but Jin popped in~
Patiently waiting for our food.
Toasted Teton
DESTIHL® coffee, tuaca vanilla citrus liqueur, kahlúa rum & coffee liqueur, baileys irishcream, chocolate shavings, cinnamon whipped cream
For some reason, it didn't occur to me that this was a hot drink until they brought it over it it definitely tasted a lot better hot. I had a difficult time finishing this drink after my meal....
I think I liked Jin's drink the most. (Don Juan - the blue one)
Bill or Bob kind of poked fun at Jin for pronouncing Juan incorrectly hahaha
Cedar Plank Salmon
salmon filet, oven-roasted tomatoes, asparagus, white truffle oil, arugula, roasted garlic vinaigrette
Gaucho Skirt (medium rare)
12 oz. skirt steak, ancho rice & beans, ranchero sauce, grilled red onion, grilled jalapeño
-Taken by Stacy-
Beer-Braised Ribs
beer-braised & ancho-rubbed st. louis style spare ribs, hand-cut fries, chipotle espresso bbq sauce
This was my first time trying ribs. For some reason, I thought ribs were all pork... whoops
Anyway, I think I can live without eating ribs again. It was meh for me..... The bbq sauce on the other hand was very delicious haha
-Taken by Stacy-
‘Bacon, Egg & Cheese’ Deviled Eggs
hard-boiled eggs, applewood-smoked bacon, bleu cheese, scallions
I didn't try this one cause of the bacon bits, but I think the girls said that it was good?
After our meal, we went shopping at the mall nearby because Loria wanted to buy new shoes for her graduation and Stacy needed an outfit to wear. I ended up buying two dresses and I wore one to the ceremony. I believe we shopped for about 3 hours or so and stayed until closing time. We missed our first bus because Sandy lost her phone at one of the stores and she realized it 10 minutes before the bus arrived... Luckily, a manager found it and had it in the back room. We picked it up at the perfect time because the store was shutting off all the lights and closing the gates. So after Sandy got her phone back, we headed back to the bus stop, but the next one wasn't coming for another 40+ minutes! ANDDDD once we got on the bus, it was soooo freaking crowded + reeked of body odor.... yuck It also didn't help that the Chinese girl I was standing next to kept rubbing her head on my arm.... -_-
I hate taking the bus. If I visit Champaign again, I'm going to drive......
We were all starving by the time we got back to Loria and Stacy's apartment so we ordered wings~
Mmmm.... seasoned waffle fries
Loria made an oreo ice cream cheesecake earlier that morning and we finally got to eat it at night! :)
I wish I would have eaten more of it T_T
Loria's Graduation Day!
I didn't take my camera with me because I didn't want to carry it and I'm glad I didn't take it with me.. I was super stressed out that day because my heels were like 4.5 inches high, my dress was very flowy, and it was CRAZY windy that entire day! I had to keep hunching over to keep my dress from blowing up and flashing everybody.... T____T Oh and we were running late because the bus dropped us off at the wrong stop so we had to run.......... yup..... =_=
After the ceremony, it was EXTREMELY cold and windy...I was so miserable.... My feet and legs were so sore the next day and the back of my feet were scratched/bleeding too. *sigh*...
Loria's boyfriend bought her two sets of flowers... There's a long story behind it and I don't want to explain everything.... All I want to say is that it was CRAZY lol....
-Stolen from Jin-
Group picture! I don't know who the guy in the graduation gown is....
-Stolen from Jin-
With Loria! :) I think she's my oldest friend... we're on like 12+ years!... I think? haha
The girls~
After the ceremony, we all headed back to Loria's place for her party and had pizza for dinner. Then we pre-gamed before heading out to Firehaus for fishbowls and Joe's to end the night~ It was a fun night.
The next day, I was so exhaustedddddd but I had to pack up. Artie was nice enough to give me a ride home, but it was a very boring 3 hours back..... ~_~
On Monday, I went out with Artie for lunch after I dropped off my clinicals application at school. We went to a Thai restaurant called Siam Treasure! Artie knew the owners so they didn't charge us tax!
My Pad See Ewe! I LOVEEEE pad see ewe... It's my favorite Thai dish........ forever and ALWAYS!
We got a lunch special so we got a tasty chicken and rice soup with fried dumplings :)
My thai iced coffee
Sandy always uploads pictures of her thai iced coffee on insta, so I wanted to try it out haha
I think I like regular thai iced tea more~
After our lunch, we went to go watch Iron Man 3! Woohoo! I've been dying to watch it. It was pretty good. If you haven't seen it yet, you should definitely go check it out :)
Oh and I LOVED Robert Downey Jr's hair in this one... <3
I went home to change clothes because it got really cold, but after I changed, we didn't know what else to do.... soooooooo we were literally just sitting in my car in front of my house haha... THEN!!!!!! my brother came home from work or the gym and he walked up to the window asking if we wanted two free Cubs tickets for a game that day!!!!!! It was crazy timing... I was about to drive off, but I saw him walking towards the car haha. We gladly took the tickets and rushed to Wrigley. Artie's family knew someone who owned a garage near Wrigley so his mom called them to reserve a spot for us. We were getting hook ups the entire day :)
The view from our seats! It was a lot better than I expected. Too bad they didn't throw any balls our way :(
Mmm nachos and a bud light. I usually hate beer, but I was at a game!
Yay! I didn't even realize that I was smiling with my teeth showing until I looked at the picture later.. O_O
We knew we were going to win so we left during the middle of 7th inning to go eat dinner haha.
We won 9-1! :) #GoCubs
It was my first time eating there. One of our waiters was really annoying... Artie liked him, but I wasn't having any of it. He was so opinionated + sarcastic and he kept hating on Chicago... HELLO YOU'RE IN CHICAGO, BUDDY..... who does that?! I'm trying to eat in peace... GO AWAY.
Shrimp Spring Rolls
#74
It was pretty good, but I think it was too oily and sweet for me :X
By the end of the night, I felt so bad because all we did was eat and sit around the entire day haha.
Okay well that's all for now. I'll probably update again in a week or two.
Bye and thanks for reading! :)
