Malaysia Trip : Instagramming, Blogging, and Upside-Down Museum | #FeatureFriday2018

Some of the things that are fun to look at are often the things that you can take pictures of. Why? You feel like you have a justified reason to do crazy things you would never ever do otherwise. In public anyway :P

Welcome to the segment of my Malaysia trip series strictly dedicated to everything Instagrammable that happened on the trip that immediately resulted in the craziest behavior lol XD

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Penang's Wall Art

So, when in Penang, keep on the lookout for fun wall art. There are evidently tours that are actually set up just to take you around to find them all, but we went off on our own, making the discovery of these wall paintings that much more exciting when we DID come across them. This post is mostly going to be self-explanatory photos with some captions, so enjoy!

Dad is a coffee angel lol XD

Mum had a fascination with every photogenic display bike.

Isn't she just SO CUTE?!

My sister is freaking adorable. Nuff said.

Oh look, it's me! :)

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Upside Down Museum

I'd launch into some long description, but I actually couldn't find a ton of information about this particular one that we went to in Penang, so here's a site for the USA based Upside Down Museums instead. 

I will say before you get to the rest of the pictures that my skirt unfortunately killed some of the effect of the photos. I would've worn shorts, but 1) I was still horrendously sunburned and in pain from the Langkawi trip, and 2) we were going to be on a plane the rest of the day and I did not want to be in shorts for that. So oh well, you win some, you lose some. 

everything's already upside down at the entrance lol

I was highly entertained from beginning to end.

Which photo(s) is / are your favorite? Out of the ones pictured here, I like the one with the black and white tile floor (the sideways one) and the one with the white-cushioned love seat because my skirt actually looked like it was cooperating with gravity lol XD

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Bloggers Galore!

These were just so funny when I saw it happening before my eyes that I HAD to snap pictures of them to show you guys. First is the food blogger guy. I suspect he may also be a tour guide of sorts because he was explaining a lot of things to the people he was seated with about the history of the eatery and also about the food they were buying / eating. He took a TON of pictures lol XD

Second is blogger girl. And can we just give a hearty round of applause for the man who I suspect is what we have come to know as the "Instagram boyfriend" or "Instagram husband"? XD He must have taken at least 10 photos. He was changing up the angles, shifting from left to right, and she would change poses every 3 - 5 or so. 

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Have you been to Penang before? What were your favorite things to take pictures of? :)

~ Ariel

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A Little Time "Out" | #WeeklyWednesday2018

As someone who hates being in warm weather, this chill breeze is incredibly comfortable and I don't feel like I'm dying every time I step out the door (from the temperature, anyway). 

Has anyone broken out the long sleeves yet? :P 
Some of my friends have and I genuinely find it funny that I've only just broken out actual PANTS (or trousers, for you UK English speakers lol). I'd been running around in shorts this entire time, and while I honestly could STILL be wearing shorts, wearing pants means that I can skip out on having to care what my legs look like XD

Needless to say, if you don't like chilly weather or chillier temperatures in the house, I'm the worst person to hang out with XD Unless you come over. I have fuzzy blankets and robes on hand for the poor dears who come over and freeze. hahahaha 

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Brunch with April

April, if you haven't met her yet, is by far one of the craziest and most passionate fireball women I have ever had the privilege to meet and befriend. She's had so many unique life experiences as an English teacher in China (her Chinese is WAY BETTER than mine, guys) and having time to hang out with her is always just such a treat. She lives out in the Desoto area for now, so we decided to visit an old local Carbondale favorite, Harbaughs (my go-to when meeting with friends who don't live in C'dale). She went for French Toast and I went for an omelette. 


Harbaugh's also had flavored coffee this week that we went and can I just tell you guys...Banana nut coffee EXISTS and it was actually good!! And I'm NOT a general fan of bananas (I'm okay with banana nut bread though), so this was a rare and amazing thing that I even managed to convince myself to try it. The smell was JUST like banana nut bread / cake, the coffee's flavor actually HAD the banana nut taste, and it didn't taste chemically and gross! Good job, Harbaugh's! :D

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50th Birthday Party for Church Friends!

Kind of self-explanatory as far as the title, but it was just great to see everyone coming together to celebrate the birthdays of two lovely ladies from our church, Leann and Chi-Chi! :)

setting up for the party :)

look at everyone who came out!

a party for lovely ladies obviously has to have lights somewhere :P

happy birthday, Leann and Chi Chi!! :D

cake :)

I hope you have fun looking at the photos! If you were there, what was your favorite part? 
If you weren't, what parts do you want me to elaborate on that looked fun? :P

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I...might have kinda cheated on this blog post (plus it's late so...eep!), but I promise I'll make it up to you next week, okay? 
There's SO MUCH STUFF going down next week, I think I've earned a short cop out post :P

Love you guys!

~ Ariel

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Meeting Old and Long-Time Friends | #WeeklyWednesday2018

Summer is beginning to come to a close now (thank GOD! no more bugs!!), and as the seasons begin to transition into Fall / Autumn, lots of things pop up at the last minute... Sometimes I feel like it's a last hurrah from the greenery before the warm colors seep in lol
Pictured here is one of Mum's moonflowers. These things are so gorgeous, have a delightful smell, and are a "limited time" enjoyment in that they only last a day before they wither and the next set of flowers blooms. :)

But one of the best things that I LOVE about the changing of seasons is the people who return from previous times of my life. In this blog post, you'll see a photo burst from an alumnus who visited us this week and an early birthday visit to an old friend from my high school days.

Pictured to the right is a group photo of said alumnus with his mum (who came to visit him) with my parents, taken as they were getting ready to leave.

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Dinner with ShengJie

ShengJie was here from 2013 - sometime in 2015, a really funny, equally considerate and equally annoying older brother figure within Calvary Chinese Fellowship (our Chinese Bible study / lifegroup), and we were all greatly saddened when he left for Louisiana to follow his professor (in order to finish his PhD). He was recently married, and now that he's finished his degree, he's heading back to Beijing in October. It was SO SWEET of him to want to come visit us before he left, bringing his mother with him (we'd met her the last time she came State-side and ShengJie brought her for a visit then too). In true Asian fashion, the catch-up was over Mum's homecooked dinner. 

chit-chatting around the coffee table, waiting for our dinner time to arrive

(Asians normally start dinner between 6:30 - 7:30pm)

eating dinner

after dinner, drinking tea

dinner spread, chrysanthemum tea after dinner

close-ups of the dinner food

Mum and Dad were twinning all evening by accident and they were SO CUTE lol XD

One of the best things about seeing alumni come back to visit us is really just listening to the impact my parents (and CCF in general) had on their college lives here in C'dale.

It's SO INSPIRING to see and overall, just really fun to reminisce about times past.

Okay, we're getting sappy now. STAHP. :P

Mum also made this dessert as a birthday present for someone else in the church body (no pictures from that, sorry) and made an extra one for us to eat. It consists of condensed milk, table cream, lime juice and zest. The original recipe calls for crushed graham crackers, but Mum and I really liked the idea of increasing the ratio of graham to cream, so there you go.

Think Key Lime Cheesecake, but "lighter" in that you don't feel as "full" afterward.

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Dinner (and Early Birthday Celebration) with Jennifer (Jennifee)

Jennifer (who I affectionately refer to as Jennifee for whatever reason lol) and I met and became friends sometime within the first month of our freshman year of high school, back in August 200...6. EEP! We've been friends for SO. LONG. My goodness. Luckily for us, we've managed to stay relatively in touch, even when we were going to different schools (she went to SIUE and I went to SIUC) and we only got to see each other over breaks (meaning, 1 - 2 times per year). 

For the time being, she really only lives under 5 minutes away from each other, so having spontaneous dinners more often has actually been realistic for the past year or two.

A tree fell on her rental property and her family cut it up, took the wood home, and made this CUSTOM TABLE for her apartment!!

I mean, look at the freaking quality of this thing!! You can't afford to buy this in a store, people!

This is EASILY worth 1k+!!

Back in the day (high school days), we would go over to her family's house and she and her mum would make HOMEMADE PIZZA.

Talk about knowing the straight-shot path to my Singaporean heart that functions primarily through my stomach and tastebuds.

I. LOVE. PIZZA.

Here's Jennifee rolling out the pizza dough, bowls of sauce, bell pepper, mushrooms, fresh mozzarella cheese, and a bag of pepperoni lay in wait to put on the pizza. It was DELICIOUS.

So...we started the present opening with a video, because Jennifee is an adorable human, but in her surprise, certain *cough* words start coming out and to make sure that we don't go overboard for the blog, we switched back to photos. Hehe :P

I'm still keeping this video because it was adorable though lol

Jennifee and I have been pretty good about purchasing things for each other as the year goes on, simply because we thought of the other person. This, inevitably, results in a large basket or bag or miscellaneous gifts, made all the more special by the fact that there was so much time put into it.

Jennifee's gotten me things like a squishy + soft scarf (because she knows I love soft plushy textures) and a NICE (branded) eye-shadow palette because she thought the colors available in the palette (in addition to the quality) would be helpful for my YouTube videos. *sniffs I love my friends <3

Jennifee opening her presents :)

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Do you guys keep up with old friends? 
I would love to hear stories about your reunions and catch-ups. :)

Fun Malaysia post coming up this Friday, guys. 
Look forward to it!

~ Ariel

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