Hi everyone!

It has been a long time since I've written a book review. I haven't been reading leisurely for a very long time. However, while I'm traveling I have some time to relax and read. Today I'll be reviewing The White Rose by Amy Ewing, which is the second book in The Lone City series. 

I have a book review on the first book in the series here. This post will give you an overview on the series. 

This book was interesting and action-packed, but the characters are banal and unlikable. I still think this plot is interesting, but the book is not very well-written.

Overall, I do recommend reading this second book if you have read the first. I'm still a little unsure about this series as a whole. If you like dystopian novels, this would be a good read. But overall, I'm not ecstatic about the series.

I'll now be getting into the spoilers of the book, so don't read on if you haven't read the book!

Hi everyone,

Today I was talking with a friend and mentioned that we should get together and watch a documentary about veganism. However, this person was opposed to the idea, as it would "ruin" the experience of eating meat. 

In times like these its hard for me to not feel upset. I never want to come off as a pushy vegan, but I know in the past I've offended some people by dissing meat. Many people complain about vegans acting superior or rude but I don't think they've ever considered why some act this way. Personally, I don't think I'm better than anyone; I used to love meat. But after being educated and learning about the cruelty involved, it's hard for me to stay quiet on the topic.

I don't know many other vegans or even vegetarians. None of my close friends or family are vegan so there are times when I feel very isolated. I often get teased by others which often times makes can make me very angry. I'm still working on finding peace with living in a non-vegan world as a vegan, but there are days when I just feel extremely frustrated (such as today).

I plan on making a blog post in the future about why I'm vegan because it's a question that I get very often. I'm sure many people would go vegan if they were aware of the animal cruelty involved. And I'm sure even more people would go vegan if they knew about the health issues involved with meat.

So those are some thoughts that I had today. I hope you are all having a great day. If you have a similar experience please let me know.

Thank you for reading.

Hi everyone,

Once again, it has been a long time since I've made a blog post. I'm really sorry for the infrequent updates. I'm going to make it a priority to update this blog frequently over the summer.

Speaking of which, it's finally summer! Thank goodness. Well technically I have two more days of school. But the end is coming close. Ever since the start of this semester I have been nonstop stressed about school work. After I managed to raise one grade, another would drop, and I'd always have something to stress about.

At the beginning of this year I mentioned that I had wanted to take part in an internship. But, sadly, I didn't get in. But I'm not too sad as I have a lot of things I'm planning to do this summer. Not to mention, I'll be traveling to Asia this week. I plan to make some blog posts about packing, and of course, I will also be posting photos of my travels.

I still haven't finished my blog posts about my trip to Europe from last year. I'm debating whether or not I should finish off the series or just leave it since it has been almost a year since that trip. I'll definitely have to stay on top of my travel posts for my Asia trip!

I also plan on making some vegan recipe posts. Last year I made a post about making tacos, and I would like to recreate that recipe using vegan ingredients. What do you guys think?

So that is everything I wanted to update. Again, I apologize for the lack of posts. Be sure to look forward for my next posts. :)

Thank you for reading.

That's everything I ate yesterday. Thanks for reading!

Hi everyone,

I haven't been updating my blog as much as I'd like, mainly because I've been lazy and procrastinating with my other work. But today, I thought I would finally make a blog post about some changes I've made to my life as well as some random tidbits.

For I believe a couple weeks now, I have been eating a vegan diet. Prior to this, I was eating a pescatarian diet for about a month. I was influenced by some great vegan YouTubers (Freelee the Banana Girl and Stella Rae) and making the change has been great. These past few days I've been limiting my fat intake. For the last couple of months, my skin has been absolutely terrible. I've had acne for many years now, but my skin was never as bad as it has been. I changed up my skincare and makeup products multiple times, but nothing was improving my skin. While doing research, I came across this video by Nina and Randa who are also vegan YouTubers. This led me to Dr. McDougall's diet advice for acne. Although I had been eating vegan and cut out all dairy, I was eating copious amounts of fats. I pretty much had some kind of oil in all of my meals. Because so much of my food contains oil, it is hard for me to completely eradicate all oil from my diet. So now I only have one meal a day that consisted of any fat. Typically, I usually have breakfast, lunch, an afternoon snack, and dinner. I only have fat in one of these meals. So I've been eating a lot more fruits, and I have noticed my skin getting better!

I broke my rule a few days ago when I ate two meals, one of which was extremely oily. However, making this change hasn't been too difficult for me. I might make some "What I Eat in a Day" posts for those who want some ideas for vegan food.

One thing I've been worried about is a trip that I'm making this summer to Taiwan and China. All of my family members who live there eat meat, so I'm a bit concerned that I won't be able to maintain my diet there with ease. We will also be eating out a lot, so I won't know exactly what is being used to cook my food. I've heard that there a lot of vegetarian restaurants in Taiwan, so hopefully I'll run into some. I'll also bring as many dates as I can to snack on in case there's nothing for me to eat.

After a few more weeks, I'll be sure to post an update on how my skin is doing. I've only been limiting my fat intake for a few days, so the results haven't been drastic. However, I have noticed my skin is definitely not getting as many new breakouts as it was before.

The next month is going to get really busy for me, as the end of the school year approaches. I've been a little stressed out these past few weeks because of dealing with school work, but I'm trying to improve my stress management skills. I think I'll make another blog post on this topic with links to interesting videos.

I've also been really obsessed with BTS! They're comeback, which I'm so excited for, is next month. They have some really nice songs with meaningful lyrics. I'm not Korean nor do I speak Korean so I can't understand what their saying, so English subtitles are the best. I'm also really excited for Ariana Grande's new album. I'm loving her song Be Alright right now.

That is everything that I'd like to talk about for this blog post. Thank you for reading!

Hi everyone,

This is part two of my trip to San Francisco last week. These two days my sister, mom, and I went on this beautiful hiking trail near the San Francisco Bay to find the best view of the Golden Gate Bridge. The trail was so beautiful and relaxing, since it was right by the ocean. The trail led to a rocky shore where we sat for a couple of minutes, enjoying the scenery. It was extremely windy, so if you are planning to hike around the bridge, be sure to dress warmly.

Later that day we went to the Golden Gate Park and walked around there for a bit. There seemed to be some kind of concert going on that day. From the park we were able to walk to the beach, but we did not stay there for long. It was far too windy compared to the first beach we had gone to earlier and sand was getting everywhere. So we went grocery shopping and went back home.

I bough some Tofurky sausages to try out, but I'm not sure if we cooked them correctly. They tasted very dry so I wouldn't recommend.

The next day, my mom and I went out to the bay once again and found a bike rental shop. We rented two bikes and biked along the bay. Biking along the bay was one of the most fun things I've ever done, as I love biking, and the scenery around us was so beautiful. We biked for around two hours then went to a little cafe called the Ben Thai cafe. I ordered some vegetarian Pad Thai (one of my favourite dishes which you can learn about here) which was very good. Afterwards we packed up our bags and headed to the airport.

This little trip was very fun and relaxing; I'm so thankful the weather was perfect all four days of the trip. I was so happy to see my sister and have a change of scenery. Prior to the trip I was feeling extremely stressed from school and tired of my surroundings. The trip was a nice change of scenery and hearing the ocean waves was very calming. I hope I can visit again soon.

That's all for my post today. Spring break has ended for me, so I'm back to focusing on school work. I'll try my best to keep updating as much as I can.

Thank you for reading!