March 23rd: NYA's San Francisco Adventure

Pictured:
• Andy or Kimchi / SeoulTempo
• Chiisana / ChiisanaChanx3
• Chris, Hakuro, Hakiro, or Shiratsuyu... / ItsHakuro

• Eva / waterpixieva
• Dibur / diburmakesmusic

• Diji / DijiDori
• Fome / Fome
• Karu / karufuruu
• Kazou / soundmutation
• Kura / Kuraiinu
• Myst / mystraven
• Y

This was undoubtedly one of best days of Spring Break. ^^ It was the first time almost all of NYA (Norcal Youtube Alliance) was gathered, and it was for such a fun outing with food, purikura, karaoke, and good company. Additionally, Andy came to visit from Socal and joined us!

My day started off with just me and Chiisana. Y got off work at 1 PM, so the plan was for me and Chiisana to visit Y's workplace and then head up to San Francisco together with others we had to pick up on the way.

I CAN'T BELIEVE I ACTUALLY GOT UP AT 9 AM.... to put on make-up. Chiisa and I have been largely dedicating this Spring Break to our venture into beauty, since we ordered a joint make-up haul and we finally had time to explore it this week. xD We later had a sleepover during which we spent hours trying out/learning to use make-up, which I'll blog about later.

This day was my very first time wearing make-up out of the house casually u/////u .... as in not for cosplay, prom, or a wedding. But the only eye make-up I donned was brown gel liner so even those that noticed thought it was subtle. ;u;

I wore make-up casually a few other times after this, and I used to never think I would come to this point--especially given how sensitive both my eyes and skin are, paired with my low maintenance and lazy personality that doesn't put much thought into appearance. But I did it ?!? Just 2 months ago when I wore eyeliner for ALA, I still teared up a bit. And it doesn't take me like an hour anymore LOOL. My skin is still too dry for products though. I've learned that smothering my face with Vaseline on top of my usual lotion (and primer for eyeshadow) helps a ton, but sometimes concealer still looks flaky and dry and gross like my skin. HOW TO FIXXX *^*

Y works in one of the cafes at a somewhat higher-end (well, for us middle class college kids at least...) shopping and dining complex--except we didn't actually know which one. For some reason, we didn't think to ask LMAO.

Chiisa and I made a very fortunate mistake when we visited a bakery/cafe that we were convinced Y was at, and came across really cheap and delicious macarons! *______* A giaaaantt hazelnut macaron for just 2-something dorra!! Splitting it perfectly into two is one of the normally clumsy Chiisana's greatest life accomplishments thus far. We were proud.

Finally we found Y's cafe, where she served us yummy gelato. *u*

After we gathered Diji, Karu, Kazou, and Chris in Y's giant van, we were finally on our way to San Francisco! I think that the hilarious antics in our van were some of the funnest points of my day HEHE. We decided that we were the Hernandez family and Karu bestowed upon all of us our own Mexican names. HAHA<3

Once we made it to SF by BART (northern California's train), we met up with Andy and Kura and then made our way over to Japantown where we all gathered and had Japanese food. ;v; And then some of us had crepes! I didn't take any pictures of mine, but here is Fome and what I think is a bear on his crepe.

Tummies bursting with food, we then took purikura, which was lots of fun! The store played K-pop on its speakers so even when we weren't taking pictures, I had fun standing around and singing along and/or dancing along to the songs with the others LOL. The guy manning the storefront was wearing a Leessang cap, which I didn't notice until Chiisa pointed it out. So I told him that we liked his hat LOLOLOL. Later, we noticed that a currently playing song cut off suddenly and what started playing was one of Gary's (a member of Leessang) songs and we cracked up.

After we took our 12-person group picture, Myst and I made a proposal to our 7 boys--if we paid for a purikura session for them, would they take it together + decorate it?

"But we don't know how to decorate it"
"THAT'S THE POINT."

And they did it, and watching that was some of the most hilarious shit omg LOOOOOL. I wish I had done what I did during #GeminiMeetUp when I put my camera on top of the purikura machine's camera and recorded the entire thing. We girls just kind of stood outside the machine and peered in through the curtains while our stupid adorable boys would be like:
"OKAY NOW, DUCK FACE. -everyone simultaneously pouts-"

"NOW A SEXY ONE!"

"WE NEED A MANLY ONE!"

After they finished taking their pics, it was the girls' turn, which went expectedly smoothly since we had experience. By the time ours were done and printed, the boys hilariously STILL were working on decorating their pictures HAHAHAHHAA. They put so much thought into it... except for the one where they just drew a giant pink heart, wrote "LUVV" on the bottom, and "Penis" on the top. :T And we were just like omg boys pls...............

We karaoked (because when does NYA ever not karaoke?) for an hour before splitting up.

I really enjoyed all of the bonding time spent with the "Hernandez family" HAHAHA since we had to take the bus back to the BART station, and then there was an hour-long BART ride back down, then more driving. That night, our family van made a stop for milk tea and chatting together. Overall, an exhaustingly perfect day. ^^

I'm also really proud of my friends. I don't think this day would've been as much fun as it was if they didn't all make such great strides in coming out of their shells. Some of us have a lot of shyness, anxiety, awkwardness, inability to express or click easily with others, fear of being loud, fear of being noticed or of garnering attention, fear to be ourselves, fear of being assertive, nervousness when in crowds, distance from others, a dislike for socializing. Sometimes it feels like there's a divide among NYA between those that are outgoing and those that aren't as outgoing, and I saw every single person that usually isn't as outgoing or has any of those traits I listed above take a step forward. By the end of the day, everyone got along greatly and didn't seem afraid. I'm so proud. :)