I Want to Take You to the Candy Shop

On January 23 I went to see a candy-themed exhibit with two of my classmates and two friends from Minnesota. It was a really cute exhibit! Going to see different exhibits is really nice for sparking creative ideas or just to see what others can create. Art exhibits are really inspiring!

I took a bunch of photos, which have taken a long time to edit because I'm working on a netbook and I'm not good at editing photos...



Welcome to Candy Wonderland!


Check your height! Over 100cm~


Sweet Memories


What type of candy is your love?



Unique candies from different countries! There were a lot more countries, but I didn't want to upload too many!

In the Vintage Candy section there were some vintage-looking sculptures made of sugar and a vintage-looking candy shop:


There was also a Poke Prize section where each person could poke a box for a prize:


I don't think this section had a name, but we took some fun photos:


In the Sweet Fairytale rooms I took a bunch of photos in the Jack and the Beanstalk room because it was so cute!



There was a Cinderella room with a carriage!


In the Holiday section I took photos with the Valentine's Day display:


In the Sweet Art section there was a funny background:


And also artworks made of jelly beans!! There was a display of Skrik that you could take photos with. I tried to make a good face:


Since I had purchased the tickets before the pre-purchase deadline, not only did we get a discount but we could also exchange for a lollipop! I forgot to take photos in the Zodiac room, but one of the small candies came from the Zodiac room:


To make this even sweeter, when you purchase tickets at 7-11 using the ibon system (it is like a self-serve computer system that prints your tickets) the tickets also work as coupons. For example, buying a High Speed Rail ticket gets you Buy-One-Get-One at Starbucks. The event ticket we bought this time gets Buy 4 Get 2 or Buy 8 Get 4 at Mister Donut!

尾牙 Year End Party Tradition

Chinese businesses traditionally have a party at the end of the lunar year to thank the employees and to get better business for the coming year (businesses such as funeral homes, and medical-related companies don't do this because it's not good to hope for more business for them!). This year was my third time attending the Year End Party at the English company I work for, and the first time that I remembered to get the vegetarian option so I could eat more!

What do we do at the Year End Party? Well, there is a drawing with a LOT of winners! At this company, there is always gift cards for 新光三越/Mitzukoshi (it is a shopping center) that vary from NT$3000 to NT$20,000, and then also bonus prizes of cash, and awards such as Teacher of the Year, Award of Excellency, etc.

The Year End Party was at a location called Amazing Hall (yes, that's the real name!) where I assume a lot of wedding receptions take place because there were a lot of wedding-type structures for photography like this:


We also all got balloons this year and had to write our wish or dream on them. Unfortunately, I have an irrational fear of balloons

This is my personal hell!

How I looked on the outside:


How I felt on the inside:


The theme for this year was "So Nice of You" so some employees had written letters of thanks to coworkers and they were awarded with a chocolate medal and small prize.

As a part-time worker, I have never been eligible for the drawing, but we do get a red envelope with NT$600 worth of vouchers that can be used at a variety of places. I normally use mine at Starbucks and Mister Donut.

In between the courses of food, there was also a "guess that employee game" and a funny dance done by three of the guys from the company. Some companies hire entertainment, but our company just has employees do it haha!



We had an eight-course meal plus fruit at the end!
This is my vegetarian version:


Fancy fancy~

At the end of the party, everybody was supposed to burst their balloons to get the good-luck wish inside and see if they won NT$20,000, so I just ran out and chilled in the bathroom for a while. My boss popped mine for me. I didn't win a prize, but I still got a good-luck wish!

Here is the Wikipedia article if you would like to read more about it. My mom told me about how they used to have the chicken with its head pointing at the employee to be fired, but later, it became more common to have the bosses point it at themselves.

Does your workplace do anything to thank the employees? I think it's a lovely tradition to have a Year End Party.

Winter Break (?)

Hello readers, and sorry for the big gap in blogging! It was Finals Week for me and this week is the first week of Winter Break!
While that may seem like a big break, it really just means that it's time to work on Fashion Week things

I am glad that school is over though! Look at some awesome things I designed!

No, it was not my own choice to design men's underwear. The company that my school partnered with does men's underwear and t-shirts. No, my designs did not get chosen. I don't think my style is really quite what middle-aged men in Taiwan are looking for...
Well, you don't always get to design what you want! So if any of you are thinking of studying Fashion Design in college, be forewarned!!! Well, it was sort of fun to do this project anyway~

In other news, my friends from Minnesota will be coming to visit next week, so hopefully I'll have more interesting things to post about! In the meantime, I would like to share some other things that are going on recently~

I finally made it to Perfume Dance (SOGO branch) to try the honey toast there!! After seeing so many other Lolitas post photos, but never being able to make a meetup, I got to go over the weekend with my mom!

In addition to trying their version of honey toast in a pyramid shape, I also had eggs Benedict for the first time in my life. I know, it probabyl seems silly that I never had it in America, but I'm not sure why I never did try it... I'm happy to say that it was yummy, though!


Eggs Benedict with avocado cheese

I had this glorious dessert with my mommy:

It was really nice and not too sweet! The bread paired nicely with the whip (all melted), the small scoop of ice cream, and the custard that glued everything together. The red berries were quite sour, but really nice!