SHAMiversary

First things first, last Thursday was Thanksgiving of course, so I feel I would be remiss not to mention it, though my Thanksgiving was not very eventful to tell the truth. Since COVID, my family has not gotten all together because of my grandpa, and now after he passed away, my grandma is having some health issues so it's kind of the same story. My mom still sees her often and now spends a couple days at her house a week, but I think we just didn't want to all crowd into her house, so sadly we decided last minute to just have an immediate family holiday. So, we just got some pre-made Tgiving food from Roche Bros, watched the National Dog Show (a COVID tradition), and played some board games. But it was still a fun time with my family, and the Roche Bros stuffing was pretty good ngl.

some fun timers at kyra's parents' house

I am feeling a lot less stressed now because I was able to get most of the stressful paperwork stuff done last week also. I'm just waiting on some more information now, but I think I'm in an okay spot (or at least it's out of my hands). Now, I am back in New Haven taking an online TEFL course and continuing to try to study Korean hardcore.

My main fun thing this week is that yesterday Kyra and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary ! As the title of this post suggests, it was not really our anniversary; our anniversary is January 25, but since I will not be here then, we decided to celebrate now (post script here is that Jan. 25 is actually kind of a fake date also, because we're not 100% sure when we formally became "official" boyfriend-girlfriend or w/e, but that's when we first met IRL).

We had a big day planned and I think it went nearly perfect! We took the Metro North into NYC and went to the New York Botanic Garden in the Bronx for their annual Holiday Train Show. I saw this on TikTok last year and as a train/plant lover, it was on my bucket list. We got there early and spent some time walking around the Botanic Garden's grounds, that place is huge! Way bigger than the Arboretum in Boston. Since it's November, not a lot was in bloom as you might expect, but it was still really pretty and I definitely want to go back in the spring in a couple years.

spotted at Harlem train station

Then, we went into the conservatory building for the train show. Basically it's a model train show with all these replicas of NYC landmarks built in and among the plants. A studio in Kentucky makes them and the craziest thing is that they're all made of natural materials, like twigs and leaves and burrs and acorns and stuff. It was honestly more elaborate than I expected, I was pretty stunned! There were lots of landmarks that Kyra and I (non-native New Yorkers) were not familiar with, but it was just cool to see all the model buildings and the cute trains.)

After the train show, it started raining, but it wasn't too cold so we walked to the train station only to discover that the D train was not running (damn Google maps lied), so we had to walk to a different train station, but it ended up being okay and we made it safely to attraction #2: afternoon tea! Kyra and I had wanted to go to this fancy afternoon tea at the Boston Public Library this summer, but it is something like 60$ a person which is a weee bit pricy. Since then, I have been hunting for a fun tea we could go to instead, and we found this place Bistrot Leo (on TikTok also hehe), that was $36/person.

This restaurant was honestly a lot fancier than expected. I never thought tea looked filling with all the tiny sandwiches but I was stuffed by the end of our meal. For the savory sandwich portion we had, ranked least fave to fave: feta, arugula, tomato croissant, truffle egg salad, salmon and cream cheese, jamon beurre sandwich (this was so good and I usually hate ham). And for the sweet we had: chocolate mousse, creme brulee (not crispy enough on top, Julia Child would be disappointed), and an almond cheesecake. There were also some little fun things like a tiny fruit tart and even tinier pickle with mustard. The tea itself was Harney and Sons and it was nothing to write home about but the meal was quite scrumptious!

the tea in question

and the tea drinker

All in all, our anniversary went excellently! Even with little hiccups like cancelled trains, rain, and a cancelled uber when we got home, we felt it was a really fun way to celebrate before I leave for Korea. I am going to miss going on so many fun little dates with Kyra, we always are bopping around from place to place and trying new things. And I will miss Kyra of course :'(

Anywho, this post was kind of long and there were many photos. Have a good week buddies!