sf — Carmen Haidee Leung Blog

Makes me sad to say that this is the first time I've picked up my camera over the course of the past two months. Time to catch up on my New Year's resolutions! Pharmacy school has been crazy! I just completed the AMCP Pharmacy & Therapeutics Competition and placed top 3 in my school! It legit took over my life (the competition was so intense and lasted over the course of two months) and left me behind even on normal school work. Nonetheless, after finishing my first round of midterms, I ventured out to the Stanford campus mainly to visit the Arizona Cactus Garden just for fun! Potentially inspired by a future trip *wink* that is in the planning for spring break! The garden itself is surrounded by lush greenery, engulfed in a large park full of babies, sweet couples, and puppies roaming around. We even took a little bit of time to venture around the actual campus itself and found some cool outdoor patio spots! Who knew!

Cheers to a relaxing weekend full of relaxation and nature. Hoping to make some more adventures soon! I'm also thinking about getting a film camera soon just to explore! Super excited about it. If anyone has got any recommendations for cameras and films please feel free to let me know! Hope 2018 has been treating you all well!

As my lovely foodie friend Serena drove an extra hour than she needed to to come spend some time with me (*cry* I know my friends are all so sweet), she encouraged me to bring my camera (that I hadn't touch for a while due to pharmacy school finals wah) out with us as we went to grab some food and catch up at Tartine Manufactory in San Francisco. Serena is one of those friends that literally fills you with life and genuine encouragement just with her stories and thoughtful sentences. One of those that you laugh with something stupid about one second and then dive into something crazy deep the next. Good food, amazing company, and a super aesthetic environment. Couldn't have made for a better day. (:

Let's start with the food! We walked and we both were happily greeted multiple servers who were extremely helpful in making out food choices. As I searched through the menu, I was slightly embarrassed to not have known what half those listed ingredients were. Thank goodness I had my walking food dictionary (aka Serena) next to me translating for me and teaching me how to pronounce things accurately. With Serena's help, we picked a few amazing dishes:

1) Cauliflower tartine, ricotta, green apple, treviso

2) Nantes carrots, persimmon, yogurt, fenugreek, sesame, dill

3) Opera cake

4) Blood orange sorbet & cardamom ice cream swirl (you can order them separately, but the mix was highly recommended by the server so we trusted him and boy were we glad we did)

5) Iced oolong tea

These foods were PACKED with flavor and the textures and colors just balanced so beautifully. I would highly recommend all the above dishes. I even told her I wasn't hungry and that I would only take a small bite to try the taste of it, but oh man it was so tasty I couldn't stop myself hahaha. The tea was so delicious, it was strongly truly oolong, just the way I like it. If you don't want to come for a full meal, it is totally okay to just come for coffee or pastries during the day time as well!

Shot on iPhone 7s - Just had to show you all the amazing blood orange sorbet & cardamom ice cream swirl

hello strangers happily munching away lol

Serena and I stayed there and talked until the beautiful sunlight floating in gradually faded as the sun set behind us. We used to meet up every week to just chat about life but now we are further apart (sad face) and don't get the weekly time anymore, we can chat for hours! Don't you love talks like those? Chatting about pharmacy school made me realize I wanted to be more proactive with making more time for taking photos and blogging and traveling! I decided I wanted to continue with learning and practicing with illustrator/photoshop, blog more, travel more, and explore my own city (I live in San Francisco goodness sakes) more! I want to take advantage of my surroundings and live more in the moment. No more sitting at home studying (jk of course I have to study), but I need to be intentional about making time to visit all the places I want to visit and spend more time taking advantage of the amazingly diverse city that I live in! I would love to hear any suggestions on places and recommendations on places to go in SF (comment or feel free to email me)!