June 30, 2012

bangsar village

mannequin
papercranes
photo by hannah
little asian version of Jess from New Girl
photo by hannah
the evening we arrived back at hannah's house, we went out to bangsar village to stretch our legs after being hours in the car. we walked around the grocery store, went to the bakers to get a snack, got hazelnut-chocolate at chatime, roamed the bookstore, walked through toys-r-us, and took pictures outside with the pretty lights. it was a lovely evening with one of my oldest friends. i love you, hannah. you're growing into a beautiful young woman that i'm proud to have known ever since we were little ping-tailed girls. 





June 28, 2012

birthday

at the lake for beracha's birthday one year ago
forest near the cabins
summertime at the lake
end of the year class party
carol & beracha
surprise livingroom picnic! 
keulen, germany. starbucks coffee. stained cathedral glass windows. birthday girl.

dearest beracha, 
congratulations on your birthday! it has been such a privilege getting to know you. i am so thankful that we ended up in the same class two years ago, because i dont know how else i would have come to know one of my really good friends. i love how we got to know each other through sharing music and discovering that our taste is very similar. you are so talented with your skills in sewing and even now beginning with photography! being your friend is such a pleasure and i hope that we will be friends for as long as we live. a great memory that i have with you is when you came over to bake white chocolate macadamia cookies, while we ate ben&jerry's white chocolate macadamia ice cream and watched eat,pray,love! other memories from school, taking pictures, the anberlin concert, watching blackswan, are all ones that i still cherish! i hope you have had a wonderful day with friends and family. i wish i could have been there to celebrate with you. but i hope that you know in your heart how happy i am to be your friend and how excited i am to see you again next summer! 
with love, 
stefanie

(check out her wonderful blog here)









June 23, 2012

redang; part III

photo by hannah
photo by hannah
these are the pictures we took on the day before we left the beautiful island of redang. again it took a lot of convincing to get hannah to let me take pictures of her. she only agreed if she got to take pictures of me first, so i let her. when we were little girls, we promised each other that we would never cut or dye our hair. but as you see, i have very short hair. however, my mother refuses to let me dye my hair. so i guess i have not strayed too far away from the promise we made.  hannah, on the other hand, has long beautiful hair that i sometimes envy when i miss my hair when it was also long. this is the end of the redang series. i very much enjoyed documenting our time there and also having the privilege to share it you. 







June 22, 2012

redang; part II

photo by ruben
photo by hannah
photo by uncle eddy
after begging hannah for about half an hour, hannah finally agreed to let me take pictures of her on the rocks. she found it incredibly awkward, but she managed to be very obedient. the blue water contrasted beautifully with the orange rocks, i loved it! after our little photo session we got ready to go diving! since it was my first time, we started out with  a shore dive. it was still such a wonderful experience! breathing underwater was so much fun. it was so strange that sometimes i forgot to breathe. but then i would remember that if i held my breath that my lungs might pop; that really freaked me out. we saw coral, fish, jelly fish, clown fish (nemos) in their anemones, starfish, and also a trigger fish! the trigger fish was especially cool to see because its "dangerous." and danger is always exciting of course :) more pictures from redang are coming up! i've just been so busy with the shoot i did for sue lyn's blog (twistchic) and traveling to perhentian. i'm currently in penang right now. i'm so excited to meet up with my really good friend, erin. hopefully we'll make a video together! and hopefully i'll post things on time too. thank you all for your support, its very much appreciated :)










June 13, 2012

redang; part I

hannah 



susanna

ruben jumping off a boat 
hannah has been my friend ever since i was 4 years old. the two of us could have passed as sisters. our fathers are malaysian-chinese and our mothers are dutch. as little girls, we liked to tell people that we were cousins, sisters, or even twins. we have many cherished memories together, like the time we were watching winnie the pooh and kanga sprayed some mysterious spray in her mouth and we decided to follow her example by spraying her mothers perfume in our mouth. we soon understood that kanga had a special kind of mouth spray that her mother didnt have. we used to spend hours at the pool pretending we were mermaids and making perfume out of flowers. we used to make up songs and sing in our castle of a playground where so many of our adventures took place. in her very living room we traveled to places that were foreign to us, but with our  imagination, they were real and somewhat familiar. several times, the two of our families have gone on holiday to an island called redang. ten years after the first time we went together, hannah's family invited my brother and i to go with them once more. the island is as beautiful as ever. the white sand has held our childhood memories of the island very well. and the crystal clear blue water still feels as fresh in its own salty way as it did when my skin covered my childish body. it felt good to be back in a place where i once had so many adventures. i am no longer the small, pig-tailed girl that i used to be. i have changed so much, but nevertheless, i still hold those memories of innocent fun. 







family

everyone enjoying penne vodka 
a stranger told me that three million cars pass under this bridge daily
sweehearts at the bowling alley 
aron & lainy
chinatown lanterns
our first week back in malaysia was already filled with summer fun. we slept late, ate all sorts of asian food, spent hours at the pool, went bowling, roamed around china town, and cooked penne vodka for the whole family. it was definitely a good start for the summer!