Let me start off with an apology, as it was packed with quite a few events that I was caught up in that it totally drained my energy and movtivation to write up the appropriate blog post for the last 2 loot boxes. If you’re reading this, thank you for still having faith in me and for being a loyal follower! As you can see from the photos below, I was first caught up with my brother’s graduation, so our whole family and his girlfriend headed down to New Haven, CT, USA for a few days, then we flew straight to Japan for a 2.5 week vacation. Coming back, I got swept up with work (which was pretty hectic and something you won’t be interested in, I can assure you), then followed by a couple of weddings and the GlobalFest fireworks competition, which I couldn’t pass up since I’m an avid photographer. Needless to say, it was a busy few months.
Because Aileen had changed up the schedule for sending boxes to once every 2 months instead of every month, I specifically requested Aileen to hold off on sending the April/May box after I came back from Japan, which was in early June. And because of my swamped schedule, I didn’t get the chance to open and look at the contents, and by that time, the 2nd box was already well in transit, so I opted in for blogging about both boxes at the same time. So, here they are! There’s going to be quite a bit of content, so I’m sure you’d rather look at all the photos than to read all this text, so I’ll briefly describe them and you can feast your eyes with photos instead.
First up, we have a whole lot of toiletries from Korea when Aileen went to visit in addition to the natural soap from Cambodia (no, the panda cup was not included). Aileen was thoughtful enough to also include a travel toiletries bag, which is handy for me as I didn’t have one. Speaking of travelling, Aileen also packed a travelling tag ID, which is useful for my luggage.
The set included a toothbrush stand, which is good because I don’t have to worry about leaving it on a (potentially dirty) hotel bathroom countertop or in a cup. There’s also a quirky vibrating face(?) cleaner with little bristles from Miniso, with some eye and face masks. The eye masks were especially helpful as I stare at the computer screen extensively at work. On the topic of work, Aileen found me a pair of mustache dress socks, which spices up my plain and bland set of socks for work. Lastly, there’s a small bottle of lotion, which is perfect because of such dry weather here in Calgary, and I always get disguistingly dry skin. The face masks and ginseng soap especially help in this case.
This section is dedicated to snacks, but since we have lots of pictures here, I’m not going to describe much about it.
First, we have crackers with filling, which almost taste like a delicacy since it’s limited in quanity per package and tastes somewhat like durian. That’s probably because I’ve eaten the durian candy and chocolate before trying the crackers, but that’s besides the point. Next, we have the seaweed crackers, which is probably by far my favorite snack (aside from the rum truffles…). I gave some to my mom and she literally finished the bag in less than a minute! Speaking of which, the seaweed crackers remind me a lot of the Chinese deep fried shrimp crackers that we always get at the restaurants. Lastly, we have lots of chocolate. Much of the mango one does not contain sugar, so if you like the taste of cocoa and dark chocolate, this is for you. The only reason why you wouldn’t like this is because of the mango. As for the durain chocolate, you would taste more of the chocolate as opposed to the durian, so if you still crave chocolate but don’t like durian, it should be a good balance as you’d barely notice the durian taste.
Next, we have lots of tea leaves, one bag being from the Caribbean and the others from Cambodia. Paired with the golden feather bookmark, this makes for a great combination with a book in hand during a summer’s eve!
Thanks to Aileen, I have another shot glass to add to my collection (not that I don’t have enough already…). Also, I received some premium quality black pepper and brown sugar cane sugar, perfect for cooking along with some utensils. Since my mom values cooking, it’s a match made in heaven.
Lastly, I recieved some trinkets from Cambodia. From left to right, 1) scarf, 2) pants, 3) fridge magnet, 4) shot glasses, 5) incents, & 6) snow globe. Unfortunately, all of these items involve Buddhism (and other religious ideologies) in one way or another, and with my background, faith, and spirituality, I could not keep or use these items. So, I had to donate these items away and can’t comment too much on them. They are very beautiful trinkets, especially the clothing as the felt very smooth and the detailed craftsmanship on the shot glasses. I’m sorry, Aileen! I had to give them away…