If we start there

"The sun is perfect and you woke this morning. 

You have enough language in your mouth to be understood. 

You have a name, and someone wants to call it. 

Five fingers on your hand and someone wants to hold it. 

If we just start there, every beautiful thing that has and will ever exist is possible. 

If we start there, everything, for a moment, is right in the world."

Beautiful words by Warsan Shire. Photography by Jennifer Causey.

Made my way to the dance floor, danced til I wasn't drunk anymore

This is quite a cute coffee shop in Singapore called The Reading Room, and I would very much like to go, sit and read. Books, coffee, city, architecture, sounds perfect to me.

Photos from Cafehopping. Post title from Is Your Love Big Enough? by Lianne La Havas.

You're fierce and spread like wildfires

I love this. I tried getting off coffee two years ago, but it didn't last long. It seems like an anchor to me, every morning wherever I wake up I must have a cup of coffee. Well that and if I don't, I get a massive headache. If I go on a trip, I'd love to take a picture of my coffee every morning as documentation. My sister did something similar on our trip to London last summer; she took a picture of her feet in various areas. It is a nice change from the standard tourist pictures of monuments... well we took those too of course :)

Post title from Wildfires by Ohbijou. Photos by Olivia Rae James.

She's up all night for good fun

Midterms are stressful.  Coffee is beautiful. Get Lucky by Daft Punk is glorious.

And my car won't stop 'cause I cut the breaks

So Amsterdam. I loved it. It has got to be one of the top three cities I have visited this year. I could definitely live in one of those cute house apartments by the canal. We peaked into some of their windows around dinner time, and I could not handle it. People were actually nice too! Crazy. Oh and there were so many cute modern coffee shops, my weakness. I'm talking about literal coffee, not to be confused since we are talking about Amsterdam.

However we did not stay in the area I described above. We stayed in the red light district. It was cheap. And now I know why. The manager of the hostel loved us though, really loved us. Because we were a breath of fresh air in comparison to the quality of teenage boys that normally stay there...

The first night I was paranoid out of my mind walking down the street in our area. There were so many guys, almost all guys. And the smell of weed and the sight of mostly naked girls really freaked me out. But then I realized that these areas exist in every city, I just don't stay in them. And this area in Amsterdam is actually safe. Our tourguide told us there are security cameras everywhere, two police stations, a church, and a kindergarden (go figure). 

Some interesting moments:

- Watching a Christmas parade in Amsterdam that includes Santa followed by his African slaves... We are talking black paint, wigs, the whole deal. We were completely shocked. Weed, prostitution, ok I can handle it. But borderline racism/cultural insensitivity... no, just no.

- Listening to our hostel manager complain to us. In one of his many rants, he mentioned that he killed Chinese when he was in the Taiwanese Army, and that he stayed up til 6am drinking Tequila because he was so annoyed with the stoned Belgian boys in our hostel. A very fascinating man.

- Eating stroopwafels. Those things are good. And addicting.

- Taking the Red Light District tour. I learned many things, including not to take pictures of prostitutes because they will throw pee on you. Also who knew it only cost 50 euro for 15 min?

- Going to a bar/slash club one night when we weren't planning on going out. Some of us were wearing multiple layers of sweaters... sexy.

We also did some touristy things in Amsterdam as well: two tours, the Rembrandt house, the Anne Frank house, the Heineken factory, a sex museum, the "I Amsterdam" letters, and a Christmas parade.

I would definitely go back to Amsterdam! But maybe stay in a different area...


Post title from Morning Song by The Lumineers. One of my favorite songs by them and one of the best concerts I've been too.

Tell me what's so easy about coming to say goodbye

I survived a trip to Berlin and Prague! My friend and I had a several panic attacks throughout the trip including one before we even left Paris. Sometimes traveling by yourself is hard.

I loved Berlin. Really loved it. We were only there for a day and a half, and we did a four hour walking tour and learned more than I ever did in history class. I loved how there were modern coffeeshops everywhere. Like legit coffeeshops. None of this old fashioned café nonsense like Paris (just kidding, those are great too). Apparently Berlin is known as "poor but sexy." I was not there long enough to really experience the city, but what I observed rings true.

Prague was beautiful. We were there for four days and did another four hour walking tour which covered several historical and touristy sites. Who knew they had a mini eiffel tower? It was endearing... The only problem I had with Prague was the sheer number of tourists. Oh and the lovers. Like seriously? And this is coming from a girl who is used to seeing people in Paris making out on the metro or at various historical sites. But Prague was worse. And to make it even more annoying, these lovers were not half as attractive or as well-dressed as Parisians, so I couldn't even be jealous. But this speaks only for the tourists in Prague, because I'm not really sure I saw a legit person from Prague between the hostel and the touristy historical sites. But I don't blame all those lovers for coming to Prague, because the Charles Bridge and the river pretty much kills you. 

Some highlights:

- Withdrawing a 1000 Czech bill. I felt rich for five seconds.

- Getting caught by the German police for not having metro tickets. Too much money was lost paying for that ticket.

- Meeting someone from my college town at a bar crawl. So so random!

- Avoiding various creepy men. By the end of the trip, I was paranoid of everyone. Talk to me, and I will cut you.

- Plotting ways to kill pretty much most of the people in our hostel room... if you see someone sleeping at oh say 3 in the morning, its best not to talk loudly, just sayin.

- Going to the sketchiest club ever in Prague. It was pretty much a four story frat house with old creepy men. Yeah, we didn't stay too long.

- Losing my camera in Berlin :( I bought a disposable camera in Prague. Someone asked me if I was a hipster. Nope, just really needed a camera...

Last week was great, but one thing I realized is that it is so much scarier traveling to new cities with one other person rather than a group. And I also realized, I really want to return to Berlin someday, longer than 36 hours I hope. The photo is from this really cute coffeeshop near our hostel in Berlin. Unfortunately I never went in, because I had given all my extra money to the German police.

Post title from Three White Horses by Andrew Bird.

It's best we both forget before we dwell on it

Some things I miss about the US.

To-go coffee.
Big showers.
Nice people.
Wearing sweatshirts in public.
Zoning out in class. Or really just understanding what is going on in class.
Feeling at home.


But then there are things in Paris I know I will miss when I return.

So many cafés.
Cheap crêpes.
Cheap wine.
Macarons.
The Seine.
Free museums.
Fast public transportation.
Attractive men who know how to dress.

Also if you have the time check out my new blog post for IES! It is about going to a class at the Sorbonne.

Post title from Love Love Love by Of Monsters and Men.

Now I'm pointed north, hoping for the shore

So I turned 20 this weekend. Woah there. I am really happy to be this age. I'm old enough to be responsible. But young enough to be forgiven if not responsible ;)

It turned out to be a much better weekend than I expected. Some highlights: Skyping a friend I miss and haven't seen for so long. Being surprised by friends with cupcakes at the Tuileries Garden. Checking out the cutest English bookstore and later treating myself to Junot Díaz's new book. Dancing to old songs at an adorable Parisienne bar that night. Walking through the Palace of Versailles on Saturday and getting angry at their placement of modern art in the Hall of Mirrors. Eating cheese and drinking wine by a canal for dinner. Going to my first Parisien club and realizing that I like pop songs much better than electro. Taking the night bus for the first time. Going shopping in Le Marais and running into a parade of drunk and high teenagers. 

This city is pretty great. The only thing it needs is to-go coffee, and all would be perfect.

Photo from Tumblr, this is the bookstore in Paris that I can't stop thinking about. Post title from If I Had a Boat by James Vincent McMorrow.

So keep your head up, keep your love

I had such a lovely weekend with Claire. We started our Saturday with pasteries from Bennison's and a trip to Belmont. We walked around, went to a few stores, and ate lunch at Deuce's up in Wrigleyville.  

My roommate from this past year joined us Kickstand Espresso Bar, a really cute coffee shop in Belmont. They have great red velvet cookies.

We then proceeded to get lost in a thrift store, where we happened upon this vintage women's magazine. Apparently skinny was not in fashion back in the day.

Then Claire and I headed down to Grant Park for an outdoor concert. We met up with my family and had classy drinks... in Winnie the Poo cups :) We then stressed on the el about making our tickets to The Dark Knight Rises back in Evanston. Wow was it good.

The next morning we got to see the view of Evanston from my friend's rooftop pool. We can pretend that I live in a city...

We spent some time Sunday walking through Chicago Cultural Center, with a lovely view of Grant Park and the Bean. I say she should visit every weekend :)

Post title from Stubborn Love by The Lumineers.

Awkward moments...

     My friend has been getting annoyed that the writing on my blog has been scarce lately.  Agreed.  But sometimes life gets busy?  Anywho I am checking out this coffee shop near the Bryn Mawr stop called The Coffee Studio in Andersonville (I'm meeting up with the sis later to make pizza for dinner... cute).  The trek down here was a struggle though.  Can I just say that the signs at the Loyola stop are uber confusing?  I went on the wrong side and frantically ran up and down the stairs to get to the other side before the train came, and of course I face planted on the stairs... so awkward.  The worst part was there was no one to laugh it off with me... oof.  Then trying to find this place was a challenge as well, fending off the creepy trick or treaters in their masks and odd garb.  Halloween has got to be the worst holiday.  But no worries, I am now calm and warm with a soft cookie and hot coffee.  Success.


     Last year at this time, I was still terrified of traveling alone slash using public transportation in general.  Now the el got nothin on me, other than the occasional face plant :)

This image is from here and reposted on my tumblr.

Coffee and cupcakes

I should never be given a day off from work.  I end up spending more money than I earn.  I went out with the goal of buying converse, essential walking shoes for college.  Did I get them?  No. I decided that with that money, I could instead get really cute sandals and high heeled boots for winter.  Neither are practical, but both are just so darn cute :)


Now I would like to take this time to rave about this amazing cupcake place down the street.  This morning I had the best cupcake ever.  Boston Cream from Molly's Cupcakes.  I am not one for cupcakes normally, Sprinkles never did it for me.  But this place will change your stereotypes for cupcakes, I almost have to eat the cake part and the icing separate because the conflicting goodness in my mouth is just too much to handle at once.

Blurry picture by me (notice my attempt to copy Simply Breakfast haha)