A Dream in Paris

                           

 

Call me stupid, silly, underachieving, flunky and unapologetic but all I really wanna do is drop out of college and start leading an exciting life.

 

                                

As I've said before, I was suppose to go to Japan. I was supposed to be smacked dabbed for Tokyo Fashion Week, #100Tokyo, #CoolJapan and be on a week long crazy adventure. 12 hours away, working through my entire spring break, only to take a few hours away to enjoy the pre-bloom of Japanese Cherry Blossoms.

 

                          

 

Welp, if you follow me on Instagram, you obviously know that didn't happen. 4 days before take off, my plans got canceled and hastily re-arranged. I got 2 working efforts that paid off somehow someway. I may not be a famous blogger but hell I know how to get places.

 

                       

One of the locations I went to was Paris, France. I went with lexss than a hundred bucks in pocket, a carry-on full of clothes, a hotel reservation, and a bit of crappy French and Creole.

 

 

                        

 

I can read French fluently but I can't really speak it. I kinda assumed that there would be a big Haitian population concentrated in one area. I found out from a random Haitian-French man on the train that no such things exist and unlike in New York, the Haitian population is spread out and their customs are often churned out. Luckily my creole is somewhat similar to the French of Cote-de-Ivory so I managed to get around only speaking Creole.

 

My mission was to attend a few shows, style-spot what Parisians wear, and overall get inspired by Parisans as a whole. I had only 3 days to make this opportunity into a grand scheme. I took a lot of inspiration from my favorite bloggers who had also made the trip. Primarily Yutaki and Michelle Phan.

                            

 

I had to make the best of what little money I had. No food could cost more than 3 euros and I avoided buying drinks in excess. Most meals costed around 10 euros. I tried to refrain from spending more than 4. Subways, Mcdonalds, and Crepe stands were the wave. Who cares if I missed out on authentic French cuisine, I wasn't on a pleasure trip  anyway.

 

I often had to think twice about eating.

Just note that their porta-potties are way better than ours.

                         

 

I honestly don't know why but I have a tendency to stick out everywhere I go. I got stopped everywhere I went. 

 

                                            

I got photographed several times.



People automatically assumed I was French too, in highly populated tourist areas. I don't know if that was common or not but I could sense a bit of annoyance accompanied by my broken French.

 

 

But one things was for certain, things did change after this trip. For one I can't stand people strolling in the city. Unlike in Manhattan, where people do take their time walking, Parisians walk extremely fast and their bags will hit you if you are in their way. A brief "pardon" and the zoom off. 

 

But more importantly, inspiration was drawn upon. For some reason I didn't find France very romantic like I did for Washington, DC. I found it ambitious and aesthetic. Fashion is different from the states and I was lucky to pack clothes that stood in a bit more. The French are proud in their oxfords, bright scarfs and simple silhouettes. Their silhouettes are flowy and portray a bit of fleeting freedom and yet personify their emotions. I was expecting them to wear a lot more black but instead they wore rustic colors and pastels.

 

And love was a matter of identity. Love was unspoken but can be seen. I saw a lot of different couples. I was in awe at the amount of bi-racial couple I saw and the amount of nannys stringing along a fleet of children. Love was personified in their art. Romance was found in their food. Everything showed the romance of the creation and their creator. 

                           

Still, Paris was not a romantic place  per say. Maybe if I was on a pleasure trip I would be saying something different but I didn't feel it. I felt more artistically inspired.

                   

 

What inspired me the most was the Jardin du Luxemburg. We skipped out on Versailles and took on this free alternative. 

                        

 

In France, spring had only just entered with some temps in the low 60s but Jardin du Luxemburg would make you think we were well into April. Flowers in full bloom everywhere, Kids running and playing meanwhile adults enjoyed their jog or conversation and a picnic. 

      

 

 This was the most romantic place I visited in all honestly. It was pure in unusual ways. It was obviously well taken care of.

                    

Now you must be asking. What will I do with this unkept creativity and what was the final product of my trip to France? Welp, you'll find out soon and I can basically totes that you will love it.

Adieu mes amis. S'il vous plaît aller me suivre sur  instagram, twitter, et tumblr pour mises à jour quotidiennes <3

Travellog: Bahamas

So I've been neglecting this blog long enough and for good reason. I've been getting a surplus of event invites and I've been traveling.

Its been quite a while since I traveled anywhere by plane (around 10 years). I was quite anxious since the world has became such a different place since I traveled in the past. Its gotten to the point I gotta murmur a prayer every time I get on a bus or train during my daily commute. 

In the wake of Flight 370, it took all that was in me to get on the plane and not spaz out every five minute. Instead I spazzed out every time i felt turbulance and you feel all the turbulance possible when sitting on a Airbus. 

But we landed safely in Nassau, Bahamas with a lot of drunk Spring Breakers. 

And unlucky me, I had lost my ipod chord so no pictures our entire first day. 

Because of the last minute of our trip. (We were originally suppose to go to Tokyo for Tokyo Fashion Week), we had a hard time booking a place to stay. So we rented a house  through Airbnb. Our accomadation was cheaper than staying in a hotel and was conviently very spacious. 

I appologize that pictures dont truly capture how spacious it was nor how pretty cuz we kinda trashed it. It had 2 bedrooms one with a queen size bed and the other with a king size bed so the house easily accomodates 4 people. My only peeve was only the king size bedroom had a vanity mirror (and i obviously didnt get that room).

We were a bit far from the downtown area so we had to travel by jitney. Instead of huge commercial bussing like there is in most cities, Nassau only uses van sizes bussing. We were served by the 14s which never took the same exact route twice but it got us to and from downtown. The only downside was that bussing ended as soon as sundown. Taxis are fairly expensive even the shortest distance will cost you $20

Also another good thing was USD was used on the island and didnt have to be converted as well as have the same worth as Bahamian Dollar.

We didn't get to do much because the trip was actually a working-vacation. So the most we really did was go to the beach. 

On our last day, I was co-hosting beach party so I only have pictures from chilling on the beach during preparations.

In all honestly it was a very relaxing break from New York cold. However there isn't much you can do unless you are on a cruise or at Spring Break event. I also felt a little alienated by locals who were constantly staring at me and I couldn't find out for what the reason. No matter, I really do want to go again. It was a surprisingly safe place to be. 

Well to next time cheries, I have plenty of adventures to share.

Be sure to follow me on Instagram and Twitter for Daily Updates.

So I'm going to Japan

For the first time.


Trust me, I'm not calm. So much has been coming up lately and I can't really remain contained. So I'm going to blog up all my prep and the actual trip as it comes. I'm really stressing actually.

A major thing is my modeling career is about to really start and so many things are not really settled. My finances for Japan isn't quite set. I'm hoping that my tax returns will come in time to give me an extra boost but that isn't quite for certain. Why do these correlate with each other? Modeling is quite damn expensive to get a start in. Your agent might give you some costly "advice"  to help improve your career. Photographers for your portfolio is also expenisve at first, getting to casting calls (if you don't live in nyc) can be costly. It's alot being thrown at you.

Then with school.... my fiancial aid got messed up, so things are bit more complicated. I am attending school, but I'm stressing over getting it fixed as soon as possible so I can possibly buy my textbooks.


But Japan. This post is all about Japan.

I still don't have a passport and I'm leaving in 7 weeks. *begins slow claps*

I don't know what to do with my hair either. Don't think I'll be able to afford box braids or full head weave but I don't want to have my hair out because we are going to Hawaii after Japan annnd I'm filming in both locations. I might buy a wig, idk..

Then the elephant in the room returns! I have to tone up my tummy or else for this trip. I'm going to be in a bikini in Hawaii and I'm going to wear some fitted clothing in Japan.... err. Lovely right?

And I need to buy some circle lenses >__< I need a pair for all my shoost, my birthday, and etc. I swear by them so much, there is never a photographer who dare tells me take them out. 


Well everything else is settled.

I leave in March and I'm traveling with my sister to Shinjuku and Shibuya. We have a nice ittenary that involves visiting Meji Shrine, Alice in Wonderland Resturant and other things. Beside my one day filming and maybe a photoshoot sess with an amazing photograher, the whole idea is just to enjoy being in my dream city. (But for the sake of supersition and my bad luck trend I'm not trying to announce too much)

I don't want to shop too much because 1. I don't want to disappoint myself with clothes that won't fit and 2. Tokyo is uber expensive.

Hopefully, my jobs will have hours again soon and my budget will become beautiful. Hopefully I get some paid gigs too. If anything I'm just going to have to get a third job on campus (Yes that sounds quite wonderful).


I will keep you guys updated. Please if you have tip or helpful suggestions, leave them in the comment box below. I could use any type of help you guys may offer.

Ciao,

Washington, D.C.

So you may be thinking like this:

"It's so damn hot, I ain't trying to go anywhere this summer." 

"I ain't got any money but I need to get the hell out of this town for a day." 

"My girl ain't doing the things she used to do. Man she's trippin!" 

I have found your solution, a nice little getaway to go in Washington, D.C. 

A few weeks ago my ❤ and I went to D.C to shoot for a little project I have coming up, I didn't have much money nor did my ❤ but we managed to scrap about $150 together to attempt to go somewhere. We took the metro bus there which was about 46 bucks each(round-trip) and we spent the whole day traveling by subway. After my shoot which was early in the morning we spent the whole day out sight seeing hardly ever taking a break. I actually wasn't quite prepared for anything. All I had with me was a makeup bag and a change of clothes. But we made thing work and hustled our with a hotel owner to let us shower and get some necessities for only $20 we actually took our sweet time lol and made the most of our $20. 

After that we toured the city  and went sight seeing. I couldn't quite over how much it didn't feel like a city lol. It was forever in my vision just a simple big ass town. I'm too use to New York lol. 

Our first stop obviously the station which was really nice in comparison to Penn station and 42nd st. Sadly I forgot the name of the station already lol.

Another thing I like about D.C was the fact that I could take pictures, gawk around, and not worried about looking like a tourist. In manhattan I wouldn't do that because next minute everything u have will be stolen.

We got around by subway which already I'm not a big fan of. I like busing for everything. Washington has a bit of annoying subway system. 1. The system is color coded rather then letters or alphabets so if ur color blind, it might not be for you. Okay and understanding the routes took us a minute so afterwards it wasn't as bad but it wasn't effortless as manhattan subway system. Maybe because we aren't city kids it mad it even harder. 

But one thing I did like about D.C was the fact that they are really big on transportation by bikes. I really regret we didn't tour Washington bike but we didn't have enough money to do it. If u have the money I really suggest it.

First stop museum of Natural History. What I enjoyed about D.C was all the best things were free.

Next stop: 

National Zoo

Then the brown panda escaped the zoo and I got my famous (lol) news interview about the escape in which I actually thought a big panda had escaped the zoo. Thank you news team for not informing me of my obvious blunder. 

We left relatively quickly cuz I only cared for the pandas lol. 

Next stop:

White House

Which we ended up stopping at every monument before that on our way. The White House, which is part of the National Park, is really far from the nearest subway station but there is a lot monuments, statues, and points if interests on the way there. 

I don't know the name of any of the places we stopped here on out. I either forgot the name or didnt know to begin with. We were just improvising based on subway directions at this point and we were quite tired.

And we finally made it to the white house!

I was actually quite scared to my phone on the other side of the fence to take a picture. What if it dropped, what if my hand get shot for even touching white house property. But <3 and="" hand="" it="" my="" of="" out="" p="" picture.="" the="" took="">

Next stop:

Federal Triangle

Idk what's over here but it's right next to Smithothean museums so we kept crossing over those boundaries

And we ended up in the Museum of American history. We were quite upset because everything closes at 7 in D.C and we finally found lockers! It was already 6, so we found it as no use. But luckily there is outlets and a bench in the locker room so we took our time just chilling. 

I like this museum more because of its nods to pop culture and fashion.

Wait... This is British lol

Next stop:

National Park, at this time we were losing light and quite tired. 

"❤ come take a picture with me by the fountain"

"I'm too tired"

I walk away anyway.

"❤ why aren't you coming?" 

"I'm coming"

Never gets up but proceeds snapping photos from a distance. 

Proceeds on Marilyn Monroe vibe.

"There something in the water!"

"What!!"

Apparently the monument is on crunches cuz it took a boo boo

A gate keepers house but we can't go in -___-"

Congressional Park I think or something like that.

The Lincoln monument.

It was so breath taking how they immortalized him. 

Reminds me of the hundreds of marches on Washington.

And this is, I guess a newer attraction that I never heard of but it looks really cool and has the name of each state on it 

People went and waded in the fountain. Don't know how legal that is but it looked refreshing after the long walk in National Park.

After that we got back to the station and chilled and relaxed and caught the midnight bus back to New York. We didnt get back to manhattan till 5am went to do a shoot in manhattan for another project and the sleep deprived me was rushing. Done by 6am we tried to go to 42nd and buy bus ticket home. City that never sleeps my ass!!! First on Sunday night I hard time finding a place with a charger or finding something open at that time of night. Then now Tuesday morning, couldn't buy a bus ticket till. 9am. Had to go to Penn station and buy a train ticket and once in New Jersey did I realize that I had to wait an hour for the Pasack Valley line to come ugh. 

Then even worst once I was back home I became quite irritated with the busing system because here in the burbs the bus come once every hour. Okay, if the bus drivers weren't assholes and purposely drive past you or close the doors on you. I wouldn't care in the city because there's always a bus 15 minutes later. Bus drivers find no meaning in customer service. 

So that's it for my trip. I hope u guys enjoyed reading this.

I really think this is a good trip for couples rather than families or children. It's really cheap, and scenic, and beautiful. I mean even a recent high school grad (who works at McDonalds) can afford the trip then so can you!