Goddess of.. Berlin, Marseille, Milan!

Three months in to the big move to Paris and life is good!

I've been working from home for the same company I was working for before, except that I'm now a freelancer (social media & web marketing consultant). It's been great and has allowed me the flexibility to work from anywhere.

Lolita came to visit, about 2 weeks after I moved, in early September. We went to Berlin together for 4 days and it was SO fun. We hadn't travelled together for a while, so it was really nice to do so.. especially to a city neither of us had visited before. I loved Berlin, the food, the sights and all the freedom (i.e. drinking in the streets ;) was fun).

About a month after we moved, Nick was assigned his first project and it was going to be out of town. In Marseille (south of France) to be exact. I was a little bummed at first, not for him obviously this is great.. but selfishly, I didn't know anybody in Paris yet and he'd be gone Monday-Thursday (or Friday) for the following 9 weeks.

Fast-forward to the end of November, and this week is his last week in Marseille. In retrospect, it was alright! I was mostly bummed in October but I did visit him twice.. once for a week in early October and then, for 2 weeks around his birthday in November. Compared to all the time we spent apart last year, this really wasn't bad.

Plus, the time I spent in Marseille was pretty fun. It was much warmer there and we were staying in a really nice hotel right by the beach. We haven't had a real routine of "life at home" but that'll come soon enough. Until then, we enjoyed the warm days & the sun!

Nick had his first long weekend off in November, and we jumped at the chance to travel a little bit. We set our heart on Milan (with a daytrip to nearby Bergamo), Italy. It really didn't disappoint. We're both food & wine lovers so Italy really feels like home. Plus, the whole "aperitivo" thing in Milan is genius.. it's happy hour but with a large buffet of italian appetizers. It was really fun to see how competitive the bars get about who has the best buffet... we tried several -- All yummy!

We took a tour around Milan one morning before I had to work, to see all the main sights and get the lay of the land. It was incredible, we visited the Scala Opera house, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the incredible Duomo (Cathedral), the Castello Sforzesco (Medival castle), & the painting of The Last Supper by Da Vinci. We also went back to the Duomo another day to climb up to the roof, what an amazing experience!

Our daytrip to Bergamo was equally amazing (except for le rain). We took a 45-minute train ride that brought us to the center of the Citta Bassa (Lower town) of Bergamo. It was easy enough from there to walk to the Funicolare that took us to the Citta Alta (Upper town). It's a really charming, lovely town.. with lots of bakeries, places to eat and beautiful duomos (churches). We also decided to hike it up (ALL the way up) to the San Vigilio castle. The castle itself wasn't the most impressive thing, but the view from the highest point in the city was worth the painful hike in the rain without an umbrella. My bad :/ I forgot the umbrella at the hotel that morning. Don't worry.. I paid for my sins with a nice cough & cold the following week.

And now we're back in beautiful Paris for the last few weeks before heading home for the Holidays. To be honest, I'm also looking forward to being with my mom & friends for almost a month. It'll be nice to catch up on all the things I've missed!

Take care bloggaroos, I'll update you soon!

XOXO,

Goddess of.. Heading to Greece!

It's so exciting: I'm leaving on Wednesday night! Headed to Paris and then, we're off to Mykonos.

It's Nick's graduation trip from his MBA, that will be taking us to Mykonos for a week of fun in the sun. I haven't seen Nick since my birthday, so about 2 months now! I can't wait to see him and hang out with him. We've promised to have fun by the beach and just party with his MBA friends. It'll be an amazing trip and I just can't wait to go.

We also have his graduation ceremony in early July (back in France) and hanging out with some of his family who will be flying to France as well for the event. It's exciting!

In other news, we'll also be visiting an apartment in Paris, as Nick got a job offer there starting this Fall. It may be earlier than we planned, but visas pending, we should be moving to France at the end of August. WOW, someone please provide me with a paper bag.. I'm hyperventilating.

Could this be happening?

Goddess of.. Weekend of Rugby Fun!

 My weekend in southern Virginia was great!

On Thursday, I spent a few hours in Washington D.C. after my flight landed. I went down to the Washington monument, the Tidal Basin and then Jefferson memorial.. where I was hoping to see the coveted cherry blossom trees in full bloom. Alas, they hadn't bloomed just yet. It's too bad because it was the big parade that weekend, for the Cherry Blossom Festival.. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who was disappointed.

It was pretty chilly and windy that day but I walked around for bit and then, headed to Dulles Airport to go pick up Nick at 7pm. It was so wonderful to see him, to be with him again :)

We got to our hotel and had some wine at the bar, we talked for a long time. There's nothing like talking face-to-face... Skype is great but there are some fun silly bits of conversation you miss out on when you're not physically in the same room.

The next day, we drove down to Danville,Virginia (about 4.5 hrs) and we had a lot of fun. It just works well that way for us, road trips are a good time to relax and chat. When we got to Danville, the team had a practice scheduled and we all went for dinner afterwards.

The team of guys is really fun and they're all super nice to me. I had met some of them in Singapore when I went to their practice but hadn't gotten to know them too much.

Saturday, they played 3 games and they did especially well in the first one. Later on, everyone started getting more tired and it started being scorching hot out on the field. I got a sunburn on all my extremities: my nose, hands and feet... Good thing I was wearing 3/4 sleeves and pants. Although I did look like a jackass with my sunburned "gloves". Oh well! Poor Nick got hurt in the last game of the day. He was holding the ball when someone hit him and his middle finger got pulled back. His hand swelled up, it hurt a lot and he wasn't able to make a fist :(

Sunday, Nick couldn't play but we both got dressed in the official "tour kit": berets, striped shirts and a red scarf. Since their school's main campus is in France... the team's tour kit is stereotypically French. We cheered the team on and they won another game!  

Nick got a bandage for his poor hand and since then, the swelling has gone down a lot (he says) and he's almost able to make a fist now. Phew! The medics had told him that it could be a ruptured ligament or tendon... and that could require surgery. I think he'll make a full recovery, but we'll see how he is when he comes to visit next week.

He's flying in on Apr. 30 and will be staying for 10 days. He'll be here for my birthday! I'm so excited :)

Goddess of.. MBA Rugby World Cup!

Tomorrow's the day!

I'm headed to Washington, D.C. where I'll hang out during the afternoon and meet up with Nick at night when his flight comes in from Paris. Woohoo :)

We'll stay the night in Washington before driving down to Danville, VA on Friday where the rugby games and excessive drinking will begin!

Can't wait to turn my brain off, see my boyfriend, drink many beers and cheer on this rugby team for a weekend. Wahoo!

Catch you later bloggies,

Goddess of.. Romantic Moments!

The ballet finished on time, at 9:45pm. My heart was racing at the thought of seeing Nick for the first time in months. Three months, lots of emails and Skype conversations had led me to this very moment, in Paris.

People were still clapping away when I quietly exited my theater box. I was the first one to leave, that may have been a tad impolite (on premiere night) but I had someone waiting outside for me. Someone I hadn't seen in months. So I walked out of the opera house during the 3rd standing ovation.. my heels clicking on the marble floors. My legs were shaky and the stairs seemed to go on forever.

I finally stepped out of the opera house and.. more stairs. So I focused on not breaking my neck, and when I lifted my head up to see if I could spot Nick anywhere... he came running up the stairs, straight at me!

{What follows may make you sick to your stomach, because it was straight out of a movie. 

And even romantic comedies are not THAT good.}

He picked me up, we hugged, we kissed (clumsily at first because of the excitement) and we didn't let go for 10 minutes. I was shaking, I was giggling. We were kissing so incredibly passionately, it was probably too much PDA, even for Paris, ze City of Love. But honestly, when you haven't kissed someone you really want to kiss in 3 months... it comes out a little strong when you do finally get your hands on them.

At that point, other people were starting to exit the Opera house as well.. and 15 minutes later, I realized there may have been a few people looking. "Oh well, too bad", I thought to myself. When we stopped kissing, we hadn't even said "Hi" to each other yet. We couldn't let go of hugging just yet. He asked, still shaking "Sooooo oo how was the ballet?" and I just told him to "Shut up" and proceeded to continue making out with him for 10 more minutes.

We eventually left the opera house and he had borrowed his roommate's car to come to Paris. The car was double-parked in front of the opera house (a very busy spot of the city) for 20-25 minutes before he told me that he came by car. Once again, we thought "Oh well, too bad". We drove around, found an indoor parking and walked back to my apartment for the night.

We shared wine and macarons (from La Durée, so good!) together while watching a bit of tv.. and it was a perfect evening, finally together. The following morning, we had brunch on a little Parisian terrace at Café du Centre, sitting side by side, hugging & holding hands. The food was exceptionally good.. and the company? Even better.

Goddess of.. The Best Vacation Ever!

Oh bloggies, words will never be enough to describe what a dream come true this vacation was.

Flying to Paris on my own: Short & sweet, and exciting as hell! I was pretty proud to make all these dreams come true for myself.. and knowing I did it without (financial) help from anybody, was priceless. Arriving upon Paris, the view was incredible: The sun was rising, there was fog covering the city and just the tip of the Eiffel tower poking out of the clouds. A true sign of the amazingness to come!

My apartment in Paris

1st day in Paris: I got to my rented apartment and it was wonderful! The host greeted me with an espresso and we chatted for a bit. I grilled him with a few questions about Paris, sights to see, etc. His place was exactly as pictured: modern, clean and well located!

I took a nap and then, went on to visit the Pont des Arts (The bridge where people tie "love locks" and I saw Zac Efron!), the Louvre Museum (incredible!), the Jardin des Tuileries (gardens by the Seine river), walked to La Durée to buy macarons (they were delicious, worth the 30-min wait!) and headed back to my apartment to change before the Ballet (and my reunion with Nick).

The ballet was incredible, about 30 female and 20 male dancers, in gorgeous costumes by Christian Lacroix (indian inspiration, russian inspiration, classic tutus, modern kind of cirque-du-soleil costumes, etc). The Garnier Opera house itself is something to see and the 6-people boxes in the theater are very luxurious (red velvet on the walls, a lounge chaise, make-up mirror, etc.).

Of course, I tried my best to focus on the present but my mind wandered at the thought of being reunited with Nick in about 2 hours. I looked at my watch repeatedly. I had e-mailed him when I arrived in Paris and he said he'd wait for me on the steps of the Opera house at 9:30pm. My heart was racing but I kept a calm exterior.

Goddess of.. New Boots, New Dress, New Shoes!

Preparing for an upcoming trip always makes me want to change my whole wardrobe because nothing ever seems good enough for the TRIP OF A LIFETIME!

However, I love to travel and I wanna do it as often as possible.. which is why I can't change everything every time. This time, I've decided to get a few new pieces and I thought I'd share them with you.

First purchase, a pair of Nine West boots for the France portion of my trip.. where it will probably be a little chilly. I wanted comfortable (for walking) booties with heels and since that's hard to find, I opted for wedges which are about halfway between flats and heels in my opinion. Taa-daaaah!

Nine West Peekaboo Wedge Booties

Second purchase, I wanted a dress for the night that Nick & I will be going to Vila Joya, the 2-Michelin-Star restaurant in Portugal. I wanted something that would take me outside my usual comfort zone, preferably very sexy but still classy. I opted for a black Zara dress, open back and lace. It doesn't look like it in the pictures, but it's pretty va-va-voom on me (you know, because mamma's got curves ;) and all). After booking my ticket for the opening night of the ballet in Paris, I decided I will wear the dress for that event as well (with tights and a black blazer). 

Zara Trafaluc Lace dress

I bought these funky tights that have a faux tigh highs with garter belt. They're totally opaque which is great and warm :) for my night on the town in Paris. Couldn't find a better image, sadly.

Sisi black & white garter tights

Last purchase (but not least!), I was hoping to find some sexy heels to go with that dress (and to class up any other dress I might wear to dinner in Portugal). I went in to Steve Madden looking for the UNITYY heels or something similar.. and was surprised to learn that Steve Madden now sells Betsey Johnson shoes! And I decided to go for a pair of peeptoe Betsey Johnsons:

Betsey Johnson Caseyy Peeptoe

Shopping for this trip definitely wasn't cheap (Nine West Booties, $170; Zara Dress, $70; Sisi tights, $10; Betsey Johnson Heels, $115) but I'm glad I got more expensive shoes this time around (as opposed to what I usually spend on shoes). I've been wearing the booties this week and so far, they are extremely comfortable and easy to walk in. And that, ladies, is money well spent in my book.


Countdown: 5 days

Half of my suitcase is already packed.. so exciting!
Nick & I set up our romantic rendez-vous in Paris, after the ballet in front of Opéra Garnier. *sighs*

Ciao bloggies,