Goddess of.. I'm In Love (Recap)!

If you're still following my adventures, you may have been disappointed in the past few months. Actually, it's been quite a while since I blogged.. and I have no great excuse. Time flies, I guess?

Apologies, but I'm here now and I've got some incredibly exciting things to share.

First of all, I'm in LOVE.

Truly, madly, deeply in love with Nick, ever since my trip to France & Portugal with him this past October. We had a amazing time in the Algarve (southern coast of Portugal) together; eating wonderfully, exploring deserted beaches, biking around to local attractions, sleeping in and not sleeping at all too *wink wink* (crossed a few things off my 30 before 30 list -- YAY!).

The trip had its load of challenges; cancelled flights, delayed flights, re-booking new flights, losing a day in the process, finally driving to destination from Lisbon rather than Faro because no flights were flying out due to bad weather, re-booking the car rental to Lisbon.... but once we made it to our hotel, every moment spent together was pure gold. And even when all that crap was happening to us, we never lost patience at each other, and Nick was calm, reassuring and sweet to me.

Then, I had to return to Canada, while he stayed in France. That was hard, but we've decided to do the long-distance relationship thing until he graduates in July.

He was going to visit over the Holidays, so I invited him to stay with me for the 2 weeks that he was going to be in town. He immediately accepted and said he couldn't imagine not being with me the whole time.

Less than 2 weeks after I came back from France, I booked my plane ticket to go visit him for 2 weeks in Singapore, in January. (Yeah, I really love him that much).

Two months later: December 20th came and I awaited patiently (NOT!) for him at the airport, my heart beating a million miles a minute. He showed up with a big box of LaDurée macarons and two bottles of champagne for us, and most importantly, a huge smile on his face. *Ensued crazy-in-love public display of affection at the airport arrivals*

We spent the Holidays together, met each other's families, exchanged Christmas gifts and celebrated New Year's Eve together. Oh, and we said our first "I love you"s... I was over the moon. His Christmas present to me: a Christian Dior travel-themed silk scarf (gorgeous!) and a plane ticket to go see him in North Carolina (mid-April) for a rugby tournament. He spent all his traveler's miles to get me the ticket... I was speechless. Speechless and in love.

NYE came and went. Then, January 1st came around.. I drove him to the airport where he boarded his flight to Singapore, where he was moving for 2 months (his MBA school has 2 campuses - France & Singapore).

The first week without him was definitely the hardest, the apartment felt so obviously empty. I stared at the clothes he left in his drawer, his toothbrush in our bathroom. It was silly, but over the 2 weeks he spent living with me in this apartment, the place had undergone one big transformation: it had become our apartment.

Finally, on January 27th, I boarded my flight to Singapore! Roughly 30 hours and a pain-in-the-ass-Qatar-layover later, I landed in Singapore, where the reunion with Nick was oh-so-sweet.

While I was in Singapore, Nick showed me around his neighborhood, the school campus, and I explored the city (mostly) by myself when he had classes. I even attended a few of his lectures and classes with him, on social media.

We went out to dinner and visited attractions almost every night.. and had a blast together. We spent some afternoons by the pool when he didn't have classes.

The weekend I was in Asia, we took a flight out from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (about 30 minutes). We stayed in an amazing hotel, enjoyed the hydrotherapy pool, the 5-star restaurant, the sky bar and the beautiful suite with a view of the Petronas Towers.

We visited Petaling street (chinatown), Katsuri walk, the Central Market and had dinner in a very questionable-looking Chinese restaurant (although it was the nicest one around) where the food was actually DELICIOUS. Sometimes, the sketchiest looking places are actually a gem in the rough.

Oh, and FYI as a side-note if you ever plan to visit, there's virtually no toilet paper anywhere in Malaysia, except for hotels. Not in restaurants, nor in public restrooms in subway stations. It's a bring-your-own-roll kind of situation, ladies.

The next day, we set out to visit the Batu Caves (limestone caves) which are also an Hindu temple. It was Thaipusam festival (a Hindu festival celebrated mostly by the Tamil community) and the cultural experience was incredible! The memories will definitely last us forever. The chanting, the smells, the music, the people.. it was amazing.

We went back to Singapore and had another beautiful week together. I cannot emphasize enough how every moment spent together is precious to me. It's a cliché for a reason, it's true.

Reluctantly, I returned to Canada around mid-February and he stayed in Singapore for a few more weeks. I may or may not have soaked his shirt with my tears at the airport. Embarrassing, but I just couldn't help it: 9,000 miles is a very long distance to put between two people who love each other. I cursed the Earth for being so big, I cursed time zones for existing. But I boarded my flight anyway and returned to work, because that's what grown-ups do.

On March 1st, I found myself at the airport again. This time, to pick-up Nick who was landing in from Singapore (for a weekend, before returning to France). We spent the weekend together, ate breakfast in bed, watched movies, visited his family and friends, etc. It was perfect, if you leave out the fact that we both suffered from a nasty cold that weekend. But all phlegm aside, it was really fun and relaxing.

And here we are now, on March 24th. Five months later and still in love. From 3,500 miles away, while he's in France now. This past Monday, he had a dozen roses delivered to me at work.. just because. I died.

We've made the decision to live together as of July this year, wherever that may be. He's applying to jobs worldwide, more specifically Paris, Brussels, Geneva, Stockholm, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, etc. He also applied to positions in My City (we're both from here), so we might move or we might stay put. The future is undecided for us right now but I feel we'll do just fine. After all, we've been together for 5 months, and in 5 different countries. We've got a case of wanderlust, that's for sure.

The next step, is the weekend after Easter when I'll go visit him in North Carolina / Virginia, for his rugby tournament. Obvs, I can't wait!! And then, two weeks after that, he'll be in town for a week just around the time of my 27th birthday. I'm thrilled that he'll be there and I'm planning a party with him and my friends.

The light at the end of the MBA tunnel, he graduates in July. The students are planning a grad trip to Mykonos, Greece and I'm probably going to go with him! I will attend his graduation, be crazy proud of him and jump for joy at the thought of finally being together full-time :)


.. and that's why I've been 'too busy' to blog. Please forgive?

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.