Tuesday, September 29, 2015

My trip to NYC

Kaixo!

First of all, let me start with a fact about me. I've traveled a lot throughout the US. Almost all of the West. The Midwest. Florida. DC. I've been to California 3 times. But no matter what, I had never been to NYC. Until this month. And it's funny because I've been infatuated with the idea of NYC singe age 10. Now, it seems rather twisted, since that was when 9/11 happened, but after that September and months going on, my wish to visit it grew and grew. I'd ask my parents to go and they'd remind me we are not the Royal Family, that we're a middle class Basque family. I asked them to let me do an exchange course in an American high school, but they told me I'd go when I turned 18. I found the perfect summer program in LA the summer before turning 18, and after much convincing, I finally visited the US. And then I studied abroad in Colorado. And then I came here. And I finished my MA. And still, no NYC.

BUT FINALLY, my lovely roommate was like, do you wanna go for Memorial Weekend? AND IT HAPPENED. Now, let me warn you, a lot of weird stuff happened. Like an explicit homeless homo scene in a bus stop at 4am before going to O'Hare. I get it, they don't have somewhere nice to go to love and be loved, but there were 5 of us there RIGHT THEN. But let me tell you, more weird stuff happened.

DAY 1:
So after taking the train to Chicago on Thursday night and staying at my roommate's boyfriend's apartment in Downtown Chicago (3 hours of sleep, much needed though), we ventured to O'Hare early in the morning. What was our surprise, our flight had been CANCELLED. With Spirit. Seriously guys, I do not recommend it. Their solution was flying on Saturday. We were flying back on Monday morning, let me tell you. After trying to keep our shit together, we decided to try to be rebooked for a flight somewhere close to NYC, and thankfully, we got a flight to Baltimore at 8:00am, and were told to basically do our own thing to get to the Big Apple. Eventually (and after 110$ per person for the Amtrak, although the guy from the station helped us big time, thank you!!) WE MADE IT. We walked from the station to our apartment in Midtown, got dressed up and went out to discover NYC. We were supposed to have had the entire day, but we decided not to be discouraged and we visited Madison Square, the Rockefeller Center, Times Square, and the Grand Central Terminal!

The O'Hare Homeless Ladies League

Baltimore

Flat Iron Building in the back!
Rockefeller Center

Grand Central Terminal
Times Square
DAY 2:
If you can count it as day 2, after a sleepless Day 1, at 2am, the manager of the bar downstairs started banging on our windows because there was a water leak. He also treated us as if we were stupid because we were speaking in Spanish with each other. I shut him up and pretended I was gonna do something about it and back to sleep. On Day 2, we woke up early and hit the Empire State Building, had lunch al fresco at Bryant Park, and went museum hopping! The Natural History Museum, the Met, and Central Park of course! I pretended I was Blair Waldorf for most of the time, by the way (Buzzfeed said I was her in their "Which character of Gossip Girl are you?"). 



Empire State Building


Central Park

DAY 3:
On day 3, we ventured outside of Manhattan and got to see the Brooklyn Bridge (probably my favorite spot), Wall Street, the Statue of Liberty and the 9/11 Memorial, although we were late for the museum :(.  Also, I bought a Statue of Liberty Barbie, because #childhoodmemories. At night, we hit Times Square again, did some shopping (minimal for me, I'm so proud) and then headed home.


Brooklyn Bridge

Wall Street bull


Statue of Liberty
Barbie goals


9/11 memorial
M&M store

 Next morning we left early in the morning, I hailed two cabs myself, and I felt very proud, but they got into a spit fight between each other so we had to run away (and hail two more cabs). After that, we flew into Chicago, took a bus and napped. All in all, it was a great experience. I'm kind of a control freak when I travel so I had some tense moments with my friends, but by the end I was in the "everything's gonna be alright" mode. I really enjoyed the place, the food (we had delicious food, not pictured because it was gone by the time I remembered), and the crowds, but if I have to choose between NYC and Chicago... Chicago takes the crown lol. I'm planning on going back soon to visit less touristy spots, so any recommendations are STILL welcome.

Thank you! :)

- Ane

Sunday, September 27, 2015

Last Lanzarote recap

Kaixo!

Soooo with school and crossing oceans and life and moving and writer's block and yada yada yada I have not been able to finish my Lanzarote trip's recap! I know, it's terrible. I have to start a managing my time and including time for blogging, because this is out of control. In any case, let me tell you about some other cool places I visited while in Lanzarote:

- Timanfaya National Park: This national park is a volcanic area (which is not dormant!!) where they take you on a bus tour around all the volcanic formations, craters, etc. It's seriously out of this world, mainly because it looks like the moon. I rode the bus with my dear mom and it was a blast. After that, they showed us how with the lava and heat under the soil they can actually cook potatoes (they're super into them there, I don't blame them though) and create a geyser. Unfortunately, it was full of tourists with their cameras ready to take a picture, and some people can be 8ft tall and not give a damn about people who actually want to see it behind them. Don't be that tourist.


Any suggestions on how NOT to pose like an idiot?

After visiting that, we did one of my favorite parts of the trip. We rode camels. Yes, real life camels. And let me tell you, it was one of the most hilarious things I've ever done. Not only the way the camel's movement sways you is crazy, but the camel herder (does that concept even exist?) was a hilarious guy. I did this when I was a 1-year-old, and since my memory is not that powerful, it was awesome to repeat it and actually be aware of it.




- Fuerteventura: This is an island south of Lanzarote that we took a ferry to. We drove to the southernmost point of the island because they had recommended us some beaches there, but honestly, I could've done without them. It was too windy, the water was too cold and I felt like the sand that the wind was carrying was actually hurting me. In any case, we ended up going to a big dune on our way back (by the north of the island) and it was an absolute blast to jump down the dune and run up and repeat. Awesome.






- Isla de la Graciosa: Another island, except this one is teeny-tiny and it's north of Lanzarote. We took another ferry and rode bikes to the north of the island and back in a record time! Go us! The ferry ride was my favorite, the water was pretty rough and it went up and down like a roller coaster. I don't know if I'm too reckless or too unaware of the potential danger but it was too much fun to start adulting right at that moment, sorry.




It was awesome to relax with my loved ones, and I hope to go back soon. Also soon, my NYC recap! It definitely was an eventful trip, so you won't wanna miss that!

Love,

- Ane

Monday, September 14, 2015

Writer's Block

Kaixo everyone,

Well this is weird to write, but I don't know what to do. I am by no means deleting this blog, but I haven't posted in a long while. I feel that my life is too hectic at the moment to think about posts, do photoshoots, etc. I have thought of doing a schedule, like Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, or Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays. But, when to find time to prepare posts? A day before? Right before posting?

I would like to hear your opinion. How do you handle writer's block and a demanding schedule? Do you have any systems to make it work? How do you find motivation?

Love,

- Ane

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

I'm off to...



NYC!!! YESSSSSSS!!! This Thursday I'll take the train from Champaign to Chicago with 5 friends and after spending the night at O'Hare (#classy), we will take our flight to NYC 5:52am and explore the city for 3 full days! We were very lucky to find a company that rents apartments that got us a huge apartment in Midtown for 93$/per night per person, which is a STEAL. My roommate had the crazy idea of going taking advantage of the long Memorial Day weekend, and here we are, about to embark on a crazy weekend! I have been waiting to visit NYC since I was 10 (no joke), and even though I've seen pretty much every other major city in the West, Florida, DC and the Midwest, I've never been to the Big Apple and I couldn't be more excited about finally going! I will schedule some posts (I need to start planning my posting schedule for good, grad school doesn't let me stop and breath but I wanna keep up with Basque Prep and all of you lovely readers!) for the meantime but expect a recap of my weekend soon. And please, SUGGESTIONS. For food, places, shops, EVERYTHING. I'll be eternally grateful.
Love,

- Ane