sex is no accident, always use a condom.

MTV's 2 cents worth against unsafe sex.

from flats to pumps

Truth be told I’ve never been into fashion. Truth be told, I’ve never really had a style of my own*. Truth be told, I’ve never really cared. 


I’ve never really cared up until now. 


As you know, I just recently moved to Barcelona and EVERYONE, every single person [yes, even those that look slightly retarded] have style coming out of their ears. Probably not a style I would necessarily carbon copy reproduce, but style nevertheless.

Tons of beautiful girls with perfectly toned legs redefining the ‘hot pants’ concept. Weird heels, crazy hair, a gazillion piercings and a super feminine walks are my everyday sights. [yes the Sagrada Familia is still there] [and yes, I do know about the architectural importance of the city I live in]

Everyone wears anything and everything looks good. It must be the big city air. That being said, one might assume that I look good in whatever I’m wearing. But NO. I don’t. I look like an immigrant. You can tell my experience with winters is the 2 week Christmas vacation my family has been sponsoring since forever. It’s truly obvious. I promise.

Anyways, my mom taught me that when there’s a problem all you have to do is look for a solution and keep a huge smile. And I must admit that this is probably the hardest solution I’ve had to find to date**. And as I said before, fashion has never been my favorite topic, and of course, there’s the whole self confidence issue: as you might –or might not – know, I used to have a fit and tanned body, and beautiful long hair; I currently have neither. Therefore, looking for a solution [defining my style] while not feeling 100% with the way I look*** is a nightmare.

So, instead of whining to you, all of my blog’s 6 followers, I have started working out, eating healthier and doing the hairgrowth dance every 2 hours. Simultaneously, I’m trying to feed off this A-MA-ZING vibe and checking out the new trends on all of the stores I see and trying on the things I like best.

I have noticed that most probably my lack of style comes from the whole ‘yeah, this [just] looks ok,’ ‘who cares?' and 'no one really cares’ we say to ourselves while at the dressing room. So, from now on, I have decided that I will only buy things I love. No more OKs for me :) 

Any suggestions on style defining?

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*  Well, there are the completely, absolutely and utterly non-negotiable oversized white shirts. Those are as important as breathing, eating, walking, or anything else one needs to survive. I wouldn’t know what to wear if they didn’t exist.

**No, I’m really not that vain, its just the problem-of-the-day.

***Don't go picturing me as fat as a cow and with a Trinity style haircut, no. What I mean is that I’ve felt better.

home.

Hi. I'm writing from my new home. My new home has a lovely view of the 'Sagrada Familia,' a squeaky bed, and a small kitchen. I feel European already.

My university is beautiful. Can't wait to start class.

Family -the part that lives here, is doing great and is feeding me properly. 

Goodbyes were easier than planned and some of the people are dearly missed [specially the lady that did my laundry].

week six thru a bb's lens

This week was actually kind of sad. I had to say goodbye [again] to my best friend in the whole world. Her genius got her into an amazing economics Masters in Chile that will keep her away from me for almost 3 years. She was here this past week and the last day she was here we realized that we wouldn't see each other again until December, 2012. We agreed to call each other and talk every day on bb, like we do already, but if you have a best friend that might as well be your soulmate, technology is never enough.

With you, week six through a blackberry's lens:

countdown

This morning I woke up thinking that I had not explained what I am counting down to, so here it goes: I am *finally moving to Barcelona. I have been waiting for this for the past three years of my life and it is *finally here.

I'll be there learning about International Commerce, Transportation Law and Interior Design for a whole year [at least]. I'm UBER excited about going back to school and, for a change, looking into things I love and chose to study.

Since I understand that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity I am not sad at all about leaving this wonderful life I have at the Dominican Republic and getting my act on elsewhere. Specially if that elsewhere is my beautiful and beloved Barcelona [one of my favorite cities in the world]. Nevertheless, I have made amazing friends in the DR and wish to dedicate special time to each and every one of them before leaving.

Each week I visit a group of friends, a place I truly love and run all those nasty errands that come with moving abroad while managing a very caring and hysterical set of parents. Then, I come on over to Tuesday Brunch and share my week with you.

I am having a wonderful time visiting good friends and saying 'see you later gator' to them and to my family. These 'see you later gator' visits are making me realize how lucky I have been to have met these people and have them in my life.

On this past week, week seven to be exact, we visited some of my boyfriend's friends at their home at La Romana. Amazing hosts for a relaxing weekend; here are some pictures :)

happy week eight

Kyla Roma's Finding Your Voice as a Blogger & Writing Your Best Blog

I'm slightly obsessed with certain blogs [Kyla Roma's being one of my favorite]. I find it beutiful, heartfelt and daring, she writes everything she has on her blog, and this post is one of the best I've read so far.

Please, enjoy!

Finding Your Voice as a Blogger & Writing Your Best Blog — Kyla Roma

north coast happiness

week nine.

bonyé madness

week ten.

friday sweets

The Key Lime Pie is one of my favorite desserts. The best thing is that I found a super easy to make it without having to bake and spend two hours in the kitchen. Hope you like it!

Ingredients

1 Pack of Maria cookies

1/2 cup of butter

1 3/4 cups of condensed milk

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

1 tea spoon of vanilla extract

Preparation

For the crust:

Blend the pack of cookies into a powder. Mix the powder with the butter until it has a light crusty feeling. Then you should take the dough you got and spread it on the bottom of wherever you are going to serve it. Some choose to serve it as a pie, I personally prefer to serve it in individual martini glasses, they look prettier.

For the filling:

Pour the condensed milk, the lime juice and the vanilla extract into your blender. Once it is properly mixed and you can't see the lime juice separating from the other ingredients, pour it on your pie or on your martini glasses.

If you choose to serve on small martini glasses, this recipe serves 10 glasses.

Enjoy!

Solar Halo around *our sun

The red flag on the beautiful solar spectacle was raised on Twitter: it was an optical phenomenon produced by small ice crystals suspended on the air that create colored arcs on the sky around the sun.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Except this time, this time it was around *our sun.

Frightening for some, breathtaking for others. Wish we could have more of them.

my favorite frenchy salad

Last night I tried doing an awesome salad I tried at a brasserie near L'Opéra de Paris last time I was around (which is, by the way, not very often). It's basically two types of lettuce, dates filled with roquefort, small toasts with camembert, prociutto and a passion fruit dressing. This is what it looks like... minus the dressing, obviously.

Gazpacho

Gazpacho: the perfect entree during summer days and nights.

Perfectly refreshing, amazing flavors and diet-y.

Ingredients
8 Big tomatoes - seeded
1 Green pepper- seeded
1 Large cucumber - seeded
3 Cloves garlic
1 Medium size onion
1/4 lb prociutto
Parmesan cheese
Croutons
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper


Preparation
Combine the tomatoes, the green pepper, the large cucumber, the garlic cloves and the onion in a blender or food processor while seasoning with olive oil, salt and pepper. Once it's all processed, chill for a couple of hours.

Just before serving it, cut in to very small pieces the prociutto and sprinkle it in the gazpacho with the croutons and the parmesan. Guaranteed succes.

La Cave du Roy

Perfect little french restaurant, both décadante and decadent. Perfect food, awesome wine, nice music.

Chandelier.

Deep fried camembert with passion fruit sauce.

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Getting there:

It's right there, where the red thingy is.

Bon appétit!

Insalatta Mediterranea

Perfect evening. Perfect flavors. Perfect salad.

Coming soon at Nando's Trattoria.

a month away from re-enacting this scene

well, you love his sneezes more than anyone else's kisses

girls who glide need guys who make them thump

because it's easier when it is not supposed to be perfect

Well, I got a pretty amazing camera to capture every whimsical moment that would cross my path. Turns out that for one of these professional cameras to take a Vogue cover worthy picture you need skills that kills, a good eye for a good composition, and a very complex knowledge on apertures and times. I don’t have the skills, the eye, the knowledge, nor the patience to read about them.

Seen my irrefutable laziness, I decided to get the Diana Wide Angle Lens, the fisheye will soon follow. For those who don’t know what is the ‘Diana,’ the Diana is a plastic, very low cost camera that was a ‘novelty gift’ during the 60’s with leaking light and soft focus. In time professional photographers adopted this camera due to the vintage look it gives the images [the same effect/problem technology has tried to solve during the last 50 years. Thank you.].

Anyways, I, the very lazy, amateur and skill-less photographer, have decided to get a Diana lens and the corresponding adaptor for my camera because it is easier to get a cool picture when it is supposed to look vintage, soft focused and maybe, just maybe, weirdly exposed.

Hope you can appreciate the i) soft focus, ii) over exposition, and iii) 'vintage' look in this one picture.

Tweets

And sometimes, just sometimes, when you feel a tiny bit of nothingness that you dont feel like telling anyone at all, twitter is best. Tweets are impersonal and no one is really listening, no one really cares. Venting is often best when no one listens but someone knows and wont ask questions.