Sky is the Limit

I wanted to share these cool pics that I took on the plane from Los Angeles. I'm pretty sure this was the Rocky mountain range, not entirely sure, but Lawddd was it super gorgeous from the plane. There were so few clouds in the sky, and the view was so clear!!!

I'm going to be super busy this week playing piano for churches, rehearsing, etc, but that's what I love! The summer weather isn't my favorite though =/. I like the vibe of summer, and how the sun sets pretty late, but I much prefer the Fall. Best season ever.

What's your favorite season?

Smorgasburg

Smorgasburg is a food festival that started up about 3 years ago in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. 40-50 vendors set up shop at the pier and sell awesomely good (but unfortunately expensive) food. They have a few locations now, and run from April-November. Yesterday I took a solo trip to the location in Prospect Park, which is located in Brooklyn, because I wasn't really in the mood to socialize haha. I've been to Smorgasburg with friends twice before at the more popular Williamsburg location, and each time I went, I bought the Ramen Burger, because it's really good (even though it's $10 yikes). This time around, like the last time (because I'm not adventurous at all), I got the Ramen Burger, a Scallion Pancake Taco, and Pink Cactus Lemonade, which was amazing by the way. I was curious about that really popular raindrop cake, but I couldn't find the stand at this location. Apparently it tastes like crap so I'm probably not missing out on anything. After about an hour of people watching, walking, eating, sweating, and balancing my Cactus Lemonade and taco, I took the subway back home. I had a good time, even though it was a bit too crowded for my taste. It's best to go after 3pm, and during the cooler months April, beginning of May, Sept-Nov. 

Sometimes when you go out alone, you think that everyone is pitying you for being by yourself, but really, they're not even paying attention to you. I used to feel extremely self conscious when I appeared to be somewhere "alone", but as I got older, I stopped caring so much. I go to the movies alone, shopping alone, the museum alone, church alone, etc. I feel like it's such a Western thing, the idea that you must be surrounded by people at all times in order to be happy, in order to appear "normal". It's nice to be with people, but it's nice to be alone too. What do you guys think?

Los Angeles Part 2

Last Los Angeles related post I promise. During our last few days in L.A. my mom, aunt, and I went to visit the wedding venue that my cousin and his fiance chose for their wedding in December. They want a very relaxed cottage-feel for their wedding, and I think they did a great job choosing the venue.

It was nice to take a break from the city, but for some weird reason, I was excited to get back. Maybe I love NYC a lot more than I think haha. I still need a break from it though, homegirl needs to experience new things! Hopefully I'll get that opportunity when I finish Grad School in 2018.

Anyway, hope you guys had a good weekend, and R.I.P. to all the victims of this terrible Orlando shooting.

*My DISQUS was not loading properly so I had to delete it =/, and all of my comments disappeared =/*

Tijuana, Mexico

On June 2nd, my mom and I woke up 4 in the morning, to take a 4 hour bus ride from Long Beach. to Tijuana, Mexico. I wasn't really looking forward to the trip to be completely honest because I heard some concerning things about Tijuana, and I was also very uncomfortable with the spontaneous nature of this trip. I'm kind of a control-freak/planner, so I don't really dig spontaneity; my mom however lives for this type of thing so she couldn't wait. A few hours before the trip, I made sure to do my research, read up some reviews of Tijuana, memorized some Spanish phrases, and studied a simple map of the city.  I promise, I'm not as boring as I sound.

We got on the bus at 6:30am, drove through SoCal (San Diego looked really nice btw), and arrived in Tijuana at 10:30am. My mom was concerned that we would not be able to have enough time to explore the city because we had to return to the bus station at 1:30pm. But we ended up having enough time to see the important things, Uber and speed walking saved us.

*Uber in Tijuana is super cheap, I'm talking 3 American dollars to go about 2 miles. And they give you the choice of having a driver that speaks English. 

Next time though, I'll make sure to get my Spanish on point! 

We went to an open air mall, we stopped in front of the Centro Cultural Tijuana and took some pics. After getting lost for a bit and then stopping at Costco to ask for directions/use the bathroom, we made our way to Avenida Revolucion, which is the popular tourist area with the Arch seen in the last pic. My mom was on a desperate search for souvenirs, and we were majorly pressed for time, so thankfully we found a shop that sold everything that she needed. Photos are usually enough for me.

After she bought her souvenirs we jumped in an Uber, got back to the station in time, and took the bus back to Long Beach. The trip was exhausting (immigration was a pain in the ass coming back), but I would be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy myself. I had a lot of fun, and my mom had a blast. When we go back to Los Angeles in December for my cousin's wedding, she says that she wants to return to Mexico, not necessarily Tijuana, but somewhere cool, do you guys have any suggestions?

I hope I'm not boring you guys haha, I have one more post coming up about L.A. but it's not super L.A. centric if you know that I mean. We didn't do much sightseeing after we got back to L.A. from Tijuana so you'll be seeing some random pics of random stuff that I saw while hanging out with my family. 

Catch ya later

Los Angeles Part 1

On my first day in L.A., my cousin drove us down to Ocean Ave to a beach, (not sure what it was called tbh). It was nice to see everyone in a more chilled out relaxed state. Riding their bikes, sitting, walking at a slower pace. The sky was a perfect blue, the ocean a perfect dark blue, there was a nice breeze going, it was great.

The next day, we went over to a taping of the Late Late Show with James Corden. It was a fun experience, but it gets tiring laughing and clapping at things you normally wouldn't laugh or clap for. The studio was nice and cool, which was great, and the in-house band was great, it was nice to see a female musician in the band (we need more though). After the show, we ran over to the L.A. Museum, and checked out that ever so popular lights exhibit. The lights hadn't turned on yet by the time we left, womp womp, but the exhibit was very nice. After the exhibit, we headed to In-N-Out Burger. I'm an east-coast girl so I never encounter In-N-Outs, but I was thoroughly impressed. I really liked the burger, but the fries were kind of disappointing. If I had to choose between In-n-Out and Shake Shack, I would choose Shake Shack hands down. Sorry west-coast!

On June 2nd, my mom took a day trip to Tijuana, and I'll you guys about it soon, and show you a part 2 of L.A.. Hope you guys had a good few days!