the city that never sleeps

So I am finally back from New York and found some time to update my blog! I had a really great time. I went with school, and we were there for five days, including the bus ride home on Monday.

We did a lot of stuff. Thursday we had a scavenger hunt around Midtown, got our rooms, went for dinner, and then saw Avenue Q.
Friday we went to the American Museum of the Moving Image, and watched a Charlie Chaplin film. Then we went to the Nuyorcian Poets Cafe and had a spoken word poetry workshop. It was really interesting, and we got to hear some real spoken word poetry as well. From there we went to the NBC Studios for a tour. We got to see where they film Saturday Night Live, it was so cool! My friends and I went to Carmines for dinner, and then we all went to see an improv show at the UCB Theatre.

My dream school!

In Bryant Park :)

 Saturday morning we did a walking tour of central Manhattan. We went by the New York Public Library, Grand Central, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Trump Towers, Tiffany's and FAO Swartz. Then we kept walking into Central Park and rode the carousel.
We had lunch, and then met at the Museum of Natural History and saw a Space Show at the planetarium there. A lot of people fell asleep, but I thought it was pretty interesting! For dinner my friends and I went to Sushi Samba in SoHo. I was sick so I couldn't have any of their exciting food, I just had an avocado roll and miso soup. But there's always next time!
That evening we went and saw a film called Bernie. I didn't find it very interesting, and I fell asleep halfway through. Oopsies!

  The New York Public Library!

In Grand Central

 Bergdorf's <3

Sitting on "the steps" just like Blair Waldorf :)

 Sunday morning we got on our bus and had a hip-hop tour. One of the guys from the group GrandMaster Flash and the Furious Five came on the bus and showed us some cool spots that had to do with the beginning of hip-hop. He lead us to tis place called Five Pointz, where people do some really cool graffiti. Then we had a b-boying lesson. It was funny watching my friends breakdance.

After that we had the afternoon for free time. I went to Topshop and bought a cute dress and tank, but unfortunately that was all I bought on the trip.
We all met at Cafe Wha? for dinner. There was live music so there was lots of energy, and some of us even got up to dance. Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix used to visit the restaurant, so it was really cool to be there. After that, some of my friends and I went back to Times Square and just ran around and went in some shops until we had to go back to the hotel. 

My friend took my camera and took a million pictures of me walking around SoHo. They all look kind of silly, but the backdrop is nice!

Monday morning we got back on the bus and headed home. The bus ride home wasn't nearly as bad as it was on the way there, even though it is 12 hours!

It wasn't my first time in New York, but I still got to see things I hadn't before, and it was tons of fun. Hopefully I can go back soon though, and see more!

another trip

In a few days I'm heading off to New York! Feels like this trip is coming so quickly, especially with so many assignments due before and right after. I've been swamped in school work since I came back from Vancouver, so I haven't been able to update, or even do anything worth posting about!

I'm getting really excited to go to NYC, the last time I went was years ago with my family after Christmas. I remember being so impressed with the city, and how pretty it was with the holiday decorations and under snow. This time it will be pretty warm, so it will look very different. I'm going with school, so there's a set itinerary, but luckily it's pretty much all things I'll enjoy doing. Our hotel is in the middle of Times Square, so it's right in the middle of everything. Last time I went I stayed at The Palace, where Chuck Bass lived in Gossip Girl. I went before Gossip Girl had started, so now watching the old seasons I recognize the hotel well!

I'll be taking lots of pictures and hopefully making lots of purchases, so there will be a long post following the trip. Before the trip I have to finish two essays and write a test though, so I need to stop searching stores and restaurants and finish doing my work!

Here's a photo of where my hotel is...

vancouver purchases

Here are the things I purchased while I was in Vancouver:

from Front & Company

 Bought this at a vintage store on Main St.

Bought these from USED on Granville St.

Sunglasses from USED and Nag champa incense sticks. 

vancouver!

I finally got my photos, so here is the full Vancouver trip post, as promised!

My plane landed in the morning, so I was able to have a full day when I got there. I watched Midnight in Paris on the way there. Such a great film!

This is the view of the mountains from the airplane. So pretty!

My sister picked me up and we headed back to her apartment. We just hung out most of the day, but we did go to this really nice Indian restaurant, East is East, for lunch. I was really impressed by the restaurant. The atmosphere was so warm and welcoming, with low wooden tables and Persian rugs on the walls. We both had roti. It was served with a really yummy chickpea curry soup and a kale salad. Here is their website, I definitely recommend it. (In case you're wondering I had the Gypsy and the Silk Route roti's, they were delicious!)

The second day we went to Stanley Park and the Sea Wall. It was kind of rainy but it was still nice enough to go for a walk.

After walking around the park we went and grabbed some food at a restaurant called Score on Davie Street. It was my sisters friend's birthday so we all just hung out together for the evening.

The next day we went vintage shopping on Main Street. There were a lot of really good stores on Main, but one that really stood out was Front & Company. They sell consignment clothing as well as new things. Their website is here, but they don't show their consignment pieces online.

This is a photo of Main St with the mountains in the back. It was pretty cloudy, so you can just make them out.

It started raining and hailing really hard while we were out shopping, so we had to hid in the Shoppers Drug Mart for a little while. Then we went up the street and had burgers from Splitz Grill. I had a spicy lentil burger, it was so yummy!

My sister found out about a art-deco vintage clothing exhibition at the Museum of Vancouver, so we went there the next day. It showed day wear and evening wear from the early 1920's upto the late 1930's. The dresses were so beautiful, I couldn't stop taking photos! Here are the best ones.

We went around the museum for a while, and looked at the other exhibits too. It's pretty small, but worth visiting. Then we went to Granville Island and the market there for lunch. We sat outside on benches and ate food from the different vendors. 

We walked around Granville St. for a while and ran into a big fair for St. Patrick's Day. There was carnival food and live music. It was really interesting to see. For dinner we went to a raw vegan restaurant called Organic Lives. It had a relaxed atmosphere and the food was really good. I had a smoothie called the Solar Pear (it had pear, raspberry, vanilla and ginger), a veggie burger, and pumpkin pie. It was all really good, and it was cool eating all raw food. 

The next morning we went to a cafe called Bean Around the World. They have the best banana chocolate chip muffins I have ever tasted. So good! Then we went to the flea market, where my sister got some records. From there we went to Gastown, an old part of Vancouver and looked around.

From there we went upto Granville again and looked in a few stores. Then we walked to the Templeton, a retro diner that had some really good food. Surprisingly they had a lot of vegetarian food too! We went to the seawall again after that and just sat by the water for a while.

These are house boats, but I was surprised because they just look like houses on the water.

The last day we took our time at home and relaxed. Then we went back to Front & Company and I bought a new purse. We went back home and watched Mad Men and then I went to the airport. On the way back I watched My Week With Marilyn and Amelie, my favorite movie. 

late photos

So I have been back from Vancouver for about a week and a half. I've been meaning to make a post with some of the better pictures I took while I was there, however I took a lot of photos on my Holga. Because Shoppers Drug Mart hasn't called me to tell me my photos have been developed yet (It's been 11 days!!) I haven't made a post. However to avoid waiting for two weeks before making a post, I'll do two posts.

So here are just a few photos from my trip! (I'll go more into detail about what I did in the second post)

The view of the mountains from the plane.. so pretty!

 The sea wall near Stanley Park

 View of the mountains from Main Street

View from beside the Vancouver Museum...

...and again with me :)

march break

So this week is March Break. Lots of people have already set off on vacations, but I've just been hanging around at home and going out with friends.

I've been watching Lord of the Rings this week, and I gotta say I was surprisingly into it. I had only seen the first one when I was about 10 years old, so I decided to catch up and watch them all. It was actually good! I was sad when I had to give the DVDs back to my friend.

Anyways, tomorrow morning I'm going to Vancouver to spend almost a week visiting my sister. I haven't been to Vancouver for maybe four years, so I'm really excited to go back and also to spend more time with my sister. I'll be taking lots of pictures for sure. But I haven't even begun to pack, so I better get on that...
Here are a few photos from one of the other times I was in Vancouver:

good mood day

Today for some reason I've been in an unusually good mood. So after school, since I had last period free, I went to the Shoppers Drug Mart near my house and bought a few things.

Other than that, nothing exciting has happened recently. However, I did get into two schools I applied to for fashion design, Seneca and Fanshawe. Fanshawe required a portfolio, so I was very pleased that they think I have talent. Still hoping for Ryerson though!

Hopefully since it's getting sunny out again I'll be able to start taking photos with my Holga. It was fun when the pictures developed properly. Now that I figured out what was going wrong and why the pictures were always blank, hopefully I can take real pictures again.

Also my creative writing teacher told me I should consider blogging. I thought it was kind of funny.

Here are photos of what I bought at Shoppers. I know it's not the most interesting, but since it's been over a month since I last posted, I thought I might as well write something!

Elnett hairspray, because I was out and I use it all the time (it's the best!), and new shampoo & conditioner. I'm really excited to use these; they're organic, vegan, and smell delicious.

Some new base coat from Revlon, candy, an orange drink and this months issue of Elle. I usually buy the Canadian version, but this one was so thick and has Blake Lively on the cover, so it had an advantage over the Canadian version.

And this is what I wore today. 

Now we're ordering Chinese food. That's all :)