vanae (happier you* guide)

a lovely departure to nyc. avoir montreal!

arrive at the beautiful hotel..the muse hotel on 46th st. in manhanttan.

early dinner from the hallal cart and talking to random strangers

my two wonderful cousins (minh & hanh) came and met me at the hotel!!!

we got dolled up and had dinner at koi restaurant in the bryant park hotel.

ryan from cs met up with us at beauty bar (sex kitten party)

we danced the night away to good electro, disco and exchanging funny glances with the crazy bartender.

nick, the cute dj

i love my cousins!! it was great that we were able to bond.

climbed mont royal. lots of snow.

got a tour of patrick’s hospitals.

chinatown- tonkinese (pho)

met up with mikey (montreal) at sapphire.

i kicked ass in pool.

dance. dance.

mikey drunk. ian- the cousin.

friday,

i arrive at chateau fontenac @ quebec city, with a lovely ride from isabella & sarah. (mom & daughter from montreal)

isabella is a retiring teacher, celebrating a mom/daughter trip for sarah’s 16th birthday.
took the orleans express bus and montreal metro to partick’s. got harassed at the metro station. people cat-calling.

my first steps in downtown montreal and EVERYONE is gorgeous! why is that??

finally, arrived at patrick’s and had my first glass of guiness beer. yum. it wasn’t as thick as i expected.

Couch Surfing dinner at robin de bois in downtown montreal

- great company, great bonding of CS (mr.intelligent, mr. bud, mr. xerox, mr. beard and ottawa chick here to see morcheeba)

- beers at a local bar

almost missed my flight, but due to the hot guy in the red shirt, i was able to skip most of the security line and caught my flight in time.

on the bus, met recent graduate jesse who is from the east bay. small world. he was heading to the airport to go to isreal.

then ice hotel!! magnificent!

- was not as cold in the beginning, but boy, when it was night-time the coldness start kickin in!

- beautiful ice sculptures and decorated rooms

- met a lot of quebec residents:

- cool bartender, a group of quebec tour agents, a mom & daughter, a mom and son (frank & silvie)

- lots of layering and iàm about to sculpt some ice and hit the hot tub!!

videos and pictures will come!

i arrived at Ebens place in brooklyn, at 8am. Opened the door and was suprised to see 3 other couchsurfers there. They (Matt & Patrick) are from California as well…LA and burlingame to be exact. they were on the east coast for a Red Cross convention. also, steffie from Vienna, Austria.

here are some quick highlights in NYC:

- dumpling house (super cheap, super good…you know how i love me some dumplings)

-took the subway all over NYC and met a very cool street performer along the way

- bouncing tennis balls over peoples head as they walk by us t columbia university

- david + david = david^2. two russian guys who sounded like portguese people

- insomnia cookie (the nyc version of sf hot cookie)

but most of all, my first experience couch surfing and eben turned out to be the greatest sweetheart. caring. thoughtful. truly a good soul.

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raise, speak up, join together,
yes, we can
make change.

reasons why bobby flay should pick me to go on his cooking class show:

this is the japanese artist, piana. if you love this song, as i do, you MUST have the album . thanks dannio for sharing this

yael naim is the incredible musician known for ‘new soul’, the song that plays in the MAC airbook commercial. i was able to catch her performance in sf in june and she put on a really fun show! we clapped, sang-a-long, and dance with her cute and humble demeanor. singing in hebrew, french and english, you MUST have her self- titled album

i walked out to my car and noticed something big on my hood.

it was a huge splat of bird poop.

i looked up. i looked down.

i looked around.

of all the spots, the bird had to target my car. i don’t see splats anywhere else.

it didn’t make me angry..just made me laugh.

thank goodness someone OWES me a carwash from losing to a game of pool with me.

aww yeah!