HI - i’m back from the dead, though I have been very much still #LivingTheDrea
The quick update of what’s been going on since I last wrote, which was right at the precipice of my 30th birthday. I am now in my **gulp** mid-30s, which maybe makes me middle aged??!? At the very least, I’m definitely not a part of Gen-Z, no longer hip and cool, rocking my side part and skinny jeans 4everrrr, and looking up terms on UrbanDictionary cus I donno the slang nowadays.
Yet somehow, I STILL don’t feel quite like an adult…. maybe it’ll never happen cus what is being an adult anyway? Anywho’s… here are the bullet points below, cus I still do love a bulleted list…
Survived a pandemic (and if you’re reading this, you did too!) Somehow I found myself in the States when everything shut down, so I headed to NYC to spend some time with my mom, thinking it would be a nice two week break. Little did I know, it would turn into months of panic & anxiety - with the epicenter of the crisis being right in my hometown of Queens, New York. I still have images of refrigerated trucks being used as makeshift morgues at our local hospital seared in my memory. It was hard, especially trying to balance my mom’s safety with my mental health. I limited contact with people, but it left me feeling depressed and isolated. Plus I had a 2.5 year relationship at that point that was going really well, but who knew how long we’d be apart. Around July, I escaped to France via London to be with Matthieu, but after a few months there, with an even stricter lockdown policies, I ended up back in NYC because I was absolutely depressed. NYC ended up being my home base for the past 4 years (hooray to living with my mom) though I spent a lot of time traveling as well (bullet point about where I’ve been below.)
Worked a corporate job — then got laid-off After thinking I’d never work for corporate America again… I gave in, since I needed some money$$$…. that stupid thing that dictates our life and that we all trade in our happiness & sometimes our morals, for in order to survive in our capitalist society… but to be honest, I have nothing but nice things to say about the company because they had a super flexible work policy, and even kept me on during the pandemic, even though i was new, and they could have easily laid me off. And even though the last month was frustrating (can’t go into details cus I signed over my rights for some more moolah$$) overall I had a great team, worked on fun projects, and even funded my 401K and had stocks!!!!!!!! #adulting
Learned to drive, parler un petit peu de francais & how to kitesurf I guess not feeling like an adult has it perks, because instead of constantly overthinking about whether “i’m too old for this,” I’ve thrown myself into learning new skills including driving (mostly cus the pandemic left me feeling very vulnerable) as well as french and kitesurfing thanks to my wonderful French husband (see next bullet point,) Has it been easy? Absolutely not. Do I always try my hardest? NOPE. But I’m consistent(ish) and I’ve gotten past the point of caring about whether I look like a Buffon (sometimes), and instead, i take pleasure in the new experiences these things have brought into my life.. like a new community full of fun & interesting folks, as well traveling to beautiful places around the world where there will always be some French people, scowling and complaining about something. I barely drive, and only on an automatic so it’s actually not that useful in Europe (maybe I’ll learn how to drive manual one day!!)
Got a husband Yep - your girllll is now a wife. While Matthieu & I never really cared to get married, but being from two different countries has been pretty tricky to navigate. We figured that at some point in our lives, having some proper paperwork could be beneficial, so we decided to have a very small ceremony at City Hall in NYC with our immediate family. It was authentic to us - untraditional & low key. I’m very proud of the fact that I rented my dress for $8 on rentherunway and made my own bouquet (technically my mother and sister law did, but it was still DIY!) It also gave Matthieu’s mother the opportunity to come to NYC, while my grandmother could also attend the wedding. It was a very special and beautiful moment - top 5 best days of my life.
Traveled Of course, I continued to travel to many beautiful places. Covid obviously put a damper on that for a while, but once the vaccines were out and countries were opened for travel, I got the shot (hello 5G!) and booked my flights. While I’m sad I didn’t document my travels onthisy blog, I have plenty of photos (though I’m notorious for losing my phone sooooo a lot of them are not the best quality since I’ve saved them from messenger.) However, after re-reading some of my old blog posts, it brought back so many memories and details, which I had simply forgotten soooo this will be revived since Matthieu & I are planning another world tour (based on kitesurfing!) in the next year =) ) A little list of the places I visited:
Mexico:
La Ventana, Oaxaca, CDMX: mom & i were here Dec 2019-Jan 2020.. so right before the world shut down. I was kitesurfing in La Ventana, then mom came to visit and we did some traveling. Loved Mexico so much, and it became a place I visisted multiple times throughout the years.
Cancun, Tulum, Playa Del Carmen, El Cuyo: my first trip right after I got the vaccine to celebrate the LOVEEE of Madison & Blake. It was the perfect trip to get me acclimated to travel, since I knew everyone attending had gotten a vaccine. It’s really insane to me how Europeans were forced to spend 10 days in Mexico, in order to enter the USA during… like the free for all wasn’t a breeding ground/super spreader event waiting to happen.
La Ventana, Sayulita, San Cristobal: And this was the first trip Matthieu & I did together once the borders between the EU and the USA were open! Matthieu came to visit me in NYC (first time he'‘s been there!) and met a bunch of my family. We then headed to La Ventana for some kitesurfing where we met a bunch of legends, then all got covid after a rave in the desert… once we recovered, we headed to Sayulita (a surf town we didnt’t love) and then to San Cristobal WHICH WAS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. we stayed at a Co404, a coworking space which had the loveliest people and visited some incredibly interesting places including San Juan Chamula which can only be described as indescribable. Basically the indigenous people (Tsotzil) mered their nature working religion and mixed it with modern Catholicism,,, taking a picture of someone is like stealing their soul, so we wanted to be respectful - but we did see some interesting things, like chickens being sacrificed at a church, Zinacatan, a beautiful, colorful village where we happened to visit during some type of celebration, and Canyon du Sumidero.
Spain/Portugal: Our first trip after I left France for NYC and we managed to work out the kinks that the pandemic brought on our relationship. It was the first time we put Cathy the Caddy <3 into action, which was so cool. I flew into Brest and then Matthieu drove us down to Bordeaux, starting at midnight so we could miss out on all the traffic (and the beautiful landscapes -_-… but as I’m the one who can’t drive, I get no say.) Anywhose, we fell asleep at 6AM, woke up to climb the Dunes du Pilat, drove into San Sebastian where we ate delicious tapas, and then did some camping with our friends Robin & Laura who are surfers. Matthieu & i then drove to Oveido, where Jasmine, a former American colleague from Sydney turned friend was living with her Spanish husband (literally also saw her a week before the pandemic where she had plans to fly out to be with him) It was a really nice visit - Asturias is a beautiful lush area of Spain that we were happy to explore - plus having Jasmine around to chat about our similar life experiences was so rejuvinating.. We then crossed into Portugal, where we spent most of the time chasing waves & wind. Since it was 2021, most of the major cities still had covid restrictions so we wanted to spend more time outdoors and with people we knew. We rented a place with some friends nearby Lisbon, and then journeyed our way down south… all the way to Tarifa (the most southern tip of Spain, facing Morocco!) with stops in the Algarve (so beautiful!) We then worked our way up, spending some time at Matt’s family’s house in Carboneras….before returning back to Brest.
California: my best friend Millie got married to her longtime partner, Mike. She relocated to LA (she was actually the last person I saw right before we went into covid lockdown cus i was sleeping on her couch before flying back to NYC) so ofc Matthieu needed to come to the wedding cus he had never met her. After the wedding, Matthieu & I went down to Encintas where we stayed a few blocks from the beach (and Matthieu stepped on a stingray.. this man has the worst luck with stepping on weird ass sea creatures), met one of my high school friends, Maria in San Diego … camped at Joshua Tree (ofc there was a flood warning while we were there even though there’s been a major drought in california since forever), drove to Death Valley (we couldn’t go to Badwater Basin cus it was washed out from the rai), drove BACK to Santa Barbara and rode bikes (I was trying to find Oprah/Harry & Meghan), camped at Big Sur (the one day I let Matt plan our accomodations for the night, we ended up sleeping next to the dumpster and close to the highway so #neveragain) and stopped by Hearst Castle (very luxe), spent some time in SF with my favorite coworkers turned friends (Drank wayyyy tooo much) and then finished off in Yosemite, where it rained so much we had to sleep in the back of our Dodge one night! Oh did I forget to mention that the gas prices were insane that summer (2022), especially in California -__________- but a fun trip nonetheless, getting to explore the beautiful coast line.
France: Spent plenty of time getting to know Bretagne aka it’s Brittanyyyy bitch! Horrid in the fall/winter, a great place to spend the summer since it’s never too hot, the beaches are never too crowded (though the water is freezing!) and the sun goes down at like 11PM. My family came to visit and loved it (they were obsessed with the seafood)
Dominican Republic: Came here twice. Both times were to Cabarete to do some kiting. One time was spent with my lifelong friend, Carolina, where we also got a chance to explore Samana which is east in DR - it was really beautiful and serene.. and another time with Matthieu. There was great wind both times, but tbh, it’s a really built-up community with tons of ex-pats, so it wasn’t the most culturally enriching trip.
Puerto Rico: Matthieu & I visited PR in March 2023 to escape the cold. With a lot of rich Americans flocking to PR ever since covid and buying up the beachfront property, causing tensions as they ban locals from formerly public places, it honestly felt a bit odd. We still had a lovely time, and the locals were great. We drove around the whole isalnd, starting in Ponce, and stopping by San Juan, Rincon, and Cabo Rojo.
OK - that was alot.. but i guess that’s what happens when you let the years fly by without any updates. As I mentioned above, Matthieu & I are planning another world tour - who knows how long it’ll last. I’m filled with excitement and anxiety. Wandering around in my mid 30s, without a real plan makes me feel somewhat lost - this isn’t what I expected my life to be at this age, though I suppose what defines adulthood & those life markers are really different for our generation versus the ones before us. When I think about having a traditional and predictable life - it makes me cringe as well. I suppose the only thing to do is to be grateful for all that i’ve been able to experience, and just stay excited for the future. I can’t way to revive this blog, though I would like to transform it into a resource for other travelers versus just a place where I rant lol.. also creating more video content since it' is really fun to document things. anyway, wish me luck. i have no idea what' i’m doing lol