[tiffy trying] a vacation out of my comfort zone

I'm a city girl through and through. My typical vacations oscillate between two extremes- a jam packed schedule spent walking through famous sites or a zero-plans day spent lying down and reading a book or catching up on much needed sleep.

This vacation was something completely out of comfort zone. And I loved it.

K and I spent 5 days in Dominica, a country that's different from but always mistaken for the Dominican Republic. It is a beautiful island with delicious food, incredibly wonderful people, and utterly gorgeous scenery. But what made this vacation special?

[ dominica scenery ]

1. We stayed at a lovely resort (Jungle Bay) that had unparalleled customer service- welcome emails when we booked, reminder emails about what to pack, airport pick up and drop off service with snacks,  and friendly staff who always made us feel welcome.

[ beautiful jungle bay resort ]

2. Food was fresh and organic. For city folks used to processed meat and fast food this was a huge, much-needed, and delicious shift. The dishes were well prepared and so flavorful we couldn't even believe that these were healthy.

[ fresh food prepared by the resort + fruit plucked from a tree ]

3. K and I are no strangers to working out. But being active on vacation wasn't something either of us had ever done. We had hikes everyday that ranged from moderate to strenuous along with yoga classes at 7am each day. And we had an amazing time.

[ tricky hikes ]

[ one of the streams we crossed on the first day's hike (3 hrs) ]

[ crater pool by the ocean at the end of glasse trail. 2 hour hike ]

[ en route to the valley of desolation and boiling lake ]

[ morne trois pitons national park looks like an enchanted forest ] 

[ finally arriving at the valley of desolation ] 

[ strenuous hike towards boiling lake ]

[ boiling lake w/ some spooky fog ] 

[ swimming in this sulfur pond to cool off in the middle

of the long 7(!!!) hour hike was so refreshing ] 

4. 2 hour flight delay followed by a 15 hour flight delay. And no matter how stressed out and disappointed we were about it, we still managed to keep our cool and and our sense of humor intact.


It was a wonderful vacation. K & I joked that it was like a teambuilding trip for us because we went through so much. We can't wait to go back to Dominica and check out all the other gorgeous sites we missed.

<3,
Tiffy

[tiffy trying] maryland!

Yesterday was a pretty eventful, fun-filled Monday. Jela, my cousin's gf is in DC for a few days and wanted to meet up for lunch. We decided to meet up at the Starbucks nearby then walk around the area and figure out where we could eat. I ended up walking to the wrong Starbucks because there apparently are quite a number of Starbucks cafes in my area. Eventually I found her and she introduced me to her niece, Nica, who was with her, who apparently works in my area.

We then decided on a whim to head over to Bethesda, Maryland for lunch since I haven't really ventured out of my little DC bubble. To be honest, with the weather being as ridiculous as it was over the last few days, I've barely ventured out of my apartment! So off to the train station and to Maryland we three went.

I've only been to Maryland once and it was a very quick overnight stay. I had visited one of my bestfriends in Baltimore and I didn't get to see much of the city other than her apartment, bits and pieces of her campus, and her boyfriend's family's house.

We ended up lunching at Nando's Peri Peri which is a fairly famous Portuguese chicken chain that they both frequent quite a bit. Funny story, when I was looking up possible restaurants to dine in, this was one of the options that stood out on my list because it sounded pretty interesting. The chicken was really flavorful with a nice, spicy kick. The sides were yummy too- spicy rice and creamy mashed potatoes.

For dessert I wanted to try out Georgetown Cupcake (DC's famous cupcakery) and we devoured the four flavors we ended up buying- Toffee Crunch, Red Velvet, Caramel Praline Crunch, and Cookies and Cream. We washed it down with coffee (green tea for me since I was already wired on sugar) and decided to catch a 3pm movie. We ended up watching Hansel and Gretel which... wasn't great... but wasn't that bad either. Really action packed and highly entertaining. We also found a photo booth nearby and ended up taking (and overpaying for) silly pictures of ourselves. Not bad for a Monday afternoon.

[pretty in pink! check out the bling on that mixer!]

[L-R top: toffee crunch, red velvet

L-R bottom: cookies & cream, caramel praline crunch] 

After this, we went back to DC where Nica's parents picked us all up (they were on their way to their son's birthday dinner) and insisted on dropping me off at my apartment just to be on the safe side. All in all, a really great way to spend a random Monday afternoon. Jela and Nica were so much fun to talk to and were so bubbly and cheery to be with. Considering that I had only met Jela once prior to yesterday's lunch, and it was my first time to meet Nica, it's pretty cool that we got along so well.

The rest of my night was spent doing the usual nightly routine- catching up on emails, talking to my mom on the phone, and working on homework (with the usual internet distraction thrown in).

<3,
Tiffy

[tiffy trying] to start new adventures

I had grand plans of starting this blog on January 1, 2013. I thought it would be rather fitting for me to start the new year with a new blog. There's something about fresh starts and the clean slates that come with new beginnings that seem to attract all manner of ambitious undertakings.

As it turns out, it is now January 22, 2013. Well, so much for THAT grand plan. But better late than never, right?

My new adventures actually started last week when (1) I packed up some of my worldly belongings and moved halfway across the world to (2) become a "starving student," aka attend graduate school full time. I did not always want to attend grad school. After years of being out of the academic world, it is a little intimidating to return to the world of lectures, homeworks, papers, and tests. But after much pondering and somewhat (over)dramatic soul searching, I finally came to the conclusion that this was indeed something I wanted to pursue. The nerd is strong in this one.

Those two decisions eventually led me to new adventure #3 - being a domestic girlfriend again after 4 long years of international long distance with my boyfriend of five years, K. While we are still not going to be living in the same US state, being a 4.5 hour bus ride away from each other is much, much better than being an 18 hour plane ride away. There's also something to be said about finally being in the same time zone again.

It is with a lot of excitement (and anxiety) that I've decided to TRY to chronicle my new adventures on a public space. From graduate school to living on my own for the first time, to in-person date nights with the boyfriend, it's bound to be an eventful ride. I'm going to be trying and failing and trying and succeeding at a whole slew of activities and projects, and hopefully, I'll come out of these experiences older and wiser (and more or less unscathed) - just like most folks believe themselves to be at the end of every long year and the dawn of each new one.

Cheers! :)

[gorgeous morning view outside the window of my NY--> DC bus ride]

<3, 

Tiffy