A few of the interns at my marketing internship were leaving, so the entire group of interns decided to go hiking as a kind of farewell get together. The whole thing was a hot mess! Everyone was late to the meeting spots. My group that I was riding with got lost on the way to the hiking trail. We drove past the parking lot we were supposed to park at, so we ended up having to park at another lot that was further down and walk all the way back up. It was a one-way road, so it's not like we could turn the car around. It was too far up so half-way we ended up hitch-hiking in a van with a family to the said parking lot. 

We started hiking and were trying to catch up with the others. However 1/3 of the way up the trail we got annoyed because it was cold & windy, we didn't have signal so we couldn't contact the others, and we weren't sure where they were. We decided to forget the whole thing, and we hitch-hiked again back to our car and floored it to the mall. We did a little shopping and waited for the rest of the group to come back from their hiking to go eat lunch at this restaurant called MTO Cafe. Their chicken and waffles were freaking amazing! Best thing to eat after a long, tiring hike. ;) At night we met up again to eat dim sum and to go drinking. I had work early the next morning so I skipped out on the bar hopping festivities. 

And that is how you fail at hiking! Even though everything was a hot mess, it was so much fun. I was laughing the entire time, and I got to know the others really well. Lesson to be learned: it's in those spontaneous and outrageous moments where you create a bond with others. AND Never ever go hitch-hiking unless you're a trained professional group of marketing interns. :) 

With love, 

Lovely 

The other day my capstone class met up at the alcohol distributor's warehouse that's partnered with our event to learn about wine and get a tour of their facilities. Their warehouse is huge, and the amount of beers, wines, spirits, kegs, and liquors they store is freaking ridiculous. It's just 34,000sq. feet of over 16,000 products. Go big or go home, right?

Afterwards I grabbed dinner with my best friend since she lived nearby. I've had meetings and class all day with no time to eat, so dinner turned out to be breakfast and lunch as well. We went to eat at Kyara, a Japanese tapas restaurant, and they had the best takoyaki. It was almost like the ones I had when I went to Japan! They also had this super delicious matcha green tea waffles with strawberry sorbet and vanilla ice cream. It was perfection.

We stopped by TJMaxx & HomeGoods because I wanted to ask for donations for our event, and I also wanted to look for pieces that I'd want to put in my room once I begin redecorating. Worst decision ever. I didn't plan on buying anything. I just wanted to look around, but while we were browsing my friend convinced me to get these cute Nine West heels and a Ralph Lauren bag that I've been eyeing for months.  I tried talking myself out of buying either one of them so many times, but she's so good at brainwashing! She brainwashes you in to believing you need and deserve something, and by the end of it all, you end up over your budget. sigh... Love her though! :P   

With love,

Lovely

It was one of my friend's birthday this past weekend, so a couple of my friends put together a surprise party for her. It was planned last minute, so we all were going with the flow. We had a two-part surprise: a surprise dinner and a surprise party in a suite. Because everything was impromptu and last minute, during dinner we were all texting each other trying to figure out how to get the cake up to the suite without her knowing and how to get her up to the suite without being obvious. Oh, did I mention the cake was an ice cream cake and that it was melting? The whole night was utterly ridiculous and chaotic, but it was really fun and memorable as well. 

It's amazing the kind of connections you make while working. The birthday girl and everyone at the party were all the people I work with at the hotel. I never knew I'd make this many friends or be this close to so many people when I first started. We're all like family. It makes sense since we spend so much time together at work. I used to be a very shy, insecure girl who doubted herself a lot and who was scared of constantly being judged. I never went out much, and I stuck to a small group of friends. Working in the hospitality industry and at the hotel really changed me in a positive way. I've become more outspoken, confident, and free. I'm inspired and enlightened by meeting new people and finding about who they are, where they come from, and what their story is. I'm extremely grateful for my job. I'm surrounded by awesome people. Kind and sometimes crazy but awesome people.