Pardon the break from the Euro posts, but I found this pretty cool song on Spotify this morning while unpacking all my belongings from my apartment and whoa it happens to be Monday so here I am. This is by a 16-year-old New Zealander, Lorde. It’s a beautiful song so have a listen!
The top YouTube comment on this video had a super fun fact that could be totally false but I thought I’d share:
She got the title Royals from a poster on her wall of a Royals baseball player signing baseballs. And the song developed from her joking with her friends that all the music they listen to is completely irrelevant to their lifestyles, like hip hop and Lana Del Ray.
This makes the video a lot more of an interesting juxtaposition if this is actually the real reason behind the lyrics. Basically, being a teenager is pretty boring compared to what songs say life is like. Anyways, happy Monday!
We have midterms this week. I happen to have a test per day until Friday, so this is my mental break from slide after slide of Marketing Research info at the moment. Obviously, it has to be dance-y!
Does anyone know if the nerdy pool boy is the guy from Igual a Tres? I thought I had clicked on the wrong video at first, but apparently all these rapper guys are trying comedy in their videos now.
I mentioned that band I saw on Friday that wasn’t Mutemath that I actually liked better, yeah? Well, they’re from South Africa. That in itself raises them a couple of points in my mind. Here’s my chance to share the international music that’s been lacking for the last couple of weeks!
It’s Monday. Everyone’s busy getting back to real life. I’m giving you (almost) 4 minutes to just chill out and listen to the delightful sounds coming from LS Jack, a band from Rio de Janeiro. Stole the song from last Friday’s Portuguese class!
Wasn’t that lovely? You’re allowed to return to real life now.
Last week, I took a walk in the park with a celebrity.
I finally met Abi’s dog, Leo! He was just as adorable in real life as I’ve seen in photos, except he was kind of a scaredy cat.
Or he just has Abi trained well.
Hopefully he’ll stop by Oakland another time or two for some nice fall strolls in Schenley Park. 🙂
On a completely unrelated topic, remember how Abi told you all about the magic that is Duolingo? We’re both attempting to learn some French, so today’s music video is, well, mostly in English, but there are some French words thrown in! Basically, it’s about the same level of French that I am at this point. 😛 Embrace the Frenglish and maybe bust a move or two!
There’s a chance I’ve been dancing around to it this morning while getting ready for my new internship. Oh, that’s right. I guess I haven’t mentioned the new job yet. Real working person alert! It sounds like it has the potential to be pretty international and fantastic, so for now, wish me luck on my first day!
Towards the end of my stay in Madrid, I got an e-mail one day from my mom saying, “I was thinking we could take a quick mother/daughter vacation to Michigan when you get back – maybe go to the beach and some wine tastings or something. Would you want to go?” Was that a real question? Who WOULDN’T want to do that?! Thus, about a week after I returned home, we set off to Harbor Country, Michigan for a couple days to be tourists in our own country.
We did the beach and wine tasting thing, which was fantastic. Thanks to lots of suggestions from friends and a crazy rain storm on our second day, local restaurants ended up being a bigger focal point of the trip than we had intended. I’m going to write this foodie-style to try distracting away from the embarrassing amount of food actually consumed. Here’s your guide to Harbor Country, MI eating.
This café is attached to the Pumpernickel Inn, and it offers a lot of fun combinations of flavors and vegetarian options. We intended to get breakfast here on our way in but showed up right as the menu switched to lunch time. That was sad, but then they gave us our drinks in these, and all negative feelings went away.
Our early lunch ended up being exceptionally good, too! I got half of a “Pumpernickel Inn” Veggie sandwich with a cup of the vegetarian chili while my mom ordered a Crabby Burger. Both were so good that we were more focused on inhaling everything rather than taking pretty pictures of it.
Oh, and they have gelato. We may have gone back for that later in the day.
Everyone in my family is a big fan of different ethnic foods, so we couldn’t possibly pass up a recommendation for a Kurdish restaurant, especially when it was one surrounded by a big beautiful garden!
The next morning was when the rain came full force. Why not take some extra time to enjoy breakfast, right? We hemmed and hawed over our options and decided on Froehlich’s, mostly because it had a funny name. Once we followed our rumbling tummies (and GPS directions) to the restaurant, we were delightfully surprised that it was on the same street where a scene in one of my favorite Christmas movies, Prancer, was filmed!
I was there. True fact.
Predictably, my hunger directed my attention away from the famous street pretty fast, and we walked into our breakfast destination.
It looks like a store, and it is, but there were some tables by the window and a counter up front where you could order food. And LOTS of coffee! The store is known for its high-quality coffee, so we couldn’t resist a cup. Or three.
I’d like a side order of croissant sandwich with that coffee, please.
On the cork board next to our table, I saw a poster advertising an upcoming concert for The Giving Tree Band. Remember them? They were the bluegrass band that played at Veggie Fest last year! They’re just taking over the Midwest, apparently. To make up for the lack of Music Video Monday this week, I present you with one of their videos. 🙂
After that discovery, we meandered around the store looking at funny kitchen trinkets, decorative items, and all of the store’s own canned goods. I felt compelled to pick up a jar of pumpkin butter for my roommate as a souvenir. She’s lucky I like her.
Oink’s Dutch Treat
The rain wasn’t giving up, so we did; however, we couldn’t head out before stopping for ice cream one last time. We saved the best for last. I could also say “the most ridiculous for last”. Oink’s is more of an experience, which you find out as soon as you walk in the door.
Oh, right! We came for ice cream!
They have approximately 50 flavors, so you can imagine the stress I went through choosing just two of them. Knowing we’d only be there once, I went all out on a waffle cone with a scoop of dark chocolate and a scoop of chocolate-covered pretzel. The girl asked me, “do you want half scoops or full ones?” I didn’t even know that was an option. Half scoops sound lame. So yeah, full ones.
Full scoops = Size-of-your-face scoops
And then we rolled all the way home.
Hopefully this helps someone out who will actually be in Harbor Country, Michigan. Otherwise, I assume that this has further opened your eyes to how much I love eating. You can keep your judgment to yourself, thanks. 😛
Classes started today! It is the LAST first day of the year of our college careers. (I’ll probably be saying it’s the “LAST” everything for a while. Get ready for it.) It’s not the end of the world, but it’s the end of the “good years” – and the Spanish-speaking adventures that went with them! Ironically enough, my first class today was Portuguese. After spending all summer in Spain with only a 3-dayblipin Portugal, it’s fair to say my Portuguese was a little rusty.
I have no Spanish classes left and no trips planned back to Spain or South America for the time being, so here’s to switching language mindsets for a while. Following the last Brazilian MVM, a Brazilian friend that I met in Madrid through Spanish classes told me about CPM 22 because apparently they’re better than NX Zero. You tell me!
it's about argen-time! 