SNOW DAY

30cm of snow is nothing, right? WRONG. This is the most snow I have seen in a longggg time. It's kind of exciting, until you have to go out anywhere and are forced to freeze your butt off for 10 mins while you scrape the snow and ice off your car. Not so fun!! But, besides all that, the snow does have a nice youthfulness to it. 

My sisters and I decided to take advantage of the snow day. We got all bundled up and headed outside, only to come back in with our toes feeling numb hahaha. 

Snow angels, snow forts (and an awesome one at that) and yes, one of us got buried. What a trooper!! 

We then came inside to some warm hot chocolate and thawed ourselves out. The presidents choice decadent chocolate chip cookie hot chocolate (what a mouthful, no pun intended) is our new go-to and it's actually quite delicious! I would highly recommend it- not sickly, and doesn't require any extra milk or anything. Just pure yumminess. 

As Ana always says, do you want to build a snowman???

***Note: I have still yet to watch Frozen. I know, it's shocking. Mostly because my sister is obsessed so I have refrained from watching it in her presence so as to avoid hearing her belt out all the songs. But, sooner or later, I will have to watch it....and I too will become obsessed.

Happy Thanksgiving :)

Happy Thanksgiving!! There are so many things that I am thankful for, the most important one being my family! Hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend celebrating with their families, and remember to be grateful every day for what you have! I sure am :)

September tingz

This has been my first post in a while- September has been a crazy busy month so far! Here's a quick update on what has been happening :) 

For labour day weekend, our family went on a roadtrip to Bissells Hideaway! My zio rented out the entire hall, and all day long we barbecued, chatted, and played sports outside. It's a great little place, I used to go all the time as a kid with one of my friends who had a trailer there. There's a large pool with slides and a play place for kids, an arcade room, horseback riding, zip lining, wall climbing, paddle boating, and a tuck shop! I had a blast from the past, when I got tiger stripe icecream from the tuck shop. It was seewwwww go0o0od!! 

After returning from our getaway, I spent my efforts on perfecting my barista abilities. Have I mentioned that owning a cute and quaint little coffee shop is like my dream job!? Hahaha. Now I've got the technique down, so I'm one step closer! ;)

Another one of the many things that I did during my blog hiatus was dyeing my hair!! For the first time! Virgin hair no more! Although it didn't turn out exactly as I had hoped, I couldn't be happier!

I was going for this: 

And ended up with this:

Not bad for my first dye job ever right!? I must admit that I was quite timid, so I think my downfall was that I did not use enough dye on my hair... But the result was very natural looking so I'm quite happy! It depends on the lighting, sometimes it looks lighter than others. Also, my hair looks a bit ratty in the above picture but this is due to me being in the car for 4 hours haha not from the dye!!

Perks of doing it myself

* I can choose how I want it to look

* only I am to blame if it turns out horribly

* Did not use any bleach- was only a colour!! No harsh chemicals!

* was able to watch bachelor in paradise while waiting for the dye to finish colouring my hair 

* only $15!!!!! HUGE SAVINGS 

Maybe I should go into hairdressing??? So many career paths to choose from haha ...

The last week I spent in Kingston and I was very occupied helping out with CrossFit Queen Street! As busy as my visit was, it was nice to get away! I'll have a separate post dedicated to that though- to come soon :) 

Mijas

The wifi here is extremely frustrating, my posts keep deleting and I'm having a hard time uploading them, so I will keep this one short and sweet. Mijas doesn't need much of an explanation anyway, the photos will do all of the explaining. Yesterday was amazing. Mijas is the most beautiful place I've ever visited!! 

The drive was about 30 minutes from Benalmadena and consisted of me taking a ton of pictures of the beautiful scenery. 

The town of Mijas was basically a little village, where all the houses were white and most of the streets were cobble stone paths. You got the "everyone knows everyone" kind of vibe from it. So cute.

Shortly after arriving we toured around the town and went into many little shops. Check out the amazing view!!

The first stop on our tour was an old church created inside a cave. It was very interesting. 

We then enjoyed the view some more and purchased the most tasty sugar glazed almonds! They were to die for!

For dinner, we ate at a local Steakhouse. The people were so friendly and accommodating, given our limited time frame (Emilee had to hurry back before the show). 

Margarita pizza for Rachel:

Pepperoni pizza for Emilee:

Alanna and Mj enjoyed their chicken and steak dishes, respectively.

And rigatoni Napolitana for me!!

This was some of the best food we have had in Spain so far, and the servings were huge too. One thing we have been surprised about is the lack of spice in the food here. I definitely thought it would be more prominent in the Spanish dishes, but they have actually been quite bland. Again, maybe this is a known thing, but I just thought it was so strange! I love my spices!

After dinner we all received mojitos on the house! I'm not a fan of mojitos whatsoever, but these were the best I've ever tasted!! We then headed over to the main square to watch the Lois Laxton dancers perform.

We had a great crowd come out to watch the show, and the dancers were fantastic (especially Emilee)!  

Alanna took some better action shots of Emilee dancing, which I will have to post on here as soon as possible! I was busy videotaping the performances, so I was unable to take photos. After the show, the dancers went around handing out Canada flags and pins to the audience who seemed to really appreciate it! They were all really excited to receive a little piece of Canada. 

The LLDS performance was followed by a group of young Spanish dancers. They were so incredibly cute, and it was so cool to watch them on stage doing their Flamingo routine. Check out how cute their outfits were!!

After the show we all went out for drinks at a local restaurant. Turns out, the owner is Canadian and is from Toronto! He has been living in Mijas since 1997 and has a few successful businesses here. He was really happy and proud to see so many young Canadians coming to perform in Spain, and it was exciting for us to see a fellow Canadian being so successful over here in Europe!! 

Goodbye Madrid, hello Malaga!

Today my sisters and I left Madrid and took a 6 hour bus ride to Malaga. It was on this bus ride that I wrote a fantastic (in my opinion haha) and lengthy blog post about yesterday's festivities. I was unable to post it until I checked into my hotel here and had wifi, by which time my post seemed to disappear. This was incredibly frustrating, so I am in the process of re writing it now and will post it as soon as possible ! So far yesterday was the highlight of my trip so I cannot wait to share the details!

Anyway, back to today's events. After saying goodbye to our quaint but lovely hotel "Acta madfor" we took the metro to the main bus station (Alvaro) in Madrid to board our bus to Malaga! 

I was actually surprised, the bus ride flew by today. You could choose your seats ahead of time, they were comfy, there were TVs, and even a 15 minute pit stop. Canada could learn a thing or two from the Spanish!! 

Maybe I'm ignorant or not well versed in geography and countries of the world, but I had no idea what the terrain in Spain was like. It was the most beautiful 6 hour drive, consisting mostly of hills and mountains. I'll be honest, I was scared on a few occasions that our bus was going over board!! But we managed to make it to our destination safe and sound! 

After arriving in Malaga, we then had to take the city bus to Benalmadena. I think I've spent more time on buses and trains on this trip than anything else, but it really has been worth it. It was a stressful event trying to find a bus to benalmadena and not many people were able to help us due to the language barrier, however, we eventually hopped on the 110 bus and made it to our destination! 

Benalmadena is gorgeous!! The beach is beautiful and the architecture of some of the buildings is outstanding. Walking down the steps towards the boardwalk feels like you're in a totally different world. 

My sisters and I were starving, so we went out for dinner and tried to find something for 25 euros, as this is all we had left haha. 

Along the boardwalk we found many restaurants, cafés, and shops, but we chose to eat at El Ventisquero, as the staff was very engaging, the menu looked great, and we found some fellow English folk in there! We ordered pizza (Margarita pizza for me) and salad for dinner, and enjoyed a football match that was playing on television. 

After dinner we walked along the boardwalk and the beach. What a beautiful night.

We later met up with the rest of my family and walked around the marina. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures, as I left my camera at the hotel, but I absolutely will tomorrow. It's crazy how alive the city becomes at night. It's 2:35am right now and people are flooding the streets! We are headed to bed, as we have an early date tomorrow morning with the beach (and breakfast buffet) otherwise I would have enjoyed staying out! 

Day 1 in Madrid!

On Wednesday night my two sisters and I took off to Madrid, and it has been quite the adventure ever since. Yesterday was our first day in Madrid. It was my first time flying with Euroatlantic Airways so I was a bit hesitant, but it turned out to be a great flight (minus the zero vegetarian food options available on board). 

We landed around 11:30am and then hopped on a train to our hotel. My first impression of public transit in Spain was a good one, as the train was so easy to navigate and very cheap. After getting settled in our hotel, we ventured onto the streets of Madrid. My sisters kept poking fun at me for carrying a map, but I couldn't have walked around without it! 

The streets were pretty busy, and a lot of them unmarked, so a map was essential.

We walked up to the Gran Via, by which time my ears, not legs (surprisingly), were sore from listening to the complaints of my sisters. Yes it is a steep hill, but we're in Spain, so frankly I'm not concerned about anything other than enjoying this beautiful country. 

The Gran Via was flooded with people and was full of life. We explored the many shops and cafés that it had to offer, and took many pictures on the way. I really enjoyed our walk back to the hotel however, as we chose to go down the smaller not so popular streets of Madrid that depicted Spain just as I imagined it, and were so charming and cute. 

After having an unexpected but desperately needed nap back at the hotel, we went back out and ventured the streets once again. Our first stop, gelato. Chocolate for me, of course!

After enjoying my gelato, I convinced my sisters to accompany me to check out a CrossFit gym nearby. It also happened to be right as the sun was setting, which was one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen! I mean, can you imagine doing a WOD in a place like this?

I was super drained from all of travelling, so I had a coffee as soon as we were back at the hotel. We then spent the next couple of hours planning the following day in Madrid, as well as the remaining week of our trip, before hitting sheets! 

That's it for now, I will post about the next exciting day of my travels soon!! xo

Graduation Day

I haven't posted in a few days because during my time away from blogging, I was busy graduating!! I was reluctant at first to even attend my graduation, but I must say I was pleasantly surprised with the ceremony. The whole day was superbly organized, and the speeches given at the ceremony were short, sweet, and inspiring! I can now proudly say I am a Chemical Engineering Graduate from Queen's University!! WOOHOO! Some pictures of the event are posted below:

 

Family shot before the ceremony!

 The convocation ceremony inside Grant Hall.

 Storm and I after the ceremony. I am officially a graduate!

 Nice shot- like father like daughter.

A very happy graduate!

 Celebratory drinks, as always!