Aruba (part 1)

In May, J and I traveled to Aruba for his sister's wedding. It was a week of paradise and good times. And like with any vacation, it was extremely hard to come home.

In a later post, I will talk about some things we did on the island, but for now, enjoy a few photos:

Aruba part 2 will be up soon, so stay tuned!

The Sunday Currently, volume 9

Hello! Yes, I am still alive over here. I have just been, you know, living life. And recently, that has involved putting this little 'ol blog on the back burner. Plus, with the World Cup, I am even MORE distracted! But, I hope to find the motivation to start back on blogging more often again. I do still owe you guys an Aruba post!

In the meantime, here's a quickie:

C U R R E N T L Y . . .

R E A D I N G  blogs... catching up on my Bloglovin' feed!

W R I T I N G  down names-- more specifically dog names. While watching the World Cup, I've come across some 'cool' names and I think "hey, that'd be a good name for a dog!" because my dream is to have a dog (or 2, or 3 ....). Who know when it's going to happen, but when it does, I'll have my list of names ready!

L I S T E N I N G  to Stromae "Papaoutai"


T H I N K I N G   about how hot it is... I kinda forgot how hot and sticky Nashville summers are.

S M E L L I N G  no specific scent at the moment

W I S H I N G    I was back on the beach ... in Aruba ....

H O P I N G  J and I find some goodies at the Farmer's Market today!

W E A R I N G  my bathing suit, shorts and tank top.

L O V I N G   that we have friends that have a pool! Can't wait to be in it later!

W A N T I N G   Costa Rica to win the World Cup! My Spain is already out of the tournament, but my other faves are still in! And in case you were wondering, "my teams" include Spain, Costa Rica, and Argentina. And no, I am not cheering for the US team... for several reasons. But I won't get into that. Let's keep this post happy and positive =)

N E E D I N G  my tan I got from Aruba to stay forever and ever.

F E E L I N G  hot, but happy!

C L I C K I N G on "Proof that Messi is the most perfect human being on Earth" -- he's my favorite player! Oh, and also, for the ladies: "The 30 hottest bearded men of the World Cup" -- a pretty good list. I do love me some facial hair!

I hope everyone is having a great start to their summer! Hopefully I won't be a stranger.

One year in Nashville

It was about a year ago when we had spent a month in California after coming back from living in the Philippines. We then packed up my car and headed east on one epic roadtrip. After about a week on the road, we ended up at our final destination: Nashville.

We've been living in this city for about a year now. So in celebration, I want to share some of my favorite things about "Music City":

- The size of the city. It's pretty perfect-- not too small and not too big.

- There is always something going on. On any given day of the week, you can always find something to do. There is also a lot of free things to do.

- Music is everywhere. It's not called "Music City" for nothin'. Whether there's a major act performing at the Bridgestone Arena or songwriters performing at open mics in small cafes, you can find live music with no trouble at all.

- Registering and titling your car is a breeze. And I'm only mentioning this because I had to go through it recently. It was pretty hassle-free (especially compared to California's DMV!). You just take your car through a drive-through smog place (which takes a few minutes), then take the paper they give you to the county clerk's office, pay the fee and just like that, they hand you over your new Tennessee license plate-- you don't even need a TN driver's license!

- The vibe. When we go out to places for a drink or whatnot (we're big fans of going out to east Nashville), the vibe is definitely a lot less "Hollywood". People are a lot friendlier, egos are not as big, etc.

- Speaking of friendlier people: for the most part, people are friendly. There has been countless times when I've been walking around and random strangers have said hello to me or struck up a conversation while waiting for a bus to arrive. Again, coming from California, that was new to me-- but I have gotten used to it and find it quite nice.

- Music City Bikeway. A 26-mile bike route that goes through Nashville. We've biked most of it and it's really nice.

- Radnor Lake. I really like this place. It's a great place for hiking and there are different trails you can do that are at different experience levels. Whenever someone visits us, we always take them here.

- And last, but definitely not least, the food: there is an abundance of restaurants in Nashville, ranging in all kinds of food. Some of my favorite restaurants in Nashville include Edley's Bar-B-Que, Mitchell's Deli, B&C Melrose BBQ, Pfunky Griddle, M.L. Rose, Gabby's Burgers, Calypso Cafe, Pupuseria Salvadorena, Thai Kitchen, Bombay Palace, Chicago Style Gyros... just to name a few. We're still trying to discover other places as well-- there's just so many places to choose from!
My only complaint though is that there isn't a good Mexican place. We've found one that was pretty good-- but our standards are set really high. J and I just decided to set the bar a little lower because let's be honest-- nothing beats Mexican food in Southern California. So far, our favorite Mexican restaurants have been Oscar's Taco Shop and Las Fiestas Cafe.

I can't believe it's already been a year since we've lived here! A lot has happened in this past year-- I guess time just flew on by. We don't know how much longer we'll be living here-- but then again, we don't even know what our plans are for next month, let alone the next year.

In any case, we are really enjoying Nashville!