How to fall in love in two days (No hearbreak, guaranteed)

The answer is very simple, go to NY. You won’t even need two days, I fell the minute I stepped out of Penn Station onto 7^th Ave so I’d say a couple hours is more than enough. Way too many times I’ve heard the typical: all those countries and you’ve never been to NY? No people I hadn’t, and I also have never seen snow but that’s another story; point is that it has finally happened and I can’t believe that there could be a city in the world that could compete against Paris but, I’ve met her match. 

 

I wouldn’t dare say (yet) that NY is better than Paris, I’d have to live there first too to make such big accusations but by the feeling it left me after only a quick weekend trip, it could easily take the trophy. 

The city is such a cliché that I didn’t even need a map except, must admit, when taking the metro cause that’s just insane; other than that, streets always took me where I needed to be when I needed to. The Empire State just appeared from around the corner and in perfect timing, right before tourist lines started to take over. The City’s perfect distribution leads form site to site with no effort, no boring bits, it always is exciting, there’s always something to see. To quote Alicia, these streets will actually make you feel brand new. 

Central Park is the most beautiful place I’ve ever had the chance to write in and I wish I could sit there under a tree to write forever. Cliché after cliché, the big city just takes it all. Every movie cliché is as good as it promises to be, from Chelsea Market and sunsets on High Line Park, all the way to the Met, Manhattan has everything a great city could ask for and more.

I lied though, there is heartbreak, having to leave is heartbreaking, saying goodbye to the gorgeous contrast between city, big tall trees and beach, the horrible metro, the fearless pigeons that soar across Manhattan no fucks given when people are to close. I myself was graced by a pigeon’s tail while taking a photo; I guess I was just in its way. 

Take it, take it all in; the breathtaking views from the 102^nd floor of the Empire State, the precious little restaurants hiding on the lower east side, the blinding lights on Times Square… just remember to play Empire State of Mind when walking from Park to the Fifth, best background song ever. 

If I’m supposed to tell you were to go, I most definitely won’t, deep down we all already know where to go when in NY; my only advice is to walk. Walk everywhere you can and as much as your feet allow you to, there is no better way to get to know the city. You won’t get to walk into Gray’s Papaya or China Town ubering places or on the Big Bus so just walk, you won't get these views on a cab. 

Australia's do's & dont's and Sydney's to do list

In such a big country, it may be a bit hard to actually make a plan to travel around, I know I had a bit of a hard time and between internet and my lonely planet, nothing would’ve been better than actually being able to talk to someone who had already been there before, so I’m going to make things easier for someone by stating what people should or shouldn’t do whilist in Australia.  

For starters it may be a bit of a shock to all but although a very western like country, they’re nothing like another country I’d ever seen before. Starting with the fact that they have animals you can’t see anywhere else in the world all the way to a form of life with unique customs. I mean what other country in the world chose their capital between their two biggest cities just because “if I can’t have it, neither can you.”

But back to the whole what to do in Australia: 

Do’s

-Do wear sunblock, especially if it’s spring-summer, I got some pretty great looking red tan lines, but I don’t recommend them to anyone.

-Do ask whatever it is you don’t understand, Australians have a pretty weird vocabulary at first so if someone says they’ll meet you at quarter past one in the arvo at the Tiger Mottle in Paddo, just ask what the hell they mean.

-Do try every single thing they hand you: vegemite, tim tams, milo, ANZAC biccys, Lamingtons, caramel slices, sausage sangers, fairy bread, jelly squares, kangaroo and everything with beetroot cause they really love it, it is all good, try it all; except VBs cause even they know that’s the trashiest beer they make. But definitely and absolutely try tim tam slams, you can’t leave without having at least one, and I can practically say you’ll have more than just one.

-Do obey wild animal signs, they aren’t there just because, we know Australia has a very diverse wildlife and they love that, but they survive because they don’t mess around with it, so pay attention to the tiniest of spiders walking past you cause it might as well be the most poisonous animal you’ll ever encounter. 

-Do embrace the fact you are there and live it to the fullest, Australia has a lot to offer and to enjoy. I hope everyone falls in love with it as much as I did.

Don’ts

-Do not meet anyone with anything other than a handshake, I got some pretty weird looks while leaning in for a kiss, which is normal in Mexico but apparently, and after like 5 “what are you doing”s I realised wasn’t very common way to greet new people there.

-Do not be surprised the lack of clothing at beaches like Lady Jane, it is not uncommon to find nude beaches around Sydney. You wanted to find a very liberal country in this world: jackpot 

-Do not tip unless you really want to, prices usually include service already so don’t hesitate when it’s great but don’t get worried if you just don’t give anything.

-Do not believe trains will leave on time, they almost never do.

-Don’t miss out on doing everything and travelling everywhere, be sure to submerge yourself into the culture, Australians are some of the most welcoming people I have ever met and willing to help you have the best of times while you’re there. 

And now to the most interesting part of it where to? 

When in Sydney you should definitely go for a walk around Circular Quay, Opera House, Sydney harbour Bridge and all that usual pretty touristy stuff but do not miss out on taking the bridge climb which is one of the most exhilarating things I’ve ever done, it’s not every day you walk above cars and the ocean on some metal welded together.

 

By the time you’re done with the three hour bridge climb which I hope you take when the sun is rising, Sydney’s most beautiful time of day, you should definitely go have some breakkie down at The Rocks and the best pancakes in town, especially if you order chocolate with chocolate pancakes. 

In some very random nights (at least as far as I know) aussies like to put up some amazing fireworks around 9pm at Darling Harbour, be sure to go for a walk around the great restaurants that also happen to be there. 

When in Syd, do Bondi, but do not go there on a weekend/day off, you will find that it is hard to walk around hot sand and legs lying all around.  

Needless to say, the Queen Victoria Building is a most especially with a block of delicious Haigh’s chocolate. Once there maybe go for a stroll on beautiful Hyde Park or climb all the way up Sydney tower for a great sight of beautiful Sydney from its highest point. Pitt St Mall and everything around Martin place train station will definitely do for an evening of shopping and listening to great music from locals getting there act done there. I swear I bought one of the best records ever made for $10 to the best unknown band while walking through these streets.

Once the sun is down, the moon is up and the heat is finally winding down, it’s time to hit some bars around my personal best zone for it, Darling harbour. Cargo, Home and Helm gave me some of the best out of my usual Gong nights, out in Sydney. Of course it is not a very cheap night out but there are plenty of good deals that can be made not to spend so much and of course, the more the merrier. 

Thank you Australia, for being so great. 

PARIS PARIS PARIS

Something about writing at 2 am in the morning is really exciting. Will I finish this post before 4? Will I get to sleep in tomorrow? How hard can a test be with two hours of sleep? Cake.

There is no way getting on a plane doesn’t excite me. Even if I’m going to spend a miserable week working in Tijuana with unrecovered feet from a recent surgery, there is just something about airports that thrill me to my very core no matter where it is that I am headed. Isn’t it amazing how planes work? It is just like magic, one second you’re boarding a plane in Mexico city and just a few hours later what do you know, you’re disembarking in the future at this airport called Charles De Gaulle. 

French is a beautiful language, if I may say so as a native Spanish speaker, my language never really excites me whatsoever; I actually enjoy English a whole lot more, but that’s just me because apparently people have a thing for Spanish. I guess I didn’t get the memo about that new trend. 

It isn’t until you arrive at a very different country that you understand how important it is to speak two different languages and are actually keen on learning a third one when all of the sudden your brain says “screw it, can’t deal” whilst you’re ordering a “chilled agua s’il vous plait” and the hot French waiter thinks you just lost it. 

Living away from parents and alone for a while has got to be one the most fulfilling experiences ever and should be done by everyone at least once in their lives. No curfews, no chores and the best of them all, NO NAGGING ME for whatever reason. 

A famille d'accueil is like a very nice B&B where you get to understand that particular society by actually having a day to day life with them. Like no big breakfast for the French, what a shame missing on those awesome pancakes or delicious chilaquiles for breaky. My family was originally from Côte d’Ivoire a young couple and their three year old daughter. They are some of the most delightful people I have ever met. My French mum made me feel like home on the very first second I set foot on their flat. 

To put you into perspective, I arrived the Sunday of the Roland Garros final, Djokovic vs Nadal, and my plane arrived just as the match was starting. The whole trip into the city took a whole set and a half of the match and after leaving my crap in my new room the first thing she gave me was the remote, a lemonade jug and a bowl of peanuts. I’m not gonna lie, I was actually juggling the idea of taking the metro to the Champ Mars and watch it by the Eiffel Tower but, as enchanting as that sounds, who could resist a glass of lemonade on a hot summer day? Dinners with my French family were hard at first as not being used to French that fast but they got really interesting as they taught me about culture, politics, economics and some other great issues. 

By the end of the first week it was getting very routine like, except for those Sunset bar nights, nevertheless there is something about waking up in the city of lights and walking every single day past the Opera on my way to school that brings a certain charm factor that no other city can bring because Paris always looks beautiful, even on the most dreadful rainy day. 

Being the incredible cliché lover that I am, there could not have been a better city than Paris to spend my whole summer learning French and enjoying life because let’s face it, who hasn’t dreamt about drinking champagne by the Eiffel Tower on the Champ de Mars on a casual Friday evening? How about a picnic at night by the Seine with some friends, cheese, wine and bread? Where else in the world would you rather hold hands with the cute guy you like? Grands Boulevards’ bars and glorious late night kebabs have to be the best combination for a true night of greatness, when you multiply that by 30, well… it gets pretty interesting, especially with the right combo of people around you. 

There is no other city in the world I would rather sit on the sidewalk of waiting for the metro to open at 6 am after a night of tequila bangers, there is no other place on Earth were you would see a man in a wedding dress on his way to getting married while his partner invites you and your friend to their wedding. I am not kidding, that actually happened while waiting for the metro to open. Unique things happen in Paris, unique things happened to me in Paris. 

My Colombian midget friend is hitting on the hottest Parisian that had ever set foot on the bar we regularly visited. “Marica, ese man esta guapísimo” I cannot state how hard it was to understand her perfectly weird slang at first, (after almost two years, I still struggle) when she just wanted to say “girl, that guy is hot” Simple, yet very complicated. Then we suddenly see this guy laughing only to realise that oh surprise we aren’t the only two people that speak Spanish in France because voilà, hot Parisian does too. Next thing I know I’m talking to this guy’s pretty weird friend so that midget here could get a couple extra minutes with him. All of the sudden I’m saying yes to a double date a couple days later with a very shady guy and midget with the hot Spanish speaking Parisian.

After one of the weirdest dates ever recorded in history, involving four girls and two guys all I can say is that destiny just knows its business, it knows that when it’s not meant to be, it most definitely won’t be. So this six people date went a little wrong by the time the hot Parisian had to leave, midget lost interest and since I was not really digging shady guy, we wanted to leave and weirdly enough so did he, with us. I am a firm believer that things happen for a reason and if the metro doors close right as we were stepping out the carriage leaving shady guy inside just when we were thinking of a way to (I won’t be gentle) get rid of him, I am not going to try and fight fate here, we just waved goodbye while the train started to leave the station and he was at war with the doors that wouldn’t open to let his nose free. 

Paris has its very own way of making everything more exciting and beautiful than it actually is. It is for real the city of love, in no other place on the planet would you meet the most handsome pair of blue eyes and get to spend days and nights walking along Parisian streets holding hands with those eyes. What could be best than sitting next to him to watch him play the piano, or walking next to the river on a summer night as he lends you his jacket when temperature suddenly drops is breathtaking on its own but definitely kicked up a notch when that river is the Seine. 

Road trips get a whole different meaning when you decide to drive to Mont St-Michel and Saint-Malo for a weekend with a group formed by another Mexican, my favourite Colombian midget and a handsome Italian. The delightful train ride to Caen where French people are so absorbed by their own stuff that they won’t even ask for train tickets. What a country. Although, what is it about European hostels where apparently rooms cannot be bigger than a bed? I believe I’ve seen bigger ship cabins than some rooms. 

Even getting lost with luggage and the combo of internationals mentioned above in the longest wheat field you’ve seen to suddenly realise knowing the best French possible won’t really get you out of that is even some amazing experience compared to that same scenario in the middle of fabulous Coahuila where you would just sit down and pray you don’t get kidnapped or robbed. 

I believe I have seen more Mexicans gathered around the Eiffel Tower than in actual Mexico City after winning a World Cup soccer match. In no other place had I felt so at home being so far away and had never connected with people as deeply as I did here. Lifelong friendships and a lifetime of memories; France just brings its A game everywhere.

I didn’t use to get all the fuss about Paris until my third visit staying there for a month and I wish it could have been longer. Paris knows how to make you fall in love with it and forever dream about going back; it is a sweet spell that lures you into saving money just to get back there. I guess Rick and Ilsa will too but I know: we’ll always have Paris.

Cultural shocks

There is no such thing as culture shock going from Mexico to any other western type country, wait until you go to Japan and don’t find a proper “throne” to put your butt cheeks on while you pee that, my friends, is a culture shock.  

I will never forget the first thing I was told in my very first encounter with an Australian by myself: “Mexico? Breaking Bad!” Instant reaction to that: “That’s in New Mexico… USA.” Of course he tried to be witty about it: “Yeah, but that happens in Mexico too, right?” Well, I can’t blame foreigners for not knowing crap about Mexico because honestly, not even we know what the hell is going on in our very own country. 

Every single Mexican paisano that has had the opportunity to go abroad, knows the typical stereotypes we all face out there. I was asked  “where’s your sombrero?” as I unpacked all my stuff in my new room; but it’s not all so bad, I could not get tired of listening to people’s stories about the amazing views, beaches and encounters they had had while visiting Mexico because despite it all, let’s face it, it is pretty great. Nevertheless there are a couple things people should know about Mexico, let’s just call it general knowledge guys, it doesn’t hurt to know that stuff.

I am not going to lie though, there is something about going abroad that does feel kind of strange every single time, it is a mix between excitement and fear when you're headed into the unknown. You get on that plane and after some hours you get off on a country with a language so different from yours that you just think to yourself "what in the world am I doing here?" as you follow people out of the plane because of course, you don't understand where to pick up your luggage. 

Because of my dad being a big planning freak, I usually get everything before I go somewhere, hotels, make sure there’s metro to move around and get to know three cents about a city before I get there. That is so impossible to do you don’t ever wrap your mind around it until you are actually there. It so does happen that you forgot some minor details and realise it is 23:30, you just arrived, you didn’t change currencies, phone is half dead, wifi is crap and with three bags on you the airport’s floor is looking pretty comfortable.

This is what I am talking about, this was happening when I arrived at Narita airport and I just thought to myself “my dad was right about this; of course he can NEVER know that I am thinking this so I have to pull everything I have on me together and get my butt to that hostel because I have an 8 am Shinkansen to take to Hiroshima." 

That kind of life experience cannot be got anywhere or any other way. Culture shock arrives later though, when you finally arrive as tired as you can be to that hostel, open your room’s door and voilà, there’s no bed. A flat mat with a flat pillow and a couple of blankets are your most desired bed at your most tired moment.

To really get an idea of what I believe cultural shock is, I had to wander off a few times. I have met people that get so homesick and depressed, they stop enjoying themselves and their vacations. There are some others that don’t get to realise the whole wonder of the place they’re in; I don’t really get this last type of people. Coming back from a semester abroad in Australia I could not have been a more different person than the girl who had left six months earlier, everything is different when you get back home, even though it has actually stayed the same; you just have a very different set of eyes to look around and percieve it. On the other hand, I have talked to people that say they haven’t changed, everything is the same and they couldn’t wait to get back. That is an unknown type of cultural shock where people just don’t stop to see where they are and appreciate it, grow with it and learn, they just get stuck thinking about home and everything they’re missing out on instead of living on that moment right then and there. 

Embrace it, everything. Wearing thongs to school because it’s hot (flip flops people, not underwear), eating things made out of yeast because straya, or maybe something with a name you can’t even pronounce because the Japanese love those weird names on their food. There is nothing more exciting than getting to know a different culture so different from what you are used to, getting out of your comfort zone and getting acquainted with change and new people bringing a different perspective to your world. Make the best out of that culture shock.