Back to Nature's Oven

The past year has been one for the books. I made amazing friends in both London and Paris, saw beautiful places, ate incredible food. Now it is time for me to return home, Arizona, for the summer before I return back to London. I will be honest and say my favorite place was London. It may be because my best friends, Matt and Izzy, live there. Or maybe since we got Little Leaf off the ground. Yes, you heard right, Little Leaf is now officially open at Greenwich Market and Brick Lane Market, serving vegan pizza at the food stall.

My mother and brother came out to Paris for my final days there, then we went to London for a week before returning home. It was fun to show my mom around Europe showing her all my favorite places. We walked 48 miles in the week we traveled around. I showed them some neat cafes around my house, went to the Eiffel Tower, walked up to Montmarte, took a train to Versailles to see the palace, and much more.

After Paris we took the Eurostar to London where my mom met Matt and Izzy for the first time. We went to an Indian restaurant and ate our weight in curry and naan bread. We were all so exhausted after walking around London Bridge, Tower of London, Brick Lane, and others I can't remember right now. It was a terrific experiences and I couldn't have done it without the help of my friends and family. 

Now I'm back in Arizona where you can cook steak on the sidewalk and bake cookies in your car. I've been trying to beat the heat by going up north to Sedona and thanking the inventor of air conditioning. It is nice to be back and seeing all my friends and working with familiar people again. 

The Best View in Paris

View of the Eiffel Tower from Montmartre.

This week my friend took me to Montmartre. It's a city on a hill in the 18th district in Paris that lets you see the whole city from the top. I definitely got my workout that day. Walking almost a mile on an incline, but in the end it was all worth it. On the way up, there were dozens of street artists creating and selling their work in the squares. There were restaurants around every corner and walking past just made me more hunger each time. I did give in eventually and get a crepe, with Nutella and bananas of course.

People looking out at the view of Montmartre.

The walk seemed never ending as we turn each corner and there is more hill to climb. The most important thing I've found about Europe is to have good tennis shoes, best decision I've made yet! We finally arrive at our destination and the view from up top there was absolutely stunning. There are buildings as far as the eye can see and of course I went when it was warm and sunny out, so it was packed with people. Some people were having picnics on the stairs, some were playing music in the grass, and some, of course, were being touristy and taking photos, like me. Everywhere I looked was an interesting photo. From the people hanging out to the great scenery. So glad I brought my camera that day.

That is one thing I find difficult about being a photographer. I always want to capture the moments I experience and forget to simply enjoy it sometimes. There's always a battle within on whether to go as a photographer or as a participant. I've tried going as both and it just doesn't work out as well. I don't fully enjoy it because I don't want to break my camera and the photos are always rushed. Most of the time I choose to go as a photographer because I want me and all my friends to have photos of the great times together.

Great photo of the people looking out at the view, captured by my friend, Lina.

I think I will always have that struggle when I go out and do things, but I'm ok with it. Just remember all those photos you see of people having fun, there's somebody behind the camera deciding to be a photographer that day. I hope you all have a great week and see you next time!

Traveling Shoes

Seattle, WA.

I honestly didn't know what to write this week because I honestly haven't done much. It's been raining all week and I've been editing photos. I decided to talk about my experience as a whole so far. My whole life I've been extremely privileged to have the opportunity to travel. Growing up I moved to several different states and visited most of the continental United States. Along with that, I also was able to visit various parts of the Caribbean and Mexico. I had taken these experiences for granted when I was younger, complaining some of the time because I just wanted to hang out with my friends. It wasn't until later on in life that I found the importance of traveling and experiencing different cultures. As a child I didn't understand why others acted the way they did. Even little things such as eating different things for breakfast that I would eat for lunch or dinner. 

Throughout America you can see vast differences in speech and behavior. My family in New England will eat a lot of seafood, for example on Christmas a lot of the time we will have lobster rather than turkey or ham. In Arizona we eat a lot of Mexican food and Texas has a lot more barbecue. The other day I was talking to one of my friend from Tennessee, that's going to my school in Paris, and we were comparing common phrases we would use in our parts of the country. 

Now those are just differences within a single country, imagine how shocking it is to travel thousands of miles to another part of the world and experience their culture. Common things that I enjoyed back home are unheard of here in Europe. I know most of you that are over the age of 21 have enjoyed a few mimosas on Sundays, but here nobody I've talked to has even tried a mimosa. They always say, 'why dilute the champagne with orange juice?' I guess they have a point, so in London they drink Prosecco and eat roast on Sundays. One of my favorite things to eat is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Well, in Paris there will be a wall of jelly with one kind of peanut butter and it's triple the price because they don't really eat pb&j's here. Instead, they put jelly on crackers or nutella on toast. 

London, England

Phoenix, Arizona

Culturally there are so many differences that I could write a post just on that. Some examples are here in Paris you 'faire la bise' (kiss cheeks) when you say hello or goodbye to a friend, but in America we would just hug. My friends thought it was so weird that in America we hug so much. The French regard the hug as more intimate that kissing cheeks, but for me I feel the other way. It has been funny seeing my friends reactions whenever I forget and hug them. As a culture, many holidays aren't celebrated, like halloween has just become a thing in Europe. They also don't have prom in high school or greek life in college. 

Paris, France

Okay I understand those are just minor differences between different cultures and aren't very impactful. However, if you add all of those up you soon realize that everything you're accustomed to is different to other cultures. People here think the things that I do are weird, but to me and my culture back in America, it's normal. I think it's important for everybody to experience different cultures to give them a different perspective on the world. There's so much going on in the world right now, good and bad. Maybe we need to put ourselves in their shoes to help realize why people are acting the way they are. Perhaps, it's hard to understand because they experience things differently than you. My parents taught me something from an early age, which is to treat others as you would like to be treated because we're all just people in the end no matter where we come from. I hope everybody has a great week and I will see you next time.

Mon Voyage á Paris.

Before I get into my journey to Paris, which is what the title means if you don't speak French, I just want to say how amazing my time in London was. I met truly amazing people, especially my flatmates Matt and Izzy, and had incredible experiences. It felt like everything was meant to be, how everybody in the house had a special talent to contribute to us starting our vegan food blog, www.littleleaf.com. Ryan does the design, Izzy is the mastermind behind the recipes, Matt has incredible people skills, and, of course, I take the photographs. They will always be best friends in my life and am so grateful to have met them. That said, it was really sad to leave them and be on my own in Paris. Don't get my wrong, I know Paris is a wonderful city and I will have amazing experiences there as well, it's just hard leaving something so great like that.

I wake up New Year's Day morning and say my goodbyes as I head off to the Eurostar from London to Paris. Honestly, the Eurostar is nice because it's so fast, but it was a little lack luster during the train ride. I may have slept through some amazing views, but from what I saw was just another train view. I finally arrive at Paris Gare du Nord, collect  my bags, and go to the exit. I have two things on my list I need to do, exchange my currency and get to my apartment. I see machines that say échanger on them and so I give them a go, it's all in French and there's no English option, so maybe not. 

I proceed to go outside and it is absolutely freezing. I came from London, which was pretty cold at 9 degrees celsius and Paris was -1 degrees when I arrived. I see a currency exchange shop. I go in the shop and ask their exchange rate. Oh my god, they wanted to give me 1 EUR per 1 GPB and 0.85 EUR per USD, no thank you. It would be like throwing money away just to convert it to the local currency. I'll fast forward a bit so I don't have to back track. The next morning I'm scourging the internet trying to find exchange rates, but most websites don't have their rate and I don't have a local phone number to call them. I finally found a link on a thread that compares the exchange rates around your chosen city so you can find the best one! It's an amazing website and if you're doing any traveling I highly recommend it, www.money-changer.net/en/paris. 

Now that we have the currency conversion out of the way, lets rewind and go back to the train station. I had given up finding a place to convert my money for the day and now I need to find a way to my apartment. I was approached by a taxi driver, I told her the address and she told me it was going to be 60 EUR! I knew this was vastly overpriced because I checked the Uber rate prior to my travels, which was 12 EUR. Knowing this, I go order an Uber then realize I don't have any service in this country. I try every unlocked network and non of them worked. I start stressing out because I told my land lord that I would arrive by 17h00 and it is now 16h15, with a 30 min car ride. I walk around outside and finally find a network I can join at a local cafe. My Uber arrives and after 10 minutes of walking around trying to find him, I'm in a warm vehicle.

I arrive at my new apartment and am greeted by my new landlord, Jacky. We go through the paperwork, sign all the lines, cross all the t's, and dot all the i's. At last, I'm able to unpack and change into my pajamas. One quick note, I recently watched a documentary on Netflix, called Minimalism, which I highly recommend. Doing so much traveling lately, I decided to try it and condensed everything I own into two suitcases and my backpack. It was nice getting rid of all the non essentials that don't add to my life, but I had just to have. Once I had everything set up, I put on a movie and quickly fell asleep. Stay tuned for my next Paris adventures!

Crossing the Pond

Tower Bridge in central London on a foggy morning.

The day has finally arrived for my twin brother, Ryan, and I to start our adventure in London, England. It was a tiring day of travel, stopping in Canada for seven hours, then finally London. 

There have been countless hurdles to get here and knew there were more to come. Having never taken a subway before we opt to call a cab to bring us to the leasing agency. Once we get there, we realize that we can't call them due to no international service with our American phones. We circle the building looking for an unlocked door. Finally, we found one and get brought up to the office. We sign the papers and get the keys then are shown out. On the curb with 4 bags of luggage and no idea where we are, we have to call another cab to get to the house.

Taking a breathe of relief we enter our long awaited new apartment. As we enter, our new roommates look surprised to see us. Apparently they were unaware of new roommates and the previous tenant was still in my room. After introductions, we finally sorted everything out and couldn't be happier with my roommates. Now time to rest!

The view from Tower of London on a foggy morning.