The Weeknd concert took place this past Sunday in Ottawa & it has most definitely made my top 5 concerts; Linkin Park is another one that's up in there too. The show was wild & an absolute dance party. I ended up going to the show with 4 other friends, 2 of which are my concert buddies and then ones I haven't ever gone to a show with. We bought our tickets in November & have been excited ever since especially because we had floor seats. It was nice to just drive down to the concert & not have to pull a mission to another city to see the show, even though I wouldn't have minded a Toronto show where Drake showed up both nights.

We had some pretty good floor seats to the right of the end of the extended stage, but we figured we'd get closer & find a better view. As soon as the light went out for 6lack to start we ended up just walking straight up to the barricade at the main stage in the front to watch him perform. However, near the end of the show security came & were making everyone move away from the barricade & back to their seats. During each opener when the lights went down, we would move up as close as we could get to the stage without security hounding us. It's hilarious having security find us & sending us to our seats; they were literally hunting us when the lights went down. Best believe they gave up thou when The Weeknd came on because no one was going to stay seated in their seats especially when the stage was right next to us.
6lack was the first opener & he was beyond amazing; I've been sleeping on him. I was told about him before but I was just too lazy to listen to him but I was definitely regretting it in that moment. He's voice is just so calming with his mellow, feel good vibe songs. I downloaded his album & latest single when I got home that night, now I just need to listen to them.


Belly came on next & his jacket was looking bomb. I totally didn't prepare for this show & remembered one of his songs that was all over the radio a few months or so ago. He put on a great show & I wish I knew more of his song to jam a long to.


Rae Sremmurd was the last opener & the one that played the longest (about an hour). I was excited for him because my friend has one of his CDs that we have listened to in her car one too many times so I knew a lot of the words to quite a few of his songs. He got us pumped up & excited for The Weeknd during his set which was an absolute turn up. I think my favourite songs by him would have to be:


Then, the final & main act we've been waiting for, Abel Tesfaye aka The Weeknd blessed our souls with an amazing entrance. He rose from the ground with smoke around him & the piece above him was going up & down with lights. It was an entrance indeed! If you've never seen him live, you definitely need to go see him because that voice you hear is better live; he hit some pretty high notes perfectly. He played songs from his new album, last album and a few oldies from before he blew up. His show was absolutely amazing & he brought out each and every one of his openers to do a song with him as well as invited Nav as a special guest. The concert was just a good time of vibing that I had to just put my phone away so I could just enjoy the show in the moment.

It was an amazing show & I'm soooo happy I got to see him because I was hella mad when I missed him last year or whenever he went on tour for Beauty Behind the Madness, the album I was obsessed with! Check out the pictures I took at the show when we forced getting as close as possible.

So summer is basically here which means I need to get out & start living summer life doing things that are only around in the summer like waterparks & swimming at beaches and outdoor pools; I absolutely love swimming & am like a fish, I can be in the water all day long if I could. Every year I make a list of things I want to do throughout the summer & by the end of the summer I don't know what happened to my list & if I'm lucky i've done at least a couple of them. Nevertheless, those summers are past us & this one is here so here is my list for Summer 2017:

• Berry Picking at one of the few spots we have around Ottawa (probably Shouldice Berry Farm)
• Stand Up Paddleboarding - I see people doing it all summer, every summer & there is one by my house that i'd go to (Ottawa SUP)
• Paint Nite - been dyyyyiiinnnggg to go & paint a masterpiece (Paint Nite)
• Parliament Hill Yoga -  literally what its called, yoga on he hill infront of the Parliament & it's free (PHY)

• Calypso Waterpark - because who doesn't wanna go to a waterpark during the summer especially Calypso with their HUGE rides that have an abundance of stairs so like your getting a workout as well (Calypso)
• a roadtrip to Kingston because it's sooo close & i've never been besides the 10 min break on the rideshare to Toronto 

• a baseball game because i've been dying to go, especially a Blue Jays one & I even have a their hat so I'm like set to go (Toronto Blue Jays)
• then one of these two beaches & I'm satisfied with my beach day craving (Grand Bend Beach and/or Bruce Peninsula)

Maine, oh Maine. I came, I saw, I stayed an extra day & can I say it was an adventure. I was soo happy to be back home & got super homesick at the end of the trip. I keep referring to this trip as just Maine compared to the city I was in, Lewiston, because a lot of people don't know what Maine is let alone Lewiston. I also spent my time in the state of Maine going to different cities such as Lewiston, Portland, Brunswick, Auburn, Freeport, Lisbon Falls & Cape Elizabeth.

I was expecting Maine to be some cute small towns like you see in those movies such as Footloose & Safe Haven but realized that New Hampshire was more what I was expecting & Maine was filled with smaller towns. Nevertheless, it was still a nice chill vacation which was what I needed at the time plus I got to see my fams & the new baby I haven't met yet.

The trip there was quite a mission because I scored a sweet deal to get there but it was totally worth it. One of the few things I learned was that you must do some proper research because things most likely are different in other countries. I flew from Toronto to Boston & then got a Greyhound ticket to Portland, Maine. When I got to the bus station, I learned there were other buses besides Greyhound that could take me to Maine as well. If I did my research even better I would have found out that a Greyhound could drop me off in Lewiston & I could've walked to their house but hey you live & you learn.

the view flying out of Toronto

Anyways my trip, I was there from the 26th of April to May 1st but then my flight got cancelled so I had to stay another day. So I didn't do much the first day I got there, because I had been travelling since 5am & made it to my destination at about 5pm so about a 12 hour day. I was presented with a lovely surprise of a car that my lovely family rented for me to use for my week there because its a mission to get anywhere without driving which was I was beyond grateful for & dunno how I would've done & seen the things I did without a car.



My official first day there, my aunt, her baby & I went for breakfast at iHop (a place I have heaveily shitted on before because the last time I went I got something super not good but now I know that I lovely it & will probably mission out to the one in Niagara Falls to enjoy the lovely American restaurant). I got the Chicken Florentine Crepe which was amazing & sweet tea which was absolute shit. I realized maybe it's Maine that doesn't know how to make this special Sweet Tea that Southern people rave about but in Maine Sweet Tea is Iced Tea filled with sugar & Iced Tea is watery af with no sugar. After iHop, we just ran some errands she needed to do & then I just went on a drive getting lost while discovering their state full of trees & water. I ended up in Lisbon Falls which wasn't much at all but I got some cute earrings from a store I think is called Eastcraeft, then ended up walking around Brunswick & ended up heading home to get some take out sushi from Lewiston for dinner.




Our nightly routine consisted of watching some movies on Netflix once my aunt put her baby to bed. I was mostly visiting for her to get a break & to chill out because she didn't know much people considering she moved there about a year ago as well as been busy with her baby so I was there to give her a good chill week. We watched foreign movies because French was her strong suit & I didn't mind reading English subtitles. Over the week, we watched quite a few but the ones I recommend are An African Doctor & Palm Trees in the Snow, We Are Family is cute & funny too.

Day 2 in Maine we missioned out to Portland which is their capital city & where all things American exist including good restaurants and stores, or so I thought. We were hungry so we went to get lunch as soon as we got there & I was kinda disappointed and was wishing I chose somewhere else to eat but it is what it was. Eventide Co was where we had a lunch & I came to Maine to see family & to eat some good seafood, specifically lobster & sushi. I got a lobster roll & sablefish with a little rice & some side dressings with homemade chips with tartar sauce that me & my aunt shared, she had the fried fish sandwich.

There has been a notification on my phone from Bandsintown about a concert that's happening nearby or emails about festivals that are happening soon with lineups and I am getting hella overwhelmed because I want to go to every single one of them. But I decided that I need to take a BIG step back & re-evaluate who I MUST see & who I can live without seeing. I am slowly going broke over these impromptu ticket purchases & missioning out to see these shows that are sometimes a couple hours away.

So I have decided that I'm going to be seeing The Weeeknd & Linkin Park as well as attending the Vans Warped Tour & Osheaga. I'm absolutely amped for these shows, but sad I had to cut a lot out (Kehlani, Nickelback, Daughtry, James Arthur & probably others). I'm not too sad though because I know I'll have another chance to see them again especially Daughtry, who has a new album coming out as soon as it's finished which is hopefully late this year.

The Weeknd I got tickets too a while back so that's a definite, plus we have floor seats so that will be an amazing show. I wanted to see him bad on his last tour but waited too long to get tickets. That will be later this month & best believe there will be a whole post about it because I know it's gonna be an amazing show.

Linkin Park was I think the best concert I have ever been too back in 2014 & I've waited 3 years to see them again so I can't wait to see how they make it even better this year. They have a new album which is a lot different than what they are used to, but sounds pretty good from the singles I've heard so far. So, we shall see how the album is when it's released May 19; it's called One More Light.


Vans Warped Tour, if you've seen my posts about it before, you'll know it's the one music festival I go to every summer without a doubt in a new pair of Vans heading out to a new city close by. It's literally the only tradition I have so I cannot flop on that this year because I need to go see my HLH & OLN homies which I discovered through Warped Tour. Plus, this year I actually don't need new Vans but will still get them & am excited to chose out a new pair.

Osheaga Festival Musique et Arts is like a mini Coachella (from what I've seen of the pictures on their website; they got a ferris wheel & vendor booths like H&M) in Montreal and I've wanted to go for so long. I've made this summer the time to make it happen; we have our own festival in Ottawa called Bluesfest but our lineup is never as good as theirs. My goal is to try to volunteer so I don't have to pay to be there (I know smart thinking ;) ) but if I can't make that happen, I'm just getting tickets for Saturday & Sunday. I'm super excited to mission out to this festival & can't wait for August to come, to see if it's all I thought and more.

Music is one of the three things I need in life to die happy so if I'm not talking about some song, listening to music, or asking for new music, something must be wrong with me and you need to get help asap ahaha.

Speaking of new music, DVSN, my love & best person I have ever discovered dropped a new song & I've had it on replay since I found out. I can't wait for another album & tour but until then you can enjoy some mellowness with this song:

I was having a conversation with someone asking them what would be 5 recommendations they would give of places to go, things to do & places to eat in their city. They gave me a good list & I added some of them to my list to check out next time I was in their city, but realized I wouldn't have a great list like that to give for Ottawa. So I have thought a lot about it and this is my top 5 things for Ottawa; food, places & things to do.

1. Tomo is my must-check-out restaurant, especially if you love sushi. I can't & never will stop raving about them because it's such a great restaurant that got added into the Byward Market which is full of restaurants but not all as good as Tomo. Their food is bomb; they have events going on in the evenings a few times during the week & their washroom is the spot for selfies: comic book walls...need I say more.


However, if you're not a sushi person, they do have other foods you can get from them but another restaurant you could check out would be Pure Kitchen.

Pure Kitchen is a vegan/vegetarian restaurant that came around a few years ago; I wanna say maybe 2015 it popped up in Ottawa. Since then, they have two locations & have the most bomb healthy food I've had plus it helps that they have dairy alternatives such as almond chocolate milk, cashew cheese, so much more.



I've been a few times & I tell everyone who goes that they HAVE to have  the cauliflower wings. They are like chicken wings but made out of cauliflower, a healthier alternative but still kinda taste like chicken wings and may I say BOMB AF. They are kinda awesome too because if you get a sandwich/burger you can have both salad & fries instead of having to make that difficult choice. They got a variety of things so there is something there for everyone & if you feel like food without meat is not filling, you are very wrong. I leave there stuffed but like a healthy stuffed where my body still feels good compared to places where I feel full but full of shitty foods. Enough of my blabber, here are some pictures of the times I have gone.



2. The Loft or Level One is a chill spot to play video or board games. They started off as having The Loft upstairs & it's been a hit since it's opened with huge long lines to get a seat to play board games from the many they have filling the walls. I'm so happy they have expanded to Level One which is downstairs in the same space & more food is served down there. There is video games there & there is way more space. So when The Loft is full you just go downstairs & get a seat at Level One. It's the best place to test out your friendships because board games can ruin friendships with games such as Catan & Monopoly and you're bound to learn more while there. Sometimes I will come in & just ask the server for a competitive game for however many people there are & they will choose anything, bring it over & explain the game so you definitely won't get bored. If you do, you are always welcome to change your game to anything else that's more entertaining for you.



3. The Prince of Wales bridge is an abandoned railroad bridge over water near Bayview Station. It's my go to spot when I'm downtown & just want a place to chill. In the summer you will see people jumping off the bridge into the water below. It's nice during the hot days to sit there & feel a nice breeze while just chilling. It's kind of a mission to get to & I don't know if it's blocked off because of the construction that's happening there right now but get to Bayview station & find the bike path. When you see it, walk towards the water & you will see the bridge & the way to get up to it.







4. Cool events in the city are always a good time to go to & we have a fair share of them that happen every year. I go to different ones every year but I'll attempt to go to them all this year. Some of the ones that are totally insta worthy & a fun time are: Tulip Festival, Ottawa ComicCon, House of PainT, Winterlude, & Dragonboat Festival. People come down to Ottawa for these events because they are a good time & you won't be able to find it else where, such as Winterlude where you can skate on the longest canal/skating rink in the world I believe, as well as seeing some pretty cool ice sculptures.







5. My 5th & last thing I would say is food spots around the city. Ottawa is very undervalued especially different areas that have great food that a lot of people don't know about so a different food adventure around a part of the city you haven't been to is an adventure in itself especially if your busing there. So go ahead & check out Elgin St, Westboro Bia, the Glebe area & Lansdowne because there is some good food spots hiding there that you won't find downtown.

Puerto Puerto Plata. Oh how beautiful your views were even on your rainy days, making this most definitely a #tripofalifetime as well as a #jobofalifetime. When the rain stopped for a few days and the sun finally started shinning, I could finally see the water and the palm trees as they were in the hot weather, so beautiful and tropical. This trip has been a very eye opening trip, to see how reserved I have become in the past few years and how I would like to be more open so I can experience the endless opportunities & meet great people.



I was nervous about coming out to do this job because of the amount of time I would be taking off from work & didn't know if it was worth it at the time. Looking back now, I'm so glad I ignored that voice in the back of my head because it was one of the greatest experiences I've had in a while.

So the company I went with is called S-Trip which stands for student trip and is a company that helps students plan grad trips with their schools that are way cooler than a weekend in Toronto (which is what we did) or whatever it is that they do for grad trips. I Love Travel is the big brand and then they are divided by winter ski trips and summer grad trips; S-Trip, Campus Vacations, Stoke Travel and many more. Check out their website for more information: http://www.ilovetravel.com/.

I spent the first few days asking myself if it was real & if I was really in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic or if it was a dream; the resort & all the palm trees had me thinking I was on a movie set sometimes. Eventually it sunk in that it was real & I needed to enjoy it before it was over. The staff & students just made it a great trip & had me cracking up to their shenanigans; some of these students would have some hilarious stories for me & I most definitely won't forget them.

This trip was work & vacation in one to make for a great & well needed week away. The days were consisted of an excursion or day off the resort as well as a night event so in our meetings we knew who was where the night before & spread the word to the students if they needed to be up early to go surfing or for volunteering. I got to volunteer and then all the trip leaders went on the city tour which was great because volunteer was one of the ones I wanted to do.


Volunteer day consisted of three stations where we would spend about 45 min before switching to the next one. We got to hang out with the children at a community centre, pick up garbage on the beach & then help build houses or repainted houses that needed a touch up. We took two groups of students to do the three stations & got to participate in each station with them. With the first group, we mixed cement, sand & water to make that gooey cement to put on the walls inside of a house that was being finished and with the second group, I became a smurf, getting paint all over me while painting this one house blue. The whole day was a very eye-opening and rewarding experience. From the laughs & smiles of the children we hung out with and played basketball or just interacted with; to seeing the difference between our beach on the resort & the way theirs has been ruined because of the recent flooding & brought all the garbage onto their beach, making it unrecognizable; to helping paint houses & making them vibrant & beautiful once again.



The city tour was great because we got to see the real Dominican & what there was besides what we saw on the resort. We got to get off the bus & walk around and interact with the locals while buying some pretty sweet souvenirs; everyone is so nice & friendly. I got some pretty souvenirs for myself & peeps.



I don't know why I never just planned a trip out here but now that I've seen it, I will most definitely be back with friends to lounge by the pool with some pineapple juice (my best friend all week alongside some passionfruit) & hanging out in the ocean and on the beach. No matter how much rain there was, it was an amazing trip & I feel blessed to have been able to come experience all the great things I did. Speaking of, I went horseback riding on the beach which was amazing even though I almost fell off my horse before it started moving because my saddle was sliding off it's back but the views were just....check out this picture because words can't do it justice.



Here are a bunch of more pictures of my trip.