Life Food Fashion

First beach trip of the summer!!

Hello Everyone
So my first beach trip of the summer was amazing. We woke up around 6:30 a.m and headed out to pick up some of my cousin's friends at around 7:30 a.m. After picking up two friends my cousin dropped me off at the CVS where we told my two friends from back home to meet us. They luckily made it with our directions and no GPS.
After my cousin dropped me off at CVS he headed out to pick up two more friends. My friends and I then went into CVS to buy a few things for the trip. When my cousin got back all his friends were in and out of CVS just buying things for the trip.
We finally headed out. We made it to this beautiful beach in Dorado called Cerro Gordo. We found this awesome spot were you had to carefully climb down to the rocks to get into the water. There was a little cave covered by plants where we put our things while we swam. We swam a bit in the clear blue water until my friends and I decided to head over to the beach.
We tanned and hung out in the water for a bit. I finally got to enjoy one of the many clear water beaches of Puerto Rico. After this we went back to where everyone else was and munched on munchies. From there we all headed out for Marlin fish tacos on the boardwalk of a beach in Vega Baja. They were delicious!
We hung out on the board walk of the beach singing, listening to music, dancing, and just joking around. When it was time to go my friends headed out to Isabela because they planned to go surfing the next day. Then my cousin's friends, my cousin, and I headed back towards Bayamón.
We stopped at a Krispy Kream in Dorado. I ordered a Quesito. They don't sell these at Krispy Kream in the U.S. They are donuts filled with a cream cheese type filling. They are delicious.
From there we headed out to bring everyone to their houses and then to head home.
I haven't posted in a few days because I have been dealing with work stuff and will be starting work now quite soon. However if you would like to keep up with my adventures from another source you can follow me on Instagram, snapchat, and twitter all @normarilopez.
I will be posting about my outing in Viejo San Juan with my grandfather and other family members and my mini trips to several places including the University I was accepted to in PR that I at one point wanted to attend. Talk to you all soon!

Heading out the house for pour beach day!

Picking people up!

The view while we were walking to the caved area

The view from the caves area where we swam!

Marlin Tacos in Vega Baja!!

Crew pic!

Just another crew pic!

My Quesito from Krispy Kream!!

Explaining where I have been!

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all are doing well. I have not posted in about a week now and I wanted to explain why. I told you all about my friends that I met at my University who are international students from France. They recently left and I tried to spend as much time with them as possible before they left. Therefore while focusing on that I didn't get to post. However, with the time that I spent out with my friends from France I have many adventures to share with all you.

Last week I had lunch with my grandfather in Viejo San Juan. The plan was for my aunt, my grandfather and I to me meet up. However, two of my cousins ended up coming along. We headed out to meet my cousin Christian and my grandfather at the restaurant "La Cueva Del Mar" in Viejo San Juan.
We sat and talked about school, work, and life. We also took pictures of course. The food came and I felt my mouth watering when the waiter put my food on the table in front of me. I ordered Mofongo Relleno de Marisco. Mofongo is the outside part and it is made of plantains of the dish. Relleno means filled with and Marisco just means seafood. The food was amazing.

After we ate,we headed down the street for some coffee at a café. I ordered a late and it was amazing. The baristas made designs in the lattes which seemed to make the late test even better. Once the lovely afternoon was over, my aunt, my cousin, and I headed back to the house for the rest of the afternoon.

My next post will be about the day I spent with my cousin where we visited the University he is considering transferring to. This University is very special to me because it was my first choice when I was college hunting. I was accepted to the school but unfortunately did not end up attending. It was great to finally visit the campus. Talk to you all soon!

My aunt, my cousin, and me on our way to Viejo San Juan for lunch!

Driving in Viejo San Juan and I spotted this cool trolley!

Viejo San Juan!

Me and my cousin Jerome walking under an umbrella in the rain to get to the restaurant in Viejo San Juan!

The restaurant we ate at "La Cueva del Mar"

The Menu at "La cueca Del Mar"

Mofongo relleno de marisco!

The café we went to down the street from the restaurant!

My aunt and cousin ordering at the Café!

More of the Café!

More Café! So cool!

Awesome lates!!

My Elephant Latte with my Coach Bag!

Sipping on my late in front of this awesome photo!

Cool caught off guard pic!

Me and my cousin Christian!

My grandfather and I!

A long but interesting day!

Hello Everyone!
Yesterday I spent the whole day with my aunt! My day began when I got up around 6:00 a.m and had to be ready to head out to the salon my aunt works at by 6:30 a.m. I am staying in Bayamón, and the salon is located in Guaynabo. Therefore the drive was about an hour long with morning traffic.

We made it to the salon.

I sat and listened to the hilarious conversations between my aunt, a coworker of hers and their two clients. My aunt then asked if I wanted my hair blow dried and I of course said yes.

She will most likely be doing my highlights this summer and I can continue to get gel polish on my hands and toes at her salon. When it was time to go we stopped for gas and then headed to Plaza Las Americas which is the biggest mall in the Caribbean. This mall is full of many high end brand stores, but also great local brand stores that are sometimes just as expensive as the high end stores. This mall is where the "Abercrombie and Fitch" that I will be working at all summer long is located . I visited yesterday, met a new coworker as well as one of my three new managers. I will begin work within the next two weeks!

After my aunt accompanied me to my job we went to go grab some food on the top floor of the mall.

We got to the top of the stairs looked around and asked each other "

¿Qué quieres comer?" which means "What do you want to eat?" We contemplated between comida criolla from La Fonda (which consist mainly of traditional Puerto Rican foods), Sbarro Pizza, and China Emperial. La Fonda was still serving breakfast, but were about switch over to their lunch menu. We were going to wait for them to put out their lunch foods, but decided that the deal at China Emperial sounded the best. The deal included "Tostones, Petuga rellena de jamón y queso, y una soda" (fried plantains, chicken breast filled with ham and cheese, and a soda). Here I once again encountered Chinese people who speak Puerto Rican Spanish. My aunt and I sat down and talked while we ate.

Once we were done we headed back to the house. I unpacked my luggage completely by setting out all my perfumes and toiletries and by hanging up my clothes, and laying out my shoes.

(What's clean is mine. This is where I am staying)

Later my aunt and I changed into gym clothes, stopped to buy my aunt a phone, and headed back to her salon for another client that she had. I actually had a conversation with this client after I pointed out to my aunt that the client's sandals were designed by Tory Burch. I had told my aunt about the brand earlier in the day. The client told me she lived in Boston for about 5 years, and then explained that she graduated from BU in 2006. After leaving the salon my aunt and I headed to my cousin's gym class that he teaches. The class was about an hour long and such a great work out.

After the class my aunt and I headed back home. My cousin was already home, and we all ate left over pasta with alfredo sauce and chicken while we sat on the floor and watched an episode of "Person of Interest" in spanish. The microwave all of a sudden started turning on by itself and when we went to warm up the pasta we had to leave the room for precaution. Then to disconnect the microwave we had to move the fridge which caused the fridge to be crooked! After this I showered and headed to bed. This morning I woke up to no one in the house and I texted my cousin "Where are you?..." He then explained that him and my aunt went grocery shopping. I got up, washed my face and they were back. My cousin cooked these omelet wraps that he told me to smear cream cheese on the inside of before he filled them with scrambled eggs and wrapped them up. He made hash brown as well, but sadly dropped almost the whole plate of them on the floor. However the omelet wraps were bomb (in a good way) and he made coffee as well of course.

This morning I got ready and waited to see what the day was going to bring me. I hoped something exciting because my cousin finished his finals (it was exciting)! I'll tell you all about it in my next post! Talk to you soon!

Adventure in San Juan!

Hello everyone! Here is a recent mini adventure.
I got up late around twelve noon, and realized I was the only one home. My aunt was at work, and my cousin had gone off to shadow an operations manager that he sister knew well. Business management will be his new major in the fall. My cousin called me around three in the afternoon to notify me of his return. He then asked what I had in mind to do, because he expected me to have something in mind seeing that I was stuck in the house all day. I explained to him I was working on my blog, and watching "PLL" reruns so I hadn't planned on going out. I ended the conversation by saying that I would have something in mind by the time he got home.

He arrived at the house, and I still had no idea what to do. He called up a friend to see if he could come along to where ever we were going, but he couldn't. He told me he had called a few other friends, but since it was a Tuesday, a lot of people were working. So what happens next? My cousin asked me one final time what I want to do. That time I had an answer. I wanted to go to the beach near the Marriot Condado in San Juan. He said that it sounded like a good idea. We got all our beach related necessities ready to head out to San Juan.
Once we made it to San Juan about 30 minutes later, the challenge was no longer what to do, but rather, where to park. Once we found a parking spot we started walking down the beach. We walked all the way to the end until we hit this rock platform area were there was a workout class taking place. We stood there for a bit until we decided to see if we could go swimming in one of the hotels.

The closest hotel was the Ritz Carlton. We looked around to check if the guests had wristbands on indicating they were guest. We realized no one did, and continued to walk right off the beach and into the pool area. I speak English well, and my cousin has an accent, but his accent isn't too thick. We made sure to speak English, and act like we were guest. It was the funniest thing! We even walked into the actual hotel from the pool area while speaking English. Then we came back out of the hotel so it would look certain that we were guest! We swam and hung out in the beautiful pool area. I took pictures, videos, and snap chats of just about everything (including the hotel bathroom).

After some time of being in the pool we decided we were hungry. I told my cousin that we should go to the famous hamburger place in Viejo San Juan, and he said we could. I headed to the bathroom inside the hotel to change. This was when I snap chatted pictures of the bathroom. It was beautiful!

After I changed I headed back to the pool area to meet my cousin. We walked to the car, and were quickly off to Viejo San Juan. We made it to the burger joint, and ate very simple Swiss cheese burgers with a side of fries, a pepsi, and a Medalla. Medalla is the official beer of Puerto Rico. To be honest, I felt kind of cool being asked for my ID when I ordered alcohol. I quickly realized that hamburger and beer (at least Medalla) do not go well together. Luckily my cousin was nice enough to share his Pepsi. I decided to take the beer and sit by the beach to finish it. My cousin and I sat by the edge of the rocks from where you could see the beach. My cousin then decides to say,"You know if there is an earthquake, we are kind of screwed." I asked him if he really had to say that while we were sitting on the edge of a cliff. He suddenly went on a rant about earthquakes, and the environment. I stopped listening after sometime, and just enjoyed the beautiful view. We decided to head back home, and call it a night. This was a great mini adventure, and I hope to have many more to share with all of you! Talk to you all soon!