Follow My Spring Break Home *2019*

Hey everyone! Happy Spring Break! Although many people are traveling to Punta Cana and the Bahamas, and going on service trips; I went home to New York for the break to just have some time to clear my head and see some friends. Going home wasn't a bad option for me because I love spending time with my parents, friends, and dog. Also, I live in Brooklyn so there is always new and exciting things for me to do while I am home. 

Right now is the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden, which is a big deal at my school since Providence College is part of that league of sports. While I type this post, I am watching the Villanova University vs Providence College game. Tonight, I will be attending a networking night at Madison Square Garden while the remainder of the games play out today! I will hopefully be writing about my experience there soon...

Here's what my Spring break has looked like so far...

I love LED lights, so I made my friend take a photo of me at The Little Cupcake in Brooklyn. You can find this photo on instagram: here

 Monday 

Over the weekend, my dad and I went to the Supermarket since I was desperately in need of fruits and vegetables. At school, I do not eat as much fruit as I would like due to their limited selection (no berries at all!), so I needed to take advantage of being home and eating as much as I want to. I've been making bowls with clementines, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries. I will either eat this with my breakfast or as a dessert.

Later that day, I went to Cocoa Grinder ( a chain of cafes located in Brooklyn) for lunch. Right now, I am on a trend of eating less chicken, beef, and pork; so I ordered the vegan steak bowl. It was so delicious. The bowl had brown rice, cooked kale, tofu in seasoning, cucumbers, and tomatoes. The bowl is very filling, and I was so obsessed and will most likely buy it again in the future.

While I was at Cocoa Grinder, I was working on a blog post that will be up on Sunday! I also ordered myself a hot chai latte to go with my meal and blogging.

Tuesday

My dad and I went to the gym in the morning. I was on a grind at school for a few weeks of going often and then stopped, when I get back, I need to re-evaluate how I slacked at the gym and make an effort to go. Summer is coming up, and I really want to be working on a body that I am happy and confident in. On that note... post-breakfast I ate avocado on a baguette with turmeric, salt, and pepper. On the side, two Morning Star veggie sausage patties.

Being away from my dog, Bosco, has been hard so I have been taking so many photos of him while I've been home.

Later that day, I headed to downtown Manhattan to get lunch with my friend, Aubrey. We have a tradition now of going to Jack's Wife Freida when we are both back in the city (we both go to college in New England). This place is a Meditteranean breakfast/lunch place in Soho that I love so much! Their cappuccinos are so good!

Both Aubrey and I had Green Shakshuka with Challah Bread on the side. I've never heard of shakshuka before, but my first experience with it was pleasant. I had the option to have feta with it, and it was a nice touch. Last time, I ate the Meditteranean Breakfast from this restaurant which I also recommend.

You can see more of Aubrey and My adventures in New York City here.

We ended up walking to Washington Square Park and hanging out by there for awhile. We also went to PetCo to look at the animals, and Barnes and Noble (to skim books, sit around and talk, and charge our phones). Washington Square Park was very lively as the weather is getting warmer, but also because NYU is still in session.

We went to Cafe Reggio on McDougal street for dessert, it's a small Italian cafe with large art pieces and sculptures on the walls. I ordered Italian cheesecake, and Aubrey had Tartufo. This cafe was filled with groups of people talking, lone people working on their computers, and just all the different types of people that live in NYC. The music was very organ (the instrument) heavy, which fully does set the mood of the place.

Wednesday

I didn't take any photos, but today was my day of spa regimens. I had my hair cut & straightened (will be posting pictures of that to instagram), my eyebrows threaded, and my nails painted. It had been about two months since I've been home, and all those cosmetic routines are so much cheaper in my neighborhood than when I am at college. My hair was also too long for my liking and I would constantly be complaining. My mother and I went to get Bubble Tea after everything which was really nice. Do you have a favorite flavor of Bubble Tea?

 I love sushi. Last week, I facetimed my parents asking if we could go to this Japanese Buffet restaurant called Sake. I hadn't eaten sushi in a while, and I knew if I was coming home; that's one of the things I would want. We went last night, and it definitely lived up to my expectations. I ate some of the sushi shown but also vegetable fried rice, and miso soup.

More pictures of Bosco :)

Even though it only looks like I've only been eating on my break, I swear I have done other things. The food is just too good in New York to not take advantage of it. I've been spending the days home relaxing, catching up with people, watching Basketball, blogging, and doing homework. It was a much-needed break. 

Do you have spring break? What are your plans?

xx

Christina Madeleine

Two Coffee Shops in Providence & A New Blogger

Hey everyone! In the typical blogger fashion, I went to some cafes in Providence to do some studying with my friend Colleen. I had principles of marketing final earlier that day and my brain was absolutely fried, and so I needed to leave campus for a bit.

Around 1:30pm, we went to the Nitro Cart - Nitro Bar ( https://www.thenitrocart.com/ ), which is a Rhode Island coffee shop that has portable carts that come to Providence College and Brown University when it's nice out. They have nitro coffee (which is all the craze now!) on tap, and I might have a small obsession with it.

So, the Nitro-Bar is located inside the DASH bicycle store. I was able to hear the founders of the NitroCart speak at my college, and they said that the reasons were for 1) it's hard to find space 2) the bicycle store had the customer demographics they wanted to reach.

The bicycle store is technically next to the coffee bar, but some of the bikes line the walls and they sell merch as well. 

We ended up sitting at this cafe (in a different seat than where this photo was taken) for about 2.5 maybe 3 hours. What started as Colleen planning out her English final, and myself working on making a study guide for Macroeconomics ended with us drinking copious amounts of coffee and blogging! Which brings me to this... Colleen made a blog and it's really good!

 I was obviously ecstatic because I haven't met that many people in real life that blog or want to. Also, the demographics of bloggers are usually older than me and in the United Kingdom (which I absolutely love, but also means I haven't met them).

Nitro Bar closes around 5pm, so around 4, we decided to leave, as to not overstay since at that point we had been there since 1:30. We really didn't want to go back to campus yet, so we just looked up another cafe to go to!

Before we started the ten-minute walk to another shop, we just had to take a photo of this sign. I am a fan of cute signs like this!

Okay! Next, we went to White Electric Coffee (http://whiteelectriccoffee.com/#thebestcoffee), where we proceeded to both get another coffee and camp out.

The aesthetics of the two coffee shops are a bit different. Nitro-Bar has more of a clean and minimalist aesthetic, while White Electric's is warmer and crowded with lots of browns, reds, and LED lights. White Electric Coffee reminds me of a store I would find in Williamsburg, Brooklyn; so I was a fan of that. I am going back to both places definitely!

I have yet to try to food at White Electric Coffee, but it's on my to-do list for the second semester.

Above is a photo that I took of my cappuccino, but Colleen's blog is up on the screen.  next to I am literally so proud that Colleen made a blog (so catch me promoting it a bunch), but she's one of my closest friends here. So please check it out! Her link is: http://stainedpetals.blogspot.com/

We left the cafe around 6pm to come back go back to campus. It's so dark and cold out now; so it was a tad depressing to go back to the dorm, but it was time to. We were completely bundled up in our big blanket scarves and winter coats. 

I hope you liked this post! Check out about the time I went to a different cafe in Providence called Sydney (it's Australia inspired) here. My last post is about what music I've been listening to, and I actually wrote that while sitting in NitroBar (don't forget to comment what you've been listening to on it). 

If you have finals, good luck! See you in my next post!

xx

Christina Madeleine