friends – Hello Hayley

In eateries, food on

December 23, 2014

joan’s in studio city

this past friday, i trecked down to los angeles along with my mom and another food-loving mother/daughter duo to try the new joan’s on third, which opened recently in studio city. i already know this area well because it is the home of my favorite vegan restaurant, sun cafe, as well as many other cute shops and eateries so when i found out joan’s was opening its second location here, i was over the moon. the grand opening was while i was in ohio but all semester, i was looking forward to visiting when i got home. the space is much like the third street location but seemed much more spacious and airy. the food was wonderful as always and we walked out with a few extra treats and last minute christmas presents for friends and family. so happy to see my favorite LA eatery growing and thriving and fingers crossed they open a store in orange county soon

hayley

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In holidays, travel on

December 21, 2014

a white thanksgiving

this year for thanksgiving, I went to my dear friend julia’s parents house in the woods of connecticut. i went here once before for thanksgiving during my freshman year at cedarville and it was a wonderful experience that i’m blessed to have the chance to repeat. we drove 12 hours thru the night the tuesday before thanksgiving because we heard there was going to be a snowstorm in connecticut wednesday morning. literally as soon as we arrived to julia’s, it started to snow and snow and snow. on thursday, we had thanksgiving dinner at julia’s grandparent’s house, which already felt familiar because of my last thanksgiving spent there. we played pictionary and apples to apples and had races to fill out maps of the US and Canada with some of the Canadians we had visiting. after thanksgiving, we had a pretty chill break, filled with homework in coffee shops, watching the original pride and prejudice, baking and candle lit dinners due to power outages. i had a ridiculously large amount of homework to do due to finals week starting right after thanksgiving break but i ended up having a great time of fun and fellowship regardless of my workload. i ended up missing the first monday back because we were driving but God is good and all my teachers moved back our assignments so i didn’t miss anything.

thanksgiving

victoria station

hayley

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In travel on

August 11, 2014

girls weekend in palm springs

for my friend kayla’s birthday, we spent the weekend at the ace hotel in palm springs. it was hot hot hot (like 105 degrees hot) but we spent lots of time sipping drinks by the pool and chilling wherever there was air conditioning to be found. we explored the downtown and some of the local hotels in the area but always ended up back at ace. we found a private pool in the back which was a nice way to stay away from the crowded and crazy atmosphere at the main pool. it was a nice time of getting to celebrate kayla in such a beautiful and fun place. it was so sad to leave but i’m looking forward to more girls weekends like this in the future.

hayley

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In eateries, food, travel on

June 23, 2014

montmarte and soul kitchen cafe

when I was 11, I went to montmarte with my family. I was young and completely overwhelmed but the bohemian vibe with artists painting everywhere and beautiful views was indelibly marked on my mind. so when we were planning where to go this trip, I knew I wanted to re-experience montmarte again through new eyes. montmarte was close to our hotel but it took quite a few days to actually get over to that part of town. after getting lost (typical), we finally saw sacré coure beckoning from afar. probably in all of Paris, montmarte is where we felt the least safe. there were tourists everywhere and people haggling us to buy things and guys telling us we’d be prettier if we smiled (so odd) and honestly, it was pretty stressful. we were beginning to feel like montmarte was a lost cause when we began to descend the hill and stumbled upon the cutest cafe I have ever seen. they had the largest array of gluten free treats I had seen yet in Paris and conversation cards (in English!) and glorious lemonade and seemed like an oasis after our hot and stressful bout. we stayed for hours and people watched (all the customers were intimidatingly cool) and chatted and enjoyed the good food and decided our trip to montmarte was pretty great after all.

//montmarte//

hayley

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In travel on

June 19, 2014

my week in paris

after my semester in york, i spent a week in paris with my beloved roommate from ohio, emily. she was doing a may term in france and invited me to crash with her in paris. such a dream! it was a spectacular adventure despite random bouts of torrential rain and at times faulty directions (i blame google). some highlights include following in the steps of my favorite movie before sunset (more on that soon), church at hill song paris, amazing evening meals and catching each other up to speed on our lives, copious amounts of french bonbons and pastries and day trips to versailles and monet’s garden. everything was absolutely magical. here are a few random, quintessentially parisian pictures but get ready for a downpour of posts coming at you soon.

{this bakery got the award for the best bread in paris – first gluten i had in months!}

{a scene from before sunset was filmed here! ahhh!}

{coolest shop in Paris}

hayley

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In life on

May 28, 2014

york graduation

at the end of every semester in bible college, there is a graduation ceremony. when i was in new zealand, we would dress up and go to mongolian bbq (my second semester graduation seen here). but in york, they throw a huge party and graduation ceremony complete with an epic semester video (watch it here), lots of food, awards and an all around great time. i absolutely adore these people so this was the perfect last hoorah to such an amazing semester. a few of my close friends graduated including andie, who i went to iraq with and justin, who was my street witnessing buddy. two of my closest friends, christine and allie, had to leave before the ceremony which was a real bummer but they both live in california so i’ll hopefully be seeing lots more of them this summer. here are a few pictures i managed to catch of this wonderful night and a few of the people that made this semester so memorable.

{ingliv! i love this girl more than words can express. i need to visit norway asap}

{the graduates… thanks danielle for looking at my camera}

{Anniina, my finish roommate! stupor stoked that we got an extra large glass of the world’s best punch}

{boston! probably one of the most fun and funniest girls i met this semester}

{10A! minus allie but she’s there in spirit}

{Chelsay! so blessed and encouraged by her friendship and leadership}

{these guys are hilarious!}

{i’ve known josh since elementary school! he’s working at the church this summer so he randomly showed up at graduation, complete with awesome mustache}