Berlin Party Time

Where did I leave off? It seemed like only the beginning of Fashion Week… yesterday. This city moves so fast you gotta catch up with it. There is no time to waste, let alone sleep. The best thing is that “fashion week” is more than just fashion. It’s about the city and the style on the streets and the parties and the people. And that’s exactly what I did. Wednesday: Attended the invite-only VICE/Rdio party where a friend was DJing… something we all adore by solomun Lots of hipsters and the usual, but good music and good friends and good drinks and good fun. Made it home just in time for the last train. Party win! Thursday: Skipped out on a fashion party to attend a geeky girls dinner at a restaurant in Mitte (the middle) where I chatted about the tech side of life with girls from other startups in Berlin. Friday: Went to a sexy club called Watergate where it was the Diynamic Nacht party, a record label based in Hamburg that specializes in sexy house music. And damn, was it hot. Danced until dawn and took the tram home (Berlin’s version of the streetcar). Saturday: Went to a tiny tiny club, Paloma Bar Sunday: Went to mauerpark Monday: Picked up my friend from Osaka from the train station and he cooked me some soba noodles and 豆大福 Tuesday: Went to the Berliner Philharmonie and listened to some Brahms, Tchaikovsky Wednesday: Boiler Room. That is all. Just an average week in the living of my life. – Jessica, in Berlin

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INSPIRATION: TRAVEL

It’s contagious. I peeled myself out of bed today after a super deep sleep. Was greeted by a delicious smooth in the fridge, thanks Barbie. The sun is shining and sparkling like glitter on the lake. Turned off the news for the aquarium channel, the fish tell less depressing stories. I want to travel. I know I just got back and I know I’m going places but I just can not seem to sit still. I caught a travel bug and it’s never going away. Had dinner with a friend last night who is off to England then Copenhagen and will be there for fashion week. (One day I will too.) She told me that she will be staying in a hotel called the Holiday Inn hotel in Kensington and it sounds amazing. She can’t wait to visit England and she’s equally excited about exploring Copenhagen too. I’m so jealous! We talked about how determined I am/we are to break out of Canada and move to a bigger ‘pond’. Canada is a wonderful country but I really want to do more international travel writing, working, and exploring. These photos are from a shoot I did with fashion photog & friend Lynsie Roberts when I signed the deal to go to New Zealand for Fashion Week in 2010. I was incredibly excited for my first international blogging adventure. I was radiant. Three places I REALLY want to go in 2012 year are: Cape Town, South Africa London, England Toyko, Japan If you have any thoughts, ideas or connections to make this dream a reality. LET ME KNOW. Send a note to [email protected] or leave a comment. I’m determined to take on the world! Life moves pretty fast sometimes, if you don’t look around, you’ll miss it” This commercial is great. Enjoy!…

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Things to do before you ___.

I can kinda speak French, but I’m much better after some wine. I took French from grade four until I graduated from high school. It’s a share they spent so much time on conjugating verbs when we could have been talking about how to get around France or hold a conversation. Would really come in handy now!  I’m planning a trip with jaunt.ca in the next few weeks where I’ll be spending a few days in old Quebec where it is predominantly French speaking. I downloaded some courses from iTunesU and a French language app to get more familiar. I’ve always been inspired by my friend Aga who could speak about seven languages. I witnessed her at dinner parties and events carrying on conversations in a variety of languages, at once. It was amazing! I want that ability! I’m determined to work on my Spanish & French this year. Next time I go surfing in Costa Rica I wanna be able to hold my own. There’s only one way to get there… Source: Uploaded by user via Julie on Pinterest

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How can I be more grateful for the love & abundance around me and share it with the world?

Went to this lovely little diner for breakfast today. It’s in Newton called Johnny’s Luncheonette, they have awesome latkes & matzo balls and all kinds of other good stuff. Been top of the ‘Best in Boston’ lists for years. I had the most divine sampler with crunchy toast, french toast, bacon, sausage, eggs and strawberries all topped off with icing sugar and a cup of maple syrup. It’s been a few hours and I’m still full. It was really sunny. Title of this post is from a photo I saw of something in Courtney Love’s West Village Townhouse. She’s a contributing editor to XO Jane and the photos & captions done by Jane are simply beautiful. See it here. I think I will live in New York at least once. This weekend has been a wonderfully chilled out break from the first 20 days of the year traveling to and from parties and conferences in Toronto, Detroit & Vegas. I’m at my friends house for a couple hours, their backyard is like a winter wonderland forrest. Ellen and I are doing a yoga class in about an hour. She’s a yoga teacher but were going to a new studio. After class we head back to the house for BBQ steak dinner. I’m back to Toronto tomorrow afternoon and will be happily at home for a few weeks. Yay!  

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We got snow from here to Nantucket

I think I might hibernate in my hotel all day. There’s a couple inches of snow out my window and a few dozen Japanese girls outside my door. No idea what we are doing tonight. The Rocky Horror show last night was AMAZING. I need to be part of a show on stage this year. I spent most of my childhood performing on stage. I miss it!! Have an awesome (lazy) day xo

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Ich Bin in Berlin

Hallo from Germany!!! Fashion Week in Berlin kicked off today–EXCITING! Since I’ve been anxiously waiting 4 months since my arrival, I’m totally pumped to be covering BFW! In true #ALT fashion I wasn’t even going to attend any shows or parties tonight–after all, even though it is opening night, it’s almost better to be too cool to bother going to the mainstream stuff. Instead of making my way down to the defunct airplane hangar playing host to the international trade fair Bread & Butter, I decided to walk around Kreuzberg (read: hipster’s playground) and see what came my way. It turned out that right around the corner after having a sushi dinner was an awesome photography exhibition party starring the edgy fashion photographer Tea Xuxu Nanuti happening at Galleria Butterfly Summit, a multi purpose gallery & store for design, art and photography. Took a few snaps, had a few shots, all and all it was a great little warm up for what’s to come this week. Auf wiedersehen for now my lieblings… xoxo  jgrdnr PS. If you guys are tired of using Instagram you should check out EYEEM, a social photo sharing app which I used for the cool effects you see on the photos. & I made the gif on Loopcam, both of which you can download for free. Made in Berlin baby! This city is not just the capital of Germany but it is pretty much the startup capital of Europe right now. On fiyaaaa!

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