Our second day in the City of Lights or la Ville Lumière was the most productive and, as a result, the most tiring out of our entire 3-day stay. We wanted to make the most off of what was left of our time in the city and to compensate for that one whole day we lost due to our delayed flight. I woke up at around 5am, checked my phone for messages, replied to them, and at 5:30am, I asked Ate (elder sister) if we should get ready early, so we could take pictures at the Louvre and at the Eiffel Tower before the crowd starts coming in. She agreed, and we woke everyone up, which wasn't hard since we were all pretty jet lagged anyway.

 Outfit Details 
Sweater • Forever 21
Coat • Divisoria
Skirt • (gifted)
Shoes • Tretorn

As I've said from my last post, Musée du Louvre is only a 2-minute walk away from our hotel so at 7am we were already there taking loads of pictures, with barely 10 other tourists around us. It was not long before I realized that, having changed my bag before we left, I forgot my passport at the hotel, so we had to go back before taking the bus to Tour de Eiffel. Feeling guilty since I caused our delay, I began to feel at ease again when everyone started layering in more clothes as we got back because the temperature was lower than what the weather app claimed it to be. I myself had to trade my skirt for a pair of trousers and my low-neck sweater for a turtleneck with additional top and bottom heat tech pieces underneath. I also switched bags since I thought that my backpack would be a less bothersome option what with all the walking we're going to do. Finally, we were ready to go! But not before grabbing some food at the nearest boulangerie just down the block from where we were staying.





And here we are.


 Outfit Details 
Black Top • Greenhills
Coat • Divisoria
Trousers • Trendsetter's Bazaar
Shoes • Tretorn
I have to say that the Eiffel Tower really took my breath away the first time I saw it, and I'm well aware of how cliché that sounds. On the bus ride there, we already caught a few glimpses of it, and I was actually already feeling giddy inside. Somehow I remembered all the wonderful films I've watched and books I've read that were set in Paris. I'm so glad we walked straight to Jardins du Trocadéro which provided us a great spot to appreciate the whole view of the tower from afar before coming near it. Here I am trying to look nonchalant as I can be (but in reality I'm so kilig).

city of love with the one i love. this will have to do for now. je t'aime, mon petit chou. 🥰 pic.twitter.com/vUrOOQY6d3

— lois♡inas (@loisvinas) June 12, 2019

I decided to video call with Cyrill as we made our way towards the Iron Lady. Thankfully, I caught him online at that time of the day. If you didn't know, most of Europe has a time zone that is 6 hours behind that of the Philippines's. And I don't know why, but Mom decided to shop for pasalubong (souvenirs) right then and there in front of the tower. I thought about how overpriced the items probably were, but we didn't really have any more time to go around and look for cheaper alternatives. Perhaps, next time?





Anyway, after checking off two main tourist spots on our list, we went to pick up our Paris Museum Passes at the Central Paris Tourist Office and grabbed lunch at a nearby milk tea place which, oddly enough, also serves Korean rice meals. For the cheap price, their food was unexpectedly good. All fueled up, we were then more than ready to take on what's left of our day's itinerary.





We took the train to the little island where Sainte Chapelle, Conciergerie, and Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris were. Even though they were of walking distance from each other, it was quite hard for us to go from one place to another because it kept raining every few minutes! It's a good thing that we brought umbrellas.


I guess it's safe to say that it truly broke my heart, actually all of ours, that we couldn't go inside Notre-Dame because obviously it's still under repair from the fire. A local told us that it's definitely gonna take a few years for it to be opened to the public again.



After saying our little prayers, we bid good bye to the cathedral and crossed the bridge to visit one of the places I'm most excited to see during our trip here, the charming Shakespeare and Company.



This independent English bookshop, despite its small and crumbling state, is said to be the most famous of its kind in the world. As someone who has deep love for reading books or words in general, especially for leisure, I didn't even think twice about visiting here. Upon entering the little building, I immediately felt like I was in a different world. It was like passing through that secret wall in the The Leaky Cauldron and into Diagon Alley (a Harry Potter reference, yes). It's not allowed to take pictures inside, but I did manage to sneak a few:



It felt like I was home even for a while as I sat on one of the reading nooks inside. If it were only up to me, I would've spent the rest of the day there. But there's no stopping for more of Paris, of course!


Somehow, we soon found ourselves walking along Rue Gay-Lussac which leads right to Jardin du Luxembourg. Ate and I had to help each other recall where we know the name from our lessons in school. As it turns out, it was an actual street named after French chemist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, famous for his law, (obviously) the Gay-Lussac's law. Truly, we discover new things everyday. 😅

After more walking and people-watching, we decided to go back to the hotel to rest for a bit until we left again at around 9pm to visit the Louvre (you know, go inside for real this time) as well as to see the Eiffel Tower light up under the night sky. The sun didn't set until 10-ish, so we killed time by having a picnic dinner at the Trocadero Gardens with a family friend we planned to meet up with.

It was indeed an amazing day filled with unique French culture, beautiful Haussmannien architecture, and unpredictable Parisian weather, among many others. I slept that night still not believing how lucky we all are for such an incredible experience. I cannot wait to share with you the rest of our adventures in this Eurotrip. The best is yet to come, so keep posted.

As always, have a lovely day wherever you are in the world right now, take care always, and love lots!

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It is June 9, 2019, Sunday. At 4pm, we (Dad, Mom, Ate, Poy, and I) attend the holy mass at the Shrine of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, conveniently located near NAIA, buying us enough time to check-in 2 hours before our flight to Bangkok followed an hour later by a connecting flight to Paris. At 7pm we are already at the gate waiting for our boarding time. However, due to a red lightning alert, our flight was delayed and eventually cancelled until the afternoon of the following day. Despite being given refuge (and a ridiculously fancy one at that) for the night, we could not help but brood over the fact that we just lost an entire day to what was essentially our first ever family Europe trip. Nevermind the one night fee for the Paris hotel that has already been paid for since it would be reimbursed by the airline sooner or later. What was extremely disappointing is that we lost an entire day of sightseeing due to a totally unprecedented, irrevocable, and undesirable reason. 24 hours may not seem much, but if you think about all the time we spent for planning, preparing, and even traveling there, it really is quite the inconvenience.

All the excitement I built up for months went away almost instantly. I probably remained in a state of shock from the moment I heard that our flight was cancelled until we were only a few hours away from our departure time for Paris. Not to mention, by the way, that none of our flights after that was on time at all. Needless to say, it was easily the most stressful travel experience we've had so far, and I sincerely hope that nothing else comes to top that.

It only dawned on me that we were, after all, still on our way to Paris when the cabin crew finally served us croissants and fruit parfaits for breakfast (they were actually pretty good for plane food). While we were eating, I slowly felt at ease again and then spent the rest of the flight sharing a pair of earphones with Poy as we watched Friends together on his phone until we landed. (How many times did I say "flight" in the last paragraphs? I know. I hate it, too.)

When we arrived, it was a clear sunny day in Paris, although a bit chilly (15°C-ish). I was quite alarmed, knowing I didn’t bring a lot of warm clothes for this trip. There's a reason why I suggested that we go on a Euro Trip specifically in the summer: I was beginning to get sick of to dealing with heavy winter clothing and find it a little too tiring to walk around streets, battling the freezing cold. It is June, pero ang lamig pa rin?

Anyway, after checking in at our hotel, which is conveniently located in the Louvre area (literally a 2-minute walk from Musée du Louvre), we carried on with what was left of our supposed-to-be 4-day itinerary. First order of business: Parc Disneyland. 

This is where we had the best chicken wings we've ever tried at any Disneyland. I didn’t get to take a picture though because we were all so hungry and just dug right in. As per our usual Disneyland conquests, the "kids" (Ate's 22, I'm 19, and Poy's 15) go off to try all the best roller coasters and other extreme/interesting rides available in the park while the "oldies" 😂 (obviously Mom and Dad) do their adult thing—going on the river cruise, taking pictures, eating, napping, more eating, etc. When you think about all the eating and napping, our parents' way actually sounds more fun than ours.

(here are some low quality stills from the video I took)

When everything's all done, we meet in front of the castle (or at least try to, what with all the kids fighting their way to sit on the curb all around the place to get the "perfect spot") just in time to watch the parade of Disney stars. My personal favorite would be the princesses' of course. We then went on the It's A Small World, as per the Mom and Dad's request. But who are we kidding? We all love it. 

We didn’t bother waiting for the late night fireworks display just because we were really dead tired, to be honest. Plus, we've already seen the show before. Still, I hope we didn’t miss much.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by the nearest grocery store to pick up some dinner and an adaptor for our extension cord. You'd think that with the five of us, one would remember to bring the right adaptor for our trip. But it didn’t happen this time. 

By 11pm, I think we were already sound asleep, ready to start the next day. Well that is, except for our parents who were wide awake, on their phones, trying to run our business, a thousand miles away from home. They really are our superheroes.

We've had quite the mishaps so far, and a few more are bound to come, we just don't know when. But none of them compares to the best reality that we're all together traveling again. This is probably gonna be the last big one for now since Ate's gonna be an intern already come the next summer. And you all know, as much as possible, we stick together for family travels. We're that clingy.

But I can’t wait for the rest of this Euro trip. After all, this is the one trip I've been waiting for since I was just a little girl, watching Madeline, Mr. Bean, Harry Potter, and every other Western film or tv series that comprise a huge part of my childhood. The only sad thing is that we won’t be going to London, my absolute favorite city in the world, this time because we've already been last 2015. 

 Outfit Details 
Black Hat • South Supermarket
Sunglasses • Sunnies
Turtleneck Dress • Divisoria
Watch • Daniel Wellington
White Shoes • Tretorn
Backpack • Fjallraven Kanken

For now, I'm in Paris! The beautiful city of love, which like London, is where old meets new in the most beautiful way (although I still think London's way ahead of my faves). I'm really the most excited because I poured my heart into planning our itinerary for this leg of our trip. So stay tuned for the rest of the blog posts! They're coming, I promise.

Passez une belle journée où que vous soyez dans le monde, prenez toujours soin de vous et aimez beaucoup! (Have a lovely day wherever you are in the world right now, take care always, and love lots!)

♡ Lois

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Lacking the motivation to do things is such a sticky situation to be in, one that is so frustrating when all you want to do is just be good in whatever it is you want or have to do. As a someone who's been studying for almost 16 years now, I have been demotivated to perform academic tasks (or just tasks in general) to the point that I can almost consider myself in a burnout phase wherein I feel emotionally, physically, and mentally exhausted to go on with my everyday life due to excessive and prolonged stress. 

I am no expert in this topic, so I suggest reading more about burnout prevention and treatment here. However, I do have some tips and insights to share about how I try to overcome extensive periods of demotivation, so I can avoid reaching burnout point.

 1. Acceptance 

This is obviously the first step because you can never really address anything good or bad if you don't acknowledge it. Time is fleeting, and the more you deny something that is actually happening, the more energy you spend wasting the opportunity to enjoy or overcome it. For me, I just tell myself that I'm in a lot of stress of lately, so I need to do something about it. It's as simple as that.

 2. Relaxation 

Okay. You may be wondering whether it is a better idea to relax so early on in the process than to save it for the end. People often say, "Save the best for the last." But, hear me out. When I know that I'm already stressed, I feel the need to instantly act on it by canceling out the stress with a calming medium. I do this by going out, watching my favorite movies, eating my favorite foods, and playing mobile games with Cyrill and my siblings. It is okay to rest once in a while, but once you know that you're already fully rested (or maybe even just enough), you have to proceed immediately to the next step. Otherwise, you're gonna be relaxing forever. Needless to say, you're not gonna be able to do anything else, which is not the point of this at all. 😂

 3. Inspiration 

Getting inspiration is like getting fuel for a car. You need something to make the engine, your brain, work as it should. I get inspiration everywhere. But when it comes to studying, I like watching my favorite student vlogger, Izzy Mollicone, because I relate to her in the sense that I study A LOT as well. If I'm not mistaken, I take 32-34 units every semester which is quite a handful especially when compared to the 15-22 units that my best friends take in their universities. 😢 Anyway, you'll know that you're already inspired or "fueled up" when you're finally getting the drive to create or do something. When this happens, immediately get on it so as to not waste any more time.

 4. More Inspiration 

Usually at the time when you're already hard at work and you're ready to check off things from your to-do list, you get into a minor setback, and you think that you're back to square one all over again. This is when you need the strongest inspiration you could gather up. Maybe think about why you're doing everything in the first place. What's your goal? What's gonna make you feeling happy and successful in the near future? Personally, I think about my parents and how they have always been supporting me (and my siblings) to the extent where they usually leave barely anything for themselves. I thrive in that guilt and willingness to give back to them by doing what is expected of me and possibly even more.

 5. Faith 

If nothing (or everything) goes to plan, don't forget to pray about it. This is the last step I do, usually when I've already done my work or when I'm ready to just trust God on His plans. I talk to Him and ask Him to prepare me for anything else that He has in store for me.

The truth is, we can never get rid of stress. I learned that from Understanding the Self class last semester. 😂 Whether you act positively or negatively on everything handed to you is entirely up to you, so make the most off of it.

“Don't let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.” ― A Cinderella Story