OOTD: Bronco Nation

Kaixo everyone,

I do not believe I have ever talked about this in my blog (I may have though, I am as repetitive as someone can get and I've told this story three times to a friend this weekend. Three times), but I am a huge Denver Broncos fan. Living in the Midwest, this is kind of odd. Being a girl from Europe, this is super odd. However, I did my study abroad in Durango, Colorado, where one of my dearest friends, Elley, instilled her love of the Broncos in me.

In fact, the last week I spent in Colorado, I got to have dinner with one of them! True story. My friend Ali's mom used to work in the hotel were they stayed before games, and she was good friends with one of them, David. She invited him to come over for dinner many times, and finally, he came when I was just visiting Ali! It really was a pleasure to meet such a cool, funny guy and hear what he had to say about being a professional football player.

David, Ali and I in June 2012

The Broncos got to the Super Bowl in 2014, which got me super excited.

2014

If you are a football fan, you may remember was absolutely painful for the Broncos. I cried. I seriously did cry on my way home from watching. The Seahawks crushed them.

So when the Broncos made it to the Super Bowl again this year, I was ecstatic. I was definitely wary, considering how good the Panthers had been during the season. Pretty much everyone here thought the Panthers were gonna win, and only 3 of us at the party where I watched it were rooting for the Broncos. So, SURPRISE SURPRISE, THE BRONCOS WON!!!!! OMAHA, OMAHA!!!

I felt so so happy, and I felt so happy for Elley, Ali, and all my Colorado friends who were so happy about their beloved state team. In 2014 I had the cap that David signed, but this year I had it in Spain, so I got the cutest Denver Broncos tee I could've found in Easy.

Tee, AFApparel

HOW CUTE IS THIS??? A Mexican Día de los Muertos skull with the Broncos' old logo in the forehead. The Bronco is actually a skeleton! I fell in love right at the moment I saw it. But I even fell more in love when I got it on the mail. The royal blue shade was darker than expected, which I loved.

Snapchat filters on point! Follow me: anetxin91

Tank: AFApparel // Cardigan: Forever 21 // Jeans: Uniqlo // Ring: Mango (old, similar here) // Bracelet: Apricot Lane boutique // Sneakers: Converse // Handbag: Lefties (old, similar here) // Necklace: Forever 21

Even Lilly Pulitzer showed a little homage to the Broncos after winning Super Bowl 50! In love with this print!

Tell me about your Super Bowl experience! What team did you root for? Did you wear anything in particular? Let me know!

Love,

- Ane

Opportunities and experiences

Kaixo everyone,

Today I'm feeling sappy. Not bad sappy, but happy sappy (lol puns). As I was going to leave the classroom at 5pm, our translation class instructor told us that Bob Woodward, one of the journalists who uncovered the whole Watergate scandal in the 1970s was giving a talk at 7pm this afternoon, sponsored by the College of Law here at U of I. I decided that heck, I was gonna go hear this guy who has witnessed and has been history. I gotta say, the talk was terrific. He talked about 8 presidents (the talk is the first of a series on Abraham Lincoln and his influence) and it was truly interesting. After I left the auditorium, I started thinking to myself about how lucky I am to go to such a great school, and the opportunities and experiences that this university has given me:

- I got a Master's from a top school in the field.
- My advisor is the king of his field.
- Had my very own, movie-like American graduation.

- I presented in two different conferences and got published in the first's proceedings (fingers crossed for the second one!).

- I have now almost 3 years of teaching experience and 5 different courses under my belt, ranging from 100 to 400 level.

- I never had prom in Spain, so I got fraternity formals and semiformals. And one of them was at the Sears Tower in Chicago.

(I am NOT wearing flats)

- I have been to the place North Shore High (Mean Girls' high school) was based on. And the Walker Brothers Pancake House. And Old Orchard Mall. Mean Girls is my favorite movie ever.

- I have traveled to NYC and Oregon, and been back to Colorado.

- I have rediscovered Chicago and have fallen in love each time.

- I've seen plenty of famous people like Bob Woodward...

Major Lazer

Jeff Dunham

MCLOVIN (and okay, Dave Franco)

Piper Kerman (OITNB, anyone?) 

JOE BIDEN (and he held my hand) 

Nev Schulman (aka my future husband)

- Got into an honors society.

Phi Kappa Phi

- I am currently the president of the graduate student RSO from my department.

- I am part of a retail industry based RSO that no matter how little it has to do with my studies, I love.

- I am about to start leading conversation groups in Spanish.

- I have been able to start translating and being certified by it, and I have been offered really cool translation jobs.

- I have fallen in love and also fallen out of it (sappy alert).

- I have made lifelong friendships.

- I have had an experience I would never have imagined.

Man, I love this place.

Love,

- Ane

Winter Uniform

Kaixo lovely readers!

I hope your first (or second? third?) week of classes went well! Mine was a whirlwind with teaching, classes and getting back on track, but I am happy to report that I have felt rejuvenated after Christmas and that I am very excited about the classes that I'm taking and the classes that I'm teaching. I am taking two translation courses (yay certification!) and a course with my advisor on L2 phonology, which is my thang. I'm teaching a course on the sounds of Spanish (23 students, 3 hours a week, scary but exciting! And they seem not to be confused!) and BASQUE! At first I thought I would have 4 students but it turns out I'll have 7! All the effort sending e-mails to promote it paid off!

Today I wanted to make a brief post of something that has happened to me that I had never noticed here before (maybe I wasn't paying attention, but it's strange because it's fashion related). A revelation. It happened today when I walked to the ARC, the kick-ass gym (one of two!) we have at UIUC. I stopped for a minute at the entrance to get my student card out of my wallet, when I looked up, and I saw all the girls in front of me (ALL OF THEM), wearing the same thing. A long black parka, an infinity scarf, winter boots, a head wrap and a Longchamp bag. OK did I miss the memo? At first I thought, is this a sorority girl thing? (Not trying to disrespect sorority women here by generalizing, believe me, if there were sororities in Spain I'd have joined one in a heartbeat and I would've been the president because #power) But when ALL girls are wearing that, that cannot be possible. UIUC has a large Greek population but I don't think it reaches 30%...

Basically, everyone was wearing a winter uniform. THE winter uniform. And I don't blame them, who wouldn't bundle up in this cold (it's bad but not as bad as the 2013-2014 end of the world #neverforget) in those cozy garments?

Clockwise from left: Parka: The North Face // Le Pliage Large Tote: Longchamp // Head wrap: BLOM // Infinity Scarf: J. Crew Factory // Boots: Sorel

I gotta admit I do have an infinity scarf, and an almost identical tote to that Longchamp. But seriously, that view of all the girls in front of me wearing the same things struck me. Oh life.

Now, how about you? Is this your winter uniform? What is your winter uniform, if you have any?

Love,

- Ane

My First Visit to a Lilly Pulitzer Store

Kaixo everyone,

I'm in a white state of mind with all this snow falling. Ugh. My hair almost froze today on my way back from doing groceries, my nose was as red as Rudolph's and I was dressed like an onion with all those layers. But let's be positive, winter in Illinois will be gone sometime... soon? EL OH EL I can win the Powerball from last week too following that logic... In any case, if you are positive about it will go soon. That has worked for me in the past. Something that will definitely help is some bright clothes and accessories that I bought the other day in my first time ever in a LILLY PULITZER STORE!!!!!!! I have bought many things over the internet but I had never been to a store.

After landing in O'Hare (like an hour after, customs and clearing took freaking 5ever), I took a cab to the Oakbrook Center, a mall in the Chicago suburbs that has a Lilly store, the only one in Illinois (at least a corporate location). Now it wasn't a regular situation. I had my 50lb suitcase with me, a 40l backpack and a tote, and I had till 5 when I had to take the bus to Champaign. I walked through Macy's pretending I had no suitcase (everyone was looking at it, it's bright green after all), made my way outside and made it to the Lilly store.

It was so pretty from the outside, and then I came in, and the ladies there were absolutely the best. Like, they offered to keep my suitcase and backpack behind the counter. UGH THANK DA LORD! Carrying all that wasn't only obnoxious, it was also super tiresome. My favorite part of the store were absolutely the fitting rooms. And I was placed in the coolest one, in my opinion, the Chicago one! It had exclusive Lilly paintings that evoked the city and everything about it, I absolutely LOVED IT.

Since it was the first time in a Lilly store, I tried a ton of things: Shirts, shorts, pants, etc.

Although all these were beautiful, they did not look that good on my skin (milky white girl probs), so I did not take them with me. However, I went with something that I had not thought of at all while looking at the web, but I decided to try it on because it was on sale and holy Jesus it looked beautiful!

I got my first Elsa! I was not planning to get one but I tried it on and it looked surprisingly pretty and put-together on me, and the colors were incredible. I don't know what my mom will say about ANOTHER pink and blue shirt (seriously, another), but it really, truly looks beautiful. I fell in love instantly. And believe me, pictures don't do it justice (I don't know how I do it to look like an awkward preggo lady every time I take a selfie SMH). Pictures don't do justice to the fitting rooms either.

I cannot wait to rock this piece soon. I'm particularly excited to take it to Nashville when my family comes visit in March, I believe people will be more appreciative of it over there lol. I did get some other accessories (a candle and two market bags) and I got the beautiful water bottle on promotion this weekend!

More additions to my ever-growing Wild Confetti collection

I wish I could've stayed at least 3 more hours in the store (and that I had a Black Amex too, a girl can dream) but I had to leave very soon. The adorable girl who helped me out even held the door open for me and my obnoxious entourage (yeah, my luggage) to leave the store. I wish the store had more things (like more shorts and dresses) but I loved shopping there and seeing everything first-hand. 

So I went to take the bus, and was when I was at the pick up location (out in the cold in an Oakbrook Center parking lot), this lady who was waiting with her daughter to take the bus to Champaign as well told me to go in her car not to freeze to death, which was really sweet and moving. Overall, I was very happy! I got to Champaign, had a beer with my neighbors (I missed my babies so much!), unpacked and finally went to sleep after 24h awake. Now I'm back in Champaign and lesson-planning for the classes I'm teaching this semester.

I wish everyone had or has a great beginning of the spring semester, best of lucks!

Love,

- Ane

Thanksgiving Break Haul

Kaixo everyone,

Guess what's fantastic: November being my birthday month. Black Friday being in November. Guess what's even better: No sales tax in Oregon.

Basically, my Thanksgiving Break shopping was off the charts AMAZING. Shopping in Chicago before flying to Oregon, Black Friday and Cyber Monday meant lots of money spent but also LOTS OF DISCOUNTS!

Here's what I got:

Chicago: Chicago shopping is one of my favorite because you can find hose shops that you don't find in any mall everywhere. As I said, November is my birthday month, and there are some really awesome discounts for it, like the 50$ off from Tory Burch if you sign up for their e-mails for your birthday, or the half off for your birthday month for one Kendra Scott item. I kept it simple and efficient in Chicago due to my early departure the next morning. I went to the stores above to take advantage of the birthday discounts, and to Uniqlo, which just opened in Chicago and was offering 5$ off for your first purchase in store.

You guys, the best buys ever. These jeans are my favorite, I had a pair that broke and I took the chance to buy the exact same. As for the earrings, I own the Danielle earrings in Magenta, and I love them, so I decided to get another pair of Danielles. I was gonna get the Turquoise ones, but I decided to get the White Howlite ones, and I'm so happy I did, they go with absolutely everything! And one of the best buys of the year, the Miller sandals, which I paid 145$ (+ tax) for. I'm sorry, but it screams DEAL!! You can't use the 50$ discount for the Reva flats, of the Minnie flats, but Millers are not mentioned there so I took advantage of it and BOOM! So weather appropriate! At least I'm ready for summer!

Jeans: Uniqlo // Earrings: Kendra Scott

Sandals: Tory Burch

Black Friday: It all boils down to the Sephora stop, as usual. I got presents for my family, and presents for myself. As it was my birthday present, I got two awesome Nars lip-liners for free! And I restocked on pretty much everything: Make-up, perfume, 10$ deals, etc. I also had the chance to stop by a Kate Spade store, where I bought an adorable coffee (in my case tea, let's be honest coffee is a no-no in my taste buds) mug that I've been using non-stop and the cutest table book, which has some awesome tips and recipes, I highly recommend it. Another great buy were Nikes at 40$ instead of 100$ at Ross, since Kelly works there and had a discount! Macy's had really nice door busters too, like the Tory Burch lotion that smells AMAZING.

Birthday present for Beauty Insiders in Sephora

Rollerball: Tory Burch

Pore Perfection Black Friday Set: Boscia

Foundation: Bare Minerals

Mug: Kate Spade

Book: Kate Spade

Sneakers: Nike

Lotion: Tory Burch

Cyber Monday: Something that I was sad about when Black Friday passed was that I had to pass up the most beautiful wristlet in Nordstrom. Nordstrom has a 30% off sale for Tory Burch like in the website, but only in certain items, and this wristlet was not one of them. I was determined not to spend a dime in Cyber Monday, like in previous years, but cue Bloomindale's and their sale... ALL by Tory Burch had a 25% off, plus I added a 10% off from signing up to their mailing list, and boom! The wristlet was 45 dollars off! And I couldn't be happier, it goes with everything, has plenty of space (well distributed space) and I feel like a diva whenever I use it.

Wristlet: Tory Burch

Overall, I'm very happy with my purchases. Thanksgiving break is the best time for me to get presents both for me and my family for Christmas, so I do go a little overboard with shopping. How about you?
Love,

- Ane

Oregon OOTD: Hiking in Style

Kaixo everyone!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas (and well if you don't celebrate it, that you're having an awesome holiday so far) and that your break is being as relaxing as mine. Something that I can't wait to do once the holidays are done with is to GO HIKING. I mean, central Illinois is so flat. SO FLAT. Meanwhile, the Basque Country has both coast and mountains! Something I got to do while visiting Kelly in Oregon was to go hiking! We visited Multnomah Falls east of Portland, and let me tell you, it was beautiful. Full of tourists (UGH), but the higher we went, the less people there were.

I took the opportunity to channel my inner 80s aero-hiking queen, with some really bright patterned garments. I mean, I could use neutrals like mostly everyday on my life, but there are some positives to wearing brights while hiking:

1) You can be easily recognizable...
2)...so you won't get lost.
3) Nobody will judge you because you're supposed to feel comfortable, so what if your most comfortable clothes give people eyesores?
4) The 80s are ALWAYS back in style.
5) You look fly as f.

I wish being myself looked cooler than this

Fleece: Patagonia // Yoga pants: Lululemon // Gloves: Lands' End // Sneakers: Adidas (old, similar here // Bag: Lefties (old, similar here) // Beanie: TIS University Bookstore (old, similar here)

I personally love this fleece, but I just noticed the color sold out! One of my friends told me Patagonia is way better than North Face (I have no idea, honestly, agree to disagree), and I saw those funky colors and fell in love, and even more when I got it and I started wearing it non-stop. You already know about how much I love my yoga pants, and well, fun fact! A guy at the top of the trail stopped us and asked if we were Illini, to what we said yeah, of course! He was too! Class of '73! That was one of the highlights of the hike, definitely!

I wanted to make a personal note before ending this post. While Christmas is a time of celebration and enjoyment with loved ones, I have heard the saddest news yesterday. Olatz, a friend of mine from my hall my sophomore year, passed away in China due to severe food intoxication. She was a fun-loving, outgoing girl in love with life who had the whole world ahead of her, and her sudden death filled me with sadness. This reminded me of how lucky I am to be alive, and never to take the next day for granted. Olatz was 23 and had her whole life ahead of her, and now she does not. Please pray or think about her family in such a terrible time and remember to cherish your existence, for it is never guaranteed. Goian bego, Oli.
Love,

- Ane