Where Have I Been?

Nadeen here!

Jacques in a far away world of Florence, Italy and while I miss her dearly I’ll be spending my semester a little differently.

And while it is true that her life is way more exciting than mine at the moment, it’s still not an excuse as to why I haven’t been posting regularly.

I have learned that although I am extremely busy this semester, this blog is a tool I use to relax, and I need to start utilizing this more often.

Since we haven’t spoken in a while, I’ll briefly update you on all the new happenings in my life.

First off, I’m currently an intern at Refugee Services of Texas.

I’m absolutely in love with everything I do at this internship. It is alot of work, but it is also extremely rewarding. I get to use my arabic and spanish, while DIRECTLY helping families who just arrive in the US because of unfortunate events happening in their homeland.

I’m especially appreciative of this internship because of all the important life skills I’m gaining such as problem solving and multi tasking. We held our annual cycling fundraiser this weekend, where rode a 10 mile route to raise money for refugee and asylee families in Austin who are in need. I am thankful for all the sponsors that I had, and our whole nonprofit raised about $25,000 in total. which is absolutely amazing and one cannot even begin to imagine how directly helpful this money will be for so many families in Austin, TX.

The event was fun before and after the ride. There was yoga, breakfast tacos, live music, beer, and more. and it was at Yellow Bike Project! 

 

Second, I’ve taken this whole Face Painting thing to the next level and started my own mini business. 

I created some business cards, put up a few ads on craigslist, and have received a great response!

If you’d like to book me for a party, you can email me at nadeenabouhossa@yahoo.com

So these are all the “important,” productive, life factors in my life.

Other than that, I’ve really been enjoying myself and learning how precious time is, and instead of blabbering away you can see some highlights in photos. (I got the new iphone 5s for christmas, so my photos are way better quality now 🙂 )

^^my new room

I made Arrepas (venezuelan meal) for the boys

their faces show the deliciousness 

We put up a hammock in the hall of our house, but of course it’s only for cody 😉

Made candles at home! It was fun but really messy and alot of work. 

Gotta have a strong man to cut up all the wax so it can melt properly 

Taaaa-daaaaa! They smelled delightful. One of our housemates got a lil wild with mixing scents and she ended up throwing hers away cause it smelled like puke. (oops)

My man and I went on a sweet little getaway over MLK weekend. (thanks groupon getaway for making it affordable)

The weather was perfect! 

I cook for my house every Thursday, and I want to start updating you all on what we cook cause it’s been great and unique this semester! Here are our chicken and bean enchiladas con mucho queso 

This has been the coldest winter in TX that I can ever remember. 3 snow days so far, including tomorrow! (that’s the real reason why I’m blogging :)) And as tortuous as it’s been to deal with this freezing weather (continuous nights in layers of clothes drinking hot tea and cuddling – it’s actually not so bad), I’ve been happy cause I get to wear this monkey hat my brother gave me a few years ago. 

A few days ago, when I started this post,  I couldn’t remember how the sun looked like or how I could even begin to fathom to pull out some shorts, so that’s why I wanted to post this photo from the week before. a day of beautiful sunshine all day, cause I wanted to go back to that day in the grass.^^^^^^

Last weekend, we went to a wild child show here in Austin, where they were shooting their music video. It was at the coolest house I’ve ever been to. You be the judge by the looks of these photos.

(sign waiver to jump on this trampoline ^^)

play some chess 

smoke machines!! 

and we were in the front row 🙂

after the show, arrakis had our around the world. where we go from room to room and engage in some activity. my room was carnival themed. we played twister and drank some cotton candy stuff with obnoxious music in the background. it was great and unfortunately there were no photos taken. One of my housemates, Nick, put all our spare mattresses in the dining room and made this his room designated for wrestling matches. 

So that’s how my life has been. No complaining here, I always say I consider myself a pretty lucky girl.

I promise you all ONE blog post a week, with more detailed descriptions of life and there are lots of concerts coming up that I will photograph and talk about with you all.

I also have been crafting a lot more, and I want to document that as well.

Thanks to everyone who reads, it means so much. and let’s all say how much we miss jacqueline. I shall live vicariously through her by eating pasta everyday 😉

xoxo,

Nadeen Abou-Hossa

Wild Child

I am making it a homework assignment to blog.

I want to stay committed to this because I love the feeling when we get a ton of views and when friends tell me “I read what you posted last night!” It makes me feel like wow, my life IS kinda cool. Ya know?

Before I moved to Austin, my brother lived here, and he would always tell me how excited he was for me to get here cause he just KNEW that I was going to love it. Based on my taste of music, fashion, hobbies, and so on. He thought I’d fit in well with this “hip” culture.

When I got here last year, I was so overwhelmed with the Austin lifestyle and new school and people, it took me a while to adjust. I always felt like I was left out on something going on the city and I wanted so badly to be in this loop of music and the spots to get the best cup of coffee and coolest dog parks and such.

The first Austin band that I started listening to was Wild Child. I saw one of their videos on my news feed on facebook, clicked on it, and instantly fell in love. It was so many sounds, with such genuine lyrics. Unlike anything I had ever heard before. I thought it was so cool to listen to something constantly that none of my friends back home knew of. And to listen to words that people my age, in my own city, wrote. I could relate so well.

This was the first I had ever heard of them. The song Pillow Talk is similar to much of their other music because if you were to just listen to the lyrics and analyze them, it’s really depressing. But they pair their harsh words  with the happy sounds of a ukelele and catchy melodies. Which to me, is life itself. Life gets shitty, alot, but it’s the little happy things that  cover these dampers up, and get us to move on. And keep on living.

Everyone in Austin will tell you they’ve seen Wild Child perform a million times. Which is probably true, but this doesn’t make me any less excited whenever they announce a new show. This past Friday they played at one of my favorite Austin venues, Moody Theater. 

This place just makes me feel so classy and chic. With the greatest view when you look off the balcony, and the music sounds so clear and beautiful inside.

Kelsey, you have the most mesmerizing voice. And YOU, only you, could pull off that dress. Keep doing what you’re doing.

Another Austin band, Holiday Mountain, got on stage with them to perform their new single, Crazy Bird. Let me tell ya, this song is my jam. It’s more pop-y than the rest of their new album, but it only takes one listen, just one,  to find yourself playing it every time you get in the car.

Things started to get a little wild when Ben Kweller got on stage. One thing led to another, and soon it was a dance party. I looked around and half the crowd had left my side to get on there with them. 

Friday night was beautiful. They sounded remarkable and they looked so happy. Watching a band you love have fun, makes it more worth it to continue to support them. I’ve been listening to their new album The Runaround on repeat since it came out on spotify last week. And I am not nearly close to being sick of it yet. GO LISTEN.

I end this post with a photo of some sunflowers I took at the store yesterday. I’ve been obsessed with yellow lately, and I seized this photo opportunity mainly because yesterday was so rainy and gloomy, walking into the grocery and seeing this at the entrance put a huge smile on my face.

“Could you imagine a place where fields and flowers made of space and stars like your eyes, shine both day and night.”   -Wild Child 

xoxo,

(still not completely in the Austin music scene but has accepted that no one will really ever be),

Nadeen Abou-Hossa

hashtag FPSF 2013

Hello wonderful boys and girls,

My life is so great! thanks for asking, how is yours?!

But really, everything is grand. I am the happiest I’ve been in a while, due to a list of things. One of which being that I was able to go back to my hometown this past weekend for a music festival and see all the people I adore oh so much.

I love the city I live in, Austin is perfect for Nadeen. You all know this. But the feeling I get when I am driving back home to Houston, the comfort that goes through my body when I am driving down 610 South. I hope this feeling never fades.

This may seem selfish and annoying of me. But before I left to Houston, I made a list of the people I really ACTUALLY wanted to see, and I made a list of the few places I wanted to go. I have the tendency to want to please everyone else in the world except for myself, and I made sure I would not do this on my short getaway. One of my top priorities on this list was going to eat at the bagel shop with one my favorite people in the whole wide world.

Lexy and I have the common hobby of eating. We love to eat, so much. And I love her because she is one of the few girls I know who doesn’t feel guilty about it. We are proud to say that we spend 80% of our lives searching for the next place to dine.

While in Houston, I was also able to reconnect with a very very, very old friend. His name is Erik. Erik and I had the height of our friendship about 5 years ago, and unfortunately lost touch since then. However, the comforting part of this story was that hanging out with him was exactly the same that it was before. Don’t you love people like this? Genuine people. Who stay true to themselves, and don’t just adjust to what others want them to be. Erik has been doing really cool things with his life, and in a few weeks he is going to hike the Appalachian Trail. I honor his appreciation for nature. He just started a blog where he will update us on these adventures! Go add this to your bookmarks and watch this goofball discover more and more everyday 🙂

http://erikkjellsapplachiantrailorbustblog.blogspot.com

Now on to the reason I went back home, Summerfest. Music festivals are always fun, but when you’re listening to a great song, dancing, and you look around to see your best friends dancing and smiling with you, it’s the greatest, most unexplainable feeling. I wasn’t a huge fan of the lineup this year, but these guys made it all the best.

This is Mr. Harrison. I heart him with all my heart. Such a positive and happy friend. No need to complain bout a thang in life. Oh, and he’s hilarious. You should get to know him.

Jacque in front of the crowd. We didn’t think it was possible for them to fit this many people at summerfest….so pretty much, if you’re claustrophobic, this is not the place for you.

It was effing hot! This was halfway into my transformation of becoming a lobster. Or perhaps, my true latina side actually starting to come out. 

From the joy you see in their faces, you can tell something beautiful had just happened. (Hint: the box of beer)

Everyone enjoys each others company so much. Have you ever seen such big smiles? Doubt it.

My favorite show of the weekend was The Postal Service. I never thought I’d be able to see them live, and their music takes me back to my awkward days as a freshman in high school. I was sad that I would have to see them alone because most of my other friends went to see Calvin Harris who was playing at the same time. Then I found THE BEST people to see them with. These two guys appreciated their music as much as I did, and I love them for that.

Okay, so if there were a section of craigslist where you could search for a partner in crime to take with you to a music festival, or anywhere, this guy would be the #1 candidate. I kid you not, when I say he DOES NOT stop dancing. And singing. And laughing. And may I add, that it is so contagious. 

And this leads him to stand out from the rest of the crowd, and find old friends! (Typically, it’s impossible to find anyone at summerfest because you get no signal and its so loud, etc etc)

And then we find this guy, Mitchell. Who we love and resent at the same time because he managed to get into the festival by trading his harmonica and a magnifying glass to a security guard at the entrance. While the rest of us used our precious money to save up and go. But all is well, because really, this kind of stuff only happens to Mitchell, and I believe it’s because of the generous man that he is, asking nothing in return. What goes around comes around.

And then we dance….

Summerfest, you sure did treat me well. And I dream of the next time I will see your face again.

Till next time,

xoxo,

Nadeen Abou-Hossa

SXSW 2013

Hello loves, Nadeen AND Jacqueline here! We have been together for the past week and it has been the greatest. Today is a sad day, because all of our fun is about to be over and Jacque is about to go back to San Antonio. Instead of crying about this, we will blog about it and remember all the great times we had! This was our first south by south west ever!

Tip #1 for all you newbies: Making a set hour by hour schedule WILL NOT WORK. Play it day by day and it will all work well. HOWEVER: remember you CANNOT do everything. It is impossible to make it to every show, so you should figure out the ones you are dying to go to, and allow yourself travel time plus line time. Luckily we made it to all the artists we were dying to see, however we missed a few that we planned on seeing.

DAY 1: Waterloo Records and Spiderhouse.: All week, Waterloo Records on 6th and Lamar had free shows. I was confused when I first found out about this, because I didn’t understand how they’d be able to accommodate all the crazy hooligans in the streets. However, it worked out perfect. We grabbed lunch across the street at whole foods, sat on the patio and listened to the angelic voices of Tegan and Sara. A salad later, we decided to join the crowd for Macklemore.

We had to kinda linger behind the fence for a while like stoop kids on the street, we finally decided to stack on shoulders and move our way backwards. We got around to the back gate and surprisingly it was still open! But we still didn’t end up that close.. Macklemore has so much energy on stage that even far away we could see him bouncing around having so much fun.

I had fun too!

Tip #2: Always keep in contact with friends who are traveling around the city, they may guide you to a MUCH cooler show than the one you are heading to.

Day 2: WOODIE AWARDS. Our group relied on the bus to travel around Austin (sometimes helpful, sometimes not) because its pretty cheap and you won’t have to walk 10 miles. But we still had to walk a lot downtown. On the bus I got a text from a friend about the MTV Woodie awards, the most important words that I got in that text were “FREE, ALT-J, TEGAN AND SARA, FREE BOOZE” So while on the bus we rerouted and headed down to that. The line did not look very promising but it moved so quickly and before we knew it we were noming on free hibiscus popsickles listening to Atlas Genius.

This is what the MTV Woodie Awards included: Free entry, free beer, free mixed drinks, free doritos, free condoms, free sunglasses, free water + soda, free BBQ (we are vegetarian but they still had good options for us!), and free goodies.

Music included: The Lonely Biscuits ( I met them! we have friends in common because they are college students!) Jake Bugg, HAIM, Atlas Genius, Alt-J, Tegan and Sara, Macklemore, 21 Pilots, Zedd, and rappers named Travis Scott, Trinidad James, and T.I. showed up too!

^High School Hometown Friends!^

^The Lonely Biscuits (From Belmont University) ^ They won best college band of the year by MTV

Day 3: At this point, we were exhausted. As much as we wanted to just lounge around the apartment with the doggies, we fueled ourselves with coffee and eggs, and headed back onto downtown. I’ve recently been obsessed with wild child. This Austin based indie folk band was by far the best live show I’ve seen in a while. Their combination of instruments flowed so well and they all seemed to be a big happy family. I’ve been trying to catch a show the whole week and finally was able to get to this one at Shiner’s Saloon. (Jacque: I was REALLY scared we were going to miss it then we would have to all cry in the street)

This was the first day that we were actually able to meet some of our idols. After the show, we found the keyboardist of wild child, exchanged some words, where he redirected us to our next location. One minute after this exchange, we happen to notice wild child’s van. As the obnoxious fan that I am, I yell out how much I love them while Jacque silently smiles (I get really really nervous around people I want to meet). We react to these situations very differently. AND THEN, after I am recovering from this, we see alt-J in the street.

ARE WE NOT THE LUCKIEST GIRLS IN THE WORLD?

These foreigners told me how ecstatic they were to be in Austin and were nice enough to accept a photo with us. I was all smiles after being serenaded by their beautiful accents.

The only set plans we had for Austin was to see our friends shows on Friday night. I (Jacque) have some great friends from Houston I have gotten to know over the years, and Nadeen has slowly gotten to know them, along with our other friends and after staying with them in New Orleans we feel like one big happy family.

The show was at this awesome guy named Will’s house (THANKS WILL) and the setup was : My Fathers Rifle (NOLA), ArchAnimals (NOLA), Growl (ATX), and Donovan Wolfington (NOLA). We happened to know pretty much every person playing so it was the best way to end a sunny evening. As the beer started to sink in to peoples stomachs and the sun was setting absolutely every body was groovin.

These bands bring so much energy that you absolutely cannot stand still during their shows.

After the shows ended we walked to East Side King’s where we got some delicious squid ink ramen noodles! I stumbled into this place after a show at hole in the wall and was amazed at the unique conjunctions they make with my childhood ramen. Jacqueline and I felt extremely adventurous trying out this meal.

Tomorrow marks the day we teleport back into reality, homework calls our names, as well as a full nights rest. SXSW has felt like the longest and best dream we have had in a while. Even though sxsw is over, the good music still continues in this great city all the time, so life is always good. Be on the lookout for our NOLA post.

arrivederci,

NADEEN AND JACQUELINE

Life Within Itself

Hello lovelies!

This girl is quite content with her life right now.

Last weekend, I was able to reunite with all my best friends. We all had our last fun before a week of studying.

We went to watch one of our favorite rappers, G-Eazy.

For a little over a year, my friends and I have been listening to this rapper/songwriter/producer . Our friend Al showed him to us, and eventually we were all hooked. This young man is incredibly talented. He takes 60’s pop songs and remixes them for a beat, AND he writes all his own music. Anything and everything you hear is entirely him.

I was fortunate enough to have a moment with him during the show and get some pictures with him after. I’ve never had a personal experience with a celebrity before, so this really got to me. I was definitely a happy camper.

My next week consisted of…studying…studying…and COFFEE. Literally lived at Dolce Vita espresso and gelato. Bottomless coffee for a few bucks, heaters out in the cold weather, good music, and friendly people. Twas a great way to prepare for finals. 

After knocking out all my exams, I knew I would need to repay myself with an amazing weekend. Which is exactly what I did. Friday night I went to Shine Studios to watch Mother Merey and The Black Dirt, the band I told ya’ll about last week. If you’re looking into becoming more festive this season, they just released a christmas album called A Dirty Christmas. I’m obsessed with their version of Silent Night, go take a listen!

Saturday night I went out to downtown with my favorite twins. I’ve been friends with these guys FOREVER and it was really nice to be able to hang out like old times…but in a totally different setting.

I ended my weekend at my sister-in-law’s dance performance at The Boys and Girls Club. She was incredible, and look at her fabulous costume! (something I would wear on any normal day)

When I’m this busy, I tend to lack appreciation. So I want to take a moment to soak this all in. I am so thankful for all the great opportunities being presented in my life right now.

“every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end” -semisonic

Happy Holidays!

-Nadeen

Just Breathe.

I know everyone’s extremely stressed right now, if it’s not because of finals then its because the holidays are coming up. Which are joyful but at the same time horrendous. I’m sorry. My advice to you is to take a seat, soak up what you have, and breathe. It’s the little things in life that bring me up when I’m feeling agitated. Need something to cheer you up?

I recently made a new friend at a party, and it just so happened he was in a band. I went to go watch them play the next night at Black Heart on Rainey Street. Their music was a genre I wasn’t so familiar with, but I loved it. It sounded like a folk type of delta blues, and my friend Kevin can play the harmonica like no other. Not only did they sound great, but they seemed to be having so much fun and that’s what really got me. My description doesn’t do them much justice, so please go listen and I promise you won’t regret it! Go like their facebook page to stay updated!

Mother Merey and the Black Dirt

Have a wonderful, stress free weekend my loves!

-Nadeen