My Birthday Present.

After waiting for three weeks, I proudly present to you my new iPad! Thank you Tio <3

Yes, I plan on taking it with me to Spain. I will be downloading some Harry Potter books, Words with Friends and Skype. Skype will be a life saver while I am in Barcelona. When school starts back up I will definitely take advantage of E-Books. Oh, and just to let you know I am typing this blog post on my iPad and it is surprisingly easy!

Naturally, I got the Smart Cover in Pink.

MY OFFICIAL INTERNSHIP IN BARCELONA!!!

I got an email yesterday (FINALLY) about my internship in Spain. I had been told what company I would be working for last week, but it was not an official offer. Instead of re-typing the email I just copied it so you can see. I am so excited. I think it is a perfect start to a career in public relations.

Hola Stephanie, from Barcelona!

We’re excited to inform you about your internship placement for this this summer in Barcelona. You will form part of a team working at IMS-Consulting, a tourism consulting company specializing in marketing and sales solutions for luxury hotels in Spain and Portugal.

The following are the details of your internship:

Placement: Public relations, marketing and sales consulting are what IMS specializes in. At the moment they focus on the tourism industry and providing marketing services to luxury hotels.

First Day: We will accompany you on your first day of work when you will meet your supervisor, see the work space, and learn about your projects for the summer. Your first day will most likely be May 25, 2011.

Schedule: Your schedule will most likely be from Monday-Thursday from 10am-4pm but it may vary slightly from week to week.

Tasks: The following will be some of the tasks you will be working on:

1. PR & Communications:

Preparing press releases

Speaking with journalists

Working with travel magazines to promote IMS press releases

Working with communiqués to both clients and the press

Event planning

Data entry

Additional clerical tasks

2. Sales & Marketing:

Receiving incoming phone calls

Customer Service

Researching prospective hotels for www.slowtravelling.es

Researching competitor companies

Company Website: http://www.ims-consulting.net/web/es/contact.html

Dress Code: Business casual

Language Classes: Your intensive language classes will take place WHILE YOU ARE WORKING. This is a very intensive and demanding week but the goal is to give you a big boost in your language skills earlier on while continuing your primary goal in Barcelona, which is to get work experience.

Please, let us know if you have any doubts or concerns. We look forward to seeing you in Barcelona soon!

Samples are my best friends.

Today I went shopping with a long lost amiga of mine. Despite our lack of success in swimsuits and cotton white shirts, we did come out of there like fat rats. We took advantage of SAMPLES!

We were in Macy’s and got foundation samples from Estee Lauder and perfume samples from Gucci. Let me tell you, this cured our lack of success. I will be testing these out this week to see if I would consider purchasing full sizes.

Oh, and I also picked up my free birthday gift from Sephora – Philosophy Happy Birthday Beautiful Shampoo/Shower Gel/Bubble Bath! Smells like vanilla.

Also found a new obsession: Jessica Simpson’s Fancy Love Perfume. Definitely on my wish list.

Button earings I also got today:

Best way to have chocolate: On your face?

I am a YouTube junkie. I mainly watch, ha, surprisingly makeup tutorialists (not sure if that’s a word) and vloggers. I am subscribed to SWalkerMakeup, a British YouTuber, and she was doing a video on her April Favorites. One of the items was Bourjois’ Chocolate Bronzer.

Now, this bronzer is not real chocolate although it smells of it. Michelle Phan (one of the most famous gurus whom I actually saw at USF’s December graduation and freaked out) did a video on using hot chocolate powder as bronzer. That is something I would never do personally. However, I do want to try the Bourjois one. In America this bronzer is $32 and in Europe… €6.99. That’s roughly $10!!! Needless to say, I am getting it while I am in Spain :)

Another brand I intend on exploring while in Spain is Sleek. It is a European brand often compared with NYX here in the States.

[Photo Credit: P.S. It's Vida]

My "Not-So-Grown-Up" Briefcase.

This is not your average briefcase. I found it at Marshall's and as soon as I saw it I thought about how well it would look with some of my outfits in Spain. Needless to say I will be taking it with me :)

I am violating some PETA laws with this one. It is leather crocodile print with snake-skin buckles and gold hardware. The buckles purposely don't match, but neither do I sometimes so I don't care.

Review: MAC Pro Long-wear Foundation!!

I love how I blame Spain for all of my recent shopping sprees ;)

A couple of weeks ago, I purchased MAC’s Prolongwear foundation. It retails for $29.50. Pricey, I know, but the quality is amazing! It claims that it lasts for 10 – 12 hours without smudging or wearing off. I only tried it for two days since I honestly do want to save it for Spain. Those two days were the best my face had ever felt with foundation on. I set it with a light powder and it really did stay on all day. It was humid outside and I was barely oily. Best of all, it’s light-wear.

This foundation does have SPF 10 in it though. SPF in foundation is the reason why women look like they are wearing a white mask on their faces in photographs. It causes light to reflect off of the face making it look like you chose a foundation three shades lighter than your skin color. But SPF 10 is a safe amount, I already tested it. Anything above 15 would be something I would worry about.

Overall, I am very impressed and cannot wait to wear it in Barcelona this summer.

Check out the new watch I bought at Nordstrom. It raps around twice and has a chain which I debating whether I should take off. Some days I like it, other days I don't. Today, I love it!

SHOES, SHOES, SHOES!!!!!

I'm a late bloomer. I started wearing contacts at 17, I am still barely 5 feet tall and I have been a size 6 shoe since the seventh grade. Shoes are something that I always hated to shop for when I was young. So many colors to choose from, so much pain to bear, why are women faced with such hard decisions?

Besides award ceremonies or violin recitals, there was no need for me to buy heels. My sister… she always rocked them. She had her heels living like thieves in her closet shelves nicely stacked in their original boxes.

But there comes a time when every woman falls in love with a pair shoes. And it starts with just one dangerous pair. It can come to her when she walks in the store and sees the heels of her dreams on a high and prestigious shelf. It can unexpectedly take her by surprise when another woman confidently walks by in gorgeous platform pumps. For my sister, it happened when she tried on my mother’s red leather pumps at 2 years old. For me, it happened when I needed to buy work shoes for Spain. It started with one pair and then I saw a couple more on sale. And then I realized my mom had a coupon and another pair just fell into my hands.

So I went a little crazy this weekend and now I have a haul of shoes to share with you.

Take a look at some of the shoes I will be taking with me to Spain:

Nine West "Nuncio" - I was reliably informed that these shoes are the most comfortable for work. Once I tried them on, I understood why. The kitten heel and pointed toe create a "flat" effect making it feel like you are not in dress heels.

Libby Edelman "Alice" Flats - Absolutely the most comfortable flats I have ever owned. The groves on the sole prevent the notorious feeling of walking on the floor while wearing typical flats. They are so light almost like a leather jeweled Croc but trust me, in a good way.

Michael Kohrs Cone Stretch Sandal - These babies are about a year old. My aunt bought them for me for my birthday. They are really easy to walk it and they are the edgiest sandals I own.

Mossimo "Vivien" Sandals - I got these on Easter weekend with my sister. She loved them too so she bought a pair as well. They've gotta be good if the queen of shoes buys them right?

Mossimo "Pearce" Pumps - I lied. This is where it started. With these babies. When I bought these nude pumps in the fall I realized that comfortable heels existed outside of Payless. Sorry Payless ;)

Carlos Santana "I Believe 2" Heels - The award winners for beauty. Just got these last week. They compliment my warm undertone beautifully. LOVE LOVE!!