Bad Blogger...And the Best Summer Ever!

I know.

I'm a bad blogger. I haven't been blogging consistently for a while. No major excuse. I've just had other priorities that kind of super ceded blogging.

But I'm back. Not promising posts everyday, but I will try to post at least once a week.

Now that that's out of the way, on to better things...

My summer was AMAZING. One of my best summers ever.

I started out with a week-long trip to Phuket, Thailand. What I loved best about Phuket were the beaches (cos I'm all about the beaches). Gorgeous! And the people were friendly. Of course, they assumed that, because I was black, that I came from Africa, but I let that slide. It's not like there were many black people there. Every time I passed someone from Thailand, they'd greet me by singing Shakira's song "Waka Waka" which was the song from the Soccer World Cup in...yep, you guessed it. Africa. It got a little tiring, but like I said, I let it slide.

And they loved our skin color. We were given so many compliments about how beautiful our skin was. My friend, who was the darkest of us 3, had the most compliments. The darker your skin, the more beautiful they saw you.

There were many transgendered males. When we walked the strip (with night clubs & bars), we saw transgendered show girls & transgendered prostitutes. Some of them were obviously male, but others totally looked like gorgeous women! The thing that broke my heart, though, was the fact that some of the prostitutes were obviously teen boys. I so wanted to cry seeing that.

Let's see, besides relaxing, we went to a Ping Pong show (don't ask...my eyes will never be the same) and traveled to Phi Phi Islands, where some of the James Bond movies (The Man with the Golden Gun & Tomorrow Never Dies) as well as the movie The Beach (with Leo DiCaprio) were filmed, and went elephant trekking through the forest (AWESOME experience).

Next stop, AMERICA! I sooo missed my family and was happy to be home. I started out in Birmingham, Alabama where my sister attends seminary. I was able to meet (i.e. check out) her friends and see her in her new surroundings. It made me feel better to know my little punkin surrounded by wonderful people who take good care of her.

After Birmingham, sis & I drove home to Houston where I saw the rest of my family. Oh man, it felt good to hug & kiss my people! There's nothing like a family's love, I tell ya. We were only home for a few days before sis & I left for...PUERTO RICO!

OMG, Puerto Rico was AMAZING! The place, the people, the language...beautiful. It certainly lived up to my expectations. Did I mention I'd been waiting to visit PR since I was a SENIOR IN HIGH SCHOOL? That's 18 yrs, people. For 18 years, I'd prayed, planned, re-prayed, re-planned, etc. We'd get close to being able to go, then something always came up to stop us. Not this year. Everything worked out so well that my sis & I felt like we were dreaming. Lol.

But we spent a peaceful & glorious week in San Juan, PR. We didn't do too much; just relaxed and chilled. We did visit Old San Juan and the Bacardi Rum Factory. Next time (and there WILL be a next time), we'll visit with Isla de Vieques, which has bioluminescent bays (with glowing water) you can swim in along with other places we didn't get to visit. By the way, Bacardi Dragonberry...YUM! I'm not a drinker, but this right here? Mixed with fruit punch? Muy delicioso!

Oh and the men...GORGEOUS! And they have the sexy accents too? *fans self*

Anyway, after PR, we went back home, where I spent the rest of my summer vacation with my family. Ahhh, it felt so good to be surrounded by the love of my family and friends. It felt good to go to my home church. It. Felt. Good. I didn't want to leave, but alas, I had to. God isn't finished with me here. I still have work to do.

So, back to Abu Dhabi, I went.

I'll post about the start of the school year later this week. For whatever reason, I'm having a hard time posting my pics, so I'll try again tomorrow.



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