#tbt – Friendship reunion in Cannes! – the stories that I'm telling.

In the time that I’ve been travelling, the glorious technology of iMessage & Group Chats has been a complete lifesaver, helping me keep in constant touch with some of my best friends in Canada. I have a group chat with 2 of my friends, Julie and Komal, that is essentially a haven of love, positivity, and support as we share each others fears and excitement while building our lives and careers from three different cities.

Komal is currently producing a documentary about female CEOs and entrepreneurs called “Dream, Girl“, and thus was invited to speak on a panel at the Cannes Film Festival this year in Cannes, France. You know France… just around the corner from Portugal? In a series of events that still seems to good to have been true, we all decided to go to France together in support of Komal and in search of sunshine.

The trip was four women in total: me, Julie, Komal, and Taylor (another very good friend of Komal’s and overall talented woman).

Cannes was all booked up by the time we planned this trip, so we opted to stay in Nice, which is just a 30 minute train ride away from Cannes.

Four women. Five days in France. Here are the numbers on what we got up to:

number of delayed flights: 0 (win!)
number of hours spent on the beach: at least 24 – we made a point of clocking hours in the sun
number of small children that we saw poop into a bag while on the beach: 1 (gross.)
number of parties that we snuck into: 1 (Komal said, “act like you belong”, and we went with it)
number of parties we tried and failed to sneak into: 1
number of creeps that we met: 2
number of wonderful people that we met: many, many, many
number of ways we tried to sneak in: 5
number of celebrities that we saw: at least 10
number of reunions with a friend from Cambodia: 1
number of friends that Julie and I made while dancing till 7am: more than I can remember, that’s for sure.
number of minutes that Julie and I were on the Cannes-to-Paris train instead of the Cannes-to-Nice train: 45
number of panelists on the “Cutting Edge Collaborators: Women Achieving in Film” panel discussion: 5
number of red carpet photos taken between the 4 of us: 20+
number of vlogs recorded: 10+
number of times we used the word “glam”: 50+
number of times we were glam: always
number of times we felt immense gratitude for this trip with these people: constant. Still feeling grateful as I relive the memories now
number of photos we took: surprisingly few, and all the best are below.

Leaving Kevin to go to France just a week after his implants surgery (and on an expired travel visa!) was actually pretty scary. But it was worth every second of it to enjoy the unique experience of travelling to be a cheerleader for Komal. Also pretty cool because it means that Julie and I had 2 European-adventures together in 2015! It was a rough year, but the bright spots were very, very bright.