Tags: Africa, African American Women of Today Travel, Argentina, Black Girl Buenos Aires, Black Girl Travel, Black Travel Blog, Black Travel Blogs, Buenos Aires, Mali
Imported Chocolate Finds: Foreign Student
18 Apr
I discovered a movie through Netflix last night that I instantly fell in love with! The title is Foreign Student. I had never heard of the movie before. The film is not well-known which makes me adore it even more. I love hidden gems and I’m always drawn to things the masses are not paying attention to.
The movie was released in 1994, which is why I never heard of it. I was in fourth grade in 1994. I’m not easily impressed by works of literature or cinema—my heart is finicky when it comes to the things that move me— so I wasn’t expecting much from the film, but 15 minutes in I was hooked and surprised by how poetic and just perfect it was for me. The film called to an abundance of my interest: travel, Paris, French, blues music, lyrical prose, the fifties and race relations. But the most inspiring thing of all was that it gave me so many ideas for a book I am currently writing and one I plan to write in the future. I believe it was meant for me to see this film last night. There are many similarities in the story of this film and with the one I am writing now. My character is French and this film made me realize all the things that I got right—so much so it’s almost creepy since I am not French— about writing from a French person’s POV who moves to the United States for the first time.
I am not good at writing reviews of creative works, so I won’t pretend to be. I don’t want to spoil the movie for those who plan to watch it, so I will just provide the synopsis as it’s written on Netflix:
In 1955, idealistic college student Philippe (Marco Hofschneider) travels from Paris to Virginia on a scholarship and encounters an entirely new world of American football, jazz, romance — and violent racial prejudice. Philippe doesn’t understand why his well- meaning new friends advise him not to pursue April (Robin Givens), an African American woman, and he begins to fall in love with her despite the dangers.
If you’re still not convinced to watch the film from that synopsis, I will share two of my favorite quotes that sealed the movie in my heart forever and placed it on my favorite
movies list:
Quote 1: “There are two hearts that beat in the body of America. One is hidden behind the other. And once I heard it’s cry, nothing was ever quite the same for me” – Philippe Foreign Student.
Quote 2: “Non, you and I…we are from the same world. The wind blows on our face the same way. And the sun shines in your face and in my face the same way. The rain makes us both wet. You are not from Mars and I am not from the Moon” – Philippe Foreign Student.
Le sigh. Philippe gets it. It’s clear to see why James Baldwin and Josephine Baker fled to Paris in their day. Now I must be off to go watch it again!
NOTE: Photo not mine. I do not own any rights.
Tags: Black Girl Travel, Black Travel Blog, Black Travel Blogs, Foreign Student, France, Interacial Dating, Paris, Race Relations
Imported Chocolate Finds: Samsung’s Love Note
11 Apr
Samsung Galaxy Love Note competition allowed one lucky winner to fly on an all expense paid trip to hand deliver a personal Love note to their lover. I thought this was an awesome competition! Samsung contacted me about featuring the competition on the blog, but because I was crazy busy with projects, my E-book being one of them, I never got to write a post about the competition before the deadline. It’s now over but I still wanted to share the beautiful video and story of the winner— Tuyet Nguyen. You can still create a personal love note by April 13th, 2012, and Samsung will send your personal love note for free to any part of the world. Create your love note here.
Tuyet Nguyen story from Samsung’s website:
Samsung GALAXY Love Note made one couple’s dream come true when Tuyet Nguyen won the chance to hand-deliver her Love Note postcard from her hometown Melbourne, Australia to her boyfriend Julien 16,562 km away in Dijon, France. Within 24 hours of winning the GALAXY Love Note competition, Tuyet was on her way on a journey of a lifetime …
This video follows her real life adventure.Long-distance couple Tuyet and Julien first met online through a mutual friend that claimed she had ‘met her Tuyet’s boyfriend’ while traveling. Over the next one and a half year, they turned their pen-pal friendship into something more through the power of modern technology. Day after day and night after night of phone calls, chatting online and dreaming later, Tuyet and Julien decided to finally meet each other in person for one magical, fairytale week together until they were torn apart to go back to the their lives in Australia and France. With so many miles between them, and eight months since they had last seen each other, Tuyet did not know when her next chance to see Julien would come.
The GALAXYLoveNote.com competition made Tuyet’s wish come true! Flown on an all-expenses paid trip to surprise her loved one, Tuyet and Julien could finally reconnect with each other to share their love. Watch her journey in the exclusive film above to see how her story unfolds
NOTE: Photo found VIA. I do not own any rights.
Tags: African American Women of Today Travel, Black Girl Travel, Black Travel Blog, Black Travel Blogs, France, inspiration, International, Paris, Samsung Galaxy Love Note
Chchchchanges/E-Book update
10 Apr
Hey everyone,
I just wanted to share a few things with you in regards to some new things that will be coming to Imported Chocolate and give you an update on the free E-book I’ve been working so hard on.
Imported Chocolate
I will be changing the look of the site—nothing too drastic, but I will be changing everything over to one homepage instead of having the main Imported Chocolate website and the blog separate. Don’t worry; you will still be able to use this URL to find Imported Chocolate. You will just be redirected to the new site.
I will also be implementing a way for you to ask me questions everyday, regarding Buenos Aires, travel and the E-book. I love helping and interacting with my readers (it’s the best part about what I do), so I thought it would be best to create a way that would be easier to do so.
E-Book
The official text of the E-book is done! I am just waiting for one more submission to add to it. Then I will be moving on to the cover design. I truly cannot wait until it’s out in the world. It was such a pleasure to write—fun too! I also have a fun way to distribute it! Again, the E-book will be completely free, and you will be able to get it three ways. I also have awesome Q&A’s with some well-known travel gurus. I really can’t see anyone who is on the fence about traveling not jumping off after they read this E-Book. It will be about 35-40 pages. I haven’t seen anything else like it on the internet yet! And I can’t wait to share it with you!
Well, that’s all for now folks!
Jen :0)
NOTE: Photo found VIA. I do not own any rights.
Tags: African American Women of Today Travel, Black Girl Travel, Black Travel Blog, Black Travel Blogs, Black Women Traveling, E-Book, Free Travel E-book, Travel
Imported Chocolate Finds: Turks & Caicos Sales!
4 Apr
Jet Blue is having some Turks & Caicos sales! Two in particular that caught my eye were the ones for $575 and $759 per person. These sales are for 4 days and 3 nights packages, but some restrictions do apply. Head on over and check it out! But if you do book a trip, leave the booty shorts at home when boarding your flight. Lol! Some of you will get that joke. ;0)
NOTE: Photo found via Jet Blue. I do not own any rights.
Tags: African American Women of Today Travel, Black Girl Travel, Black Travel Blog, Black Travel Blogs, Jet Blue, Travel Sales, Turks & Caicos
Imported Chocolate Finds: Sexy Male Flash Mob in Paris
4 AprThis was genius marketing. Get yourself some Nivea girls! Especially if you’re in Paris! Ha ha ha ha!
Tags: African American Women of Today Travel, Black Girl Travel, Black Travel Blog, Black Travel Blogs, Black Women Traveling, Flash Mob, Nivea, Paris, Sexy Men
Support a Former Imported Chocolate of the Moment
23 Mar
Simone Sobers, a former Imported Chocolate of the moment needs your help. Since she states why so brilliantly on her website, I will paste the message from it below:
Campaign Update:
We are very close to hitting our 25% mark of $1500!
ONLY 28 DAYS LEFT to reach our goal!
Help us reach our half way point of $3,000 this upcoming week.
Big big big thank you to everyone who has gotten us this far.
We appreciate you!
All it takes is 4 clicks to support our campaign!
Operation Rogue: Women of Color Going Global
Your mission…
Help Simone Sobers Dance kick-off our 2012-2013 season of international and domestic touring to premiere our latestworks Rogue and Kaged in:
Spain, England, Australia, and Florida.
Our mission: To increase the visibility of women of color in modern dance globally.
We can only continue to go global with your continued support and generosity!
Your donation will help support travel, accommodations, costumes, artist and production fees.
Help us reach our $6,000 goal by fueling our RocketHub fundraising campaign.
Click here to make your donation today:
Simone Sobers Dance-Operation Rogue
For more information: www.simonesobersdance.com
Check out the promo video!
Operation Rogue: Women of Color Going Global from Simone Sobers Dance on Vimeo.
NOTE: Photo found via www.simonesobersdance.com I do not own any rights.
Tags: African American Women of Today Travel, Black Girl Travel, Black Travel Blog, Black Travel Blogs, Black Women Traveling, Operation Rogue, Simone Sobers
Imported Chocolate Finds: An All Girls Hostel In Amsterdam!
21 MarAs some of you may know my first time traveling was at the age of nineteen to Paris. It was the first time I had ever travelled or been in an airport. I stayed with friends my first five days, but I had also booked a hostel in advance for my last two days in Paris. Everyone told me I couldn’t travel without experiencing a hostel.
At my core, I am a very nervous person. So you can imagine the horror my imagination created over and over again during the days leading up to my stay at the hostel. I had requested an all girls room if possible, but of course, travel being the unpredictable thing that it is; I was told I would have a unisex room when I arrived at the hostel. I looked around at the men twice my age sitting in the lounge and hoped and prayed I would not be put with them. They were scary strangers to my nineteen year old brain. Luckily, the guys in my room weren’t much older than me and were respectable. There were two other girls with me too, so I ended up making friends and having a ball!
However, just to keep it real, a hostel does not fit my personality. I need a space to come back to alone so that I can reflect and write. I can feel overwhelmed sometimes if I spend the whole day hanging out and don’t take anytime for myself.
But I have to say Hostelle has changed my mind! Hostelle is the first and only all female hostel. It’s located in Amsterdam. And just look at how pretty it is!
I can so see myself writing in this beautiful creative space. I plan to check it out when I do the European trip that I am planning next year! I’m thinking all cities should have hostels like this!
What do you think?
I give a big thanks to Frankie Benz for sharing this on the No.Madness Travel Tribe Facebookpage!
NOTE: Photos found via Hostelle. I do not own any rights.
Tags: African American Women of Today Travel, Amsterdam, Black Girl Buenos Aires, Black Girl Travel, Black Travel Blog, Black Travel Blogs, Black Women Travel, Black Women Traveling, Hostel, Hostelle
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