My first international travel experience happened when I was 12. My hometown, Troy, Ohio organizes an sister city student exchange program each year with Takahashi, Japan. My best friend at the time had hosted a student from their city the previous summer, and then it was her turn to visit that student’s home. She told me she was going, and it didn’t take much convincing for me to sign up for the trip with her.
I’m 21 now. That summer was a long time ago, but the sceneries, friends, history, and culture that I experienced will stick with me until I’m too old to remember what I had for breakfast, and maybe even past then. I did a weeklong homestay with a family who showed me the ins and outs of daily life in Takahashi, visited the Hiroshima Museum with me, and took me to a festival that the city was holding. I can remember lightening striking the trees in the mountains surrounding the city. I can practically taste the sweetness of the homegrown vegetables. I still smile when I think about our group of exchange students trying to learn a dance for the parade during the festival.
When I hopped on the plane in Dayton, I didn’t know any Japanese other than “hello” (“Kon’nichiwa”) and “thank you” (“Arigatō”). I was able to communicate with my family well enough, but the one thing I would have changed about that trip was my knowledge of the language. I kept that in mind for my future travels, and I have traveled a lot sense. In fact, I might even say that I’ve caught the travel bug.
Originally published at maryaadkins.wordpress.com on January 10, 2015.
Go green.
Go pink.
Go out.
Go to loud places.
Go silent, go concrete.
Go up.
Go dark.
Go to penis festival.
As you read it in my last blog posts, you know now that the delicate makeup from Les Merveilleuses by Ladurée is for the free women who enjoy being women and pursue new forms of beauty.
Well, this is the theory.
But who are really these coquette and fashionable women who value Liberty and the Love of beauty ?
Let’s paint the portrait of the ultimate customer of Les Merveilleuses…
Meet Yuki ( 有希).
Yuki is Japanese and lives in Tokyo, in the Minamiazabu district.
She is 20 and lives a comfortable life with her parents.
Only child, she is a little princess : everything she wants, she has it.
Her dad is a businessman working in the Center of Tokyo. She doesn’t know exactly what he does for a living and she doesn’t really care.
She is an artsy girl. She has a lot of passions such as photography, music (she took piano lessons since she was little), traveling (she loves discovering new cultures and her favorite city is Paris), and art (she loves to go to galleries and museums in Tokyo).
She also loves Animals ans has a cat named Kisu :
But what Yuki loves the most are fashion and makeup ! She has an extensive knowledge of makeup and a great sense of what is happening on the makeup market.
When she is not studying at the Faculty of Letters of The University of Tokyo, she loves to hang out with friends. She usually goes in Ginza or Harajuku districts, where you can find most of Tokyo’s numerous department stores and boutiques.
This is where she heard about Les Merveilleuses for the first time. She can still remember the in-store experience at the Laforet Harajuku store a few years ago.
Yuki knew the “Ladurée” brand before. She even tasted some of their famous macaroons in the Champs-Elysées store in Paris. So she was curious to discover and try this new makeup line that some bloggers she follows had already positively talked about.
She immediately fell in love with the cute and girly design of the products, the excellent quality of the details, and the romantic and strong smell of roses that made her feel like in a fairy-tale world.
Having some Les Merveilleuses blush on her cheek or some LM lipstick on her lips made her feel pretty and more confident. Plus, it gave her that little “French touch”, symbol of liberty and beauty !
Les Merveilleuses is now his every day makeup. She follows the brand on social media (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) and create a lot of content, notably pictures on Instagram and tweets about her new purchases.
She wears Les Merveilleuses makeup to be pretty and dance all night in Roppongi or Shibuya districts. But she also wears it when she doesn’t go downtown Tokyo.
Indeed, sometimes Yuki enjoys strolling in the Park next to her house. She likes to go there to read (mangas, but also English novels) or have a picnic with friends.
Sometimes she just go there and dream she travels to Paris again. She loves France and would like to study there next year ! She feels already more French with her makeup !
She will of course bring Kisu ! And she even learned how to cook macaroons 😉
This post was created as part of the Global Luxury Management Program at the NC State Poole School of Management. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Let’s be clear, the business model of Wall Street is fraud. In my view, there is no better example than the recently-exposed illegal behavior at Wells Fargo.
The CEO of Wells Fargo admitted today that he knew in 2013 the bank was scamming customers, but he took no action to fire or reprimand the senior executives in charge of supervising this activity. Instead, they were given millions in bonuses, while the value of the stock that the CEO owned shot up in value by more than $200 million.
Wells Fargo’s abuse of its customers is not an aberration. In April, the bank reached a $1.2 billion settlement with the Department of Justice for ‘reckless’ and ‘shoddy’ underwriting on thousands of home loans from 2001 to 2008. In 2012, Wells Fargo was fined $175 million to settle claims of discriminatory and predatory subprime lending in black and Hispanic neighborhoods.
We have got to end the two-tier justice system — one for the poor and working class and one for Wall Street and the wealthy — that has existed for far too long in this country. The American people cannot understand how major banks paid more than $200 billion in fines and settlements since 2008, but not one Wall Street executive was prosecuted. That has got to change. ‘Equal Justice Under Law’ cannot just be words engraved on the entrance of the Supreme Court. It must be the standard that applies to all Americans, including the CEO of Wells Fargo and other financial executives.
We also must break up Wells Fargo and the other biggest banks which have assets of nearly $10 trillion — the equivalent of nearly 60 percent of our nation’s gross domestic product.
Wall Street won’t change until we make it clear that no bank is too big to fail and no CEO is too big to jail.
I earlier predicted Hillary would win in a landslide and I was wrong.
2. I predicted this despite spending the last year talking to voters all over the country and hearing from them nothing but anger.
3. Along with hearing anger, I have heard very little good said about Hillary Clinton. From anyone. Black or white.
4. I hear awful things about her, outright lies and nastiness, from many Trump voters. She is hated beyond anything.
5. I hear less awful things, but still bad, from Reagan Democrats who voted for Obama. They “just don’t like her.”
6. I hear from working class whites who love Bernie. Who will not vote for Hillary. “She is in Wall Streets hands.”
7. I spend an equal time in working class black neighborhoods, & they will vote for her. With little enthusiasm.
8. Many older blacks love Bill Clinton. And that is why they are voting for Hillary.
9. Is all of this anger and tepid support for Hillary just about sexism? Partly. But it is far more than that. She is viewed as aloof & calculating. As the establishment. As the elite. She represents the front row kids.
10. She is everything everyone dislikes about the front row kids. And this election is about everyone else throwing them out.
11. Bill Clinton was a back row kid at heart. That is what he came from. (Go visit his hometown. Really.)
12. Trump is what the back row (and middle rows) often love best. Someone from the front row who joins them.
13. Not only is Trump joining them, he is shooting spitballs at the kids in the front. Making them all mad!
14. And what does team Hillary do? Goes full front row on everyone, throwing scorn. “How dare you behave so awfully! Grow up! Bad kids!”
15. That is why “basket of deplorable” was so damaging. It is exactly how everyone who isn’t in the front row thinks the front row thinks about everyone else.
16. And the thing is, as someone who was in the front row for much of my life (Wall Street banker). It is exactly how many in the front row think!
17. Hillary and the front row kids can still easily win. But only if they become a little self aware and a little humble. Offer up real ideas and admit fault, rather than just dish out condescending scorn.
18. Judging from the dismissive yells of “Racist!” of, “They are stupid”, I hear daily from smart front row kids. Hillary, and her front row supporters, are in trouble.
PS: Here is a more mathematical description of the same thing: Why Trump voters are not “Completely idiots”
PSS: Feel free to yell at me on Twitter.