#also i have like 6000 pictures and i desperately need to go through and clean them all out bc i got like 4gb left lol

[budapestalloveragain]

hello !! so eliava aka @eightiesau aka one of my fav people ever tagged me to post some of my fav pictures from 2017!  andddd it was actually harder than i thought bc i actually like had a phone this year and could take pictures lmao so i chose 10 instead of 9 but eh who cares xD what we’ve learned from this is that i like snow (the app lmao but also the weather, only sometimes though), i like animals + also i like seventeen lol (and other groups but like... svt’s the only one i have pictures of that i actually took myself yes okay)

idk if i’m supposed to do explanations for the pictures also ? but why not

1. me and a doggo :’) when i went to dc this summer my cousin’s roommate adopted a dog and i went with them !! so ye this is their new puppy ^-^ 2. a v pretty ferris wheel i saw in barry (wales) 3. aNOTHER doggo @the petsmart where we went to adopt doggo from #1 4. that is seventeen lmao @diamond edge ny (aka like one of the best nights of my life despite the shitty ass venue yes) (if u are unfamiliar with svt then from left to right the visible ones are: chan (dino), mingyu (giving the piggyback lol), seungcheol (s. coups, the one on top of mingyu lmao) & minghao (the8, my bb, my love)) 5. me and my cat oliver xD sometimes his tongue just gets stuck out lol it’s real cute i have so many pictures of him with his tongue out he is a cutie and i love him to pieces 6. also seventeen lol i cannot name them all in this photo (maybe if i tried real hard but it’s like 2am lmao so no) but this is like one of the best pictures i took that night since my view was terrible and idk i just like the lighting haha 7. also seventeen and once again i also just liked this lighting  8. me !! in dc again, using snow filters (again) bc i don’t like my face 9. me again feat. snow, right after i cut my hair 10. me... again... using snow... again... after i got my hair colored and idk the lady curled it too ? i was trying to recreate this picture of iu lmao it did not turn out the best but also i kinda like this picture of me ? so not bad

uhhhhh yeah idk what i’m doing lol but i’m gonna tag mom @omfgbts and jiejie @snowflakebenny and jori @yellowhalcyon and dia @champagnemagnus and ejay @thriftmom (fUCKING INCREDIBLE I TAGGED FIVE PEOPLE AGAIN WHAT ARE THE ODDS LMAO I STAND CORRECTED) do it if u wanna ! don’t if you don’t wanna ! if i didn’t tag you and u wanna anyways then do it ! i love seeing all of u and i hope 2017 did not suck totally <333

[ohnmintyfresh]

“What started off as a romantic Labor Day weekend island-getaway has quickly turned into their worst nightmare!” would be an opening line if I were to write about our “adventure” in St Martin. We did our best to get out of there as soon as we found out it was heading towards us as a Category 6 (which doesn’t exist) monster hurricane but obviously all flights were booked. Matty did the best thing he could possibly do which eventually saved our lives - booking the Simpson Bay resort.

Sep 4th - 12:00 pm

We left our beautiful AirB&B beach house, got all the food and supplies, and headed to the resort. Our hosts treated us as their own family and drove us to the resort. He warned us, “You guys are in for a ride”. Boy, was he right. I later found out their home was destroyed. The tides were up to 32 feet and I knew that beautiful home wouldn’t survive. As soon as we got to our villa, which was on the ground floor of an inner building up on a higher ground, we built a fort with the couches in the kitchen and a little hide-out in the shower with beach chair cushions. We filled up all possible containers with water. Then we waited.

8:00 pm

The wind picked up and things started to get loud. We quickly moved to the bathroom and blocked the bathroom door with the big garbage-can full of water so it wouldn’t fly open. The next few hours were the worst time of my life. The first half of the hurricane was quite bad - the villa was shaking and everything in the living room was flying around. 

Sep 5th - 1:00 am

Then there was this eerie calm for about 45 mins where you could hear only the soft wind blowing. The eye was passing. 

2:00 am

Then it hit us - with the force that no one can possibly imagine. The force that ripped apart the island into pieces. I have never been that scared in my life. It felt like our door was going to get blown open. I thought the roof was going to get ripped off any moment and we were all going to die. The whole world was collapsing around us. Our tiny little bathroom was shaking and you could hear this roar - the kind of sound that can haunt you for the rest of your life. The constant banging outside of our bathroom door and the roaring of this monster hurricane lasted for HOURS. Try to picture that for a second. Imagine the worst turbulence you’ve ever had when you were on a plane and the feeling that you are all going to die. Imagine that feeling times 100 lasting for not just a few mins but for hours. 

6:00 am

I started crying uncontrollably and Matty, my then-boyfriend, tried to console me, although I could tell he was also terrified. When I was just about to pass out from fear, everything stopped. The shaking and the banging got less and less. The roar got further and further from our villa. Things got quieter until it became just the sound of rain and constant strong wind. 

8:00 am

The storm started way earlier than the predictions. It was over by Wed (Sep 6th) morning. We slowly opened the bathroom door to check out the outside world. To our surprise, our villa was actually intact except for minor flooding. Our main door was closed and windows weren’t broken either. But there was a giant piece of a metal roof right outside of the windows. It was a miracle that it didn’t pierce through our windows. Otherwise we would have been done for. 

9:00 am

Power was out and water was gone. That’s when that desperation kicked in. We did get A LOT of water and food “just in case” and we did finish the last water we have on the last day. As we walked around the resort, we realized how devastating it was. The only way for me to describe was that it looked like the island was hit by a nuclear bomb. Roofs were ripped off. Burned cars stacked on top of each other. Debris of everything and anything you can imagine everywhere to the point you couldn’t possibly walk through at all. We were trapped.

4:00 pm

Hotel called for an emergency meeting to inform us that we were indeed all trapped on the island with limited food and water supplies. The airport was completely destroyed. We could see it from our hotel lobby and there was actually a couple of boats in the middle of what’s left of the runway. There were about 200 guests plus hotel staff at the Simpson Bay. I want to take a moment and say THANK YOU to all the staff at the Simpson Bay Resort. They did an absolutely amazing job to get us all home safe. And that was the ONLY hotel on the island who stood by their guests and take care of our safety.

Sep 8th - 8:00 am

The aftermath. Thursday (first day after the hit) went by quickly as we were in pure shock. Friday day came and that dire and eerie feelings kicked in. Locals were forced out our resort as another hurricane Jose was approaching and the resort was no longer safe to shelter anyone at that point. The flying debris alone could kill us all. The tension between the locals and the tourists continued to rise. We spotted a HUGE fire at night and were told people were setting things on fire out of spite or jealousy. It quickly became a war zone.

8:00 pm 

Friday evening - things got worse. Hotel staff warned us of looting and robberies happening on the island. We met some women taking shelter at our hotel because a guy showed up at theirs with a machete. We were warned not to wander around alone. To make things worse, our door lock was broken and only one of us can leave the room to go attend the meetings with the hotel to know what is going on.

10:00 pm

As I was walking back from the lobby with the new friends I have made, we saw some locals looting the cars in our resort. They finally got in. There were no soldiers or law enforcement just yet. I ran back to my room and told Matty we needed to prepare to protect ourselves.

Sep 9th - 2:00 am

We were woken up by noises just outside of our room. People were walking around and checking the rooms. We stayed awake the whole night in a complete terror.

10:00 am

Fights start to break out in the hotel lobby as the food and water were running out. Everyone was on edge. No one knows when we were going to get rescued. Everyone knew someone but not a single person had any valuable information that could save us. All we could do at that point was wait. 

5:00 pm

We saw a few boats approached our hotel with some soldiers. Later we learned that they were the dutch soldiers who came here to clean the airport runway. We also saw a few military planes landing at the airport. Help is here. Finally. Our hotel finally got a hold of someone who would finally rescue us all. We were told to pack a small bag and be ready to evacuate. But only the elderlies and babies were going to evacuate first.

9:00 pm

Exhausted, we headed back to our room with the last string of hope. We are not going to be rescued today.

Sep 10th - 5:00 am

The phone rang. I even didn’t know it was working!! I picked up and they said, “You have 15 mins. We are evacuating. Come to the lobby NOW.” In pure panic, we grabbed our stuff and started running. It was still pretty dark and another hurricane Jose was on the way. As we ran in the rain, the wind picked up and all the debris started flying. It was about 10 mins walk to the lobby and before we knew it, this huge piece of metal roof flew right past our heads. We were about 2 inches from getting our heads chopped off.

7:00 am

Anxiously waiting for our turn to evacuate. As we drove through the island, I saw the devastation - St Martin as we knew was completely gone. It was a war zone. There were no more houses or streets. Every direction you looked it was devastation. 

10:00 am

The line at the airport was as long as the eyes could see. There were the Dutch soldiers, the US marines, the UK army, the St martin local police force - all working together. We were cold, hungry and just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, it started pouring. Jose was coming. It was predicted to hit around noon and there’s no way anyone could fly out once the second hurricane was here. It was predicted to be Category 3. We were surrounded by the damage left by Irma. Just a little bit of wind, and it was going to be a massacre. I looked around myself hopelessly and finally gave up. I sat down in a complete defeat and just started crying. That was it. We survived the first hurricane but we weren’t going to survive another one and there was no way we were going to get on those planes with hundreds of people ahead of us. We were done for. I called my family, my best friend to tell them we were coming home - thinking deep down that that was my goodbyes.

12:00 pm

A miracle happened. Jose hasn’t arrived just yet and we were going in the gates finally. The sweet U.S marine checked my passport and said “Smile. You are going to be okay now.” I couldn’t smile. It felt like my heart was about to pop out of my mouth. Or my ass. I was in shock. Boarding these huge U.S military aircrafts was one of the most magnificent moments of my life. There was no seat. Everyone was sitting on the floor hanging onto each other. We looked at each other and couldn’t believe we were finally rescued. I couldn’t stop crying but this time it was the happy tears. We were finally going home.

—-

6000 Americans were rescued from St Martin. We were one of the very first 200. My Dutch and UK friends were rescued a few days later. We were taken to PR which was also hit by Irma after us. We took the first possible flight out of PR the next day. After 4 more flights, I was home in New York.

If we left a day earlier than we planned, we could have avoided this all. Our flight was at 4 pm and the last flight out of St Martin that day was 8 am. When I looked back and thought about it all, the only thing that made me regret was putting my mom into such agony - not knowing if I was going to make it must have been quite excruciating for a mother. I wish I could have changed that. Other than that, everything happens for a reason and now I have tales to tell for many many years. Matty and I ended up breaking up after the trip. The little adventure we had was a bit too much for our brand-new relationship. But I still thank him to this day for booking a room at the hotel that saved our lives. I still keep in touch with friends I’ve made through this journey. It’s amazing how disasters bring out the best and the worst in people. And yes, it’s YOLO. I’ll continue traveling and exploring. May be not to an island during the hurricane season.. :) <3