Hello everyone!!
I know I'm being really sparse as of late, and I miss blogging and interacting with you guys more, but this whole apartment thing and now that I'm back to work... I am having a very hard time to find the time and motivation to blog, so until I'm finally settled for good in the apartment, I will continue to blog sporadically only.
Today I'm FINALLY going to start by BEA recap! The first post is gonna be about pre-BEA and the first half-day of BEA AKA Tuesday & Wednesday!
First things first, none of these pictures are mine. I took my camera with me, but didn't take it with me anywhere, I needed the extra space and was a bit overwhelmed for it. I got them all from my lovely roommates and fellow wonderful bloggy friends! So THANK YOU Britt, Sarah, Cassie, Melissa and everyone else that sent me pics!!
I arrived at JFK airport on Tuesday and my preparation for BEA started before even leaving the airport, because we were in line for immigration processing for at least one hour!! I started getting nervous because I had landed at 2'30 pm, I kept hearing calls over the P.E. that our luggage was being take off the belt because too many suitcases, and I wanted to arrive to the hotel, get freshened up and then got to the Jenny Han book launch, and it was nearly 4 pm already!!
Then of course was the traffic from JFK to the city, but luckily I was the second person to be dropped by the shuttle, so it wasn't too bad!
First highlight of the trip? Meeting my roomies!! Becca from Pivot Book Reviews & Reading Teen, Britt from Please Feed The Bookworm & Winterhaven Books and Sarah from Words With Sarah!!
After all the squealing and jumping and OMG-ing, Britt gave me her ARC of Mechanica because she's a sweetheart and she knew I really wanted to read it and also a book from Alyssa from The Eater of Books! Alyssa sent me a lot of ARCs and some awesome swag and before stepping out of the hotel room I had my first haul of books!! Overwhelmed already here!! THANK YOU!!!
Then we changed, don our bows and left to attend the Jenny Han book launch in Brooklyn! We were sad because Becca was going to attend the Teen Author Carnival at the Jefferson Market Library and not coming with us...
The Jenny Han launch was very stylish, with a candy bar with macarons, cupcakes, cookies and even champagne! We meet even more awesome bloggers there because Octavia, Nikki and Christina also arrived there! I was so happy to finally get to meet & tackle hug Octavia and Nikki! Also met Sajda, Melissa, Cristina and Jamie! It was so exciting! Jenny read from the book, took questions and then started signing!
There was a nail artist and a make up artist and also a nice photocall made to look like Lara Jean's bedroom, and even the cover mode was there to pose with people! We totally too advantage of that, and I got to keep the original polaroid, because these ladies are too kind!
Then with our signed books we took the tube back to our respective hotels to try and get some rest to be ready to day 1 at BEA!
The start of Wednesday can be summed up as: "YAY jet lag!". I woke up at 3 am, then tried to go back to sleep and then dozed off a bit here and there and finally gave up around 5 am and got up and got ready and made myself a cuppa tea while I waiting for my roomies to get up. I must confess the jet lag was a bit advantage for me, because I am NOT a morning person, so making me wake up at 4'30 am would mean risking a limb being bitten off...
After the whole morning process happened, we got to the Javits, my roomies with their rolling suitcase and me with just my Pivot Book Tote and my R2D2 messenger bag!
We went to Blogger Con to get our badges and then decided to roam around to get the layout of the place and then decide what panels to attend.
But then we saw that the line for BEA was already forming and we panicked about the Truthwitch tickets, so we decided to forego BloggerCon and stay in line!
Being in line, soon we were joined by Octavia, Nikki and Christina once again! Also joined us Melissa and Cassie!
From before 9 am till 1 pm we stayed in line, sat around, chatted, had some Starbucks overpriced lunch boxes, saw Susan Dennard pass (I waved at her and she waved baaack!). Sarah and Christina were my dance-in-line buddies because while waiting it's more fun to dance than just stand up! We plotted and planned our route to the Macmillan booth, saw what drops were announced on the BEA PW magazine and checked out schedules. We also met Katie from Katie's Book Blog, Nori from ReadWriteLove28, Jon from Bookish Antics and the lovely Dana from Danasquare! I probably met more people that I can't place right now, but probably will once I sort all the cards I got!
The way the BEA staff organize the lines isn't exactly the best but oh well... once 1 pm arrived we had our plan ready and we planned to follow Octavia, the yellow bullet! We ran and there was a veritable avalanche that shocked people on the booths! But YAY I managed to get my golden ticket!!
Right after grabbing my golden ticket, I went to the Penguin Random House (I agree with Nikki, it should be Random Penguin!) to grab my copy of Illuminae (another one of my must-haves!), and then started going here and there for ARC drops! Octavia managed to start the line for the drop of Tonight the Streets Are Ours and a pair of them more! I grabbed quite a few books that I didn't have in my list of "must-haves" but I also got a few ARCs in drops that freed my Friday schedule a bit! I grabbed a pair of books I didn't want for my roomies, because that's how it goes, the buddy system is the way to go! While waiting and "not-forming-a-line" for an ARC drop to happen I met Rashika from The Social Potato and Giselle from Xpresso Reads so YAY for meeting bloggy friends!
During our roaming around and line starting we met Daniel from The Couch Potatoes Digest and he joined our ducklings team! ;)
Then it was time for the Truthwitch signing and meeting Susan was simply amazing! She's just the sweetest and most adorable person ever! She was so excited and seeing her so happy and overwhelmed by the response was a reward for us too!
After the signing with Susan we just grabbed a few more books and then were ready to leave and go back to our hotel! We were supposed to go to Shake Shack with Octavia, Nikki and Christina, but were all wiped and my jet lag kicked again so I was the first in bed again!
More tomorrow for BEA day 2!!
I know I'm being really sparse as of late, and I miss blogging and interacting with you guys more, but this whole apartment thing and now that I'm back to work... I am having a very hard time to find the time and motivation to blog, so until I'm finally settled for good in the apartment, I will continue to blog sporadically only.
Today I'm FINALLY going to start by BEA recap! The first post is gonna be about pre-BEA and the first half-day of BEA AKA Tuesday & Wednesday!
First things first, none of these pictures are mine. I took my camera with me, but didn't take it with me anywhere, I needed the extra space and was a bit overwhelmed for it. I got them all from my lovely roommates and fellow wonderful bloggy friends! So THANK YOU Britt, Sarah, Cassie, Melissa and everyone else that sent me pics!!
TUESDAY
I arrived at JFK airport on Tuesday and my preparation for BEA started before even leaving the airport, because we were in line for immigration processing for at least one hour!! I started getting nervous because I had landed at 2'30 pm, I kept hearing calls over the P.E. that our luggage was being take off the belt because too many suitcases, and I wanted to arrive to the hotel, get freshened up and then got to the Jenny Han book launch, and it was nearly 4 pm already!!
Then of course was the traffic from JFK to the city, but luckily I was the second person to be dropped by the shuttle, so it wasn't too bad!
First highlight of the trip? Meeting my roomies!! Becca from Pivot Book Reviews & Reading Teen, Britt from Please Feed The Bookworm & Winterhaven Books and Sarah from Words With Sarah!!
After all the squealing and jumping and OMG-ing, Britt gave me her ARC of Mechanica because she's a sweetheart and she knew I really wanted to read it and also a book from Alyssa from The Eater of Books! Alyssa sent me a lot of ARCs and some awesome swag and before stepping out of the hotel room I had my first haul of books!! Overwhelmed already here!! THANK YOU!!!
Then we changed, don our bows and left to attend the Jenny Han book launch in Brooklyn! We were sad because Becca was going to attend the Teen Author Carnival at the Jefferson Market Library and not coming with us...
The Jenny Han launch was very stylish, with a candy bar with macarons, cupcakes, cookies and even champagne! We meet even more awesome bloggers there because Octavia, Nikki and Christina also arrived there! I was so happy to finally get to meet & tackle hug Octavia and Nikki! Also met Sajda, Melissa, Cristina and Jamie! It was so exciting! Jenny read from the book, took questions and then started signing!
There was a nail artist and a make up artist and also a nice photocall made to look like Lara Jean's bedroom, and even the cover mode was there to pose with people! We totally too advantage of that, and I got to keep the original polaroid, because these ladies are too kind!
Then with our signed books we took the tube back to our respective hotels to try and get some rest to be ready to day 1 at BEA!
WEDNESDAY
The start of Wednesday can be summed up as: "YAY jet lag!". I woke up at 3 am, then tried to go back to sleep and then dozed off a bit here and there and finally gave up around 5 am and got up and got ready and made myself a cuppa tea while I waiting for my roomies to get up. I must confess the jet lag was a bit advantage for me, because I am NOT a morning person, so making me wake up at 4'30 am would mean risking a limb being bitten off...
After the whole morning process happened, we got to the Javits, my roomies with their rolling suitcase and me with just my Pivot Book Tote and my R2D2 messenger bag!
We went to Blogger Con to get our badges and then decided to roam around to get the layout of the place and then decide what panels to attend.
The most awesome stairs ever!! The Illuminae stairs!!
But then we saw that the line for BEA was already forming and we panicked about the Truthwitch tickets, so we decided to forego BloggerCon and stay in line!
Being in line, soon we were joined by Octavia, Nikki and Christina once again! Also joined us Melissa and Cassie!
From before 9 am till 1 pm we stayed in line, sat around, chatted, had some Starbucks overpriced lunch boxes, saw Susan Dennard pass (I waved at her and she waved baaack!). Sarah and Christina were my dance-in-line buddies because while waiting it's more fun to dance than just stand up! We plotted and planned our route to the Macmillan booth, saw what drops were announced on the BEA PW magazine and checked out schedules. We also met Katie from Katie's Book Blog, Nori from ReadWriteLove28, Jon from Bookish Antics and the lovely Dana from Danasquare! I probably met more people that I can't place right now, but probably will once I sort all the cards I got!
The way the BEA staff organize the lines isn't exactly the best but oh well... once 1 pm arrived we had our plan ready and we planned to follow Octavia, the yellow bullet! We ran and there was a veritable avalanche that shocked people on the booths! But YAY I managed to get my golden ticket!!
Right after grabbing my golden ticket, I went to the Penguin Random House (I agree with Nikki, it should be Random Penguin!) to grab my copy of Illuminae (another one of my must-haves!), and then started going here and there for ARC drops! Octavia managed to start the line for the drop of Tonight the Streets Are Ours and a pair of them more! I grabbed quite a few books that I didn't have in my list of "must-haves" but I also got a few ARCs in drops that freed my Friday schedule a bit! I grabbed a pair of books I didn't want for my roomies, because that's how it goes, the buddy system is the way to go! While waiting and "not-forming-a-line" for an ARC drop to happen I met Rashika from The Social Potato and Giselle from Xpresso Reads so YAY for meeting bloggy friends!
During our roaming around and line starting we met Daniel from The Couch Potatoes Digest and he joined our ducklings team! ;)
Then it was time for the Truthwitch signing and meeting Susan was simply amazing! She's just the sweetest and most adorable person ever! She was so excited and seeing her so happy and overwhelmed by the response was a reward for us too!
After the signing with Susan we just grabbed a few more books and then were ready to leave and go back to our hotel! We were supposed to go to Shake Shack with Octavia, Nikki and Christina, but were all wiped and my jet lag kicked again so I was the first in bed again!
More tomorrow for BEA day 2!!
It all looks and sounds amazing!! So glad you had such a great time :)
ReplyDeleteIt was fantastic, Eileen! Thank you so much!
DeleteAwwww, you guys sound like you all had such an awesome, awesome, awesome time! I'm insanely jealous of the fun you guys had with bloggy friends and authors but at the same time so happy for you all, too. I wish next year my plan for #BEA16 in Chicago comes true so I can FINALLY meet everyone!
ReplyDeleteFaye at The Social Potato
I so HOPE you can come next year!! You'll be totally tackle-hugged!
DeleteLovely recap!! Yours is so much better than mine was lol. Love youuu!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI still need to write two more! Thank you so much Britt!! Love you too!!
DeleteI loved this. I was smiling the whole time reading it!
ReplyDeleteYAY Steph! I do hope you could make it to Chicago next year so we'll be able to meet!
DeleteAre you definitely going yo Chicago???
DeleteMOST DEFINITELY!
DeleteYAY I'M GLAD YOU ENJOYED THE FIRST FEW DAYS! Truthwitch and Susan! So happy to see that you enjoyed the book. And that you got the package from Britt - I'm so grateful that she did that for me! Next year when I'm not scrambling after finals, the package will be more exciting (I'm assuming you're going to Chicago next year). I can't say if I'm going (honestly, probably not, because NYC was a drive away, whereas is a flight away, and my parents would not pay for that and I don't get paid enough at my job!). Lovely post, lady!
ReplyDeleteAlyssa @ The Eater of Books!
You were waaaay too kind sending all those ARCs!! *biggest hugs* I am indeed going to BEA16 in Chicago!! I wish you could come too, but I guess we'll see!
DeleteJENNY HAN AND ILLUMINAE! Sounds like a great first day with lots of lovely meetings Pili!
ReplyDeleteYep! All the awesome bookish peeps and authors and ARCs! Everything started in style!!
DeleteAw, YAY :D I love love love this recap sweetie. <3 It sounds like you had such an amazing time :) Ugh, how I want to go to BEA. <3 You got to hang out with so many amazing people :D YAY! <3 And yay for all the books too :) Sigh. You are so lucky sweet girl. So happy for you :) And aw, no worries about blogging. <3 You should take time off when you feel like it :) Hope things are going great with your apartment. <3 Pictures soon? :D And ohh! LOVE all the pictures in this post :D You are so cute.
ReplyDeleteThank you so very much sweetie!! BEA was an amazing experience for sure!!
DeleteAnd yes, I'll be sharing a post with a few pics of the apartment this week I think! =D
LOVE the photos. It sounds like so much fun to meet fellow bloggers!
ReplyDeleteIt IS!! Meeting fellow bloggers is the most fun part of BEA for sure!!
Delete