Alot Of Buildings...

I admit it.. I failed.

I failed my challenge to not buy clothes for a week.

Walking back from orientation on Wednesday I was doing so good and was not even tempted to purchase something at the stores we stopped in. Until we went to Zara. Okay so I also was doing good in there, but then we hit the clearance rack and I HAD to have this dress. It was only 7.99!

Then I made a couple returns at Primark soooo I technically didn't spend any money??

Thursday and Friday of this week were the final days of orientation at LCF, and we explored... a lot.

Thursday was mainly information sessions per ususal, but we had a "tour of the local area" surrounding our school. We got to see a lot of places that I had been dying to get to, and some that I never knew existed.

Liberty is a beautiful, beautiful department store. We were told that it was built in 1875 out of the remains of old ships.

CARNABY STREET. I have been waiting to get to Carnaby Street for years. Even though it is a touristy area, I love it. The cobblestone road is home to lots of little shops and boutiques. One that is familiar - Johhny Cupcakes.

Following Thursday's tour was... another tour. We had a brief technology induction but THEN we toured the London College of Fashion library. Throughout our time here various people mentioned how incredible the library is. And it is actually something you have to see to believe. Initially I wasn't wowed.. I mean a library is a library. Lots of really interesting fashion books and magazines on the first floor but the second floor is where it got wild. LCF has every issue of American and Paris Vogue in an encyclopedic format. (There were more magazine archives, but we didn't even get that far back.) An incredible DVD collection aaaand my personal favorite, a textile library. It was truly my inner textile nerd's dream.

The day was long and filled with lots of information sooo we stopped at a small Mexican restaurant for happy hour drinks and nachos before coming home for the night.

Yesterday, Friday, was another day of lecture & adventure. We were introduced to our British Cultural Studies professor. His name is Michael and he is really incredible. After talking about the UK and London for a while, he sent us out on a scavenger hunt type of exploration activity in the city. The point was to find new streets, areas and to discover things we never expected.

The first directions were to find a cafe and relax. A girl in my group took us to a juice bar called Joe and the Juice and although the juice was great, people don't go there for that. They go for the incredibly good looking men that work behind the counter. Interesting business scheme, but it definitely works.

Above is some architecture and a garden we found in our travels. We were in a verrry wealthy area of the city.

BUT Victoria's Secret had the REAL outfits and wings that the angels wore in the 2013 fashion show. I was EMOTIONAL. They were perfect.

We walked the streets where the well-known art galleries were located. All beautiful places, we just didn't have the patience to go inside and browse at the time.

The forth letter took us through the Burlington Arcade. It was a long hall with boutiques selling mostly jewelry. Very, very expensive things. At the end of the Burlington Arcade was Laduree, a place popular for their macaroons.

And beyond there, the RA and more London type things..

(Shoutout to my brother Paul!)

Here are images of our main campus building through Oxford Circus.

At the conclusion of our week of orientation, the school served us some delicious cider, which began our Friday night in a wonderful way.

Later in the evening got interesting, but nevertheless a good time. We're becoming good friends with some of the girls in our program from France and Sweden, and one guy in our program from NYU.

Today I'm off to do some hardcore sightseeing, those sights including Big Ben and Harry Styles.

Stay tuned!

Oriental

Good afternoon from a rainy London!

Today was the first of four days of orientation at University of the Arts London: London College of Fashion. It went as typical orientation goes.. lectures and information. But it was all good and interesting! We got our schedules and found out when our trip to Paris is.

My schedule is pretty nice. I have Theoretical & Contemporary Fashion Studies, Public Relations and The Art of Fashion & Beauty Photography on mondays. The Perfect Moodboard on tuesdays. Wednesday I have British Cultural Studies, where each class meets in a different part of the city. Thursday is Fashion History, and friday is my Fashion Styling class.

There might be a slight change to my schedule, however. Due to my obsession with Visual Merchandising, I may switch one of my courses to that. Even though I took it at Lasell already I think career-wise it would look good to have taken it in London too. Plus they said the visual merchandising class is really great and even mentioned a tour of a mannequin factory! Unfortunately I have no idea what class I would replace it with... Can't I just take them all?

So I'm officially a registered student at UAL: LCF. Here is my beautiful Student ID/lanyard. 

I'm also incredibly happy about the trip to Paris. I will be spending five days and four nights in the city of light: from October 10th to the 14th. They split the groups up so that all of the Lasell girls are together, which I think will make it a lot more comfortable. We saw so many pictures and videos and they described to us everything that we will be seeing and doing there. I could have honestly cried during the presentation. How many years of my life have I dreamed and worked for this moment? 

I think this entire semester is going to feel like a dream.

Dropping From Shopping

Yesterday was a lazy day.. we had plans to explore the other side of our neighborhood, but never made it off the couch.

With more energy late at night, my roommate and I went out with other kids in our program. Soooo, I officially had my first legal drink out at a pub.

The pub we ate at was called The Larrik and Yelp told us the nachos were great.. I can validate that. They were the best nachos I've had in so long. It was a good timeout, and it was nice to spend time with and get to know our flatmates!

 My roommate Bianca and I.

The night ended early because we're all still adjusting to the new timezone.

This morning we woke up in an empty flat, as usual. While we were finishing up breakfast, the remaining 6 of our flatmates arrived. It's been interesting so far, but I'm excited to have some life in our big space!

We had planned today to go shopping. It needed to happen. So maybe too much of it happened, but I have no regrets...

On our initial trip to Oxford Street, I tried on a pair of jeans at Topshop. I was hoping to find something comparable but less expensive today at Primark. With no success, I returned to Topshop and just bought the jeans because I have not been able to stop thinking about them. At Primark I picked up a necessary backpack, two dresses, a chunky cardigan, polyester joggers, 2 black tees, a mint-colored tank, a hat and sneakers. I'm in love with all of my purchases!

I may be living off of tomato soup for the next week but I got the shopping spree out of my system and am ready to take it easy.... until fall collections come out.

if not now when

My roommate and I recognize that we're still in the honeymoon phase of our time here, but at least we have accepted it.

Today we walked further down Oxford Street and did some serious shopping. On the way we got super touristy and took British phone booth pictures..

So yesterday I thought Primark was heaven, but today I found something better: Selfridge's. It was a beautiful place with actually every single top brand name and designer. These clothes cost more than my life. But they were all very beautiful and very inspiring. There was a Primark department, where I bought a knee-length black tea skirt and a printed jumpsuit. Obviously I couldn't leave the H&M department empty handed, so I picked up a long tank that reads, "if not now when." I couldn't resist, especially because the words are so relevant to my trip. 

Now is my time to pursue my passions and career.

So elsewhere in Selfridge's was the American Apparel department. My outfit happened to match perfectly with the decor in the fitting room soooo here's a #selfie from that.

Other pictures from the inside of Selfridge's;

This picture I took for Brendan, the boy I babysit at home. He loves Legos and Star Wars. The toy department within Selfridge's was comparable to the Toys R Us at Times Square in NYC. 

The rooms and rooms of shoes inside Selfridge's were incredible. This one display I, as a fashion major, was obsessed with. (If you don't know me too well, you probably don't know I have an obsession with visual merchandising. It's one of my potential career paths.) Anyway, this table was made of old wooden shoe forms. It was crazy.

So the goal of today's trip was to make it to the main offices of our school, London College of Fashion. Slowly but surely, we made it. 

Orientation starts Tuesday, and classes begin the following Monday. I'm very excited to start working!

Oxford Street

Yo what is up with jet lag.. I woke up today at 11. I hate sleeping past 8.

Anyway, with our day off to a weird start, we decided to explore. First by checking out grocery stores and stocking up on some kitchen necessities. (Shoutout to everyone that says peanut butter is impossible to find in London because we found a jar so you're all wrong bye.) Then we headed down to Oxford Street where a lot of dangerous things live: clothing stores. 

PRIMARK, my god, Primark. It was everything that everyone said it would be. A madhouse of really cheap but super cute clothes. Literally a department for denim, sweaters, tee shirts, dresses, coats, tops, bags, shoes, home, luggage, men's and little kids. It never ended. Obviously I couldn't leave empty handed so I grabbed this koala wallet (ko-wallet?) and a throw blanket.

We stopped in Topshop, among others, where I fell in love with a pair of high-waisted skinny jeans. Also I appreciate their in-store selection of clothes for tall people. Amen.

The marble arch was right there so we got real touristy and took some pictures.

On the way back we grabbed ingredients for stir fry and made our first dinner!

Not gonna lie.. it's so nice having the flat to ourselves. We'll see how it goes when the 6 others arrive.

Oh yeah, shout out to Stevie and Lisa- this picture's for my main homies in Massachusetts.

Le Premier Jour

Day One/Two

has been the longest day(s). With probably less than an hour of sleep on both of my flights, I'm real confused. Although I'm happy to have watched the plane fly into the sunrise while approaching Iceland. It was something I've never seen before and felt ethereal. Here are some pictures out of my window seat..

The last image I was playing with the frost on the window and the sick colors behind it.

Also don't believe anything people tell you about Iceland being warm because when I was there we exited the plane outside and it was probably 30 degrees. Every employee was in winter clothes. The landscape was GORGEOUS though.

Arriving in London was a relief but a whole other battle within itself. The driver picked me up and took my luggage to the car, but apparently that is the only thing he is good at. 

After driving in circles, 20 phone calls with his boss and walking up and down the same block, he finally found where to pick up my flat keys. We were given a map to the flat, which was, by the way, about 2 blocks away, but of course this guy couldn't figure it out. After more circles and phone calls I finally jumped out of the car and into this BEAUTIFUL flat. So much better than I could imagine. For example, the closet:

It's currently 11PM here, but my body has no idea what's going on. This whole adjusting to a new timezone thing should be interesting.