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!