Hasta La Vista, Baby!

Blogging Location: Flat, packing at the mo'

So let me catch you up a bit...

.:London Fashion Weekend:.

Look at me participating in mass consumerism...

I will admit, so I can get admitting out of the way, that London Fashion Weekend was not what I thought it was going to be on several counts... It was definitely a shopping experience as they claimed it would be. I expected everyone to be extravagantly well-dressed, enough to make me feel bashful, but for the most part, not everyone were fashionistas. I saw a lot of Uggs (thank goodness there were no Crocs) and I do believe I saw a couple girls in sweatpants... /shock
The catwalk wasn't as professional as I expected either. None of the designers were announced with the outfits modeled. Odd. And as much as I love vintage clothes, I didn't pay money to see outfits from 40-odd years ago. Show me something new!
Don't get me started on the gift bag that came with the ticket... Let's just say the contents were similar to an easter-egg hunt in the Costco consisting of samples from the beauty aisle. They did throw in a little bottle of Bailey's, which I can't complain about... It's one of the few drinks that actually taste decent to me...
Now, on the other hand, LFWE was pretty fun for shopping; plenty of labels-- although not as many high end ones as I expected, not that I could afford it-- I noticed that for certain stalls, a lot of the clothes were 'rejects.' I'm kind of a village idiot, but I know the difference between 'style' and 'oopsie.'
I bought a couple pieces, one from Ella Moss and one from Buddhist Punk, both of which I got at ridiculously good discounts, so I can be fairly happy with that.



Some photos at the catwalk:





After the crazy extravaganza, my friends and I went for an asian-food run. A couple of the girls we were with had Chinese food the night before, so we went with Japanese (ironically, the entire staff was Chinese). But the food was good and I got my sushi fix.


All in all, it was worth the trip to London, but I think it's a one-time thing. I'm quite satisfied shopping at thrift-stores, thank you.

.:Birmingham:.
It took about 4 hours by coach to get to Birmingham, but it was definitely day-trip worthy. Why? We went to CADBURY WORLD!
Cadbury is England's main chocolate maker, probably at the same level as Hershey's in the US, but it tastes SO much better, hence our trip to the theme park. (I'd like to say that half my English experience has been Cadbury, but I don't think my program would like to hear that much...)


It was about £10 to get into Cadbury World (with student discount, yes! I LOVE being a student!), but we got about three full-size bars of chocolate, which were considered "samples," like it's NO BIG DEAL. They were delicious. While not a factory, Cadbury World had a lot of demos for how they make their chocolate. No photos were allowed in those parts to keep the secret recipe... I CAN tell you, however, that they did not mix their chocolate by waterfall... and they put a glass and a half of milk in their bars.
The park started off with a history of the discovery of cocoa-- well, more like the theft of it from the Aztecs. Anyways, they had a cool set up with wax Aztecs and Spaniards, fake trees, fake giant snakes, etc... Since it's a one-way self-guided tour of a park, the next bit was chocolate's history as a sweet confectionary. They had little hologram shows and the like to explain things. Corny, but cute.


Finally! An English gentleman!-- oh, wait, you're made of plastic.


Ever been on that Bug's Life attraction at Disney CA Adventure? The one that scares the flying crap out of you with the special 4-D, invasive effects? There was something like that at Cadbury World. You get shaken, jolted, mixed, heated up and nearly melted, but they made their point. Next up! There was actually a little ride! Imagine the Alice in Wonderland ride at Disneyland mixed with the Peter Pan ride and the Winnie the Pooh ride. They had these little characters that were meant to be cocoa beans. The drawings of them were adorable, but as models they were... less cute. Look, you can even get your picture with one:

How cool is that guy's jumper?

.:Leeds:.
So I usually only write about traveling because I assume that's what everyone's interested in... but I DO do work... I just turned in an essay and a workbook yesterday before the end of term, and boy did I slave away. I'm enrolled this semester in Social Communications: Processes and Effects, Processes of Performing 2: Text and Image and Technique and Improvisation, Forensic Psychology and Film Music. Unlike last semester, I'm actually enjoying all these modules. Though Forensic psych is a 10am class and they don't take roll, it's cool enough for me to get up for.
In terms of flat life, I'm in a self-catered accommodation, so been doing a lot of cooking on my own. Lots of experimenting... I'm not going to go through all the dishes and desserts I've been creating, but I have to share this photo:

My flat mate Laura buy bananas from the local farmer's market (don't ask me where the bananas come from-- there's AIN'T enough sun in England to grow anything... except mushroom, which grow in the dark...) and for a pound, you can get about 20-30 bananas. Yeah, that's a lot. So we made banana cream pie! And we had leftover egg whites, so I whipped the living daylights out of them and made a meringue topping. Great. :)

.:TTFN:.

So in regards to the title of my blog... I'm leaving Leeds for a month! Just when the weather has started to get warm (when it's above 50*F here, that's warm). Oddly enough, I've gotten so used to the cold that anything above 55*F gets me to break out in a sweat when I'm walking to uni or town. I think my pores have put on their own little eskimo jackets... must ask them to start changing for the next season.
Where am I going, you ask? Look for the select dots:

Anyways, the weather doesn't look so great for where we're heading... It looks like rain and cold every where, but it will be great nonetheless. I'm going to be completely honest though: I'm DREADING being exhausted... One gets little to no sleep in hostels, not to mention walking and sightseeing all day... but I'm going to definitely pray for energy and sustenance! And gonna hope I catch all my flights and trains and such... if I miss one little flight, it's a crazy domino effect of disaster!
Anyways, if anyone could spare any prayer for safety that would be fantastic!
Talk to you in a month!xx

-Raech

As Promised...

Blogging Location: my room, 12:22am




Who would ever think that my dad telling me he spoke to a turtle would bring me to tears.

I was suggested to write about some of my negative experiences abroad so far, because good times without the bad is pretty invalid, in my point of view. So here it is, as promised.

I consider myself a pretty cheery person, thus resulting in a mostly hunky-dory blog. I was reminded the other day that my blog is hardly realistic. It's a lie, really. Okay, maybe a half-lie. With the "fun" and "adventure" come the tough things I'm experiencing. Homesickness is among them. And stress (getting to airports, packing, etc...).

We often describe the way things are by comparing them to things they're not. My last bout of homesickness probably came about because I realised England wasn't-- well, home. Over Christmas and New Years I had stayed with friends and their families, both amazing times that I'll never forget. Staying with them wasn't just like staying in any old accommodation or house. I was staying in a home and that was when I realised that I'd forgotten what being home meant and felt like. What happened next was like having a bucket of ice cold water thrown over you in your warm bed, wrapped in your comforter and duvet: I came back to my flat, in between Germany and Turkey. It was quiet. Post-apocalyptically quiet. You know as well as I do that 'quiet' is the perfect environment for vulnerability cultivate itself into homesickness.

The English setting wasn't particularly kind to my wave of homesickness: outside the ice was malicious, the sky was colourless and the sun was nowhere to be found. Even the moon took a few nights off for good measure. But now that my ill temperament has been set aside, I've given the English climate a chance. The temperature isn't much of a bother anymore. I've become accustomed to walking around in dresses and tights (with a coat), despite the snow-worthy temperatures (it snowed just this Monday, according to my flat mate). I'm also easing into the local style of heels-over-cobblestone, as clumsy as I can be.

I've reasoned that the answer to why my English flat mates don't smile all that often is the drab weather. It's terribly grey. But it's a different kind of grey. There's no rain or fog or anything that resembles separate clouds. It's a static, motionless grey, sort of lifeless at times. For someone that's always known she's blessed to have California sunshine, the contrast here makes me feel like I've taken it for granted all my life. Here, one can go days without seeing the sun, something I can barely cope with. Last week, I definitely felt the lack of sun take its toll on my emotions. I know I'm not a person of overly-sunny-dispositions, but the darkness of day was a lot like a Doc Marten taking a good kick at my soul. If you ever see an episode where Spongebob is dehydrated, you have an idea of how I feel when the sun decides to disappear for ridiculously long periods of time.

Three, and now potentially four, students in my program have decided to take early leaves of their study abroad for various reasons. Whatever their motives, I respect their decisions as they have their own paths to tread. I'm not nearly about to cut my year short, but I determined a few weeks ago that England is not the place to permanently move to for me. I've mentioned the limited types of cuisine and the climate, but it's not simply that. I love England. I do. Its people are incredibly polite; their sarcasm is riveting, the land is green, its history is immense. It's part of and extremely close to Europe. The possibilities of travel are endless. However, I can't help but look back at the eagerness and curiousness of Americans, the cultural and ethnic mixes, the open and carefree attitudes. Neither countries are perfect, this is all too true, but my heart forever beats to the rhythm of the lapping waves, the pulse of the right-side traffic, and the cadence of the pursuit of happiness.

To be honest, I don't generally blog about these things to avoid the unnecessary worry I could be causing others, but nonetheless I appreciate the concern and prayers for my well-being. I can't tell people enough how appreciative I am to have people care about me. Thank you.:)