I Offically Like London

...Just thought you should know. More details to come...more pictures to take! :)


In the meantime, I need to register with the U.S. Embassy, and do some more shopping for sweaters, coats, and wellies. And there's this little matter of finishing a research proposal, and re-working last semester's Refugee Law paper for potential publication.

I also just booked a round trip ticket to Barcelona for mid-October, to play with two of my good friends.


I'll post the first weeks' pics soon...like tomorrow, God willing. As you can tell, I'm less hungry today.

Homesickness

Because of how scant and foul the food is in Britain (I think I live with the best cook in the whole nation, but she's a conservationist and a health nut), I am freaking starving and unable to think about anything other than salt and sugar.

Today at dinnertime, after a very British meal of smoked haddock, rice and eggs (much better than it sounds...actually delicious, even though maybe my starvation has clouded my judgment), my goddad asked me "so, what foods will you miss from America?" I pretended to have to think about it for a moment before saying "...ohhhhh...I don't know, really...I guess I'll just miss...EVERYTHING!!!!"

But I forgot to mention one thing while I was ranting to my godparents about vegetarian pizza, super-sweet American chocolate, french fries, chips ("crisps" in Britain), Chinese take-out, non-dairy soy ice cream sandwiches, sushi, etc (the godparents wished they hadn't asked): Pinkberry. Where the heck is London's version of Pinkberry? Do they not have one? Because, if not, I am going to jump off the solar panel on the roof of our conservationist, environmentally-friendly house.

Bloody misery.

Apparently, we eat too much in the States...

I have never been hungrier in my life. I wanted to lose weight over here, but I didn't want to DIE...

*dies*

My first day out and about

I suppose you're wondering about the name of this blog. That deserves it's own post, and I'm not in the mood to think about it right now. I want to talk fashion.

Surprise, Surprise.

Today I went to scope out campus (LSE) so that I wouldn't get lost tomorrow during registration. Afterwards, my god-dad and I parted ways, and I went off to traipse about Oxford Street. Shopping. Yum. Um. *Flips Price Tag and Converts to Pounds*. Boo. Yuck. Sigh.

Honestly, I was expecting more. I think I need to go again...in some SUNSHINE...to get a better vibe, but H&M, Esprit and Bennetton are not impressive to someone coming from New York, and neither is Zara. I did get a mild kick out of TopShop, but it's still too damn expensive. I ended up just convincing myself that I was paying in dollars instead.

What really confused me, however, is that the people were not as fabulous as I hoped. Again, maybe I caught the wrong day, but all I saw was a LOT of bad weaves.

A moment on the weaves, and black hair care in general

My sister warned me, but I couldn't have fathomed... I'm talking about multi colored weaves, latch-hook braids (!!!), fuzzy dookey braids, feet of new growth, new growth on top of tracks, visible glue....oh, Jesus, take the wheel!

Stop the madness.

I've also spotted colored contacts, in colors such as blue and violet, on the black women, accentuated by very false lashes.

On another minority group of people not here to defend itself (I dont think), I spotted skinny high waisted granny jeans and hightop "trainers" (gymshoes") a couple of times. It was enough for me to go back to Heathrow right then and there.

Don't make me bring Tim Gunn up in this country. PLEASE.


Anyhoo, trust and believe that I will be making a section of this blog called "BLOODY INCORRECT" to address the fashion disasters and other belligerent madness I see in this city.

London Is Cold and Gray

That's my first impression of it. I'm freezing. I'm also starving because the food is not great, and there isn't enough of it.

I'm living outside of the downtown, but in what's known as Inner London, in the Borough of Hackney, with two lovely friends of my parents, who I will refer to as my godparents quite often. I've actually got a really nice setup here, in their beautiful and newly renovated house...

...but I still feel like a fish out of water, so far. And it's still cold and gray.