Friday, April 27, 2012

125. Back to the grind, kind of.

My first post in over a week and my first FBFF in God knows how long...I'm slacking, again. I don't know why I feel so accountable, but to my readers I do. I arrived home after a long day of traveling on Sunday, after getting on the plane still partially drunk. The first and last time might I add. The flights were good but it's still surreal to be back here.

So what have I been doing since then? Trying to adjust! I'm doing alright with the sleeping schedule, since there was only a 3 1/2 hour difference, but everything else is taking time. Being on the right side of the road, having a working TV and more than 3 channels, no British accents, and having to drive everywhere are getting the best of me. I'm getting back to normal life but it's going to take a while.

I'm working on updating my time in Harlow from midterm break, but everytime I sit down to write it either I realize something else I have to do or I forget what I did and can't find my notebook. I've got them laid out and I'm going to spend the weekend updating the last couple of weeks of my time there. But for now, here's an easy post about how I manage to get dressed in the mornings!

1. How do you go about picking your outfit for the day? (Do you lay stuff out the night before? Do you plan a whole week's worth of looks Sunday night? Do you wing it every morning?) 
Honestly, it depends on all the circumstances of the morning. If I have an interview or something important at work/school I'll lay things out, but for the most part I wing it. The weather can screw with my sartorial choices, sometimes meaning I even have to change mid-day. Usually I'm around the house or running errands when that happens, but still, it gets old. 

2. Do you try stuff on and then take pics to see how it looks, like Cher in Clueless? 

I've gotten into the habit of doing that when I'm shopping alone, so I can get opinions, but usually I don't. I find that posting here to show everyone what I've worn is good enough, since I get objective opinions on outfits. Full length mirrors are a good friend, but if I'm wondering how an outfit looks sometimes I will take a quick snap! 


my first Anthro visit in London... cute shirt but bad fit!

3. And are you consistent in your planning or lack thereof, or is your planning limited to special events? 
Like I mentioned in the first question, it's just for special events. If I know I have to dress for a certain occasion I'll plan an outfit, but for the most part I just wear whatever I feel like wearing on a particular day. Depending on the special event, I'll have several options in mind and then will choose from those when I'm getting ready. I usually change at least two or three times before going out, or more depending on my mood.

4. Do you have a way of keeping track of which outfits you wore when? 
Memory is usually the best way to keep track, and through my blog. I don't wear the same combination two weeks in a row, but I use the same pieces to change the outfits up. I'm pretty good at remembering when I've worn things, keeping things from repeating. I've gotten good enough that I've had coworkers on my workterms ask me if I had ever worn anything twice.

5. How do you come up with new clothing combinations? (An app? Computer program? Trial and error?) 

I would love to use apps or programs like that to create combinations, but most of my outfit ideas come from other bloggers. I love seeing well known bloggers or some of the smaller ones I read, and taking their ideas for my own. Magazines and other forms of media are great for inspiration too.

So that's all for now! I promise regular posts next week once I make my way back to real life. Lots more to show you all!

Til next time!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Day 86-87: Florence & Pisa

So! Next stop in our midterm break tour was Florence. Only an overnigth unfortunately, so I didn't see much more of Florence this time than I had previously. We arrived by train from Venice in the early afternoon, so it was warm and we had lots of of time to explore. We ventured out to find some of the sights of the city and found a little market to roam around first. The Accademia Gallery was nearby so we headed to see the actual David statue. I had seen the replica in the  Palazzo della Signoria before but the girls wanted to see the real thing.

The gallery wasn't very big, but the David was huge. No pictures allowed but I managed to snap one.


Following the gallery, we made it to one of the main squares with the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral. The line was too long and it was too close to Easter to bother going in. I actually still don't mind seeing all the churches, as odd as that may sound. We took some group pictures and got more gelato, then headed towards the River Duomo to see the Ponte Vecchio.





Being that it was a gorgeous day, we all took the chance to get more pictures along the Duomo. I love how pretty Florence is. We walked over to the Ponte Vecchio from there, and I understood why I hadn't shopped on it before.




After the walk around the bridge, we split off into groups. One of the girls wanted to see the Uffi gallery, and the others including myself wanted to shop. What can I say, I like a good bargain. More gelato and walking around happened after that, but myself and another of the girls called it quits early and headed back to the hostel.


We had supper at the hostel, and though it wasn't the best, the cheap wine that we could buy at the front desk was quite fun. 10 or so bottles between us I think was the total.
 




The next day was ind of uneventful, in that we didn't do much besides get the train. I didn't, anyways. Stayed back at the hostel while the girls found another tower to climb. Had to catch up on email and talking to friends. They also found something related to Jersey Shore, which I think is one of the dumber shows ever put on television. I was much happier talking to boyfriend for a while.

We got the train to Pisa in the early afternoon. It was just a stopover to see the leaning tower of course. I still didn't get a good picture of it, but that's what I get for being so good at taking everyone else's photos lol. Here's what I took of Pisa, and basically all I saw!







The train took us from there to Rome, about a 5 hour journey I think? Writing this a little rushed so I'm leaving out some details, I may fill them in tomorrow.

Off again to finish studying for my last exam!  More regular updates on the rest of midterm break soon!

Til next time!


Monday, April 16, 2012

Day 83-85: Venice

Hello all! I have been back for a few days but once we touched down in Stansted, I had a few priorities that had to be addressed before I could update my adventures on the blog. The first being catching up on my sleep, a very desperately needed task after traveling for nearly two weeks, and then next came tackling the mountain of school work I had ignored! I'm still working on that one and studying for exams this week. But since I have a little bit of breathing room, I decided it's just as well to do something productive in my procrastination time. Here's the first in a series of posts for what happened on Midterm break!

 The first stop you will remember, if you read my last update before I left, was Venice. I love the city and I forgot how much until I arrived back there. We actually flew in on Thursday night (Mar 29) after classes were finished. Being the one who must always do something different, I dropped back to our campus to finish packing before heading to the airport to meet my traveling companions. Packed three times before finally giving up. Arrival in Venice Treviso airport was "on time" around 10 pm. Upon entering the main portion of the terminal, we realized a couple of things; 1. the airport was really small, 2. there were very few counters open, and no tourist desk, 3. the most fun realization was that our hostel directions were for another hotel of the same name, in Madrid. Great start to the trip! We managed to find a helpful woman who knew English at a local bus desk, who, after informing us the last bus to Venice had already left, called it back so we could get a ride to the city! Crisis averted, and a 45 minute bus ride later we arrived at the main bus station to the city. Since I had been to Venice before, I knew there were no cars so getting there by bus threw me off. The venture to the hostel from there was a fun adventure. We started the walk toward what we thought would be a main square, but quickly got off track. We found some nice Americans who tried to help us find directions. They ended up not being that helpful, through no fault of their own, but by not understanding the internet directions. We were directed toward the main square in Venice, the Piazza San Marco, to go find the hostel. Not right at all. We took a 50 euro water taxi to make it to this area, a pretty way to be introduced to the city on the Grand Canal even though we went in the wrong direction. Looking like lost tourists helped in this case, since we found two very nice Italian guys in the square who used both of their phones and spent about 20 minutes helping us figure out which way to go. One of the guys even called the hostel to get their directions when he couldn't find anything online. They're the only reason we didn't sleep on the streets. Once we rounded the corner and saw the sign, I was so happy to know I had a bed. Hilarious moment. Got checked in by 12 and I think we managed to get to sleep by 2. An interesting start!




Friday morning started off well. We managed to sleep in a little bit since some of the girls take longer to get ready than others. We planned to head to the main square but stopped for lunch around 11. It was nice to be able to sit in the sun, or the warmth at least in my case, and look forward to all the sights we were going to see. Met up with our two other travel companions around 12 in the Piazza San Marco, which we discovered as being about a 20 minute easy walk to our hostel. Lessons learned. Stopped for the first gelato of the trip on our route, my favourite Italian food by far. We all decided to chip in on a group gondola ride. The cost was cheaper for one of the girls to sit out rather than split into 3/4, so she voluntarily stayed on the banks of the Grand Canal looking at the boutiques along the walkways.


crazy happy face for gelato!



The gondola ride was different than the one I had before, probably because we got a guy on the Grand Canal instead in the smaller canals. He pointed out a few of the sights and explained some buildings. Turned out he had been working as a gondolier since he was 18, so for 42 years! Amazing! Here's some sights on the canals of Venice.






 

Click through for exploring more of Venice!