what are those strange symbols that appear on thursday/friday/saturday? soap bubbles? a sprinkling of enchanted fairy dust? those surely can’t be snowflakes. 

but seriously you guys…I’m not ready for this.

another of my obsessions since living in London: PRIMARK. 

Primark is basically the British equivalent of Forever 21/H&M, but muuuch better. They make more afforable versions of Top Shop clothing (an urban outfitters/anthropologie-esque store in the UK). This is especially wonderful for American students like myself who die a little bit each time they pay for something in pounds, but need wintery items and would also like to fit in with the trendy Londoners. Thank you, Primark. You are my everything. 

obsessed.

We went to this place called Shakeaway, which is basically the British version of Millions of Milkshakes. They have a ridiculous amount of candy to choose from and most of it was British candy that we weren’t familiar with so I stuck with my trusty Kinder Bueno. It was fantastic. Speaking of Kinder Bueno, did I mention it’s now my favorite European treat? It’s German candy but you can find it pretty much anywhere in Europe. Chocolate covered wafery things filled with hazelnut cream? YES PLEASE. 

Brighton is really cute. It’s about an hour south of here by train and it’s basically a smaller, more relaxed version of London right on the coast. I want to go back! preferably when it’s not pouring.

So I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m a terrible blogger. I’ve been seeeriously lacking in the posting department due to the fact that I’ve been insanely busy for the past three weeks. What can I say? I’m a jetsetter. I was gone for Paris, the next week was my midterms week, and then I hopped on a plane to Italia the week after that! such a whirlwind. I have a lot to post, but before I get to that stuff, I want to post about Brighton before everything blurs together in mah brain.

A few weekends ago, I went to visit Veronica in at University of Sussex in Brighton. It was two days of frolicking, walking on the pier (which was strangely reminiscent of socal), lots of rain (not so reminiscent of socal), broken umbrellas, soggy socks, terrifying encounters with invincible bugs, pho, delicious milkshakes, and sleeping on her dorm room floor in my snuggie.

The internet connection in our flat was been pretty unpredictable for the past week, and tumblr is especially slow. sorry for the lack of updates! I’ll try to squeeze more in before I leave for Paris tomorrow night, but I can’t make any promises! (yes, PARIS. I’m freaking out.) so much to do before then!

We took the London Overground to the Mosque. It’s a fairly new system linked to the underground that was developed for the 2012 Olympics. The trains are brand new and super nice!

Last Friday, while most of my class was is Istanbul (so jealous), the students who didn’t go on the trip went on a small excursion to a Turkish mosque in North London. We toured the mosque and the Islamic school, drank Turkish tea, and ate a traditional Turkish meal while seated on floor pillows. It wasn’t Istanbul, but it was still really interesting and cool. 

I love this so much.