Last days of 2016

Second last day of 2016. Tomorrow is NYE! This year has gone by crazily fast. But I've realised that the older I get the faster time seems to pass. Childhood felt like it was so long. Maybe it's because we're more occupied as (semi-)adults (haha). I have not been very productive in SXB ... brought all my notes but barely did anything except for French omg really need to do econ. K introduced to me this chess game called "Backgammon" a few days ago and I've been addicted to it lol. It's been really foggy here in SXB and the temperature's gone below zero so haven't been out much and basically just staying indoors and watched a lot of movies haha.

28 Dec Wednesday:

Woke up even later than usual, I think I attempted to read a bit of econ?? Was super foggy so didn't go out except to Rivetoile to get some groceries, and that was super late like before it closed. K cooked dinner for me!! Super good. Started playing Backgammon and hence began the game addiction lol.

29 Dec Thursday:

Woke up late, super cold and had cramps the whole day so didn't leave the house at all. Attempted reading Finance again, but ended up playing Backgammon (again). I finally made my soupe forestiere! Favourite soup of all time and I couldn't find it in London so defo gonna have to stock up before I leave + pomme poire too!!! I can't leave Europe ah how else am I supposed to buy all my French food ... Anyway watched The BFG, The Holiday and City Island. Been wanting to watch the BFG since summer but it came out in July and I was busy with internship back then so didn't have the time until yesterday. The Holiday was really nice but didn't really like City Island as much I felt that the beginning was too long and they took ages to get to the climax of the movie. 

30 Dec Friday:

A.k.a. today. Woke up early but basically went back to sleep until about 11 then stayed in bed to play Backgammon LOL. Facetimed the fam back in SG then went out to centre-ville because I really wanted to go to that bookstore at Place Broglie and I didn't know if they were going to be open tomorrow. And I'm so glad I went!! Got 3 colouring books (the only books I'm obsessed with now lol) for €12 and one of them is this coloriage calle Merveilles Sous Les Mers which I've been eyeing since maybe April?? It was also the last one so super glad I went today! The other two I got were the colouring postcards but they only had 2 versions and I even went to the other store at Place Kleber to check but they didn't have the others in the series. Nonetheless am super happy with my purchases! Walked about a lot and took different routes back and discovered a lot of streets that I've never seen and also revisited a lot of familiar places. Then it got too cold so I quickly went to Simply to buy some stuff and came back. Was really bored after coming back so went out again to HCo at Rivetoile to try on the shirts so that I could order my size online LOL. Couldn't decide between XS or S but decided to go with the bigger one so that I can wear it more as an outerwear. Then went to Leclerc to get more food and stuff and came back. Ordered my HCo stuff online and basically been procrastinating since then ... and I haven't even had dinner yet. I will read at least half of my Finance notes tonight sigh. I was supposed to have finished revising 2 econ mods by this week! T_T

Christmas in Strasbourg

I've been back in Strasbourg for about a week now (10 days to be exact) and I can really say that nowhere else feels more at home than here. It's weird, but I'm just so used to living here in SXB and the city and the places and everything. Post-Erasmus blues is real, and I'm not sure when I will get over it.

Anyway going to post brief updates about my life so far! I really want to remember things because today K was just recounting to me how we ate at Le Tarbouche once but I have absolutely no recollection of that at all. Like at all. It's so weird because he recounted the whole incident and I can imagine myself saying the same stuff but I just can't remember the actual incident happening?? And what's weirder is that normally I keep track of my spendings and take photos of my meals etc but I can't find anything about it. The only time I remember going there to eat was with V and that was back in December 2015 ... so weird. But anyway point is I wanna be able to remember what happens in my life!!

Okay so week 10 of term 1 was quite crazy. I started working at HCo and wasn't scheduled for any shifts that week since I just got registered onto the system on Monday (12/12), but managed to pick up 3 shifts from my colleagues to cover so was pretty cool. I really like working in the store haha. I worked on Monday until closing, then bought stuff with my associate card for K and the housemates for Christmas hehehe. Tuesday had a full day of classes until 6 and went to C and MH's place for curry dinner! Worked again on Wednesday from 12 since I only had classes until 10 - was actually planning to dimsum lunch with S and K but couldn't in the end so I just went to work early and worked until closing again. Was supposed to do until 6 but manager asked me to extend cause they needed people for closing I guess. Super tired. Thursday I had class in the morning, lunched at Farmer's Market with C and XP then went to Westfield to shop / return stuff. Came back in time for Finance tutorial and French, but went to Regent St again after class to buy stuff from HCo lol. Then Friday was quite crazy - had class from 1 to 4, went to work at 4.30, worked until closing, bought a Subway dinner and went to M's place to chill - literally didn't get to see him for the entire term until last day of term LOL. Then I went back about 11 cause P was waiting for me to watch the penultimate episode of The Apprentice together since we both didn't have time to catch it the night before. By the time we finished it was about 1, then I had to pack my luggage for France while P just played Fifa downstairs until like 4 or something. I was organising all my notes and everything and time just passed so quickly - didn't even realise it was already 6am and I had to leave at 7 to catch my bus at Victoria. So quickly shoved the rest of the things into my luggage, ate my last avocado from the fridge and left. Was freezing and foggy when I left the house and I think I missed the bus I was intending to catch by 2 minutes. So had to wait super long for the next bus and I was calculating I would have about 5 min to spare when I reached the coach station. The bus was quite slow and I was literally watching the minutes and dashed off when I reached my stop. Dragged my luggage and ran towards the coach station and actually made it with indeed 5 minutes to spare but what a close shave!! I started to regret not having bought the Eurostar ticket.

Fell asleep when the bus started moving and woke up about an hour later - we had already reached Folkestone but there was a massive jam to get to the Eurotunnel. We were delayed about an hour or so then when we finally reached the check in for Eurotunnel the bus driver told us we were already delayed by an hour. Thank goodness I planned for 3 hours of transit time in Paris, but messaged YM to tell her that I most probably wouldn't be able to meet her for dinner in Paris that night. Wait more on the bus and finally the bus started moving and we got onto the Eurostar shuttle fairly quickly. The bus driver then told us somehow we managed to get onto an earlier shuttle which was great news. Slept on and off after that, arrived in France then realised my bus was taking another route via Lille instead of going directly to Paris. Checked the bus timetable and calculated we were about 1.5 hours behind. Weather was really awful - it was foggy and rainy and cold. Finally arrived in Paris and even then there were a lot of traffic jams. Arrived at Bercy at 6.30pm and there was no way I could make it for dinner. Took the metro for free to Paris Est - they were encouraging people to take public transport because of the air pollution in Paris so public transport had been free for Friday and Saturday, which was great for me as I didn't have cash so didn't have to buy a ticket. Travelling with luggage definitely takes more time than usual, so I only arrived at Paris Est at 7.15 and had to wait an hour for my train. Bought a French Meal Deal from Casino (the supermarket chain lol) then sat and waited. Spoke to a lady who turned out to be going to Strasbourg as well and had quite a nice chat with her. Finally the train arrived and boarded and slept on and off again on the train cause I was so tired. Arrived in Strasbourg at a quarter past 10 and K was already at the tram station waiting for me! So happy to finally be back aha. 

18 Dec Sunday:

Woke up quite late at 11, but K cooked brunch! I washed my hair then went out to meet LJ and friends who were just there for one day. Went to Cafe Atlantico (the boat by the quay!!) for drinks and cheesecake, then Sushido for dinner. The sushi was amazing I'd been craving it for about 3 months now lol. Then we went to take photos at the Christmas Market entrance and somehow my instax wouldn't work and there was this other girl who asked us to help take photos with her instax and her instax also stopped working. So weird but after I went back I realised the counter was actually wrong and I'd in fact finished the films. But still we managed to take 1 instax of all 3 of us together and I gave LJ and W the ones with them. I haven't used my instax ever since and I can't use my Christmas films anymore now that Christmas is over ...

19 Dec Monday:

Woke up at 7am to collect the key from I, then went back to sleep again and only woke up again at like 1pm so only moved in in the afternoon. K helped me with my stuff, then we went out to lunch. Wanted to eat at Franky's but it was closed so we went back to Rivetoile and had Buffalo Burger. Then went to HCo since it was right opposite Buffalo Burger and I discovered the amazing thing that I can use my associate card in France!!! So bought some stuff hehe and now I'm waiting for the new triple A's hopefully coming soon in Jan?? Shopped around a bit but not much to buy, then went to Leclerc to get groceries. Then came back and did work caused had prep to do but nothing much exciting. I ate a really French dinner of baguette and pate that I bought from Leclerc - hadn't had it for ages like maybe since March lol when LJ first introduced me to it but soooooo good.

20 Dec Tuesday:

Woke up quite late again but had a nice French breakfast of croissants and tea hehe I love croissants. Went to Rivetoile again with K but went to other shops this time like Bershka. I saw this super cute pink knit jumper in Bershka so am just waiting for it to go on sale. Also found the Mom Jeans that I tried on in Westfield that day but the queue was too long to try. Then we went to the Christmas Markets!!! Finally!!! I got a new Christmas Market cup without the vin chaud and some tea from Maison Bourgeon - it's called Delice Detox and it smells absolutely amazing, probably because of the melon inside. Apparently they only have a physical store in Provence but they sell their stuff at the Christmas Markets every year. Also bought some Alsatian cookies from Fortwenger and a baguette (so French lol) and we came back to try the tea with mille feuille and cakes that I got the day before. Then K had to go for work and I ate Nongshim for dinner that night lol basically just eating it everyday. Was quite unproductive and didn't do much work but still went to sleep really late argh.

21 Dec Wednesday:

Woke up late (as usual), had some brunch and went out. K and I found the Danish butter cookies in Simply but we couldn't find it in Leclerc strangely. Went to Rivetoile (again because there's not much places to go LOL), went to HCo and I tried on a couple of shirts which turned out not too bad but I think I'll order them online when I go back. Then we had froyo at Smooy which I've always wanted to try!! It's almost exactly like llaollao and I'm pretty sure it's from Spain/Portugal as well ... But it was really filling and basically settled dinner for me lol. Went back and I literally spent the whole night going through the entire HCo playlist trying to find this song which I heard but no success.

22 Dec Thursday:

Woke up late but did some French this time before going out. Went to Rivetoile (again I know) with K and had KFC for lunch lol. Went to Place Kleber but it was raining so we took the tram but it got delayed at Homme de Fer. Managed to get off after about 10 minutes of delay and went to Uniqlo then K went for dinner and I went to explore the Christmas Markets by myself. Took a lot of pictures and found the bracelet shop from last year but they sold out of the nice colours and the owner was just meh about it so was quite disappointed. Also saw Stand La Bonumeur in the same spot as last year and the realisation hit me that these things will always be there but the times have changed ... Like the Christmas Market stalls will be the same but the feelings and memories from last year won't ever come back. Felt really moody and nostalgic plus it was raining. Bought 2 postcards - one for M and one for me to keep. Was tempted to get a vin chaud but I knew I couldn't finish one by myself and didn't want to get too woozy on the way home, so I got a Sushido takeaway for dinner instead. Came back and listened to music and did French so at least I did some work.

23 Dec Friday:

Went to post office and sent out M's postcard! Weather was really foggy again and the cathedral looked like the top half disappeared. Went to Place Kleber with K and it was super crowded since it was the second last day of the Christmas Markets. I finally found a belt that fits me in Mango so bought that. There were a lot of street musicians and generally a lot of people. Went to Galeries Lafayette and found this amazing Topshop Velvet Embroidered Jacket but it was like €98 and apparently sold out on the UK website. Then went to Place Broglie in search of spatzle!! Bought a vin chaud on the way with a very pretty rainbow cup - it's the small one but I didn't mind cause I didn't see that design on a big cup. The vin chaud was amazing haha then went to find the spatzle store and it was in the same spot as last year - I still remember visiting the Christmas Market there with V and O and we all bought food and crepes ... but they changed the spatzle by adding cabbage this year and K didn't like it. Walked to Les Halles afterwards and went to a Persian grocery store. K got some stuff and I found some amazing pastry things (I think they are called swissi or something I need to ask again) then went to Paris Store which actually sells Asian groceries lol. Then went to Simply and took the tram back because it was raining. K cooked the long Persian rice and this Persian veg thing from a can for dinner then we had some nice wine called Monbazillac that we found the other day which is apparently one of the sweetest white wines.

I also found my post from last year on the Christmas Markets here:

http://lesarcsenciel.blogspot.fr/2015/12/first-time-at-strasbourgs-christmas.html

24 Dec Saturday:

Christmas Eve! K and I went to Parc du Heyritz because I've been wanting to visit the park ever since seeing it on Instagram lol. It was really quiet and peaceful and I'd never been to that part of SXB before. We found a playground and spent some time just chilling on the seesaws and stuff. I wanted to go see the Christmas Market at Petite France since it was the last day. Bought another cup of vin chaud with the verre to keep and found another stall selling spatzle but without the cabbage so got K to try that which changed his mind about spatzle lol. Took more pictures of the Christmas decorations and lights then came back and K cooked Christmas Eve dinner! Nothing fancy just a simple meal of rice and chicken and the veg from the day before but very nice and satisfying.

25 Dec Sunday:

Christmas Day, plus Sunday so everything is closed and super quiet outside. Watched movies the whole day and didn't study LOL but it's Christmas!! Had noodles for dinner hehe.

26 Dec Monday:

Boxing Day but unlike the rest of France it's still a holiday in Alsace. But unlike the UK there are no sales sadly and I spent the day trying to get into the LUSH website in vain - I was like the 100kth+ person in the queue which is ridiculous. But S managed to get a Snow Fairy shower gel for me in London!! Very thankful. Ordered some stuff from Miss Selfridge including a velvet embroidered jacket but I think it's slightly nicer than the one in Topshop also it was cheaper!!! K and I actually went out but not much was open except a few restaurants in Place Kleber. I bought a baguette on the way back and some Turkish Delight from a Turkish grocery store that was open. K cooked dinner (chicken with veg and rice) then went to work and I spent the night watching Mickey's Christmas Carol and Finding Dory LOL been wanting to watch it since June before I left SXB!!! It was so cute hahaha. Still no work done but I'm consoling myself with the fact that Boxing Day is a holiday ...

27 Dec Tuesday:

Woke up late as usual, went out because nice and sunny weather!! And finally the shops are open and business as usual. Went to Bershka at Rivetoile and I am actually tempted to get the pink knit jumper but I don't actually NEED it and I am almost sure it would go on sale. Wanted to try on trousers from Stradivarius that I saw online but didn't find them in store. K and I went to Place Kleber and it was really crowded. Went to Galeries Lafayette because I got the email that their sales started today and indeed ... and that Topshop velvet jacket went on sale for 50% off!!! But it's still €49 even after the discount and I can't bear to spend like €50 on a jacket I would hardly wear ... plus I already ordered one from Miss Selfridge (no idea if that will fit because they sold out of 6 online so I had to order an 8). Also another Topshop denim jacket was on sale for also 50% off so €26 but I'm pretty sure I already have one in that colour. Also it was a bit small. Ah I need to stop buying stuff!! So I didn't buy anything. We went to 7eme art for dinner then FNAC. Wanted to go to the bookstore but it closed at 7. Craving chocolate after having one after dinner so went to Simply and got a huge bar of Milka and some limonade to make diabolo. K walked me back and went to work and I've been writing this post but finally done!!

Can't believe I've already been here for 10 days and it's already half of my winter break :( :( Time always flies when I'm in SXB and I should really do some work - want to at least finish writing my French notes before the new year lol. Time is passing way too quickly :( I also have some way overdue posts on the 4 Brandy sales I went this year and have no idea when I will ever post them ...

First time at Strasbourg's Christmas Markets

Had the histoire de la langue exam today. Completely screwed it up we always thought it was going to be on everything including stuff from the first exam but turns out it was only the stuff taught after the first exam which was basically all the Latin stuff. I'm so bad at the Latin stuff gah so that was horrible ... couldn't resist checking the answers after the exam, not very hopeful for it at all :( Just hoping I can pass omg ...

Anyway after the exam V and O and I went to check out the Christmas markets in Strasbourg! It opened this weekend but as I wasn't here so today was my first time :D It was quite cool but we went before the sunset so couldn't see the lights, but I'll go again soon when it's dark! Was absolutely starving after the exam so we went straight for the food, but they had tons of cute stuff like candles and Christmas ornaments. I wish I could have a tree but there is no space at all in my room HAHA. Anyway, I got a bowl of spaetzle which is a type of Alsatian noodle/pasta I believe. It was quite good and about standard Christmas market pricing i.e. €5. V and O both got flam baguettes with cheese!

After the spaetzles I was still really hungry so I went for a crepe. Btw we were at the market near Place Broglie which seems to have more food. The one at Place Kleber was mostly clothes and accessories and stuff. Got a crepe with nutella from this store quite near the sides called Stand La Bonumeur. Prices start from about €2 for a basic crepe and you can add stuff like fruits and nutella and other stuff! And the owner was super friendly hahaha he gave me chocolate buttons as I was ordering as well as a brochure menu thing. But the crepe was so good omg it was really soft and chewy and the nutella was heavenly HAHA. Will want to go back again! They also have a Facebook page here: Stand La Bonumeur (it's on the brochure hahaha).

We walked over to the cathedrale afterwards for mulled wine. It was not bad but I still think red wine is a bit strong for me hahaha. Anyway it's really good here in Strasbourg that they dont use disposable cups, but instead they re-use proper plastic cups. So like basically you pay about €3 for a cup of say 30cl and you can return the cup to any store afterwards and get €1 back. Or keep the cup. I didn't really like the design that I got today so I returned it but I saw some people carrying nicer cups when I was walking back so gonna get one of those next time!!

After I got back I was really sleepy because of the mulled wine I think and also general fatigue from all the exams so I slept for 2 hours. Have the syntax exam tomorrow so need to study for that now!! As well as 5 hours of classes before the syntax exam omg ... so much for exchange life T_T

November

Omg can't believe it's been one whole month since I got back from Milan. THE WHOLE NOVEMBER. And it's already 1 Dec today last month of the year omg seriously 2015 is passing by way too quickly ...

Anyway, I have a whole row of exams coming up so gonna make this a quick post because I just wanted to update the stuff in November before I forget. So yep, got back from Milan to Strasbourg on the 2nd early morning I think, then had the Methodologie exam on the 5th. Didn't go anywhere on that weekend because Car came to visit me on the 9th!! I had classes on the 10th so we just explored Strasbourg, ate a LOT HAHAHA then 11th was Armistice Day in France so we did a day trip to Basel since everywhere in Strasbourg was closed. Basel was cool but it was my 2nd time there so nothing new, dragged Car to the Brandy as always and got quite a few items from the last chance rack at 50% off. We also managed to get free tickets to the Natural History museum because they close at 5pm and they give free entry from 4pm onwards. Unfortunately everything was in German so couldn't understand anything ... Then on the same week on Friday made the impromptu decision to go to Zurich because Charles and Han were there on a society trip so another excuse to travel. But I stupidly missed my 5am bus HAHA so got a blablacar instead and finally made it to Zurich at 3pm!! First stop as always is the Brandy so now I can proudly say I've been to all the Brandy stores in Switzerland which is a small but still an accomplishment. :D Got the bus back on Sunday and I was seriously so tired the whole week. Nothing much went on that week but we went to check out Academie de la Biere which was not bad, then Charlie came to visit Viivi that weekend so we all went out. I fell sick and lost my voice on Saturday, didn't even realise until I was calling my mom then I realised I couldn't talk!! So it was quite shitty. Had the synchronique exam on the 24th (last Tuesday), went to all my classes despite being sick and all. Met one of my neighbours on Thursday and he gave me soup and tea and a lemon after seeing that I was sick omg seriously people here are so nice!! Then on the same night I took the overnight bus to Cologne to visit Xichen cause that was something that we planned ages ago! 

Didn't sleep much on the bus and arrived at 6am but ended up sleeping until like 12 noon LOL ... Went to the university for lunch, then we went to the city centre where we climbed the Kolner Dom! A million spiral steps later we finally arrived at 157m up. I think it's like the first cathedral I climbed? Can't remember if I climbed any others before ... then we went to the bridge and caught the sunset and visited a Lindt chocolate factory :D Also went to like 4 Christmas markets, German Christmas markets are absolutely amazing! I think the Strasbourg ones also opened during the weekend so gonna have to check it out sometime ... Then on Saturday we were supposed to go to Aachen, but ended up sleeping in until 2pm LOL. We still went in the end but missed the daylight hours but we went to the Christmas market and cathedral in Aachen and they were really good!! Also bought a lot of Printens (this local chocolate and ginger biscuit thing which is absolutely amazing) and had champignons. Then we went to the Carolus Thermal Bath and spent 2.5 hours there HAHAHA new activity to do in Germany. Got back to Cologne quite late but we cooked dinner! I haven't properly cooked in ages. The next day we were supposed to go to Amsterdam, so thank goodness we woke up in time but barely just caught the train :P Met Petros at the central station, then we went to the Van Gogh museum. Xichen had a concert to watch after that so Petros and I just went to walk around and yes Brandy again LOL but they didn't have much stuff so I only bought the new grid print Kaitlee skirt. Met Xichen again at 6pm then we went for the Heineken Experience! We were the last batch but the staff were all really nice and chill so it was a nice experience :D Got back to Cologne quite late again and had so much difficulty waking up in the morning cause I had to catch a bus back but I made it and got back in the evening!

Then today was the phonetics exam which was quite hard and I have 2 more exams tomorrow and Thursday so gonna stop this post now but omg busy days!!

Travels + Happy New Year

It's 2015! Been a long time since I last posted, school + winter break was completely packed. I don't even remember how I survived Term 1 with 2 rehearsals a week, 5 concerts, 6 mods and 1 essay due. And there was so much stuff for Music Soc, hopefully Term 2 won't be so bad as it's just going to be opera and strings have one concert and I'm so thankful that I've found a proper concert venue. Was literally freaking out over the past week after having emailed about 20 churches in the vicinity and getting quotes going up to 800 quid a night?! But at last one of them replied and I went to see the church yesterday morning and it was a perfect location. So that's one thing done.

Over the winter break I travelled for about 3 weeks which explains why it's the night before school reopens and I've still not completed my work. I went to Switzerland and Italy the first Monday of Christmas break, and came back a few days before Christmas. In Switzerland we were in Geneva but didn't really do that much, I can't really remember what we did except going around the city center, travelling to Montreux to see le Chateau de Chillon, going up to La Cure and trying to find the Old Town on the last day. Switzerland was really expensive, the cheapest meal we could find around was 17CHF and I'd only changed 150CHF for 3.5 days which was not enough. For one thing the train tickets costed about 40 or 80CHF for a return so a lot of our money went out to transport. Food was also really expensive with the exception of Lindt chocolates so we ate mostly bread and ham and chocolates there. I felt so unhealthy as we didn't eat any vegetables for the whole time so I had to get a coleslaw on the last night.

We took the train from Geneva to Milano Centrale. I really wanted to visit Milan and it was primarily because I wanted to go to the Brandy Melville stores there. Upon arriving at Milano Centrale, we got scammed while buying the metro tickets. It was a lot harder to read and communicate in Milan as opposed to Geneva because the people spoke French in Geneva so I could at least understand and reply in French, but Italian was just foreign. Anyway, we were having difficulties reading the instructions on the ticketing machine and not realising that there was actually an English option when this HORRIBLE man came up to us and offered his help. I was quite confused at that point in time so I stupidly accepted his help. The metro tickets costed 3 euros and I had exact change in coins, but the man claimed that the machine doesn't accept coins?! So I wanted to put in a 5 Euro note and he pointed to the machine where the 5 Euro words were scratched out and said I could only put in 10 Euro. I should have realised at this point he was a freaking scammer but no I don't know what was wrong with me then. So I put in the 10 Euro, he gave me the tickets after they were dispensed when I could've just picked them up myself, swooped away all the coins and handed me back a 1 Euro coin. WTF??? He was still holding another coin in his fingers so I actually snatched it back and then he disappeared with a smirk. And then I realised I'd only gotten back 3 Euros in change which means he just stole 4 Euros from me?! Was completely shocked that things like this could actually happen in public and we couldn't get any help. I later found out it was actually a common tourist scam. Ugh Milan is SO DAMN DODGY but lesson learnt.

The airbnb that we got in Milan wasn't as nice as the one in Geneva as well. The son of the person that I booked with messaged me via airbnb at the last minute saying he had work and won't be around that evening but obviously I wouldn't have had wifi on the train so I didn't see the message until we were like at his doorstep. Thank goodness his flatmates were in so they opened the door for us. I mean the room was pretty decent and all but the whole place reeked of cigarettes so I've learnt to check for No Smoking when booking airbnb. The only consolation was that food in Milan was actually affordable in comparison with Geneva, and I had some extra Euros left over from last year's trip to Barcelona so I was feeling a lot less poor than I had felt in Geneva.

We only had 3 days in Milan so we didn't really do much besides shopping and visiting Lake Como. Lake Como was really beautiful and I definitely spammed a lot of pictures there on instagram LOL. It was quite misty on the day we went but nonetheless the scenery was still worth it. We wanted to visit Castello di Vezio and climbed all the way up only to discover that it was apparently closed in winter ... Also had 2 gelatos there hehe. BTW in Italy if it's a single scoop of gelato it actually means double LOL cause they allow you to mix up to two flavours! And who cares about painstakingly making sure that the scoops are perfectly round balls (ahem sg), the Italians just slap the gelato onto the cone and voila the taste makes up for everything! I think I had 8 scoops in 3 days hehehe.

The highlight of my Milan trip was actually Brandy Melville LOL. Went to both the stores on 16 via Statuto and Via Cesare Baccaria (sp?) and I spent a hundred euros there LOL. The first store we went to actually had this sale basket with everything going at 10 Euros holy shit! I didn't even see the basket at first so I spent a long time looking around because I couldn't bear to leave the place without buying anything. In the end I picked out 2 striped long sleeve tops, one in a navy base with white stripes and the other one vice versa (my problem of having to buy the same thing in different colours). They were only 15 Euros each and actually costed cheaper than if I were to buy it in the US (cause of US tax and shipping and all). So I paid for those and decided to take one last look around and that was when I saw the sale basket. OMG. Apparently it had been there the whole time but I just don't know why I didn't see it earlier! So yes I raided the entire basket and found tons of things from the summer collection that I've been wanting for ages like the Heather skirts and Kaitlee skirts and this blue suede skirt that I've been looking for. So super happy with my buys ^_^ At the other store they didn't have this amazing basket unfortunately, but they had those cute wooden signs in the Brandy Stores and I've ALWAYS wanted one of those. There weren't many designs though and I contemplated getting one of Paris but it didn't really make sense since I didn't apply to Paris for my year abroad which means it won't be relevant to me in the near future lol. The one that I really, really want would be one that says LONDON or one of those proper Brandy Melville ones with the pink wooden heart in the center! There was also this really nice food market next to the Duomo, and lots of shops around the Duomo as well. We discovered shops that were really similar to Brandy - what is with Italian labels taking the American style anyway?? And then walked to this outlet (can't remember where) which was rather disappointing ... Didn't do much on the last day because to be honest Milan is actually quite boring after you've seen the cathedrals and the shopping so we went to the airport a few hours early and used wifi there hahaha -_-

Came back to London for Christmas and didn't really do much except playing Pokemon LOL and had a relatively peaceful Christmas except for the I Hall christmas gathering! Then it was Boxing Day which was quite disappointing this year and the sales weren't that good. I ended up only buying like a bar of soap from LUSH (which wasn't even on sale please) and a down jacket and 4 heattechs from Uniqlo (which I ended up returning 3) so yuppp. Trying to cut down.

The day after Boxing Day we left for Norway! It was absolutely freezing there and I was wearing like 4 layers - heattech, fleece, down, hooded coat (cause my other jackets didn't have hoods). The cold really hurts LOL like my hands were hurting even though I was wearing gloves. We actually reached the airbnb place at about 4pm and decided to laze around and watch tv and not knowing that the Oslo Brandy Melville does not open on Sundays T_T And it also does not open on public holidays i.e. New Year's, and those were the only two days we were going to be in Oslo ugh. This is my major regret lol. We brought food to Norway so hooray for Nongshin instant noodles! On Sunday we went to visit some of the museums, and did I mention it was the first time I saw proper snow! The snow in Switzerland didn't count because it was mainly ice flakes. But WHITE SNOW. SO PRETTY.

We took the train to Bergen the next day and stayed in Bergen for 3 days. It was snowing the morning we arrived and we took a long time to get to our airbnb place because it wasn't that near the city center and the snow from the previous days were knee deep. The place was on the top of a hill so it was quite difficult to climb up as the snow had covered the steps leading up. Some of the snow on the roads had melted so it was more like dirty slush. BUT SO MUCH SNOW. I've never seen so much snow before. 

There wasn't much to shop in Norway, but I got some cute socks from this shop called Cubus and the material feels very soft, almost exactly like Brandy's micromodal material. The highlight of our Bergen stay was the Gudvangen Fjords tour and also NYE fireworks. The Fjords tour took one whole day and it was on a ferry so it was really cold but it was all worth it. We stopped at Flam and had lunch there and walked around the very small town before taking the bus back to Bergen. NYE was pretty chill, the view of the fireworks was amazing since we were at the top of the hill. Travelled back to London on 1 Jan so that was the end of my travelling for now!