Settling down

I am now sitting in my room enjoying a cup of rather cold teh tarik(but nonetheless still teh tarik!!) after my first rice cooker meal of instant noodles. HOHO. Finally figured out how to use it. I guess it was a good decision to invest 5kg of my total baggage allowance seeing that my residence hall has neither a kitchen (only 2 microwaves) nor a kettle. NO KETTLE. I'm thinking I should probably retrieve mine from London, but for now the rice cooker will do. Oh brilliant, wonderful, multi-purpose rice cooker.

Strasbourg has been pretty exciting so far! On Monday I went to register with my hall and paid my rent, then went to check out the university. Had a lot of admin things to do especially with all the paper work, I'm STILL not done yet but hopefully they'll be sorted out soon. Also went to Carrefour to pick up some groceries and finally putting my mini fridge into use! 

Tuesday was more or less the same, went to photocopy some stuff and went to the post office to mail my visa form. I'm still quite confused as to how the French postal service works. Then I walked to the city centre to check out Galeries Lafayette!! There's a Topshop on the 3rd floor and omg, they have their own sales which is amazing because it's 70% off and I managed to find the Poppy Garden Bardot Top which I've been eyeing in SG in my size AND it was only 10.80 euros. 10.80 EUROS!!! They had 2 left and when I went back today (Thursday) again it was gone so very very thankful that I managed to buy it. Also saw they had one last piece of the burgundy knit top in my size but it wasn't on sale and I forgot to see if it's still there today ... Really need to figure out how the sales here work HAHA. I also bought books from this book market at the city centre, all the books were going for mostly 1.50 euros each and even though the books are secondhand they were in really good condition. I left my Les Miserables behind in London, so I bought a kind of like guide copy and also L'Etranger by Albert Camus. Very very happy with my purchases :D I feel like this is exactly the kind of life I've been envisioning for so long. Had a lonely lunch in macs at the city centre, then it started to rain as I was walking back but luckily I brought an umbrella with me. The rain here is quite like the showers in Singapore instead of the drizzle in London so my shoes got quite wet. Took a nap in the afternoon, then my neighbour Renato who lives opposite me came to have a chat and we went to the kebab place near the hall for dinner. The kebab was quite good and it's so much cheaper than London's T_T

Wednesday was quite chill too, went to check out the mall Rivetoile nearby and they have a lot of shops there like Zara and Hollister. There's also this giant supermarket called E.Leclerc which is exactly like Giant they stock everything. Bought stuff like trash bags (because they don't give plastic bags here!!!) and a mug-bowl (left mine behind in London T_T) and more food, but they didn't have cherry tomatoes and the yogurt drink that I wanted so had to go to Carrefour for those. Came back and napped again in the afternoon. I swear I sleep so much here because there's not much to do and life seems to be really slow at times and I'm just really tired everyday HAHA. But I wake up early though. Anyway after I woke up at about 4pm I was contemplating whether or not to take a walk to Germany when my new Turkish friend came to visit so we decided to just go to Germany. Yes, GERMANY. It took us about an hour slightly more to walk over but the Pont du l'Europe was amazing!!! We walked to Kehl and the moment we entered German territory it just felt different. Like the architecture and all. We wanted to walk to Lidl's at first but it was getting a bit late and we wanted to come back before sunset, so we didn't go that far. But still, it's pretty cool to be able to actually WALK to Germany I think I'm going to do that pretty often!! And of course now I've officially visited Germany too despite not going through the proper immigration border HAHA. 

Had our first Erasmus meeting in school today, didn't do much except to find out that we have to pick courses from Licence 3 so have to re-select the modules tonight :( Had lunch with the UCL-SXB gang, then we went to the city centre afterwards. Went to see the inside of the cathedral, then went back to Galeries Lafayette and OMGGGGG the jeans were 70% off this time!!! Like ALL the white jeans including Jonis and Jamies with and without the zip at the ankle. I didn't want to buy white jeans at first cause I already have a pair of white cigarette pants but I couldn't stop thinking about them ... Anyway the Jonis were nice but they were horribly sheer for jeans so as much as I really wanted them they're not too practical :( Also I already have a pair of baby pink ones (the ones that I've been eyeing in SG as well HAHA) so I passed on those. The Jamie jeans ran really small, I couldn't get the W25 past my hips ugh so I went for the W26 and they were really nice and not sheer! They were slightly too loose at the waist but the Jamies come with belt loops anyway so not really a problem. I went with the ones without the zip at the ankle cause they seemed more versatile and more practical anyway. Got them for only 16.50 euros (!!!) and I came back to find that they're still online for 40 quid (!!!) HAHAHAHA OMG I LOVE LOVE LOVE GALERIES LAFAYETTE!!! And I got a loyalty card today HAHAHA. I saw dungarees on sale today but they weren't in my size and now I'm a bit worried that my burgundy knit might be sold already :( Guess I might just make a trip back tmr if I have the time ...

Anyway, after I came back I managed to figure out how to use the rice cooker, so I cooked my first meal! Feels good to be eating some hot food at last T_T I'm going to do more admin stuff tonight like go through the guide pedagogique for the list of modules, then tomorrow I have my inscription administrative where I am going to present the 2 shitty passport photos I took this morning. School doesn't properly start until like October cause we apparently have 3 weeks until end of September to sit through all the classes we want to do and decide, but I quite want to fix my timetable soon-ish so that I can start making weekend plans at all. I am loving Strasbourg ^_^

Vintage Adventures

Came back from Budapest yesterday! I'll post on Budapest soon after I'm done sorting out the photos haha but I wanted to write about Brick Lane first so that I can clear some memory space on my phone and also so that everything will be in chronological order. But Budapest was really great hehe I think it's my favourite city so far! Pity we didn't get to explore a lot of areas due to lack of time and I really wanted to climb the hill hahaha.

Anyway was at Brick Lane last Sunday with A and YX! First time at a London vintage market / east side of London. Some photos from my phone but there are still lots of photos in the camera. I find it more convenient to use my phone though since I rarely bring the camera out.

Ootd taken by YX while A was getting a coffee. :P Wore pink because Pantone's colour of the year is Orchid! Somehow I've also been seeing lots of people wearing pink around. The dress is from Reko and I really love it! Discovered this brand through Topshop because they had a Reko for Topshop collection a few years back. All of their dresses are handmade and they usually do very limited pieces, but the quality is fantastic, especially the material.

Some murals (apparently we were at the wrong end of Brick Lane because we discovered more murals at the end ...)

Also dropped by Spitalfields which was really near, but eventually went back to the Brick Lane side because there wasn't much stuff. We went back to the Sunday UpMarket for lunch. There were lots of food stalls around and they had food from almost everywhere, Asian, European, Middle Eastern, etc. Went with Chinese food in the end because I miss mix veg rice hahaha. On the whole it was quite like Camden market and the food around was rather similar to Camden's too.

Really tempting cupcakes from this stall called Nina's Bakes! They have an Instagram page too. Didn't try in the end because I wanted to get a drink instead and so I got this apple juice made from Granny Smith's, ginger and a bit of mint.

The other stall which A got her yoghurt smoothie from.

After lunch, we went to this store called Blitz. It reminded me of Oakham Market in Singapore, like the general feel and the stuff they stocked. And they had a basement too! Lots of vintage apparels and accessories.

Discovered this whole table of shoes. Photo credits to A. :>

Vinyl sales at this other market.

Blackberries. These were quite cheap at only 50p for one punnet.

Padlocks on a fence outside Shoreditch Station. This is apparently called the love fence and it was so pretty! We took a lot of photos here haha but everything is in my camera because the phone camera quality isn't as good. Headed over to Tate Modern for Topshop after that!

Pretty view from St Paul's Bridge on the way back.

Need to sort out Budapest photos soon but my room is in a mess right now and I haven't unpacked argh ... Had really dry skin after coming back so I've been spamming water too. And I came back to a bouquet of dried roses yesterday I was so sad. :'( Tried to revive them with warm water and re-cutting the stems but it didn't work ...

Didn't really do much today but sorted out my accounts and returned a TON of stuff lol. Also had late lunch / dimsum with M and AN but L couldn't make it. Went to Gerrard's Corner again so didn't take many photos since most of the stuff were the same as what we'd ordered the last time. After that I went to Somerset House to check out LFW haha.

Okay really tired now gonna sleep already omg last day of reading week tomorrow/today :(

School / New VSCO Filters

Been a pretty much busy week, but last day of school tomorrow! Before reading week, that is. I actually like the idea of having a reading week because we get a break in between to catch up on work / rest (and also travel lol) instead of having 10 academic weeks consecutively x_x

3 hours of French on Tuesday, went pretty alright I guess. I got picked to present my article, but thankfully it wasn't so bad apart from my terrible pronunciation and my inability to think in French quickly so I missed out a few points I meant to say. Good practice though. Then it was use of French, got back my devoir ecrit from last week and there were improvements from my previous work. Had the subjonctif test which hopefully went well because we went through the answers afterwards, so I'm just hoping I didn't recall wrongly or something. Also got back my first ESPS essay on Wednesday :> It's not counted but I wish it was! Haha. Seminar today then went to Oxford Street to return stuff, and unfortunately could not leave without buying stuff x_x Picked up some basics + daisy skater from H&M, a romper from Topshop's concession collection and a pair of Zara shorts. Really trying to control my spendings now sigh but it doesn't seem to be working aye.

Topshop's Unique SS14 is in stores now! Been making my mental wishlist every time I'm in there. There's still no way I'm going to spend like £16 on a basic T-shirt, LOL. Nope. I did find this gorgeous dress though but it was £75 and the colour I like only comes in PETITE, which was way too short for me. :'(

In other news I also upgraded my VSCO cam yesterday. Been updating my apps and regretting hahaha I'm still using iOS6 by the way. Refuse to upgrade to iOS7 because the interface is just too weird and similar to Android. So now all my apps are kind of like a mix between iOS6 and 7. At least my keyboard is there. Anyway VSCO recently released a bunch of new filters, and they're having some sort of limited time sale where you can get this bundle of 38 (I think?) presets for only $5.99, and the Legacy collection for $1.99. I happened to recall that they had issued me a $10 credit for something last time so I emailed them to ask if they could transfer the credit over for the filters instead. The support team replied really fast, saying that they had placed the preset bundle and contemporary collection as well as some other new tools in my account. So voila! Happy VSCO-er, c'est moi.

Played with my new filters! So many presets now haha I don't know which to choose anymore. It wasn't that difficult when I only had 10 since I usually eliminate the B&W ones first haha. But I still find the general VSCO trend to be too moody / grey-ish / hipster for me. I like having my colours ahaha. The new presets are very nice, although I find a lot of them to be quite similar, like the H and K. That makes about 54 filters to choose from (haha I counted). They have new tools too which I haven't managed to figure out how to use. Also contemplating to get the Legacy collection now but I don't know how good it is and if it's very similar to the default presets.

Going back to my readings on Political Economy now. 2 more tutorials and a concert and I'm done for the half-term! And there's LFW next week, though it's not exactly the official one since the official one is sometime in September I think, while this one is more of Vodafone's London Fashion WeekEND. Here's to good and happy days ahead! :>

Topshop Loots • Online orders from last week

Yay for half-days on Wednesday :> Had econs lecture in the morning, then went to the library to print notes but the readings for next week haven't been uploaded yet. I did manage to find a link to access the past year papers though so that I could check the paper dates HAHA so French is pretty early like end April / early May with ESPS, then econs is some time before mid May. But I don't mind because that would mean I start holidays earlier! And also managed to oovoo the strings girls just now after I came back! So good to see everyone again even though we're gonna be in 3 different continents really soon. :(

Finally have time to post about my Topshop buys ahaha they actually came on Saturday but I didn't have time to try them on until this week! 

Topshop Strappy V-Neck Cami in Sunshine Yellow, Topshop Textured Crop Top, Topshop Navy Check Velvet Shorts, Topshop Black Velvet Teddy Playsuit

The only reason I bought them online was because Topshop was having free delivery last week, and also because all of these pieces couldn't be found in store anymore. I don't usually try on the sizes because my sizing is quite standard, so it was pretty convenient for me. I almost bought the navy check velvet shorts at the outlet, but there was only one last piece left and the hem of the pockets were kind of damaged so I went online to check if there was still stock, and yes there was! The cami was a basic that I couldn't pass because it was one of the last few nice colours left in stock in my size, and anyway it's so easy to match! I already have it in a few colours but I want more hahaha.

 

I really love this playsuit! Looks super plush and comfortable, and the lace details on the neckline and the hem are really intricate. I think the sizing runs slightly bigger for this though because it is quite long for a romper, but at least the straps are adjustable so it's not too bad.

This was an unexpectedly good purchase because I initially wanted a basic, but the material of this is so good! It's actually a textured material, so it's quite thick and you can tell that the quality is good, The V neck isn't too low and the back is a V back too. It's also not that cropped for a crop top which is just the way I like it.

 

Miss Selfridge Scallop Lace Mini Skirt in Teal

I love this skirt! And it was actually slightly cheaper because Miss Selfridge was having 20% off for students last week. As usual I somehow managed to spot the last piece in store. The colour is a lot more vibrant in real life, though it's a bit hard to match with black tights. I miss the skirt-with-bare-legs weather!

Wednesday / Shopping

Terribly busy day today; had macroeconomics lecture in the morning, then came back to hall to do laundry which was especially tedious since I washed my bedsheets today and had to separate a bunch of whites and my singsoc shirt got stained by my dark clothing and had to rewash ... such is student life abroad alone. I also completed a few errands - made a trip to the post office and the Topshop outlet hehe more hauls I will dedicate a post to them really soon! The stuff was actually quite disappointing though, I supposed lots of items got sold out already even though sometimes the sizes may appear back in stock on the site. Topshop is also having free standard delivery on UK orders until Friday this week so I took the opportunity and ordered a pair of shorts which I couldn't find in store, a cami and this velvet playsuit. I find their sizing to be rather inconsistent at times because the satin cami which I bought in PETITE seemed to be the same length as the one from the normal range ... But it's a good thing since it was the last piece and in my size and it fits fine!!

Came back just in time for hall dinner and went for string orch rehearsal, got back and laid the bedsheets properly / packed room and stuff. Now I'm about to get on with my political economy readings but I just remembered that it's the last day that Tobi is having free worldwide shipping and to my dismay the dress I wanted got sold out already :(

Anyway voila I have just placed the order for the other 3 items I wanted hehe even though I'm not going to be able to get them until June ayeee. And also they were only left with mint but I would've preferred lilac so NEVER MIND.

Work tmr morning then seminar and then meeting SL for dinner tmr!! Looking forward to it hehe love meeting up with friends in London :>