London Design Festival

Just got back from London Design Festival's centerpiece, the Tournament! It's an installation of a giant chess set in the middle of Trafalgar Square designed by Spanish design, Jaime Hayon. The players sit at the top in the pods while the kids in the red move the pieces around. I tried to upload a video but it took too long :( http://www.londondesignfestival.com/tournament

Mile End

Being on the East End of London, my first impression was that it was a little more ghetto (or "manky" as Brits say ;) But I'm starting to like the little town feel and stuff around here is cheaper than central London. The weather has been really nice so I went for a jog in Mile End Park, the neighborhood park. There's cute canals with little duckies in it!

London Fashion Week

Friday night my buddy from upstairs hooked us up to the Aminaka Wilmont fashion show! He's a professional makeup artist and even did my makeup before the show :)

The show started out with a bunch of very similar dresses but evolved to be rather interesting. It was all very free flowing and lots of draping and clinging to the female form. Loved the exoskeleton-looking heels and angel-winged hair accessories. London Fashion Week doesn't seem to be as big a deal here as the Paris Fall Fashion Week but it was still totally awesome.

Missing Trader Joes

Luckily I found Borough Market! Its like a huge farmers market w meats cheeses veggies fruits etc. So I finally bought some yummy foods (not like the kind from tesco) like balsamic and oil and red pesto w sun dried tomatoes and a whole bunch of produce and fruits. Yay! Its starting to feel more like home now that its more furnished and I know where to get good food.

Who said London doesn't have good food?

Alright so I must admit that it's probably because the local produce here is somewhat tasteless. You'd think you could never mess up a sandwich, but the grocery store-bought sandwiches taste like cardboard that needs salt. And I'm not sure what they feed their chickens, but the eggs are definitely less tasty than the ones back home.

Despite this, I must say every restaurant I've ever randomly sauntered into (including London trip 2008) has been pretty good albeit slightly more pricey than back home. Which is pretty good for a big city. Even in France and Italy, you have your hits and misses. And the most important thing is even though you paid a little more, at least it was a good satisfying meal. So in my book it's pretty worth it :)

The Big Move

I think I had my "Oh crap, what did I do...?" moment right at the beginning of moving to London. A wave of sadness washed over me as I put up photos of friends and family from back home in an attempt to make my "dorm room" look more like a home. I look out the window to a monochromatic palette of grayness. Very few people have moved in so it felt like a ghost town. My internet hasn't been set up and my jet lag hasn't gone away so I wake up in the middle of the night thinking what should I do with myself?

Fashion Sketches

Taking a fashion drawing course at Art Center at Night. Uses various techniques. Some are quick few minute sketches hence the unfinished areas.