Ooooh. Ahhhhh.

Here are a few pictures from my trip to Paris. 

Louvre 

It just so happened to be an lovely day with an gorgeous sunset the first day I was there
From the first floor of the Eiffel Tower.

Some girl

At night, it sparkles. I was actually walking away when I saw the reflection of the sparkle in the carousel across the road. Then I turned around and got real excited, because no one had previously informed me of any sparkling qualities, so I was surprised.

Oh. La.

 Barcelona

(Hola).

The beach at night in Barcelona

Drink much? This crazy hobo man kept attempting to climb over the gate to get in. He almost made it, darn that security. One's gotta give it to him though, he was one persistent crazy.  

A few years ago I was looking through an architecture book that was laying around the house and the Sagrada Familia was in it. I decided I had to go. As if the sheer size isn't breathtaking enough, the building has a texture so different than anywhere else I've been. 

Barcelona at night. That thing-a-ma-jig is actually a massive slide! I went down it several times. What a grand idea. I'm awarding it a gold star.

This man, we'll call him Juan, played gorgeously. He also had a wonderfully captivating mullet and side burns that added that little extra bit of pizazz, which, if one has happened to have read "How to be a Street Performer in Spain" is definitely needed because they're everywhere. There was a painter standing not far from him but there were people obstructing any good photo opportunities. 

More great architecture. These buildings in front of the Parc Güell make me think of Willy Wonka because they're so funky.

Views from Parc Güell.

 The weather was perfect.

I'm not quite sure why this picture was taken, as aesthetically pleasing as the vandalized electrical storage box and random street may be. Those are typical Barcelona modern city windows.

Ah, architecture.  

Quickly...

Hi dad, still alive and kickin' although both of my phones are about to die. I will post again whenever I get back to England and have time. I'm in France right now. Taking lots of pictures. Barcelona is amazing and so is Paris. I keep getting my Spanish mixed in with the little French I've managed to remember, so now I'm really confused overall. Oh well. C'est la vie. 

-PYF

Hello/Hola/Bonjour

This weekend I went around sunny London, which was seriously enjoyable after months of terrible weather; the entire British public goes outside when the weather is nice. I went to Portabello Road Market, Marble Arch, The Victoria and Albert Museum, and lots of places in between. I also happened to stop by the exact place where the lovely Abigail, decided to pull a Madeline and try swimming a few years back. Not a good idea when its -2,000 outside, and besides, Madeline was in France, not England.

Upon traveling, the trains were really busy, so people sat wherever was available; in my lucky, lucky, case, that happened to be adjacent to a very talkative and slightly intoxicated Irishman, who although it was only 2 in the afternoon, was intent on teaching me about the economy through hazy eyes and lager breath. Then, as if I were being blown to pieces in a slow motion scene from a tragic action movie, "Creepy Wink" number one of the day struck. "Creepy Wink" number two came later, when I boarded the plane and sat next to the most amorous couple this side of the Atlantic(barf). Although already awkward, things went even more downhill when the wife of Romeo got up, and he chose to execute "Creepy Wink" number two of the day right at me in his wife's absence; a direct hit from the firing squadron of uncomfortable.

The only person I know well who winks is my friend Matt, blaming it on his "twitchy-eye", which, since it happens so much, might actually be legitimate. But in today's cases, the winking was definitely not the work of any so called twitchy-eye. If I were going to wink at someone, I'd have to scrunch up my face real ladylike and open the other eye as wide as possible, to even convey the slightest resemblance of a wink. In my case, the timing would be off and my wink would just end up leaving people to feel uneasy and question the meaning behind it. Kind of like most winks.

Anyway, I'm in Barcelona right now, listening to the sounds of vespas speed by, and although I've not gone many places yet, the architecture is stunning and my Spanish has definitely come in handy. I'm really stoked for tomorrow.

I didn't mean to take a photo of this guy.

Royal Albert Hall

So Long, Sweet Sewing.

Sadly, I finished my last design class on Saturday. However it was soooo fun. I feel like a little kid when I talk about it because all other adjectives besides "fun", "cool" and "awesome" apparently disappear from my vocabulary. For the last class we had a presentation day, and everyone in the class showed what they had or hadn't developed. After class I went shopping(surprise!). I ended up buying 10 meters of fabric at The Cloth House, which is where I took the next few pictures(of course I had to go to both stores). Unfortunately, that mass of fabric weighs quite a bit and carrying a laptop, two cameras, large presentation sketchbook, small sketchbook, posters, pencils, pens, and attempting to walk is quite an undertaking. So today I'm feeling the repercussions of this shopping adventure, in the form of puffy welts on each arm(and that was two days ago) and rope burn from the bags. What can I say, its pretty glam.

This is such a pretty shop! There's a student who works there who wears bow ties, suspenders and snappy casual sweaters, which makes me feel like I'm shopping in olden times.

This was before shopping.

I do like Chinese people. Especially these ones, they're amazing designers and they taught me all about Chinese New Year. I am born in the year of the Dragon, which apparently is a pretty awesome year to be born in.

Architect: Hey guys, lets build a large building with a hole in the center, then build a tiny squat of a glass gazebo in the middle of it and only wash the windows every 100 years. 

Client: Yeah okay! That sounds fantastic! Let's make sure we don't heat or clean the entire building either!

Our classroom(there are about ten more mannequins hiding in the corner behind where I took this)

8th Wonder of the World

At CSM; bike parking area between the library and the main building

Screen printing studio in Hackney. 

Well hullo thar father, as the saying goes, this Bud's for you(as the other equally well-known saying goes, ask and ye shall recieve):

Last night, the "Black Screen O' Death" appeared on my Macbook. Yes, that special time in every piece of technology's life when it decides not to function, usually at the worst time for anyone needing said piece of equipment. Fast forward to 8Am, when work was looming impatiently above my stressed out cerebrum and my GPA bacon was slowly becoming fried.

Cringing in pain as I unsuccessfully attempted to use one of Lindsay's computers, I needed a program that wasn't available, and the actual computer moved like a snail(with dislocated ankles) and didn't have a French keyboard option; that was only before the interweb ceased to live. 

Nearest Apple store: London, one hour travel time each way, no time to make the trip. On a whim, I hopped on a train and ventured to what is advertised as just an Apple "reseller" in nearby Basingstoke, and with fingers crossed and little hope left in my bleeding heart I groveled to the nearest employee for assistance. Lo-and-behold, said "reseller" happened to have a technician on hand at the time, who, looked at my computer for t-minus 3.5 minutes and fixed it on the spot, for just three hundred pounds. 

Just kidding! It was free.

I wanted to hug everyone in store and leap around clicking my heels, singing operatic renditions of "I Believe I Can Fly", however, considering I'd never met anyone there before and didn't want to give them any funny ideas, I restrained my joy. Sheer joy. 

Now, I can punçtuaté my with éasé.

In other news, I've been sewing like Martha Stewart on house arrest. My professor really liked the first example shirt(toile) I made for my line so I bought some fabric today in order to create four more pieces of design genius. By Saturday. We'll see if that happens. The presentation board is the bulk of the project, and I'm not completely finished with that yet, but I will be tomorrow.

And now, a little something special to file away in one's photographic memory...

 Yes, that is me last summer with none other than, *deep in-stereo voice* Titanium Jesus. And Creepy Face Mary. Just t r y sleeping tonight...

Bonjour

Classes began last week, I'm taking French, Humanities I, Humanities II and Contemporary Marketing. Thrilling selection, I'm aware. I'm enjoying the French thus far, mostly because I'm compelled by an interest in language, art, croissants and indie movies, but honestly, taking two Humanities classes that I don't need feels just as pointless as it actually is. I'm not buying the stupid books. I'm trying to have a "positive mental attitude" but its not really working, obviously. Marketing can be interesting, if I'm in the right mood. . .

I started my design course on Saturday and it was really incredible, so that makes up for the lame Humanities courses. The school is well hidden within the confines of a smelly old building devoid of adequate signage and quite possibly the most disgusting restroom in existence, with all the quality of the finest five star redneck truck stop; however, once the class started it didn't really matter. The teacher went to the London College of Fashion, and teaches part time at Central Saint Martins(which is where the class is that I'm taking). Anyway, she's a really good designer and has worked for people like John Galliano and now designs for one of the up market brands for Urban Outfitters. She's also really nice and encouraging so thats good. 

In order to research for our line, we went to the school's fashion library, which is definitely my favorite type of library. An area full of all the fashion and design related books a person could want, every issue of Vogue, ever printed, in every country that it exists. then the there are sections on subjects like theory, photography, biography, and construction. Its going to be hard to concentrate on my other classes now, when my homework for the design course includes things like checking out boutiques in London, reading about designers and picking out vintage clothes for inspiration. I'm already distracted. . .